Make 'Borderlands' significantly better for $10
Five months ago, I had this to say about "Borderlands":
"['Borderlands'] will compel you to stop returning phone calls, never leave the house except for groceries — you know, that sort of stuff."
In the wake of the latest downloadable content pack released for the game last week, "The Secret Armory of General Knoxx," I now must amend that statement. It will also compel you to skip classes.
Most people who played (or still play) "Borderlands" persevered against its overt flaws, like the overly abundant amount of on-foot traveling, the laughably easy boss fights and the headaches caused from managing your ever-growing gun collection. Gearbox has attempted to address these issues through post-release content, but the first two packs ("The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned" and "Mad Moxxi's Underdome Riot") brought their fair share of hang-ups to counterbalance the fixes. In this case, the third time is most definitely the charm.
Now that Gearbox has established the identity of "Borderlands," they have a much firmer grasp on how to deliver the humor they wanted to with the full game. The first two downloadable packs captured this comic wit quite well, but they also served as side-stories that didn't fit into the continuity of the main story. 'Knoxx' directly takes that main story and extends it, and the result is a glimpse at how funny and awesome the main game could have been had Gearbox found its groove sooner. But they have indeed found their groove, and we finally get to reap the benefits.
Prospective buyers should take note, however, that this content is designed for high-level characters. Buying it automatically allows you to level past 50 to the new limit of 61, and this content is specifically designed to help you achieve that goal. Diving headfirst into this new content with anything lower than a level 50 character will only bring you pain and suffering. "Knoxx" is perfect, though, for those of us who have had level 50 guys sitting around for the past few months. "Borderlands" finally has its endgame.
Compared to the first two packs, "Knoxx" gets players a ton of mileage out of their ten bucks. The amount of new quests approaches nearly half of what the main game offers, and everything it adds does so in service of improving the fundamentals of "Borderlands": new vehicles that hold more players, new enemies that require different strategies, new guns (as in new unique guns, not just more random permutations of parts) and a new level of raw challenge that the main game lacks.
It's not just more "Borderlands"; it enhances the old "Borderlands." Don't be surprised if your time spent in the "Knoxx" adventure makes you fall in love with the older content all over again.
