Borderlands: Claptrap’s New Robot Revolution – Reviewed (360, PS3)
It’s been nearly a year since the first piece of DLC for the epic action, adventure, shooter Borderlands was released.
During that time our treasure hunters have shot brains out of zombies, encountered the buxom Moxxi and her stooges in a cross between hoarde and the film, Running Man and embarked on an adventure to take down General Knoxx and his armoury.
For the fourth DLC release, entitled, “Claptrap’s New Robot Revolution”, we see our user defined adventurers take on all things robotic in an attempt to counteract a robotic revolution masterminded by no other than our cute little servants, Claptraps.
The basic story behind this whole episode finds the Hyperion Corporation getting a little fed up with all the treasure hunters on Pandora selling their weapons cheap and ruining their profit/loss figures. To counteract this, Hyperion has created a new style of Interstellar Ninja Robot designed to take out all that dare to put a dent into their accounts. After all, treasure hunters have served their purpose so now it’s time to take them out of the mix.
There is one problem with their plan though. The robot that was heading this counter attack has seen how his fellow robots have been treated and is not a happy bunny. In a call to arms, he has started a Claptrap revolution, calling all of them to fight for their right for freedom and ridicule on this crazy planet. Not only that but he has started to assimilate everyone into robotic versions of themselves.
Now, for review purposes, I felt I should go into this DLC with my top end level 61 character. This was so that I could go through the storyline for review purposes and also, with the new level cap that was meant to be introduced, I thought I would have more of a challenge. Unfortunately, the new cap has not been introduced yet which made the content a breeze to complete so a word of warning. If you want the best experience for your money then I highly recommend that you play with a level 35 – 41 character until the cap is introduced.
Claptrap’s New Robot Revolution main storyline will offer up 9 different missions which will allow you to explore new areas of Pandora. Although, these may seem familiar areas in terms of design, there is enough exploring around to make it worth your while as you meet Mr Blake who sets you on the path to a robotic holocaust. To keep you busy after the main quests have finished you also have a chance to complete an additional 12 missions from the information board in Tartarus Station where your main quest begins.
Many of the characters from previous content and Borderlands the game make a return here, including Tannis that will also give you a Zombie Island Of Dr Ned zombie brain collection type of mission. As with shooting the brains out of zombies, you will have to go crazy on those Claptrap’s to collect spare parts for her inventions and repairs. For the collection missions you will need to take these parts back to Tannis at various points in order for you to start the next collection. As with Dr Ned, any extra you collect will not roll over to your next mission so please be careful and hand them in where possible. Extra achievement points are awarded for special parts that fall out of the claptraps so you need to be on the lookout and will add some extra time to your gameplay.
The problem with Claptrap’s New Robot Revolution is that it has some very big boots to fill. The previous Borderlands DLC has always been at the top of its game and Gearbox have been very generous with the content they have provided at a cheap price. It has been exciting, huge in scale and different environments have been introduced to give a fresh look to the game. Basically, Borderlands fans have been spoilt rotten and this may be seen in some people’s eyes as a step backwards. The environments have all been seen before in different guises including caves, shanty towns etc and all the enemies are robotic recreations of themselves apart from the claptraps that have been redesigned into different versions of parody killers. Some are suicidal that blow up explosives if they get close enough, some wearing boxing gloves that punch you, some wearing army helmets with shotguns, the list goes on and all come in force in what can be frantic battle situations.
The upside, and there is an upside, is that Claptraps New Robot Revolution is still everything you want from DLC and is still ahead of the game in terms of value for money. From the generous spatterings of Big Boss Battles to the humour and one liners attached to each and every one of Pandoras inhabitants this is still a Borderlands fan’s wet dream. Some people may have been spoilt by the dedication that Gearbox have brought to the Borderlands DLC table but this is still serious value for money and a welcome addition to the Borderlands stable.
