There are quite a few positive things you can say about Borderlands and its DLC. One is that Borderlands has brought a fun factor and addictiveness back to gaming and another is that the support that has given to the game via DLC and updates has added extra elements to the game which have certainly been positive. Both DLC elements, so far, have been received well both by ourselves and also the media in general so here we are, with the third piece of DLC in the name of The Secret Armoury Of General Knoxx upon us and the quality has not let up at all. In fact, if anything, Gearbox will now have some big boots to fill if and when they release another piece of content in the future.

Where The Zombie Island Of Dr Ned delivered more story lines, separate from the original story and Mad Moxxi provided the all guns blazing, hoarde type environments with somewhere to bank your weapons, Gearbox have listened to their followers and General Knoxx provides a storyline that follows on directly from the original and adds a whole host of extra features including lifting the level cap up to 61.

The story itself is simple. After the opening of the vault, Atlas have taken over Pandora to try and assert calm and order into an otherwise unforgiving environment where chaos has started to rule. With any corporate takeover there comes an element of control, a lot of it! You’re job, if you decide to accept it, is to take down the evil empire and give freedom back to the land you know and love.

With the added storyline and side quests Gearbox have increased the level cap, provided new weapons, enemies and balanced the game via a patch. If anyone thought that Borderlands had become easy then entering into the General Knoxx DLC will make you change your mind in a flash. I had a problem with running around as a level 50 soldier or hunter and a hellfire as the game had become easy. Even to kill a burning psycho at top level wasn’t a problem and didn’t require a weapon change. Entering the General Knoxx arena changed my mind very quickly and it became apparent after getting downed a few times that I had to really think about what weapons were going to be effective in destroying what enemy.

The challenge is back, the toughness is there but Borderlands has also become very well balanced indeed.  You need to think and work for your gains and treasure  and to be quite honest, the game really needed it.   The fights are tough but not tough enough for you to give up on and although some of the driving elements are long between goals, if you look carefully enough you may find the odd band of crazed midgets holed up in a little village under the road.

The enemies themselves are varied and fun, each with certain attributes that cause a weapon switch and even to go back and rethink your skill tree to adapt it to help you through in an easier way.  Rocketeers with jetpacks that fire at you from above, midgets riding on skags and medical lancers who toss a turret to the floor and regain health are all present.  Each provides different ways to combat them and each will get harder as your levels go up.  There are many and all varied that will provide the challenge you craved for in the first 10 – 15 levels of the original story.

When enemies are this hard, you need the firepower to deal with it.  You start to realise that a lot of the weapons you may have will not be as effective as in the original so its time to start hunting all over again.  Again they are varied and with finding rare weapons mods on you will find your fare share of gold weapons, although these may not be as powerful as you need.  Saying that though I managed to pick up a beast of a weapon with good damage, nice elemental multipliers and a fire rate that rips the lance probes that patrol the highways down within a second.  They are out there but with all exploration you need to open all chests, check all the vending machines and loot, loot, loot to find them.

Overall, The Secret Armoury Of General Knoxx is a beast of a piece of DLC, weighing in at over 1.5GB, Gearbox have yet again provided something that most developers will not achieve.  Extra content at a price that if you put another 400 points onto would still be considered great value for money.  Rich in features, new depths of gameplay on a lot of levels put General Knoxx at the top of the pile.  Now if you can lift that level cap again Gearbox I would be a very happy bunny as this game is certainly not dying any time soon.