Written by: Mark

 

 

 

"Borderlands" was without doubt one of 2009’s major surprise hits and this was followed by the impressive first batch of DLC in the form of 'The Zombie Island Of Dr Ned'. True to form with any game which has DLC it would prove inevitable that we would see yet more content become available.

 

In this review we take a look at the second batch of DLC in the form of "Mad Moxxi’s Underdome Riot" on the Xbox 360 and see if it proves to be a worthy download for the 800ms point cost.

 

The first batch of content in the form of the aforementioned Zombie Island Of Dr Ned proved excellent value for money as it saw another quest on a sizable zombie infested island. Admittedly the add on did take a sideways step from the original game in terms of it’s overall look and gameplay.

 

With this in mind it seems that the developers wanted to continue in the trend of moving away from the successful gameplay which made the game so impressive and in Mad Moxxi’s Underdome Riot we see the game now taking the form of arena battles which can be compared in many ways to Gears Of War 2’s superb horde mode of the zombie mode seen in Call Of Duty: World at war.

 

 

Mad Moxxi is a character who is a sexy wild west female who has set up a variety of arena battles with the object of being either survive or die in the face of numerous waves of enemy attacks and at this point it becomes more evident that this is mimicking GOW 2’s horde.

 

Unlike the Zombie Island Of Dr Ned this DLC appears to be somewhat light on story however the major difference is that we now seem to be focussed on gunfights rather than them interspersed with side quests and RPG elements. Call me cynical but I always found this to be what made Borderlands unique from other FPS games available and that is what made it such a success in the first place.

 

Unquestionably I was willing to give Mad Moxxi every chance but the key factor of it’s success would lie in how it plays.

 

The game takes place in a variety of impressive looking (if somewhat small) arenas with the objective of surviving five rounds of five waves of enemy attacks which rapidly increase in difficulty with further challenges being thrown in such as completing challenges using only certain weaponry of abilities.