Wednesday 17 July 2013

Borderlands 2 DLC, Part Two

I've reviewed Borderlands 2, as well as two of the DLC packs (Sir Hammerlock's Big Game Hunt and Mister Torgue's Campaign of Carnage). Here's my review of the other two DLC packs: Captain Scarlett and her Pirate's Booty, and Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep.


Last image of this post contains spoilers for the main story. You have been warned.

Captain Scarlett and her Pirate's Booty

The start of this one made me uncomfortable. You find the town of Oasis, where everyone appears to be dead of dehydration, except a guy called Shade. Shade's mouth and teeth are abnormally large, he's constantly drooling, and he acts like everyone in Oasis is still alive, with a friendly and cheerful demeanour. Freaked me out a little bit.
Scarlett is a fun character who obviously enjoys being a pirate and hunting for treasure. Her voice acting is great. As soon as you meet her the game clearly telegraphs that she's going to betray you, but when she did I wasn't even mad at her because she's so friendly and pleasant all the time.
 Miscellaneous stuff I enjoyed included the music, the sand skiff vehicle, and Captain Blade's story, discovered through the Message in a Bottle side quests.
Overall I felt that this DLC pack was well put together but relatively uninspired. It's just another treasure hunt where the plot twist is given away right at the start.  
Recommendation: play it. It's fun, though it doesn't really bring anything new to the Borderlands 2 table.

Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep

Ten minutes into this one I had already decided that it's THE GREATEST DLC OF ALL TIME.
Tiny Tina is running a D&D game for the original vault hunters, who are playing as the new vault hunters. You play as your Borderlands 2 character within the fantasy world of the D&D game as Tina narrates and Lilith, Brick, and Mordecai navigate the world.
Right from the start it's clever and hilarious. Tina says the world is a dark and gritty place, but forgets and you arrive in a happy town with rainbows. Lilith reminds Tina that she said it was all dark, and suddenly the whole area changes into a dark stormy place with swirling storm clouds and moody music.

There are a lot of references to geek/fantasy fandom, as well. The most prominent one has Lilith and Tina suspecting Mr Torgue of being a fake geek guy because of his giant muscles (geeks don't have huge muscles). They quiz him on trivia and almost don't let him play until he breaks down crying because he was just interested in fantasy and unicorns and stuff. There's a Dark Souls quest, a Fantasia Sorcerer's Apprentice quest, a boobplate vs realistic armour quest, one dealing with MMO killstealers, and a Game of Thrones quest where you get to slap "Jeffrey" in the face until he cries for his mommy.

Oh, and, you can get a gun that shoots swords that EXPLODE. The explosion creates three more swords that ALSO EXPLODE.
Finally, regarding the ending... It provides an even better ending to the game which manages to be surprisingly emotional and touching, but still with that little Borderlands twist of humour.
Recommendation: SO MUCH YES. Borderlands 2 would be worth it just for this DLC alone. This is unmissable and one of the best pieces of content I've ever played.

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