Mad Moxxi's Underdome Riot was an interesting concept. Sending players into a coliseum to battle an endless supply of enemies seemed good on paper, but it was poorly executed by the folks at Gearbox. To make matters worse, a developer at Gearbox compared the Underdome Riot to the classic title SmashTV. Sadly, the only reason anyone should put this bad expansion and SmashTV in the same sentence is to explain how awful the Underdome Riot is when compared to SmashTV. Repetitive, mindless, and overly difficult. Unless you're a masochist or would sell your soul for Borderlands, don't waste your hard-earned $10.

Game Details			Loading Reality Scoring
Format	DLC & Addons (all DLC reviews)		Score Meaning: Bad and bordering on terrible. There are a minimal amount of acceptable qualities that seem worthy of attention.
Publisher	2K Games
Developer	Gearbox Software
Category	RPG		Presentation
ESRB	M		Gameplay
Online Players	4		Graphics
Offline Players	2		Sound
Price	9.99		Value Factor
Release Date	December 29, 2009		Final Score

Gearbox Successfully Drops the Soap

Not too long ago, the first expansion pack (The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned) for the insanely fun Borderlands was released, and it proved to be a fun, hilarious, and quirky adventure. It featured zombies and never took itself seriously. Honestly, if you love Borderlands and have yet to embark on your zombie-killing adventure, I would advise you do so right now. The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned was the right direction for Gearbox to take in the development of future expansion packs. Unfortunately, Gearbox decided to take a step back and make one of the worst high-profile expansion packs in recent memory.

From the outside, the name of the expansion makes the actual content seem quite sexy and fun. Mad Moxxi indeed sounds like the performing name of an adult film actress, and the "Underdome Riot" part sounds as if the player is in for a fun ride. That's what I thought, anyway, and like many other things, I was absolutely wrong. The latest expansion pack is anything but a fun ride.

If you're expecting Mad Moxxi to be an interesting character, your expectations will be severely crushed. Through an opening cinematic, Moxxi appears to players as an insane, blood-thirsty seductress. She has had three husbands and killed off two of them. You would think that Moxxi's character would develop as players progressed through the Underdome Riot, but instead, she simply yells repetitious one-liners at players in each coliseum. After about three hours of listening to her chatter, you will want to kill her. It's a pity Gearbox never lets you kill her.

Okay, Borderlands has never been a game about story, so naturally, you would also think that the actual gameplay would make up for the lack of decent storytelling. Disappointingly, Gearbox failed to even provide a fun experience. Players can choose to fight in three coliseums that feature uninspired environments. Each coliseum features five rounds. Each round features five waves. Each wave features numerous enemies to battle. As you advance through the waves, Moxxi begins turning on perks that will make the overall experience more difficult. Now, let me explain the main problem to begin with. Even if you are a level 50 badass with an amazing weapon, the enemies you face on even the first waves are insanely tough. In fact, all enemies will be leveled to the host of the game, so don't even think about playing by yourself and expecting to succeed, and even if you team up with three other high-leveled players, you will still have a brutal time dealing with the hordes of relentless enemies (especially when attempting the tougher tournaments).

Speaking of the tougher tournaments, after completing the "beginner" challenges, players will unlock three new coliseums to attempt. The new coliseums are essentially harder versions of the previous coliseums you completed, but the twist is that Gearbox expects you and your pals to stroll through twenty consecutive rounds with no breaks (i.e. 100 waves of brutality with no breaks). Things get more difficult if you can make it to the latter rounds, and if you and your pals all die on say, round 17, you'll be forced to repeat your progress from round 16. Fun stuff, no? Honestly, it's not even worth trudging through twenty consecutive rounds since the payoff is minimal. The weapons I got were useless, and players won't even be awarded XP.

In addition to a broken difficulty, the five waves in each round follow the same repetitious order: The starter wave is followed by the gun wave, the horde wave, the badass wave, and finally the boss wave. Enemies don't vary much, and the bosses consistently reappear in the same tournament (Case in point: I killed Baron Flynt six times in a twenty round tournament). Sure, some people may argue, "Did Halo 3: ODST's Firefight mode not follow a repetitive order?", but Borderlands is simply in a different category than games like Call of Duty and Halo. The game may play as a shooter, but at its deep core, it's an RPG. That is why a game like Borderlands is not meant to be played as a shooter, since experience points and hit points all matter. However, Gearbox may have forgotten Borderlands was not a shooter and created this mess of an expansion pack.

At this point, you can tell that I despise the Underdome Riot, but there is actually one positive thing to discuss. Many people have complained for the longest that Borderlands does not feature a way to store weapons. Well, with the Underdome Riot, Gearbox has finally fixed that issue with the addition of a bank, but honestly, at this point, most gamers have grown accustomed to playing without using containers to store items. To be completely honest, I haven't even used the bank once since I fare well with my selection of powerful weapons, so is it even worth paying $10 to use a bank?

1.5 / 5

Written by :

Axe Argonian

 

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Ethan

Game Review: Borderlands: Mad Moxxi's Underdome Riot Dec 31 2009 07:37:36 Wow, that sounds terrible. The only good thing it had going for that is a bank, and that should've been on disc. Well, once I get some points, I'll be picking up Zombie Island and Ultor Exposed.

#14512

toowicked4u

Game Review: Borderlands: Mad Moxxi's Underdome Riot Dec 31 2009 19:02:00 naw, it's not THAT bad...think of it like Borderlands' version of "Horde Mode" sure, it's not quite the caliber of the Dr. Ned expansion for your $10, but it's a nice challenge for you and 3 friends.

#14514