Borderlands DLC: Mad Moxxi’s Underdome Riot Review

Towards the end of 2009, I was lucky enough to be graced with a copy of Gearbox Software’s sleeper hit Borderlands on the Xbox 360.  What ensued for me is hours upon hours of cooperative elegance.  Borderlands was amongst my favorite games of the year, and has stamped its place as one of my favorite games from this generation.  It possesses a vast amount of longevity and replayability due to its character and class systems along with co-op and player versus player options.  Over a week ago I received a redeem code for the latest downloadable content, Mad Moxxi’s Underdome Riot and I am hooked.

This DLC seems to be inspired by the 1985 cinematic cult classic, Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome.  It takes the “arena” dynamic players got to experience for a few missions and expands it drastically.  It has three large arena maps and a small lobby map.  The small lobby map is where players can access the standard vending machines, fast travel to other locales (when you fast travel there, you arrive in this area), formulate strategies with your allies, and take advantage of the new Bank system.   Bank system you ask?  Well, you know how banks offer security deposit boxes?  That is what this is.  Now players can store weapons, shields, and other found items here that they find.  The amount of spaces available in the bank is based on your level.  You can unlock more spots by purchasing upgrades from the nearby weapons vending machine.  Players bring on their level 50 characters might as well just get the highest level upgrade for the most spots.  Gone are the days where you have to let valuable, rare items go due to limited space.  In fact, this encourages players to keep looking for more items since Borderlands uses a Procedural Content Creation System.  This basically means that players will not necessarily encounter the same items in their playthroughs. It is estimated that the random system can generate over 17 million variations of weapons.  Now you have incentive to go forth and see what other items the game can come up with because you can store them.

After preparing for battle, players can hit up the mission board to begin this toilsome endeavor.  Here is where the previously mentioned three large arena maps come into play.  Each map consists of a Small Tournament and a Big Tournament.  The prior consists of five waves of enemies per round within five total rounds. This lasts about fifty minutes.  The latter consists of five waves of enemies per round within twenty total rounds.  This lasts an arduous four plus hours. The thing to keep in mind is that all three large arena maps have both tournaments and the amount of time required to beat them is about identical.  In terms of longevity, you definitely will get you 800 MS points/$10 worth.  Within these tournaments, the gameplay is “Wave” oriented.  Waves of different enemies will spawn in and your M.O. is kill them all and live. Your reward for your effort is a bounty of great weapons between rounds.  People who have played Gears of War 2′s ‘Horde Mode’ and Halo 3: ODST’s ‘Firefight Mode’ will see a correlation.  The difference here is that the waves change things a lot.  Each wave offers different enemies with different attack tactics.  The fifth wave is always the ‘Boss Wave’.  As the nomenclature would suggest, this wave pits players against one of the main game’s boss characters and gives them a few minions to make the task more challenging.  The enemy A.I. gets attribute boosts to make things more difficult as you go on too.

Now where this DLC separates itself from other games with a similar mode is the Big Tournament.  In it, there are random rules called ‘Moxxi Maxims’ in honour of the irrational female MC and hostess of the entire event (they show a nice introduction video when you first go to the Underdome that explains more about her).  You encounter the first when you get to the fifth round.  These ‘Maxims’ can be anything from “Close Combat” (Harder to aim from a distance close up you deal more damage) to “Vampire” (You lose heal over time at a steady rate however when any one on your team gets a kill every one goes back to full life). From the fifth round on, you will have ‘Maxims’ to deal with.  The amount of Maxim’s increase each round.  Here is a quick breakdown: Rounds 1 – 4 = 0 Maxims, Rounds 5 – 9 = 1 Maxim, Rounds 10 – 14 = 2 Maxims, Rounds 15 – 19 = 3 Maxims, and Round 20 = 4 Maxims.  Said Maxims can change each wave.  You have to come prepared with a varied set of weapons to be able to handle whatever rules the game throws at you, as your play style will change dramatically depending on the current rules.  This is especially true when you are bound to the weapon Maxims like “Combat Rifle Challenge” (Combat Rifles deal bonus damage while all other weapons do less damage) and “Rocket Launcher Challenge” (Same as Combat Rifle Challenge except with Rocket Launchers in place of Combat Rifles).

This DLC is made with co-op in mind.  In the main story of Borderlands, you could go the whole game solo if you wanted.  I actually got my first character (a now level 50 Hunter since I love sniping) to about level fifteen playing the game alone.  While the Underdome will allow you to attempt to play it solo, it is a foolhardy endeavor.  When a player dies, he/she is sent to the penalty box until the end of the wave.  From the penalty box, players can still assist their teammates by shooting down at the playing field. Of course the penalty boxes are put in locations where it is not advantageous to have players be there.  Also, once all the active players are in the penalty box you lose and either get set back a few rounds or reset to the beginning.  If you are playing alone there is no penalty box.  You just lose and have the same options.  I tried to play one of the small tournaments alone with my level 29 Berserker and I barely made it to the fourth wave before I got destroyed.  One may be able to squeak by the small tournaments alone, but I do not see a way for someone to play and beat the big  tournaments alone.  Even with party members it is not simple.  You have to work together before even starting coordinating weapon layouts and mods.  While in game, you will always want to stick together and communicate.  Borderlands is a co-op game at heart and this DLC enforces that.

I do wish they did something with the XP and loot system in this DLC.  When you finish a round, random loot rains down from the center of the arena.  The loot itself is good, but you get nothing from enemies themselves.  Also, there is no system to who gets what.  It turns into a mad dash.  This is a minor problem however if you are playing with your mates.  If you are with random cats however, then this will be a problem.  The game does track how many kills each player gets.  They could have implemented a system where loot is handed out based on each player’s contribution to the team.  Players in the penalty box should get last pickings.  Players with most kills should be first.  You could even factor in revives and assists (by looking at damage caused and enemies hit).  As for XP, the only XP you get is for beating a quest.  That is it.  The quest consist of completing the small and big tournaments on all three maps.  I think they dropped the ball here.  People tend to play the last level over and over to level up their character and individual weapon attributes.  They could have changed that with this DLC if they did XP right.  People would have purchased this and used it to level.  Heck, they would have encouraged new players to get this DLC just to power level them (though it is advised not to play this game with a character lower than level fifteen).

In the end, I am greatly enjoying this DLC.  The only problem is that you pretty much have to play it with others to get the true value of it.  It is challenging, but not in a ‘cheap’ manner.  I am having a blast playing it.  Just prepare to set aside a good amount of time to play it when going after those big tournaments.  Playing with people who communicate and play with a team mind set will make this great.  If you will be playing alone, this is not for you.

(4.5/5)