|
GamesRelay Score
Great
|
Name: Borderlands: The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned
  |
The Zombie Island of Doctor Ned is the first downloadable add-on pack for Borderlands. While a Christmas theme may be increasingly appropriate, this one is teeming with the walking undead and moustachioed pumpkins spill a warm glow from the interior of their sinister grins. Is this series of downloadable content packs off to a strong start?
As is the case with the full game, the plot is not something that you'd pass down to your children while gathered round the digital fireside. In fact, while the main story put up the pretence of weaving a tale, this is a complete parody of one. Not a single line of dialogue is told with a modicum of seriousness, and everything is told in jest. You begin by fast-travelling to Jakob's Cove, in which you're greeted with a video of Marcus introducing the situation at hand. There are zombies in Jakob's Cove, and they're violent. Maybe Doctor Ned, who is in no way related to Doctor Zed, knows why this is happening. Why don't you check him out? All of this is intentionally asinine, and the plot is actually stronger with the pretence dropped. It's a lot funnier for this reason too, with dialogue being sharp and delivered well, as well as a healthy number of Claptrap encounters for good measure.
The gameplay itself hasn't changed at all from the full product. It's the same medium-paced shooting experience, with more guns than you're likely to fathom. The greatest achievement of this DLC pack, is that while it uses the same systems, the game feels entirely different and requires a new approach if you hope to complete it. Whereas most of your enemies had guns in the main quest, you're now fighting a zombie horde, who mostly attempt to do melee damage to you. Mostly, because they also have a projectile vomit attack that, unless you're moving fast, can be startlingly accurate. Their movement speed is between the John Romero shufflers, and the Left 4 Dead athletic sprinters, coming to a brisk, stumbling jog. Instead of the cover-focused tactics you had to implement before, long-range attacks are now essential. Enemies attack in large groups, and if you can't thin their numbers before they descend on you, you'll be paying a quick visit to a New-U respawn point. This means that you'll have to become handy with a scope, using all your abilities to pop as many craniums as you can as fast as you can, just as all those zombie movies have taught you. Interestingly, the zombies have certain behaviours to adapt to this. Some charge at you with their arms covering their heads, forcing you to shoot their limbs off to expose their grey matter. Others lean their heads back as they jog, making for a tricky, but possible shot at popping their head open.
These rules don't apply for all the creatures on the island, with the Defilers being particularly troublesome. These have the ability to spew copious amounts of bile, which aside from quickly sapping your strength, have the unfortunate side-effect of slowing your movement speed to a fraction of what it was. This leaves you totally exposed to attack from all directions and a likely death unless you can Second Wind out of it. Corpse Eaters are small, flying creatures that attack in groups like similar enemies in the main quest, and will likely take a single bullet to take down. Tankensteins require much more effort. They will likely exhaust your ammo reserves, and will probably take you down with one thrown explosive. Interestingly, each carries a barrel of fuel on their back, and with a couple of well-aimed shots, it'll explode and deal serious damage to it. The last type is the Suicide Zombie, whose name speaks for itself. If you allow it to get too close, he'll detonate right next to you, and you don't want that, I guarantee. A single shot to the leg however, forces him to fall over and explode in a satisfying fashion.
The advertised six hours may be a little optimistic for some, but there's plenty of content in the pack. Aside from the six quest missions, there are also a suite of side-missions to complete. While they follow the same parameters as the original side-missions, they help to round out the experience with their presence. The island itself is made up of five relatively large areas, but not large enough to require a Runner vehicle to traverse. While I would have enjoyed the opportunity and felt it would have been a natural addition to include the mass-genocide of zombies in a vehicular massacre as a form of epilogue, there's not a vehicle to be seen. Nonetheless, for the price asked, this DLC stuffs in more than is the norm.
Alas, cheap deaths are a constant here. Zombies spawn all over the place, even behind you, so there were many occasions when I felt I was safely picking off distant foes when, without any aural indication, I was ambushed from behind by three zombies, who quickly kicked me into a new costly body. The Defiler vomit is too powerful considering its other side effect, since after getting hit once, you're unable to escape from successive floods. Also, one-hit kills from bosses and Tankensteins are far too excessive. Sadly, just like the full thing, the game is easily exploitable. Get a Tankenstein unable to move past an obstacle, and you can pop his head off with fifteen headshots. Even with the final boss, you can get him wedged in the entranceway, and delight yourself as you blast at him until he is finished. This was a major problem with the original, and it's a shame it hasn't been addressed. There have been no additional features either, such as an increase in the level cap, meaning that if you're playing with a Level 50 character, there's no benefit to taking down the horde before you.
Yet it's still an impressive start to Gearbox's downloadable campaign. The shake-up in the enemy behaviour breathes new life into the gameplay style, and there's an impressive wealth of content that'll extend the game even longer. If you weren't a fan of the full title, the Zombie Island of Dr. Ned won't make you a convert, but for the fans that have already pumped the hours into it and enjoyed its take on role-playing, this is a highly recommended purchase.
