Borderlands 3 DLCs Review

Played on Xbox Series X

Developed by Gearbox Software

I look at 'Borderlands 3' to be the least favourable in the series (yes, even with the 'Pre-Sequel' in the conversation) as it just felt lacklustre in so many aspects. As a result, I've put off playing the DLCs with my co-op partner for a while because we weren't expecting much out of them and further indulging in a game that doesn't do much but make us reminisice of how great its predecessor didn't feel like a fair mindset to have while playing the game. But with 'Borderlands 4' on the rise and releasing later this year, we decided to dive into the once forgotten DLCs and give them a try - who knows, maybe they would change my opinion of the base game entirely (they didn't).

Like before, 'Borderlands 3' has a lot of mini-expansions to offer, from Seasonal Events like 'Bloody Harvest' or 'Revenge of the Cartels', to cosmetic packs and bonus skill tree upgrades (obviously, the coolest abilities are locked behind a paywall). However, the main DLCs I'll be reviewing here are the campaign expansions from 'Moxxi's Heist of the Handsome Jackpot' to 'Psycho Krieg and the Fantastic Fustercluck', each ranging from 3-6 hours worth of new quests, weapons, locations and enemy encounters.

Moxxi's Heist of the Handsome Jackpot

For the first expansion pack, Gearbox decided to dabble into nostalgia for fans as the DLC follows the fan-favourite Moxxi retreading Handsome Jack's gambling territory in the efforts of a great heist. The newly introduced areas like the Spendopticon and VIP Tower, bolster this great pizzazz factor with extravagant golden colouring and neon lighting, with areas like the Compactor taking a break from these visual overloads. Like the base game, there is so much going on your screen, and while some sections look amazing, others can feel nauseating because of that toon-outlined colour vibrancy mixing with the constant special effects.

As for the actual narrative that lasts 6 hours, Moxxi is recruiting the Vault Hunters to rob the last of Handsome Jack's legacy stashed away in this land of the Handsome Jackpot. In typical fashion, things don't go as planned, and you go up against other bandits with the same bright idea as you. This campaign was fine. It's nothing original and doesn't stand out in its "uniqueness", but it definitely has an identity of its own that felt more respectful and homage-paying to 'Borderlands 2' than the base game of 'Borderlands 3' ever did. Moxxi continues to slay as a fan-favourite, while the antagonist Pretty Boy and his whole "ha ha he's a midget" caricature are almost completely forgettable. Timothy Lawrence returns from the Pre-Sequel days, and he actually managed to get a couple of chuckles out of us, which was incredibly rare for this game's writing background. Other characters didn't make much of a presence to be commented upon.

As for the gameplay side of things, nothing changes. While Loaders do finally return and add a level to the elemental effects of guns, the chance to explore isn't there as much as you're essientally restricted to using only corrosive weaponry by their sheer abundance. Additionally, it doesn't seem like they faced much of a change, retaining near-identical functionality as they were in 2012, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, given how fun they were to fight against, but a change of any kind would've been much appreciated. Other features consist of the mini Loot Loaders and Hoarders getting added for a minuscule change to combat, but besides that, it's the same old same old. Fancy special effects, too many legendary weapons to enjoy, not enough challenge and not enough enemy variety. The same goes for the bossfights, albeit to a lesser degree compared to their base game counterparts, as the visual designs and soundtracks don't stick as much, but the telegraphed attacks and overall fun that is provided remains at the same level as before. Unfortunately, this also means that the issues such as the phase-invulnerability, are still here and don't get better.

For better or worse, 'Moxxi's Heist' draws out more of that 'Borderlands 3' formula, with near-to-no changes.

-SUBPAR-

Guns, Love, and Tentacles: The Marriage of Wainwright & Hammerlock

The second expansion pack to arrive followed suit with 'Moxxi's Heist', in which it followed a subplot of a returning fan-favourite character - Sir Hammerlock. The DLC's magnificent environments have this epic blend of frozen tundras and Lovecraftian-infested manors. I'm quite a sucker for anything Lovecraftian (thank you 'Bloodborne') so while my bias definitely is seeping out here, I can't help but say that the visuals of the DLC are quite phenomenal with great colour grading between the pale ice blues and the various emphasises on reds, greens and purples. There isn't as much grand imagery as in the other expansion packs, but the colour palette work here is some of my favourite across the whole game. Additionally, it feels like the overload of special effects wasn't as present in this 5-hour campaign as it was in the previous DLC.

The story synopsis here is that Sir Hammerlock and his partner, introduced in the base game - Wainwright Jakobs - are getting married, and the vault hunters have been invited. As expected, this goes wrong as their marriage location is right next to a Lovecraftian cult with its leaders obsessed with reviving each other for the sake of love - a true duel of romance. While the narrative isn't anything special as it takes the form of a typical "find a cure" plotline, the backgrounds of these antagonists, the history of the planet and the in-depth lore behind these Cthulian cults made for some intriguing moments along the way. I think the reason why the DLC ended up being more enjoyable than expected is because of the charm that the characters had. While Eleanor is one of the most bland villains Borderlands has ever introduced, returning favourites like Sir Hammerlock, Claptrap and Gaige bring forward a charm to this simple story. Even Wainwright, who unfortunately had their introduction tied to the base game's unpleasant narrative, brings a more than entertaining appearance. The new characters like Burton Briggs and Eista were serviceable and didn't add much flavour to the world besides their gimmick characteristics of being a constant-amnesiac and Kraven the Hunter wannabe.

Gameplay-wise, it's the same. New enemy types do get introduced, like the Wolven or the Krich, but they're identical to other beast-type enemies we've seen in the series before; the same goes for the bandit variants of Frostbiters and Bonded. Weapons don't experience much of a creative overhaul, which is a shame, as some gothic-horror weaponry would've been cool to mess around with instead of what was delivered. The oversaturation of legendary loot persists, and the difficulty remains at the lowest point possible. The bossfights were a hit or miss as they were either glorified mini-bosses like the Empowered Scholar, or genuinely awesome battles like against the flaming Wendigo. The final boss against Eleanor was as much of a mixed bag as, on one hand, great telegraphing and cool visuals. On the other hand, constant spam spawning of regular enemies and invulnerability.

A pattern seems to emerge within this DLC in which the quality improves narratively and visually, but the gameplay stubbornly lags behind.

-MEDIOCRE-

Bounty of Blood: A Fistful of Redemption

With the third DLC experience, 'Bounty of Blood' ended up being significantly more interesting than I could've anticipated. At first glance, it gives the idea that it'll hone in on cowboy humour and aesthetics, being quite cheap in its efforts. But instead, at least for the art direction, there was this nice Wild West and Samurai-era blend of environments; arid deserts and canyons with building exteriors reminiscent of the Shoin-zukuri architecture. It's a style that doesn't feel worn out across the 4-hour campaign, especially with how it spirals into other points of interest like the snowed-in mountain of Ashfall Peaks or the fairly typical-looking Obsidian Forest. However, out of all of the DLCs, 'Bounty of Blood' falls the shortest in terms of design as everything here feels incredibly similar to how all of the other 'Borderlands' adventures have looked, lacking that definitive identity other expansions have provided.

The story and its characters seemed to have fallen back into what was expected of the base game's writing team. The characters here are quite flavourless. Rose and the original Sheriff are the exceptions, with strong introductions that interested me in their personality and how they contribute to the story. That is, however, until you spend more time with them and they slowly get stripped of that quality, with the Sheriff being given mercy early on. As for Rose's later progression and the other characters like Juno or Titus, they're just meh. Nothing that makes me hooked to their personas and arcs that feel textbook basic. The narrative isn't better off, as it consists of accepting the Sheriff's bounty on the gang of outlaws called the Devil Riders, before the job becomes a revenge mission and, then, in typical 'Borderlands' fashion, turns into a case of stopping a Vault Beast-type monster. The simplicity of the tale isn't at fault because, if the characters were more interesting, so would the story.

In terms of gameplay, they're starting to improve. Major improvements that I caught right off the bat were that legendary loot didn't drop as much for me(not that it changed the effect it had on my loadout by this point), and the difficulty, while still easy, was clearly increased. As for the enemies, there was much more variety here that didn't feel constricted to the base formats that the main game had instilled. The Saurian enemy type alone was enough to convince me of this, as they're quite literally just dinosaurs. While they were in the main story, more specifically on Eden-6, their emphasised presence here felt like a fresh breath of air. Others like the Bellik species or the Devil Riders were partially reminiscent of basic enemies like the Skags or Bandits, but their diversity in types was enough to be noticeable in combat. Besides the newly added weapons and a new vehicle called the Jetbeast, the gameplay environments received a change as selected vegetation could affect firefights: the Breezebloom acted as a launch pad, the Coresploder imitated an explosive, caustic barrel, and the Traitorweed would make the enemies fight with you. Small additions that worked wonders in finally making the gameplay feel fresh, even if it did wear itself out towards the end. Bossfights were fine. Serviceable duels that continued the tradition of good telegraphing and varied attacks, albeit lacking an identity that makes them memorable beyond the fight itself. The only time that wasn't applicable was against the final boss - the Ruiner - as its monstrous design and gigantic build well-suited its attack pattern.

'Bounty of Blood' flips 'Guns, Love, and Tentacles' formula by losing intrigue in the story and replacing it with more varied gameplay for the first time since the end of the base game campaign.

—Mediocre—

Psycho Krieg and the Fantastic Fustercluck

The final DLC teetered that same line of mediocrity that the previous expansions played around. Artistically, 'Psycho Krieg' offered the best visuals with the fractured mind of a psycho acting as the background. Wild splatter of colours, fragmented buildings glued together and plenty of interesting views complement the arenas you'll be traversing. While it doesn't help the issue the game has of overloaded visual effects, the rare instances where all you could do was look offered great views. For the 3 hours you spend in the Psychoscape and all of its accompanying areas, you'll appreciate all of the chaotic colour grading and displaced platforms that make up the levels, but if it wasn't for the shorter campaign length, I wouldn't be surprised if you started to grow disinterested in all of the environments with how they lose that impressive factor past their initial reveal as they show off all they have to offer in that first glance.

Narratively, 'Psycho Krieg' falls flat. While the concept of diving into the series' infamous enemy type's mind and playing around in it sounds like a great idea, especially when that psycho is Krieg who all the fans know to be more complex than his "conductor of the poop train" introduction, the execution here is just meh. It falls back on this trope you see in other mind-diving stories, where you try to make both sides of the mind comfortable with each other by traversing through all the ill memories of the host. While the standardised formula it uses isn't necessarily bad, the fact that every plot point here and story beat feels so uninspired is what drags this down for me. The only unique aspect about all of this is the idea of the Vaulthalla, which gets brushed aside to a simple treasure room by the conclusion, rather than a fleshed-out theory and myth that the whole expansion pack focuses on hyping up. Nearly all the characters here are returning favourites from the franchise: Maya, Tannis, Brick, Mordecai, etc. However, they don't even hold a matchstick to the presentations they had in previous instalments. Maya is depreciated to the "ghost wife" archetype, Tannis is mind-numbingly annoying to listen to, and all the others are cardboard cutout impersonations of themselves. Krieg's divided sane and psycho states would seem like ideal character writing moments, but instead become stereotypical replicas of themselves. The highlight of this campaign here was seeing these characters return with nothing beyond it.

Gameplay fell back a little on the improvements that 'Bounty of Blood' had, such as having near-to-none original enemies to fight as they are all returning foes you've fought from across the series, like bandits, loaders, varkids, guardians and more. While this does make sense from a narrative point of view, the lack of creativity here does drag down the combat sections. Additionally, while I wasn't expecting the interactable plants to return for this DLC, I was hoping that 'Psycho Krieg' would offer some new way to play around with the enemies, but it didn't, which is disappointing. The new guns here aren't that interesting, but the drop rate of the Legendary-grade weapons continuing to be much lower than before is a pro that I can praise. Besides these, the gameplay essentially remains the same. As for the bossfights, they were a cool concept, but once again, execution remains not to be this DLC's forte. Evil Lilith, Locomobius, Dr Benedict and Psychoreaver had such interesting build-ups to them that geniunely had me excited to fight them, from the Locomobius driving around the map and acting as an environmental hazard, or confronting the other evil versions of previous vault hunters; these were fantastic ways to get the player ready for the upcoming fight. But the duels themselves were lacking. Repeated invulnerability phases, a "shoot the big guy, which is a part of the arena" fight, a lacking set of attacks, so much went down the drain here. There was still good telegraphing, and the bosses still provided visually, but everything else just made the fights feel like they were missing the fun factor. The best fight in this whole expansion was when we fought against Evil Moredacai and Evil Brick, which were just minibosses in some Smough-and-Ornstein-lite packaging.

The grander the idea was, the more it failed to fulfil what it aimed to do.

-SUBPAR-

-MEDIOCRE-

—Mediocre—

—SUBPAR—

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