Borderlands: Claptrap’s Robot Revolution

Developer: Gearbox Software | Publisher: 2K Games | Release Date: 2010 | Genre: First Person Shooter / RPG / DLC | Website: Official Website | Purchase: Steam

Having already dealt with the Atlus and Jakobs Corporations in the past Borderlands DLC, it is now the turn of Hyperion to take the limelight. It seems that they have taken a dim view of the vault hunters cutting into their profits with all the looting instead of buying and so dispatched an “Interplanetary Ninja Assassin” Claptrap to Pandora in order to rectify the situation. Unfortunately, their creation was more interested in starting a robot revolution (robolution) so Hyperion is forced to contract the vault hunters to perform damage control

The renegade Claptrap wasted no time in creating a robot army on Pandora and even the local species has been “claptrapped.” This means you’ll be facing off against the usual Skags, Spider-Ants and bandits but with a new “Claptrap” twist. The changes are purely cosmetic however, with only the Claptraps really counting as “new” foes. These little guys come in all sorts of variations and can pack anything from shotguns to boxing gloves. You’ll want to be on your toes for the kamikaze Claptraps as well. Dispatching of the Claptraps is rather easy and their only strengths are in their numbers. Hearing them utter dying words such as “error 404, page not found” or “I see three blinking red lights” is hilarious and I almost felt bad for the little buggers. They drop random Claptrap parts once killed with leads to a grinding sub-quest similar to the brain collection in the first DLC.

Claptrap’s New Robot Revolution offers six new areas to explore, but unfortunately it’s not anything we haven’t seen before. Areas like Hyperion Dump and Sanders Gorge might be new but look very similar to existing areas. I know that there is only so much that can be done with a wasteland like Pandora, but past DLC like The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned proved that it is possible to offer something new visually. Tartarus Station serves as the hub for this DLC and once again there are no fast travel points. Vehicles are absent as well, so you’ll have to wander everywhere on foot. The only Npc’s of note that you encounter is the barking made Patricia Tannis, weapons dealer Marcus Kinkaid and Hyperion representative, Mr. Blake. There is also the familiar bounty board for a combined total of twenty one new missions, nine of which are story related.

It’s not just the locations and enemies that feel recycled, but the bosses as well. You’ll encounter familiar faces such as General Knoxx and even Undead Ned, all of whom have been Claptrapped of course. At least the final boss is a worthy foe and while not as epic as Crawmerax (the optional boss in the previous DLC) offers a better end-battle than what was on offer in the original game. Most of the returning bosses have some funny new dialogue with General Knoxx once again stealing the show. His suicidal ramblings and remarks about dying are side-splittingly funny. New bosses like D-fault aren’t too bad, but my personal favorite is the Cluck-Trap you encounter in Sanders Gorge.

With Claptrap’s New Robot Revolution being the final bit of DLC for Borderlands I was expecting it to go out with a bang. While it does offer a sense of closure, it feels a little thin on unique content. The various revolution posters and cute Claptrap enemies can’t really disguise the fact that the environments of Pandora are becoming all too familiar. The humor is still brilliant (keep your ears open for a few Bioshock references) and the plot completely mad, but it does feel like the game has run out of steam a bit. Completing this DLC twice will earn you two new skill points (and you will probably have to do so if you want all those grinding achievements) but personally I am ready for something new. The game of the year edition of Borderlands has since been released featuring the base game and all four DLC so if you have yet to experience this title, don’t hesitate to pick it up.

*Review originally published 2010.