It illustrates how 2K Australia can get some aspects of Borderlands so right, but just miss the mark in other ways that bring the whole experience down a bit. There are also pop-up ads: chest-high walls that appear from the ground and can either be closed or serve as randomized mini stores for health or ammunition. The theme of software given life extends to in-universe advertisement, with foes who do nothing but stream audio to the player until they are destroyed. Even the old standby enemies like bandits and psychos behave a bit differently, able to phase in and out of existence occasionally since they are computer projections generated by Claptrap’s memory. There are very few zero-atmosphere environments in Claptastic Voyage, so players are free to use the double jump without having to worry about running out of oxygen.Īlmost all of the enemies are new in some way, with viruses, bugs, and protection software given physical manifestations to explode. It remains fast and frenetic to moon jump and butt slam between enemies. Gameplay is largely unaltered from The Pre-Sequel‘s main campaign. It manages to get through its eight-to-ten hour campaign without making nearly as many pop culture references as the last few games in the series have done. Though it isn’t as laugh-out-loud funny as Tales from the Borderlands has been, it hits the right notes of dark comedy. He is clearly designed to let the player know what’s up, so watching the characters go along and be flabbergasted by the betrayal creates a sort of disconnect between player and protagonist.Īt a micro level, the writing follows what we have come to expect from the series. Perhaps it’s intentionally self-referential, but the plot device that introduces the main villain early on as an ally who “unexpectedly” betrays the heroes is tired at this point. ![]() It even goes so far as to explain Claptrap’s penchant for dubstep where it wasn’t present in the original Borderlands.Īll that said, while the details are cute for fans of the lore, the main plot in Claptastic Voyage has been done several times in the Borderlands series. It ends with a direct lead-in to BL2, showing how Claptrap meets Sir Hammerlock in the frozen tundra on Pandora. It does this with the memory exercise in Overlook, illustrating the town’s deterioration to the state players find it in Borderlands 2. One thing that Claptastic Voyage does especially well is to fill in gaps in the overarching story that have only previously been hinted at. The Escherian temple of Claptrap’s subconscious is particularly fun to explore. Eventually, the shooting goes deep enough into Claptrap’s mind to find wholly original, diverse environments. A little ways into the DLC the Vault Hunters can access Claptrap’s old memories, revisiting areas featured in previous titles like Fyrestone or Overlook. It’s immediately disappointing that the limitless setting produces such uninteresting environments, but that changes further in. In practice, Claptastic Voyage takes players from the samey blue-gray moon surface and industrial complexes to samey blue-gray electronics (that look a lot like industrial complexes).Īt least, that’s how the first half goes. As with the Dungeons and Dragons-esque setup for Tiny Tina’s Assault on Dragon Keep, the narrative hook allows Vault Hunters to leave the planet of Pandora (or its moon Elpis) in favor of even more fantastic locales. With the premise of entering the mind of Claptrap, The Pre-Sequel had a ton of freedom with where it could go and what it could do. For the most part it succeeds in that endeavor, but it still seems like 2K Australia has a bit to learn about making the loot-shooter truly great. On the other hand, the environments are a little dull and it suffers from a host of obnoxious bugs.Ĭlaptastic Voyage, the first and only “big” piece of downloadable content had the opportunity to fix a lot of what was broken with the base game. ![]() The combat is exciting and the characters are likable. With Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, I like and dislike different parts of it in almost equal measure.
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