Borderlands is a great FPS that mixes in enough RPG elements to put it in a different category of awesome. Since it reeked of awesome the folks at Gearbox and 2K decided to make a Game of the Year (GOTY) Edition and let me say that you get some bang for your buck here. Borderlands: Game of the Year Edition includes the Borderlands original disc and tokens for all 4 add-on packs as well as a nifty foldout map of Pandora that doubles as a poster of the box-art.

Installing the DLC is a bit of a pain at first and unfortunately will require you to have a connection to Xbox Live, and 4.5 GB of free space to install the four add-ons. This is not a big deal for those players that automatically re-up their Live accounts or have tons of free space on their systems, but for those others this may be a pain. I was a bit surprised that the DLC content was not just added to a disc, but instead I had to download it and then play.

In Borderlands GOTY you get the following:

The Zombie Island of Doctor Ned: This is the Halloween-inspired DLC where you will take on hordes of zombies and undead in the Jakob’s Cove area. You will encounter the undead like never before and blow their brains out as part of a quest for fun. You will meet a wanna-be Pumpkin Head and Frankenstein while blasting through, and also run into an old friend - T.K. Baha (yes, he died in the first game). This is a nice appetizer for those that may have stopped playing and want to get back in to things with a bit of light hearted zombie killing.

Mad Moxxi’s Underdome: This DLC is sadistic. It is basically a glorified survival mode where you are thrown into a dome and tons of enemies are thrown at you. You will spend round after round trying to survive and get extremely frustrated because if you die, you will start it all over again. You also get no experience for kills in the Underdome. The Underdome is split into three sections: The Gully, The Angelic Ruins and Hell-Burbia. In order to complete the challenges you will need to go through five rounds, each with five waves of enemies, which makes 25 rounds in each area. After you finish those 75 rounds you will then have to do a bigger challenge, which will be five waves of 20 rounds, making a grand total of three hundred rounds. It is extremely time consuming and frustrating at times, as enemies get harder as the rounds progress and you face bosses in the 5th round of each. This DLC also provides a bank for you to store items instead of just throwing them into the streets.

The Secret Armory of General Knoxx: This DLC adds more guns, missions, vehicles and increases the level cap, and is perhaps my favorite of the four. You ultimately want to get in to the Armory of General Knoxx and culminate in a huge battle with a mech-version of the general that is one of the most difficult of the entire game. Once you beat him you are given a time frame to loot anything you can in the armory. This DLC is really great endgame stuff and provides a lot of new weapons for you to play with, along with a lot of highway stretches for you to play around with vehicles.

Claptrap’s New Robot Revolution: This is the newest of the DLC and has everyone’s beloved Calptraps starting their own revolution, Che Guevara style. The Claptraps are fighting back and now is your chance to put a bullet in one after all their yapping through the game. There are some funny moments, as you will fight a Ned-Trap, Knoxx-Trap, Interplanetary Ninja Assassin Calptrap and culminating in a showdown with a giant Claptrap known as the Mega Inerplanetary Ninja Assassin Calptrap. The missions are fun and you will spend some time hunting Claptraps in order to scavenge the pieces they drop for achievements.

Aside from all that Borderlands goodness, you also get a Duke Nukem Forever First Access certificate which will get you into the beta for that title before anyone else. Instant must-have for any Duke Nukem fan out there that has been anxiously waiting for this title to release some day.

Borderlands: GOTY Edition is awesome co-op fun for fans of the franchise, and if you have not played this game before it is an even better buy to get everything in one shot. It adds new challenges, levels, enemies and bosses while extending the overall experience. A must-have, period! I played over three days (72 hours) worth of overall playtime in Borderlands and the add-ons in 2-player split screen co-op - that was some of the best gaming I have done to date.

  • Title: Borderlands: Game of the Year Edition
  • Platform Reviewed: Xbox 360
  • Developer: Gearbox Software
  • Publisher: 2K Games
  • Release Date: October 12, 2010
  • MSRP: $49.99
  • Review copy info: A copy of this title was provided to DualShockers, Inc. by the publisher for the purpose of this review.
Borderlands: Game of the Year Edition
9 / 10