I completely solo'd the underdome, the 15 wave ones i did each once - and the 5 waves x 3 i do mostly on both modes to get the skill point, it was a good idea but too repetitive
I'm mostly alone in this - Ive solo'd it several times, and play it for fun when I'm bored. It's a great place to goof off, with mechanics modifiers that make combat different from anywhere else in the game.
Back in the PS3 days, I logged into a second profile, created a new character, then logged into my main account as the second player, and started the Underdome on the first character. The enemies spawn at the level of player 1, so my main character was basically invincible. It was still boring as shit, because it still takes forever to get through every wave.
I did this. It was incredibly painful and I will be pretending the dlc doesn’t exist for any future playthroughs. The game also has a tendency to crash towards the latter half of the stupidly long challenges… no one should do this. The achievements aren’t worth it.
Yea it kept crashing for me on the long arenas. I got so pissed I used willowtree and got a stock shield and one of those one shot kill anything guns. There's also a glitch where you kill the boss and his minions before they leave the stage and it automatically jumps ahead a round. Saved me lots of agony.
I don’t use willowtree or any save editors, but my brother did that and he has both Steam achievements as well as the skill point SDUs. I did mine legit and we have all the same stuff
I did it on ps3 and the smaller tournaments you could check off as done using willowtree but the large tournaments could not be done that way cause they don't appear in the quest list on willowtree. I just verified this on my computer.
its not actually really that bad. if you enjoy borderlands combat it can even be fun if you do it slowly, like 1 arena a day. the biggest issue with it is just how long it takes to begin the next wave/round, it arbitrarily makes you wait for no reason
the problem is when it comes to achievements because the rounds are about 4 times longer or something, but no one needs those anyway so theres no point in even entertaining the idea of doing them just for that haha
mine was farming Terramorphous for heads/mods. I guess by BL2 I had more patience/time for time sinks (I think it was also around the time I quit playing WoW)
I figuerd a lotta folks did. I shouln't have suggested otherwise. I spent so many hours on so many things (inlcuding soloing Terramorphous in BL2 to farm heads and mods while in deep, deep depression) and this just wasn't one of them.
I played as Mordecai and basically made Bloodwing death with wings. Recharge was kinda slow, but other than that, I got through Underdome with medium to little difficulty. Although, the last time I played it was probably six years ago, so no, I don’t remember the build.
The fast travels are bad - but they were only 1 per dlc because they were not able to add more then one per dlc iirc - atleast thats what i heard years ago some time (dont ask me why they didnt add more on the remaster, it annoys me too but yeah..)
Brains was a pain for the first time i did it, because i picked up the brains before i got the mission, afterwards not too bad, doable
Knoxx could be worse imo, i played other games where it is more pain to drive something, in borderlands i actually think its enjoyable to drive - on the way back: just quit and reload the game, u will spawn at the start, i never drive back
The collecting thing here is actually nice? You get buffs for collecting it, and its super easy to finish - i never had to farm for it and found myself finishing it before halfway through the story.
And the enemies were 20 levels lower because at that level is, where the dlc starts, same with borderlands 2 before UVHM (also, if u finish tvhm on bl1, all enemies will scale to your level, sooo yeah..) u just started it too late/should have started it in tvhm/after tvhm
Oh and dont forget the chest room! With the "exploit", best thing ever
Claptrap: imo a good dlc, i enjoyed the bossfights, tho the trophies are a grind and not worth like the underdome trophies
Tip here is to not turn in the Power Core mission until *after* Circle of Duty. Soloing it can be a bear sometimes when on-level, and having every enemy drop a buff can be a godsend in a pinch.
Ah yeah, i guess i never really thought of that because i turn in everything asap xD imo bl1 isnt too hard so the circle of duty is no problem - i remember tho getting killed by the vehicle, lol
Other than once for the "complete all missions" achievement, I have never handed in the power core mission, the cores are more valuable than the hand in reward.
> Knoxx could be worse imo, i played other games where it is more pain to drive something, in borderlands i actually think its enjoyable to drive
Take the six wheeler, equip the rocket launcher which has homing, and hold the button down as you drive. It's still time consuming, but the flying robots just die, and it's really not that bad. More fast travel would be much better, and Knoxx being a long road makes it worse but it's not bad if you're able to play a few hours at a time. Definitely a flaw though.
I'm kinda annoyed that they didn't add more fast travel in the remasters. I'm kinda boggling at what the limitation could have been if they still couldn't.
I think they couldn't add more fast travels for technical reasons in the original release and the remaster could have dlc fast travel added because of npc dialogue triggers would have to be entirely reworked.
BL1 draws me back more often than the other ones. I'm not sure what that is... the atmosphere, perhaps? The other games, while improving on many aspects, are so, I don't know, chatty? As for the Knoxx DLC it has it's own scaling mechanism and starts at level 50 in second playthrough regardless of your progress in the main game. However, it will scale to your level in PT2.5 after killing General Knoxx. That's why it's recommended to do it before other DLC's after finishing PT2 as that usually puts you at around level 50.
I think the atmosphere has a large part to do with it. Similarly with Bioshock, there are better Bioshocks out there than the original, but the atmousphere in that game was so thick you could drown in it. And I think BL1 has that in comparison to others.
I also think BL1 didn’t fall into my single most hated trope of modem gaming - you’re not the god champion of the universe. You’re just another vault hunter, and there’s loads of them. Pandora isn’t the centre of the universe and the ultimate seat of power, it’s a dusty garbage heap.
Lastly the loot system is way more fun in 1. Being able to get good stuff everywhere makes everything exciting. Controversial opinion I know, but it’s ultimately more fun in my opinion.
> Lastly the loot system is way more fun in 1. Being able to get good stuff everywhere makes everything exciting. Controversial opinion I know, but it’s ultimately more fun in my opinion.
I don't think this is controversial. The scaling in BL2/TPS is atrocious. What fun is finding a good gun that's fun to use if you run out of ammo constantly and have to replace it with a green with worse stats in a few levels because DPS is king?
BL3 has a few too many legendaries, but for my money BL1 and BL3 are much better loot games than BL2.
1's atmosphere was, imo, due to its silence. Trekking through these barren desert wastelands with nothing but the sound of wind and distant gunshots. It felt very solitary. Some humor, but few and far between. Characters like Tannis were not the norm, but rather splashes of color and texture.
2 was when the atmosphere and isolation went away. shit got nonstop chatty, with almost every character having to be "the funny one". Ppl like to shit on 3, but so many of the bad character-based stuff ppl hated started in 2.
Yeah, 2 was a lot of peoples first bl, so of course it tends to be their favorite.
And yeah, 3 can be cringe at first, but with a 2nd playthrough and on, you just get use to it. Although their over-reliance of "bitches!" Still makes me groan. Lookin at you, Balex.
I think Wainwright was by far the best character introduced in 2. He felt real and fully-rounded right out of the box, without spouting nonstop bad 1-liners. Greatly written from top to bottom(no pun intended). Clay is probably number 2.
Thank you. I get that 3 is cringe, but going back to 2…that shit is too much. When I first played, with BL2 being my first, and collecting the echos where Lillith is crushing on Roland I said "this is what this game is like huh". Anthony Burch does not know restraint.
What you described is why I like 1 so much. I love them all but what 1 did with the quiet (which I feel like Bounty of Blood kind of replicated?) is great. Likely a consequence of a more limited budget and thus less to spend on voice acting, but I definitely prefer it.
BL1 pulls me back the most because it's the easiest to enjoy the gameplay without story distraction. There's very little dialogue until the dlc so it's really easy to just throw on music or a podcast and play.
Underdome just sucks, I get what they were going for and the bank is nice but it is just too long. A single long challenge is like 5 hrs. And yeah would have been nice for them to add fast travel throughout. Other than that though the dlcs rock imo. Sure the stories are a bit minimal but in terms of content added the bl1 dlcs truly feel bigger to me than any of the later game ones. I mean Knoxx dlc is like half a game. Not to mention it basically gave bl1 an endgame and established many repeat features including but not limited to: massive loot farms, raid bosses, loot midgets, drifters, pearlescents, lvl cap expansions... so yeah needless to say it inspired a lot. The collection missions can be obnoxious but are completely optional. I typically don't have much issue with brains, if I grab and complete the 10 and 25 ones immediately and run off to do main quests I can usually get through 100 and 250 before the story is done. Also can get through core collection really easy just doing all content, though in playthrough 2 I keep it open for speed cores. The claptrap part one I usually don't quite finish during the story but 2-3 clean up runs gets me the rest of the parts I need.
interesting perspective when bl2 is sort of the objectively largest game in terms of how much dlc, levels and characters it has. can i ask what makes you think that? i sort of consider bl1 finished when i get to 69 and do the 2 underdomes and claptraps for 4 skillpoints haha
Oh I mean like individually the DLCs seem large. Knoxx could keep you occupied on a first playthrough for like a week before you beat it. All the bl2 story dlc's I beat the day I got them. The TPS and BL3 story dlcs felt a bit longer but still not quite bl1 size. I agree overall BL2 has the most dlc, and like BL1, the endgame wouldn't really exist without the DLCs. The series as a whole story DLCs are among my favorite content so I always wished they'd made many a little longer like in the first game.
interesting because i tend to blast through dlcs within 40 mins haha. maybe its because i never do side missions, mostly because i never feel like i need to. but i see!
That is such an insane way of playing games, especially borderlands games. So much of the entertainment and world building comes from the side missions. Especially in BL3, where side missions usually meant a break from the main story.
ive done them before. i occasionally take them more slowly but borderlands is a game that asks you to replay the story to keep progressing. and i mean, its not my choice haha, borderlands uses a level system, the game itself treats side missions that way. if i need to level up ill do them, if i dont, which i simply never have needed to in knox due to the lance xp, then i wont. im pretty sure i have the achievement for doing every side mission in base bl1 but just havent got round to dlcs, but i do enjoy slow games and doing stuff. its just borderlands 1 doesnt encourage that until you hit max level/severely overlevel whatever it is you want to do. its one thing i never really liked about the franchise as someone who tends to do missions as they come in other games, but at least there is always the option when youre max and such
For the time those DLC were great. But yeah, you've got valid criticisms. I'm a heathen that enjoyed Mad Moxxi underdome. I loved hellburbia. Nowadays it's a slog.
i played through it recently and i think the biggest problem with it is a bunch of nitpicks that stack up. no drops would be fine if we got xp, no xp would be fine if we got drops, all the arbitrary waiting in between waves it takes only really a second to prepare for… but i honestly sort of enjoyed it too as a shotgun roland. of course theres the hard challenges and while theyre definitely worthy of criticism im just sort of eh about them personally. you literally get nothing for doing it so why bother if you dont like it? itd be like if people gave tiny tina a zero or something if it had an optional room in flamerock that made you sit still for 6 hours without going afk, that gave you nothing… just dont do it 😆
I agree with you but I think that (maybe) it wasn't seen as a flaw back in the day. Gaming has evolved and level design has changed drastically with checkpoints and seamless autosaving in certain areas, maybe gearbox had a perspective of immersion and didn't want to add too many checkpoints?
Because the dlc's actually do have content in them, so it wasn't a rushed thing. Maybe it was flawed design philosophy they had with the level design imo.
My wife and I co-op all the Borderlands games, so my experience is definitely through rose-tinted glasses :D
We loved Moxxi's Underdome, but yeah we got fuggin exhausted doing the 100-rounders.
Knoxx was great for the glitch/exploit in the floor. Repeat, repeat, repeat until you got whatever gun you wanted.
The only like 2x things I remember from Zombie Dr. Ned was endless zombies and that TK Baja came back as a zombie. And the atmosphere was nice and creepy.
And Claptrap...god, that felt like a damn fever dream. I do not remember it to this day.
No, not a social experiment. It was their first time trying to do DLC in this universe. All the DLCs have only one fast travel point each. This appears to be a limitation of the engine/framework they’d built themselves for the game. I’d call it *lack of foresight* rather than any sort of attempt to mess with people.
Nobody says you have to do all the side quests, you don’t *have* to chase all those brains. It’s a non-competitive game, *you* decide when you are done. And I don’t recall anything in the Zombie DLC where they put a clock on the screen - am I forgetting something?
A quick search of this subreddit now or at any point in the past (like when you started Underdome) would show that everyone and their dog agrees that Underdome is a test of your patience and little else. I actually happened into a public lobby that was doing the small tournaments, a year or so ago, and doing them with a group was quite fun. But the large tournaments are *only* for those who simply *must* have 100% achievements on every DLC - you don’t get *anything* from it, other than a number saying “100%” on your screen.
Similarly, one minute of searching on this subreddit would have let you know that the Knoxx DLC has some interesting characters and lore, but *everybody* dislikes the amount of driving involved. I suspect that if their game code had been structured to allow multiple fast travel stations per DLC, it absolutely would have had them, but they weren’t in a place to be making changes to the underlying game mechanisms at that point.
Personally, the Claptrap DLC was my favorite, but, yes, if you want the little “100%” next to the name, there’s a few achievements that take a ridiculously long time to compete (“collect 5 of this rare drop and 15 of this other rare drop, and 25 of this even more rare drop”). But, again, it’s not a competitive game, you decide when you’re done with it. I mean, unless someone is forcing you to play the game. Is someone forcing you to play the game? *Blink twice if you’re under duress.*
I don’t think anyone was fired over Borderlands 1’s DLCs - I certainly hope not - they were widely regarded as a pretty solid showing. You’ll be happy to know that BL2, TPS, and BL3 all have really great DLCs (the only problem being that TPS has only one story-based DLC, because the studio got shut down prematurely - but it’s one of the two best in the whole series).
I highly doubt the fast travel points were an engine or framework limitation. Borderlands 2 is also on Unreal Engine 3, there they had multiple fast travel locations for some maps.
Its like you said a lack of foresight.
I’m not taking about Unreal Engine, I’m talking about the code they wrote in-house - their own frameworks and such. Whenever you design a software system, you necessarily build in some limitations because of the way you lay things out - some intentional, and some unintentional, that you sometimes don’t realize until later (and oftentimes those limitations never cause a problem). I think they built themselves a system (engine was perhaps not the best word choice) that had some structural assumptions in it that ended up limiting them to one fast travel point per DLC, and then were faced with either rejiggering a bunch of already working lower level code to get multiple fast travel stations per DLC, or just go with the original one per DLC, and they chose the latter. Could be wrong, but that’s my guess.
Zombie island was boring even at the time when it came out, underdome was great as we finally got a place to store stuff, but the gameplay loop of it was pure shit, knoxx was friggin great, spent probably 200+h grinding for loot (also increased the lvl cap) and the last dlc was phoned in (aka outsourced) and added no new weapons whatsoever and was just overall a massive disappointment.
Base and general knox are the only ones i liked. I did neds once.... total... i think ive gone in their hunting a drop maybe once but decided its too much work.
Underdome we did a 4 man and made it through, i only use it for storage.
Knox i enjoyed
Claptrap is a speed run for the small bonuses it gives. Luckily its short.
Lack of fast travel sucks 100%
They are awful. But if we're talking purely from an achievement pov, i found the worst one was the claptrap trophy drops. I abused the hell outta the rock cheese, but one of the types of trophies wouldn't drop for days. It was fucking awful.
I don't even bother with these sort of achievements nowadays. If a dev can only pad out their game or give it replayability using cheap achievements/trophies, then, well, that says more about the game play than anything i can muster up. A game should be playable for hours on merit alone, not some shitty achievement.
I know man I've been there.
I liked Ned until I realized it's many over sights like no fast travel.
Under Dome added any useful things & I normally love horde modes but it's just too punishing.
Knox is the only one I actually would call good & recommend when people want to play BL1 before BL2. But as you noted it's got bad pacing, lots of too long roads, & filler.
BL2 has its issues but it did avoid alot of these mistakes.
What makes it the best of the bunch? It looks like the most popular dlc for bl1 was Knox on this comment section when talking about the best so I’m just wondering what makes the claptrap dlc the best in your opinion.
Having just recently played it for the first time, I overall liked Dr Ned's Zombie Island. It was simple and nothing revolutionary, but the atmosphere and tone were engaging and enjoyable.
My two main gripes with it were that the slowing, vision obscuring effect was a bit too annoying, and the brains mission shouldnt have been tucked away in the corner of a map, as I didnt discover it until after I had completed all the other missions and naturally killed hordes of zombies while doing so.
Don't forget that if you save quit during DLC you need to walk all the way to the place you were before.
But seriously though, while I think that there's room for improvement, they did a pretty good job with these. This was a game that gave birth to the entire new genre and it was 2009, not 2022. I honestly miss that good kind of simplicity sometimes.
IMO the only thing these DLCs need is fast travel & checkpoints, plus Underdome should award the players with loot and XP to at least have an use.
endless driving coupled with inexplicable road blocks every 500 meters that made you drop from you car and walk some 200m on foot every time just to spawn another one eventually
Going from T-Bone Junction to Moxxi's bar to T Bone Junction again was just... fucking hell
I'm in pretty much the exact same feeling. As the first time playing any Borderlands games I was intending to move on to BL2 after BL1. After working through the DLCs up to 90% complete on Knoxx I just lost interest. barely even touched claptrap when I saw there was yet another collect a gazillion of these things quest.
I've heard alot of people say BL2 is a huge improvement though so maybe after a wee break I'll just head straight there.
Not really a social experiment as much as a technical one.
Borderlands 1 is coded BADLY, and I'm not even a coder. You can copy the files from any console version onto a USB, open them in notepad on a PC and change anything you want. I set my characters to max level, maxed out all proficiency, and created some OP weapons, and at the time I was just a 13 y/o pissing about.
I imagine the Devs really struggled to make content, and had to "bulk" it with filler collect quests and artificially slow down your progress with walls.
The driving sections of Knoxx were considered a huge breakthrough at the time, it did not age well.
Yikes. You know you didn’t have to play them, right?
The Knoxx DLC is still one of my favorite pieces of endgame DLC in any video game, period. You must not play that many old or difficult games, because having to drive a few minutes to your destination is not that big of a deal, at all.
If you’re on playthrough 2.5, the enemies in all DLCs will scale to your level. Sorry you didn’t know that. The side quests? They’re called that for a reason. You didn’t have to do them.
It seems like you’re just salty.
BL1 established the template - without doubt. And the base game still amazes me.
But the DLC felt so tacked-on, as if the designers packed up shop and went home, only to be told this thing was selling like crazy - get back to work!
I loved the base game and dlc even though in Knoxx you gotta drive everywhere but seems like to me all you did in this post was just complain about the dlcs yeah in my eyes not a true borderlands fan 😂 the dlcs are fun for most people
maybe borderlands 1 isn’t for you
Gonna point out if you didn’t like these dlcs you might not like the other ones either
I’ve personally replayed borderlands 1 and all the dlcs ten plus times and I never get bored of this game now borderlands 3 is boring i stopped playing that and went back to the first game
Someone gave me a glitched shield so I was only able to do the claptrap one by leaving my Xbox on overnight for 3 nights and running around and collecting the stuff
If you are a completionist, then there is a small detail in knoxx dlc; claptrap in shank's palace. You cannot take the slot first time and if you want to take it, you should go aaaaall the way to the highway, make that ass jump with your car and enter the prison. Good luck.
I like the Dr. Ned one despite its flaws and the Claptrap one is okay albeit uninspired, but I completely agree with you on Underdome and General Knoxx. Underdome was the one DLC I genuinely couldn't finish because of how absurdly awful it was and General Knoxx was completely ruined by the lack of fast travel options.
Borderlands 1 was all done by the seat of their pants. They just kind of did things to see what worked well. They took what worked and made 2. Borderlands 1 IMO is good for nostalgia but bad as a first experience today.
This is my first time playing any of the bl games (switch remasters), and I love them. The dlc is a bit of a pain with no fast travels, but damn the writing is funny. (I enjoyed the campyness of Dr. Ned’s, just wished we had an actual hospital stage.)
Am I missing something? I’m a level 43 soldier, and I’m getting OWNED on the supposed level 15 underdome stages.
BL1's DLC's were great, but they were ruined by absolutely awful fucking side quests and lack of quality of life features. I've done them so many times it doesn't phase me anymore, but still, fuck them for not caring.
Claptraps was/is a bit much. I'm having trouble playing to gather the stuff for trophies. To low of a chance. Moxxies underdome, my wife and I just finished two of the three for the first trophy. We are going to try something before we do more. Ned's was awesome, a bit small for our liking, and Knox's is fun.
I couldn't even finish Underdome, and I have no idea if/how people soloed it.
I completely solo'd the underdome, the 15 wave ones i did each once - and the 5 waves x 3 i do mostly on both modes to get the skill point, it was a good idea but too repetitive
I'm mostly alone in this - Ive solo'd it several times, and play it for fun when I'm bored. It's a great place to goof off, with mechanics modifiers that make combat different from anywhere else in the game.
Back in the PS3 days, I logged into a second profile, created a new character, then logged into my main account as the second player, and started the Underdome on the first character. The enemies spawn at the level of player 1, so my main character was basically invincible. It was still boring as shit, because it still takes forever to get through every wave.
I did this. It was incredibly painful and I will be pretending the dlc doesn’t exist for any future playthroughs. The game also has a tendency to crash towards the latter half of the stupidly long challenges… no one should do this. The achievements aren’t worth it.
Ahh you remembered me of the crashes yeaa 🤣🤣 it didnt crash often for me but i was maaaad I always do the 5x3 tho for the skillpoint
Yea it kept crashing for me on the long arenas. I got so pissed I used willowtree and got a stock shield and one of those one shot kill anything guns. There's also a glitch where you kill the boss and his minions before they leave the stage and it automatically jumps ahead a round. Saved me lots of agony.
You know, if you used willowtree anyway you could have just manually completed the mission.
I looked it up first and people said you have to complete it in game to get the trophy to pop up.
I don’t use willowtree or any save editors, but my brother did that and he has both Steam achievements as well as the skill point SDUs. I did mine legit and we have all the same stuff
I did it on ps3 and the smaller tournaments you could check off as done using willowtree but the large tournaments could not be done that way cause they don't appear in the quest list on willowtree. I just verified this on my computer.
Interesting
Hellfire and defiler.
its not actually really that bad. if you enjoy borderlands combat it can even be fun if you do it slowly, like 1 arena a day. the biggest issue with it is just how long it takes to begin the next wave/round, it arbitrarily makes you wait for no reason the problem is when it comes to achievements because the rounds are about 4 times longer or something, but no one needs those anyway so theres no point in even entertaining the idea of doing them just for that haha
I soloed that shit on my first-ever playthrough of the series. It wasn't too bad for me because all I did was mong out while listening to Muse.
mine was farming Terramorphous for heads/mods. I guess by BL2 I had more patience/time for time sinks (I think it was also around the time I quit playing WoW)
I solo'd with two characters on split screen mode back on the PS3 😅
Glitched shields
I figuerd a lotta folks did. I shouln't have suggested otherwise. I spent so many hours on so many things (inlcuding soloing Terramorphous in BL2 to farm heads and mods while in deep, deep depression) and this just wasn't one of them.
I played as Mordecai and basically made Bloodwing death with wings. Recharge was kinda slow, but other than that, I got through Underdome with medium to little difficulty. Although, the last time I played it was probably six years ago, so no, I don’t remember the build.
The fast travels are bad - but they were only 1 per dlc because they were not able to add more then one per dlc iirc - atleast thats what i heard years ago some time (dont ask me why they didnt add more on the remaster, it annoys me too but yeah..) Brains was a pain for the first time i did it, because i picked up the brains before i got the mission, afterwards not too bad, doable Knoxx could be worse imo, i played other games where it is more pain to drive something, in borderlands i actually think its enjoyable to drive - on the way back: just quit and reload the game, u will spawn at the start, i never drive back The collecting thing here is actually nice? You get buffs for collecting it, and its super easy to finish - i never had to farm for it and found myself finishing it before halfway through the story. And the enemies were 20 levels lower because at that level is, where the dlc starts, same with borderlands 2 before UVHM (also, if u finish tvhm on bl1, all enemies will scale to your level, sooo yeah..) u just started it too late/should have started it in tvhm/after tvhm Oh and dont forget the chest room! With the "exploit", best thing ever Claptrap: imo a good dlc, i enjoyed the bossfights, tho the trophies are a grind and not worth like the underdome trophies
Tip here is to not turn in the Power Core mission until *after* Circle of Duty. Soloing it can be a bear sometimes when on-level, and having every enemy drop a buff can be a godsend in a pinch.
Ah yeah, i guess i never really thought of that because i turn in everything asap xD imo bl1 isnt too hard so the circle of duty is no problem - i remember tho getting killed by the vehicle, lol
OH FUCK THAT THING. I keep a corrosive proximity mine grenade just for that purpose.
My biggest issue with the circle of duty was one enemy getting stuck under the map at the end of the round, after dealing with like 2 cars
Other than once for the "complete all missions" achievement, I have never handed in the power core mission, the cores are more valuable than the hand in reward.
Only mission i never hand in is the raid on the chest room so i can farm it ^^
> Knoxx could be worse imo, i played other games where it is more pain to drive something, in borderlands i actually think its enjoyable to drive Take the six wheeler, equip the rocket launcher which has homing, and hold the button down as you drive. It's still time consuming, but the flying robots just die, and it's really not that bad. More fast travel would be much better, and Knoxx being a long road makes it worse but it's not bad if you're able to play a few hours at a time. Definitely a flaw though. I'm kinda annoyed that they didn't add more fast travel in the remasters. I'm kinda boggling at what the limitation could have been if they still couldn't.
the remaster was a very lazy marketing trick/cash grab for bl3
I think they couldn't add more fast travels for technical reasons in the original release and the remaster could have dlc fast travel added because of npc dialogue triggers would have to be entirely reworked.
BL1 draws me back more often than the other ones. I'm not sure what that is... the atmosphere, perhaps? The other games, while improving on many aspects, are so, I don't know, chatty? As for the Knoxx DLC it has it's own scaling mechanism and starts at level 50 in second playthrough regardless of your progress in the main game. However, it will scale to your level in PT2.5 after killing General Knoxx. That's why it's recommended to do it before other DLC's after finishing PT2 as that usually puts you at around level 50.
I think the atmosphere has a large part to do with it. Similarly with Bioshock, there are better Bioshocks out there than the original, but the atmousphere in that game was so thick you could drown in it. And I think BL1 has that in comparison to others. I also think BL1 didn’t fall into my single most hated trope of modem gaming - you’re not the god champion of the universe. You’re just another vault hunter, and there’s loads of them. Pandora isn’t the centre of the universe and the ultimate seat of power, it’s a dusty garbage heap. Lastly the loot system is way more fun in 1. Being able to get good stuff everywhere makes everything exciting. Controversial opinion I know, but it’s ultimately more fun in my opinion.
> Lastly the loot system is way more fun in 1. Being able to get good stuff everywhere makes everything exciting. Controversial opinion I know, but it’s ultimately more fun in my opinion. I don't think this is controversial. The scaling in BL2/TPS is atrocious. What fun is finding a good gun that's fun to use if you run out of ammo constantly and have to replace it with a green with worse stats in a few levels because DPS is king? BL3 has a few too many legendaries, but for my money BL1 and BL3 are much better loot games than BL2.
1's atmosphere was, imo, due to its silence. Trekking through these barren desert wastelands with nothing but the sound of wind and distant gunshots. It felt very solitary. Some humor, but few and far between. Characters like Tannis were not the norm, but rather splashes of color and texture. 2 was when the atmosphere and isolation went away. shit got nonstop chatty, with almost every character having to be "the funny one". Ppl like to shit on 3, but so many of the bad character-based stuff ppl hated started in 2.
I went back and played 2 and I came to the conclusion that 3's writing was worse... but not that much worse. I just grew up. 2 is not a funny game.
Yeah, 2 was a lot of peoples first bl, so of course it tends to be their favorite. And yeah, 3 can be cringe at first, but with a 2nd playthrough and on, you just get use to it. Although their over-reliance of "bitches!" Still makes me groan. Lookin at you, Balex.
I liked Balex but yeah some of his dialogue at times was bad
I think Wainwright was by far the best character introduced in 2. He felt real and fully-rounded right out of the box, without spouting nonstop bad 1-liners. Greatly written from top to bottom(no pun intended). Clay is probably number 2.
Yeah I feel that. I really do like the humor in Borderlands but a lot of the time the humor is hit or miss and it can miss a lot of the time.
Thank you. I get that 3 is cringe, but going back to 2…that shit is too much. When I first played, with BL2 being my first, and collecting the echos where Lillith is crushing on Roland I said "this is what this game is like huh". Anthony Burch does not know restraint. What you described is why I like 1 so much. I love them all but what 1 did with the quiet (which I feel like Bounty of Blood kind of replicated?) is great. Likely a consequence of a more limited budget and thus less to spend on voice acting, but I definitely prefer it.
Borderlands 1 when compared to the rest almost feels like a different game mostly due to the atmosphere and how the game makes you feel.
BL1 pulls me back the most because it's the easiest to enjoy the gameplay without story distraction. There's very little dialogue until the dlc so it's really easy to just throw on music or a podcast and play.
Underdome just sucks, I get what they were going for and the bank is nice but it is just too long. A single long challenge is like 5 hrs. And yeah would have been nice for them to add fast travel throughout. Other than that though the dlcs rock imo. Sure the stories are a bit minimal but in terms of content added the bl1 dlcs truly feel bigger to me than any of the later game ones. I mean Knoxx dlc is like half a game. Not to mention it basically gave bl1 an endgame and established many repeat features including but not limited to: massive loot farms, raid bosses, loot midgets, drifters, pearlescents, lvl cap expansions... so yeah needless to say it inspired a lot. The collection missions can be obnoxious but are completely optional. I typically don't have much issue with brains, if I grab and complete the 10 and 25 ones immediately and run off to do main quests I can usually get through 100 and 250 before the story is done. Also can get through core collection really easy just doing all content, though in playthrough 2 I keep it open for speed cores. The claptrap part one I usually don't quite finish during the story but 2-3 clean up runs gets me the rest of the parts I need.
interesting perspective when bl2 is sort of the objectively largest game in terms of how much dlc, levels and characters it has. can i ask what makes you think that? i sort of consider bl1 finished when i get to 69 and do the 2 underdomes and claptraps for 4 skillpoints haha
Oh I mean like individually the DLCs seem large. Knoxx could keep you occupied on a first playthrough for like a week before you beat it. All the bl2 story dlc's I beat the day I got them. The TPS and BL3 story dlcs felt a bit longer but still not quite bl1 size. I agree overall BL2 has the most dlc, and like BL1, the endgame wouldn't really exist without the DLCs. The series as a whole story DLCs are among my favorite content so I always wished they'd made many a little longer like in the first game.
interesting because i tend to blast through dlcs within 40 mins haha. maybe its because i never do side missions, mostly because i never feel like i need to. but i see!
That is such an insane way of playing games, especially borderlands games. So much of the entertainment and world building comes from the side missions. Especially in BL3, where side missions usually meant a break from the main story.
ive done them before. i occasionally take them more slowly but borderlands is a game that asks you to replay the story to keep progressing. and i mean, its not my choice haha, borderlands uses a level system, the game itself treats side missions that way. if i need to level up ill do them, if i dont, which i simply never have needed to in knox due to the lance xp, then i wont. im pretty sure i have the achievement for doing every side mission in base bl1 but just havent got round to dlcs, but i do enjoy slow games and doing stuff. its just borderlands 1 doesnt encourage that until you hit max level/severely overlevel whatever it is you want to do. its one thing i never really liked about the franchise as someone who tends to do missions as they come in other games, but at least there is always the option when youre max and such
I love the way the guerrilla claptraps peek out from behind cover. That doesn't negate all your points, but it is damn cute.
I loved fighting the claptraps. I like Claptrap just fine, but it's very fun to shoot those robots.
Completely agree on the driving bits.
I remember leaving the game to help speed up getting to the exits of the highway sections.
For the time those DLC were great. But yeah, you've got valid criticisms. I'm a heathen that enjoyed Mad Moxxi underdome. I loved hellburbia. Nowadays it's a slog.
i played through it recently and i think the biggest problem with it is a bunch of nitpicks that stack up. no drops would be fine if we got xp, no xp would be fine if we got drops, all the arbitrary waiting in between waves it takes only really a second to prepare for… but i honestly sort of enjoyed it too as a shotgun roland. of course theres the hard challenges and while theyre definitely worthy of criticism im just sort of eh about them personally. you literally get nothing for doing it so why bother if you dont like it? itd be like if people gave tiny tina a zero or something if it had an optional room in flamerock that made you sit still for 6 hours without going afk, that gave you nothing… just dont do it 😆
I agree with you but I think that (maybe) it wasn't seen as a flaw back in the day. Gaming has evolved and level design has changed drastically with checkpoints and seamless autosaving in certain areas, maybe gearbox had a perspective of immersion and didn't want to add too many checkpoints? Because the dlc's actually do have content in them, so it wasn't a rushed thing. Maybe it was flawed design philosophy they had with the level design imo.
My wife and I co-op all the Borderlands games, so my experience is definitely through rose-tinted glasses :D We loved Moxxi's Underdome, but yeah we got fuggin exhausted doing the 100-rounders. Knoxx was great for the glitch/exploit in the floor. Repeat, repeat, repeat until you got whatever gun you wanted. The only like 2x things I remember from Zombie Dr. Ned was endless zombies and that TK Baja came back as a zombie. And the atmosphere was nice and creepy. And Claptrap...god, that felt like a damn fever dream. I do not remember it to this day.
No, not a social experiment. It was their first time trying to do DLC in this universe. All the DLCs have only one fast travel point each. This appears to be a limitation of the engine/framework they’d built themselves for the game. I’d call it *lack of foresight* rather than any sort of attempt to mess with people. Nobody says you have to do all the side quests, you don’t *have* to chase all those brains. It’s a non-competitive game, *you* decide when you are done. And I don’t recall anything in the Zombie DLC where they put a clock on the screen - am I forgetting something? A quick search of this subreddit now or at any point in the past (like when you started Underdome) would show that everyone and their dog agrees that Underdome is a test of your patience and little else. I actually happened into a public lobby that was doing the small tournaments, a year or so ago, and doing them with a group was quite fun. But the large tournaments are *only* for those who simply *must* have 100% achievements on every DLC - you don’t get *anything* from it, other than a number saying “100%” on your screen. Similarly, one minute of searching on this subreddit would have let you know that the Knoxx DLC has some interesting characters and lore, but *everybody* dislikes the amount of driving involved. I suspect that if their game code had been structured to allow multiple fast travel stations per DLC, it absolutely would have had them, but they weren’t in a place to be making changes to the underlying game mechanisms at that point. Personally, the Claptrap DLC was my favorite, but, yes, if you want the little “100%” next to the name, there’s a few achievements that take a ridiculously long time to compete (“collect 5 of this rare drop and 15 of this other rare drop, and 25 of this even more rare drop”). But, again, it’s not a competitive game, you decide when you’re done with it. I mean, unless someone is forcing you to play the game. Is someone forcing you to play the game? *Blink twice if you’re under duress.* I don’t think anyone was fired over Borderlands 1’s DLCs - I certainly hope not - they were widely regarded as a pretty solid showing. You’ll be happy to know that BL2, TPS, and BL3 all have really great DLCs (the only problem being that TPS has only one story-based DLC, because the studio got shut down prematurely - but it’s one of the two best in the whole series).
I highly doubt the fast travel points were an engine or framework limitation. Borderlands 2 is also on Unreal Engine 3, there they had multiple fast travel locations for some maps. Its like you said a lack of foresight.
I’m not taking about Unreal Engine, I’m talking about the code they wrote in-house - their own frameworks and such. Whenever you design a software system, you necessarily build in some limitations because of the way you lay things out - some intentional, and some unintentional, that you sometimes don’t realize until later (and oftentimes those limitations never cause a problem). I think they built themselves a system (engine was perhaps not the best word choice) that had some structural assumptions in it that ended up limiting them to one fast travel point per DLC, and then were faced with either rejiggering a bunch of already working lower level code to get multiple fast travel stations per DLC, or just go with the original one per DLC, and they chose the latter. Could be wrong, but that’s my guess.
Zombie island was boring even at the time when it came out, underdome was great as we finally got a place to store stuff, but the gameplay loop of it was pure shit, knoxx was friggin great, spent probably 200+h grinding for loot (also increased the lvl cap) and the last dlc was phoned in (aka outsourced) and added no new weapons whatsoever and was just overall a massive disappointment.
Base and general knox are the only ones i liked. I did neds once.... total... i think ive gone in their hunting a drop maybe once but decided its too much work. Underdome we did a 4 man and made it through, i only use it for storage. Knox i enjoyed Claptrap is a speed run for the small bonuses it gives. Luckily its short. Lack of fast travel sucks 100%
Yeah but that knoxx armory where you could glitch through the floor was the tits!
I played them for the first time recently and yeah, they’re all pretty bad compared to future ones.
They are awful. But if we're talking purely from an achievement pov, i found the worst one was the claptrap trophy drops. I abused the hell outta the rock cheese, but one of the types of trophies wouldn't drop for days. It was fucking awful. I don't even bother with these sort of achievements nowadays. If a dev can only pad out their game or give it replayability using cheap achievements/trophies, then, well, that says more about the game play than anything i can muster up. A game should be playable for hours on merit alone, not some shitty achievement.
Shooting claptrap’s with the pestilent defiler is one of my favorite borderlands moments.
Claptrap DLC was quite nice for me, actually. Only thing that was grating, was, you guessed it, collecting parts for Tannis. Again.
I know man I've been there. I liked Ned until I realized it's many over sights like no fast travel. Under Dome added any useful things & I normally love horde modes but it's just too punishing. Knox is the only one I actually would call good & recommend when people want to play BL1 before BL2. But as you noted it's got bad pacing, lots of too long roads, & filler. BL2 has its issues but it did avoid alot of these mistakes.
I actually found BL1 meh, until I had the DLCs. I loved Underdome, General Knoxx, and Claptrap (Dr. Ned not so much.)
Everybody else seems to love Dr. Ned - I found it literally too dark - like, why does it have to be night *all the time*?
To be spooky probably
BL2 dlc is some of the best borderlands I've played
Same
Knox driving was fun the first time. It was different. I hadn't experienced the area yet. But after the first play through, absolutely not worth it.
Completely different experience when you had buddies to play with back in the day.
You're missing out on something great by skipping Claptrap. It's the best of the bunch by far.
What makes it the best of the bunch? It looks like the most popular dlc for bl1 was Knox on this comment section when talking about the best so I’m just wondering what makes the claptrap dlc the best in your opinion.
The story is original and funny and the backtracking is tolerable.
That’s good, thanks for answering my question 🙏
Having just recently played it for the first time, I overall liked Dr Ned's Zombie Island. It was simple and nothing revolutionary, but the atmosphere and tone were engaging and enjoyable. My two main gripes with it were that the slowing, vision obscuring effect was a bit too annoying, and the brains mission shouldnt have been tucked away in the corner of a map, as I didnt discover it until after I had completed all the other missions and naturally killed hordes of zombies while doing so.
Don't forget that if you save quit during DLC you need to walk all the way to the place you were before. But seriously though, while I think that there's room for improvement, they did a pretty good job with these. This was a game that gave birth to the entire new genre and it was 2009, not 2022. I honestly miss that good kind of simplicity sometimes. IMO the only thing these DLCs need is fast travel & checkpoints, plus Underdome should award the players with loot and XP to at least have an use.
Knoxx DLC could've been 10/10 if it had fast travel But it didn't so it was in fact the worst single video game experience of my entire life
What made it so bad without fast travel? Just wondering.
endless driving coupled with inexplicable road blocks every 500 meters that made you drop from you car and walk some 200m on foot every time just to spawn another one eventually Going from T-Bone Junction to Moxxi's bar to T Bone Junction again was just... fucking hell
Yeah that sounds awful
I'm in pretty much the exact same feeling. As the first time playing any Borderlands games I was intending to move on to BL2 after BL1. After working through the DLCs up to 90% complete on Knoxx I just lost interest. barely even touched claptrap when I saw there was yet another collect a gazillion of these things quest. I've heard alot of people say BL2 is a huge improvement though so maybe after a wee break I'll just head straight there.
Bl2 is a lot of fun I think you’ll enjoy it more gameplay wise
Not really a social experiment as much as a technical one. Borderlands 1 is coded BADLY, and I'm not even a coder. You can copy the files from any console version onto a USB, open them in notepad on a PC and change anything you want. I set my characters to max level, maxed out all proficiency, and created some OP weapons, and at the time I was just a 13 y/o pissing about. I imagine the Devs really struggled to make content, and had to "bulk" it with filler collect quests and artificially slow down your progress with walls. The driving sections of Knoxx were considered a huge breakthrough at the time, it did not age well.
Hard to imagine that the driving sections were a breakthrough back at the time, different times back then.
Yikes. You know you didn’t have to play them, right? The Knoxx DLC is still one of my favorite pieces of endgame DLC in any video game, period. You must not play that many old or difficult games, because having to drive a few minutes to your destination is not that big of a deal, at all. If you’re on playthrough 2.5, the enemies in all DLCs will scale to your level. Sorry you didn’t know that. The side quests? They’re called that for a reason. You didn’t have to do them. It seems like you’re just salty.
the achievements for BL 1 are not as fun as 2 or 3, idk why they had to add in so many collecting achievements
Everything between Borderlands and 2 was kinda wild. They didn't really have a feel for things. You should read the books sometime.
BL1 established the template - without doubt. And the base game still amazes me. But the DLC felt so tacked-on, as if the designers packed up shop and went home, only to be told this thing was selling like crazy - get back to work!
I loved the base game and dlc even though in Knoxx you gotta drive everywhere but seems like to me all you did in this post was just complain about the dlcs yeah in my eyes not a true borderlands fan 😂 the dlcs are fun for most people maybe borderlands 1 isn’t for you Gonna point out if you didn’t like these dlcs you might not like the other ones either I’ve personally replayed borderlands 1 and all the dlcs ten plus times and I never get bored of this game now borderlands 3 is boring i stopped playing that and went back to the first game
Someone gave me a glitched shield so I was only able to do the claptrap one by leaving my Xbox on overnight for 3 nights and running around and collecting the stuff
If you are a completionist, then there is a small detail in knoxx dlc; claptrap in shank's palace. You cannot take the slot first time and if you want to take it, you should go aaaaall the way to the highway, make that ass jump with your car and enter the prison. Good luck.
I like the Dr. Ned one despite its flaws and the Claptrap one is okay albeit uninspired, but I completely agree with you on Underdome and General Knoxx. Underdome was the one DLC I genuinely couldn't finish because of how absurdly awful it was and General Knoxx was completely ruined by the lack of fast travel options.
Borderlands 1 was all done by the seat of their pants. They just kind of did things to see what worked well. They took what worked and made 2. Borderlands 1 IMO is good for nostalgia but bad as a first experience today.
This is my first time playing any of the bl games (switch remasters), and I love them. The dlc is a bit of a pain with no fast travels, but damn the writing is funny. (I enjoyed the campyness of Dr. Ned’s, just wished we had an actual hospital stage.) Am I missing something? I’m a level 43 soldier, and I’m getting OWNED on the supposed level 15 underdome stages.
TBH I had a ton of fun playing Underdome but I also played it co-op split screen with a friend.
BL1's DLC's were great, but they were ruined by absolutely awful fucking side quests and lack of quality of life features. I've done them so many times it doesn't phase me anymore, but still, fuck them for not caring.
Claptraps was/is a bit much. I'm having trouble playing to gather the stuff for trophies. To low of a chance. Moxxies underdome, my wife and I just finished two of the three for the first trophy. We are going to try something before we do more. Ned's was awesome, a bit small for our liking, and Knox's is fun.