Borderlands Claptrap’s New Robot Revolution DLC Reviews

A couple more reviews for the latest DLC for Borderlands, Claptrap’s New Robot Revolution, have appeared online, continuing the overal mixed reaction to this title.  Kotaku no score.

So, this is just more Borderlands, right? Pretty much. New environments to explore, new missions to undertake, a few character upgrades. There are new enemies and bosses to battle, some of them quite memorable, but most are variations on old enemies and bosses. Skags are now Skag-Traps. Midget Psychos are now Midget Psycho-Traps. Totally new are the militaristic Claptraps you fight some of which sport Mr. T mohawks, some of which smack at you with boxing gloves and a few heavily armored Hyperion soldiers.

Eurogamer 6/10.

New Robot Revolution has some fun with its concept, at least to begin with. The robot guerilla leader bombards you with squeaky-voiced rhetoric over conveniently placed loudspeakers as you arrive at Tartarus Station to begin your mission, and it’s hard not to smile at the fun being had at the expense of more portentous games like BioShock.

The humour continues with the newly radicalised Claptraps, shifted from amiable servants to furious killers. Some, wearing combat helmets, blast at you with shotguns. Others, sporting Mohawks and boxing gloves, speed up close and batter you with windmill punches. Kamikaze robots chase you, detonating if you let them get too close. When defeated they utter enjoyable quips about 404 errors and seeing three flashing red lights of death. All are easily dispatched but, like the zombies on Dr. Ned’s island, it’s the sheer force of numbers that provides what little real threat they pose.

That’s sadly it as far as innovation goes, however. It soon becomes clear that the Claptrap revolution is more an excuse to reuse and remix existing assets than to provide anything fresh. You’re facing the same enemies from the rest of the game, just with Claptrap parts welded and stitched on. This doesn’t change their tactics or talents, and unless you plan on getting up close for some melee damage you won’t really see the difference.