Borderlands 3 turned out to be what fans expected from it – a shooter not much different from previous parts, fun cooperative entertainment with a recognizable style. The plot (and many will probably agree with this) has become one of the weakest components of the game – the story itself is not very interesting, and the villains are more annoying than exuding charisma, like Handsome Jack. Because it’s great that the first DLC has nothing to do with the main plot – not a single character from the “troika” appears here. Except for Moxie, of course.
New owners
Name Moxxi’s Heist of the Handsome Jackpot perfectly describes everything you have to do in the add-on. The long-deceased Handsome Jack left behind a huge casino, the interiors of which fully correspond to his inflated ego: there are holograms of his face and numerous statues. Moxie decides to take over the casino, but to do this he needs to assemble a team – complete several quests for each potential companion and, in the end, go to the final seizure of the territory.
The casino is full of robot security guards, but there are also people – one of them still spends time in front of slot machines and is trying to find a talisman with which he will start winning more often. The add-on takes place in five locations (six if you count the small final one) – there are open areas with entertainment venues located in different corners, and a garbage-filled area called Chlamtlantis, which is under the control of the mayor.
The casino turned out to be a real prison for many employees and visitors – it got to the point that a vile dwarf named Pretty Boy became its new manager. However, even he fails to get into areas that only Jack can access. But the player will succeed – Timothy Lawrence, one of the playable characters in Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, survived operations that left him looking like a clone of the famous villain.
This is probably due to the short running time, but in seven hours (taking into account all the side quests) they tell a much more interesting and coherent story than in the entire main game. It is unlikely that any characters will be remembered for a long time and will be included in the lists of the best heroes of the series, but during the passage you get great pleasure from the atmosphere, plot and characters. Consider the musician Digby Wermuth, who sings half of his phrases in a jazz style. And Pretty is a much less annoying antagonist than the streamer twins.
Steal, kill
In terms of gameplay, Satoshi-slots.co.uk the DLC won’t surprise you with anything special – it’s the same Borderlands 3. But when local jokes don’t cause such shame as in the original, and you don’t have to wander around different planets, even the usual gameplay begins to shine with brighter colors. I want to explore locations more actively, take on side quests, and not leave a single corner unexplored. Collectibles like exploding bottles of hot sauce only add to the excitement.
On the other hand, since the design of the missions has not undergone any changes, at some point you begin to get tired of the shootings. In the add-on, too often you find yourself in situations where you need to defeat dozens of opponents within one large hall and you keep shooting, shooting, shooting… This may seem like a slightly strange complaint about a shooter, but still there is not enough time for a break – clearing rooms and protecting objects is good, but in moderation.
In addition, there are not so many types of enemies here – all sorts of robot bouncers, loaders with guns and rocket launchers and other “pieces of hardware” soon begin to get boring, and the game likes to dump them in packs, especially towards the end. The appearance of bookmakers, mafiosi and all sorts of creatures does not help much.
But the final hour of the DLC turned out to be very fun and dynamic due to the fact that the developers decided to parody the structure of heist films. At some point, the heroes begin to draw up a plan to capture the casino, and each stage is a separate playable episode – such jumps from cutscenes to gameplay look very appropriate and dilute the routine shooting.
The boss fights were a success, especially the last one, which both me and my partner with whom we went through it all really liked. There is nothing unusual in these battles, but for some reason even they seemed cooler and more impressive than many episodes with large opponents in the original Borderlands 3. In addition, their homes are easy to reach if you want to “farm” weapons.
And, of course, there’s a lot to “farm” here – there’s no shortage of new legendary weapons. There is the “Greedy Client” – a submachine gun that can drop casino chips from wounded enemies, increasing damage for 12 seconds. There is a powerful “Ion Laser” – also a submachine gun, but much better than the previous one thanks to bonus elemental damage and the ability to switch between its types. There are a total of 18 “legendaries” here, including a sniper rifle, pistols, shotguns and rocket launchers – some of them heal the player when fired.
For defeating the last boss, you are guaranteed to receive the Rico shield, the capacity of which is not the most impressive, but if the character has a full shield scale, half of the projectiles that hit will bounce off it. And if there is no shield, the chance of repelling bullets will be as much as 80%. In general, those who like to collect high-quality loot are definitely worth going through the add-on – there will probably be several things that will be difficult to part with.
If normal Borderlands 3 you got bored at some point, but hope for high-quality DLC has not disappeared, try it Moxxi’s Heist of the Handsome Jackpot definitely worth it. You can launch it by reaching level 13, and to start you need to look at the poster next to the Moxie bar in the “Vault”. There are no dull twins here, the jokes are not nearly as stupid, and the characters and atmosphere make the adventure exciting and fun. It’s a pity that not everything is so smooth with the variety of tasks, but at least for the sake of the final moments it’s worth enduring the seemingly endless battles with dozens of robots.
Pros: good story with a funny ending; nice and varied locations; great characters; many useful new “legendaries”.
Cons: There are too many tasks with clearing maps of enemies – shooting at robots gets boring at some point.