Borderlands 2 Captain Scarlett and her Pirate's Booty DLC is trolling us

By BatRastered — October 19, 2012
Tags: 2k-games dlc gearbox-software review wildrant

The first of four DLC packs to be released for Borderlands 2 is out now. Is it a worthy addition to the game or will you be setting sail for another game after this?

When the Gouki.com crew sat in on the Gearbox PAX panel, someone in the crowd asked Randy Pitchford if he could give us any hints to the upcoming Borderlands 2 DLC. Randy replied with "Well, I've always wanted to drive one of those sand skiffs from Return of the Jedi." He was hinting at the first of four DLC packs for BL2, in which you do, in fact, get to drive around (hover around?) in a sand skiff. When I heard that, I instantly flashed back to some of the worst examples of level design from the original Borderlands, wherein there is a vast expanse of nothing to drive through on your way to the next pocket of enemies (where you invariably have to go on foot once you get there). Captain Scarlett and her Pirate's Booty (hereafter CSPB) proved me right. Not only are you driving through vast, mostly empty desert landscape to fight localized pocket of enemies, but the quests seem straight out of the original Borderlands as well. "Go here, fetch that, bring it back". It's almost as if the developers of the DLC hadn't played Borderlands 2 yet... which might be the case as the DLC came out only 4 weeks after the game and was developed by Triptych Games (of Duke Nukem Forever fame).

Sand Skiffs in Borderlands 2 DLC

One of the very first quests had us finding parts for the sand skiff before being able to use it, once complete, the quest giver asks us to come back to visit him before we leave and actually says "I have no reason to call you back here". What? Really? Are you actually trolling us with this DLC?

Having said all that, the original Borderlands was still fun in spite of those flaws, so CSPB still had potential to be a worthwhile addition to BL2. GoukiJones and I played through it with our level 50, True Vault Hunter Mode, maxed out characters. This turned out to be a HUGE mistake as CSPB offers NOTHING for your max level vault hunter. Most of the story quests didn't even offer item rewards, just experience. Umm, I'm level 50, that does nothing for me. Back in the BL1 days, the DLC offered storage deck upgrades (aka backpack space) in the Zombie Island, or an extra skill point or two (as was the case in Moxxi's Underdome), or all that plus a level increase and new weapons like in General Knoxx. Well, CSPB offers no level increase, no extra bank or backpack space, no extra skill points... what it does have are a few new challenges for your "Badass Rank" and a few new guns available in a shop that only accepts "seraph crystals". WTF are those? We played through every story mission and a couple of side missions and never came across a single crystal. It turns out, there are two new "raid bosses" similar to Terramorphous in CSPB. Only by beating them do you obtain crystals. Here's the catch, they only drop 5-10 crystals each when killed, and you can only fight them once per day. Yes, there's a timed lockout. Did I mention the guns in that shop cost 120 crystals? Because they do... if you want a single gun from the store, you need to farm these guys for at least 6 days. Ummm... No thanks. Nothing in that store looked that much better than your average purple gun, let alone the oranges that we've so rarely found.

I should also mention here that my main level 50 character is Maya, the siren. This is important because parts of CSPB are just downright broken if you use her. I was happy when, in the main game, I discovered that Maya's phaselock ability could still cause damage to foes that were too big to be picked up (certain bosses, vehicles, etc). Especially, with her "ruin" ability which gives phaselock shock, slag, and corrode damage. I could never grab and hold a buzzard, for instance, but I caused massive damage and DoT (damage over time) effects. Guess what? In CSPB, this doesn't work. I fought several bosses that my phaselock wouldn't even activate against, and it was also completely useless against the enemy sand skiffs. I felt severely nerfed... though most of the boss fights were still pretty easy. In fact, we were about 3/4 of the way through the final boss fight when GoukiJones remarked that he hadn't been hit yet. I don't think that thing ever hit us, though some of its regular-sized minions did.

Overall, I was extremely disappointed with this DLC, and I can't recommend it. If you already have the season pass, I'd say to make sure you play it with a character that's not at the max level yet, as at least you'll get some experience and Eridium out of the missions.

Borderlands 2

Borderlands 2 Captain Scarlett and her Pirate's Booty DLC is trolling us

Trending Video Games