Posted by Borderlands 4 got its first big DLC a few weeks ago and I’ve been meaning to talk about it. But before I do, there’s something I wanted to address: I like Borderlands 4. I don’t think that the game is perfect by any means, but I do think that it is a good game. I think that there is a lot of negativity surrounding the game, especially online, and while some of the criticisms are deserved, I genuinely question others (i.e. “the open world is empty;” it isn’t and I honestly wonder if I’m playing the same game as the people that say that).
SPOILERS FOLLOW
Mad Ellie and the Vault of the Damned is the first Story Pack DLC that Borderlands 4 has received, and I genuinely think that there’s a lot of good in it. It’s starting to feel more reminiscent of prior games with more legacy characters appearing. Ellie, Crazy Earl, Mancubus, and Pickle all return, and Moxxi is given a larger role in the DLC’s story. It’s nice seeing some familiar faces (even if I never actually played the Borderlands 3 DLC that introduced Mancubus).
The story tasks your Vault Hunter with tracking down Ellie, Moxxi’s daughter, who is missing somewhere on Kairos. You travel to the Whispering Glacier, a brand new map, and are quickly united with Davis Pickle–a returning character from The Pre-Sequel. Pickle is almost immediately killed off (more on that later), and you enter Mancubus’ new speakeasy. You learn that there’s this eldritch alien monolith thing called the megalith that drives people insane and is messing with the area. You head out in search of Ellie, and eventually find her. She’s wearing a necklace and guided by the voice of her father towards the megalith. You’re eventually able to get her to the speakeasy, where she’s broken out of the megalith’s control and realizes what’s happening. In order to solve the problem, you have to reunite the necklace Ellie has with the megalith. The next step is tracking down Crazy Earl because he ate part of it. In the process, you meet a botanist named Daphne and find Earl locked inside her greenhouse. She has you make a tincture that you use to sedate him. He then turns into a monster and you have to kill him. Once the necklace is complete, you’re able to make your way to the megalith, but it’s in the center of a great maelstrom. Ellie joins you despite Moxxi’s disapproval, and the two of you navigate a crashed Dahl ship that will take you into the storm. Throughout the DLC, you need to battle the Dahl Damned Legion–soldiers who have been twisted and corrupted by the megalith. The Damned Legion is led by Captain Willis, and he orders his men to stop you in protection of his son, and the megalith. Throughout the DLC you experience hallucinations that give you a better understanding of Willis and his son. Mancubus makes a comment about the reunification of the necklace and megalith requiring a blood sacrifice, so Moxxi makes a move because she would rather sacrifice herself than let her daughter come to harm (the way this “requirement” ends up resolving is honestly pretty funny and a great supervision of expectations). You chase after her until all of you are pulled inside the megalith and enter the titular Vault of the Damned. Inside, you defeat Captain Willis, who you now know is a nightmare recreation of a dead man. You defeat him and rescue his son, who Mancubus takes under his wing as an apprentice, and the necklace is reunited with the megalith stopping it I think.
I liked the story for the most part. I found it fairly straightforward and I enjoyed the twists. It was also refreshing to see returning characters and their new stories. I think that one of Borderlands 4‘s strongest features is its character writing, and I think that the DLC maintains that standard. The story also isn’t terribly long, which can be both a good thing and a bad thing. The main story itself is only five missions, but each mission is decently long. Each mission also walks you through most of one section of the map, which feels reminiscent of previous games where missions were usually “navigate this map and do story tasks while characters talk over the radio.” I will say that I didn’t care too much for the middle mission with Daphne the botanist. It felt like filler, and I don’t think much would’ve changed with that mission being scrapped or changed. It’s also worth noting that that area is probably my least favorite in the DLC because of how annoyingly linear and vertical it can be, which can make navigation a chore. As for the choice to kill off Pickle, I honestly think that it’s kind of funny purely because the end of the first Bounty Pack featured Claptrap singing about him and saying that he was immortal and a Siren, so having him reappear and die immediately is a surprisingly funny subversion of expectations.
I think my biggest real critiques of the DLC’s story fall on the megalith and the Vault of the Damned. I played the entire DLC. In fact, I have 100% completion for it. I don’t actually know what the megalith is. I heard online, and then looked it up to confirm, that the megalith first appears in The Pre-Sequel on the Eleseer map, and it totally does. Why it’s suddenly a malicious thing that drives people insane, mutates them, and has bloody tentacles everywhere isn’t ever answered, or if it is I somehow missed it. The Vault of the Damned itself is also never explained either. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a very cool concept and I really enjoy the tone and aesthetics (big Event Horizon vibes), but it doesn’t make a lot of sense when you think about it or compare it to previously established lore and continuity, or at least it doesn’t with the current explanations in the game.
Turning to the rest of the content, the side missions are fine. They range from pretty solid to mediocre. There are two in particular that I found more annoying than anything, but that’s because they have timers in them; one of the missions ends immediately upon the timer expiring (which is annoying because you can fail the task even when you think you have it lined up properly) and the other just requires you to do a step in a tight window (and it’s a little hard to navigate). There’s also a secret mission that I really enjoyed, but it was a little annoying thinking I had done everything, not getting the side quest achievement, and then learning that there was a hidden quest I had to track down, even if I really did like that quest. I do think that the DLC could have used a few more side quests because the final count is only 10, which does feel quite low.
There are also a bunch of new collectibles: more Echo logs, eldritch phonographs (they behaved identically to the Siren Evocarium’s of the base game), Dahl caches (loot chests hidden under blood clot barriers that you have to remove through a DLC mechanic), and more Vault symbols. There are also a few perspective puzzles you can find that make new doors for the speakeasy. Lastly, there are a few spooky stories you can find and listen to, but I’ve found this mechanic kind of weird and hard to find. The collectibles are all fine. Dahl caches could be kind of annoying, but that’s about it.
The DLC also added in four new side activities: a Dahl bunker, two Scav fuel siphon sites, and nightmare rifts. The Dahl bunker just requires you to do some parkour before fighting a boss. The Scale ones are basically just Ripper drill sites from the base game, but Scav flavored. The nightmare rifts are similar to the randomly spawning world rift bosses in the base game, but the nightmare rifts take you to a unique arena. They’re also infinitely repeatable since they’re world events. I actually really like the side activities and don’t have much to say about them. They’re simple, but that ins’t a bad thing.
On the topic of enemies, it’s worth mentioning the three types added in the DLC: the Dahl Damned Legion, Scavs, and Kraggons. Damned Legion is wholly new, and probably the most interesting of the three. As I’ve mentioned before, they’re twisted Dahl soldiers who can be quite horrifying. Mechanically, they like to come apart and can do some weird stuff. Scavs return from The Pre-Sequel, but don’t expect them to look the same. These Scavs are very clearly re-skinned Rippers from the base game. Lastly, Kraggons return from The Pre-Sequel, and these ones are identical to their predecessors. The enemies are fine. I think Scavs are a little lame and could’ve been done better since it’s so obvious that they’re Rippers given new names and character models, but that’s about it.
And of course it wouldn’t be a Borderlands entry if there wasn’t new loot to chase. The DLC adds in 14 legendary weapons and ordnances, 2 shields, 1 class mod per base game character for a total of 4, 2 repkits, and 3 pearlescent weapons. That’s not a bad amount on paper, but let’s compare it with The Legend of the Stone Demon (Bounty Pack 2). Bounty Pack 2 added in 3 pearls and 14 legendaries (1 shield and 13 guns), though this one was weirdly split with 2 pearls and 1 legendary gun being free while the others were paid, but my point stands: Bounty Pack 2 and Story Pack 1 contain about the same amount of new weapons to chase. That’s… that’s not very good. Story Pack 1 is over double the cost of Bounty Pack #2 yet it offers a comparable amount of loot to chase. Now, Story Pack 1 does have way more content than Bounty Pack 2, as I’ve discussed with the story, side missions, and collectibles, so that helps offset the difference in price, but it’s still worth calling attention to. Mad Ellie does also feature 7 farmable bosses, compared with Stone Demon‘s 4, and the Mad Ellie bosses are a lot better designed and more enjoyable to fight. It is also worth saying that some of the new loot in Story Pack 1 is REALLY good, with the Scoot’N’Shoot pistol being chief among them. The DLC also fixes the pearl drop problem a little by assigning them to actual dedicated drop boss pools. Sure, the pearls are still incredibly rare, but of the 3 added, only one of them is truly bad (though it is really bad; like “one of the worst guns in the game” kind of bad), which means the other 2 are both solid and a ton of fun.
Lastly, one of the biggest draws of the DLC is the new Vault Hunter: C4SH. He looks interesting and like a lot of fun, but when it comes to content like that, I’m really bad at replaying games. I have a habit of putting in disgusting hours on an initial playthrough, which means I’m a lot less inclined to play it again. Will I play C4SH? Probably eventually, but as it stands, I don’t have much of an opinion on him.
SPOILERS END
In spite of its negatives, I really enjoyed Mad Ellie and the Vault of the Damned. I think that it added some nice new content to the game, even if it had its own host of problems. One of the biggest is the simple fact that there isn’t any unique gear, which was a problem in the base game. It’s really lame that all of the “special” loot is relegated to legendaries and pearlescents when some of the most interesting and fun weapons in the franchise were unique blues. Now in terms of content, Mad Ellie costs $30, or $50 if you buy the bundle (which actually saves you $20, though $10 of that goes to a skin pack that absolutely isn’t worth $10). For that price, you get a new Vault Hunter (and all of his class mods), 25 (give or take thanks to class mods) new legendaries to chase, 7 farmable bosses, 5 decent story missions (both in terms of quality and length), 10 side missions, a bunch of collectibles, and a brand-new map. Once I lay it out like that, that seems like a pretty decent chunk of content. Realistically, I think the $30 price tag is somewhat justified, but compared with past DLCs, I’m not 100% sure. Prior content packs in the Borderlands franchise ranged from $10 character packs to $10-$15 story packs. As a result, Mad Ellie probably should be priced closer to $20 or $25, especially because the actual quantity of content does differ considerably from prior DLCs. That being said, it’s worth noting that quality does play a role here. It’s been a hot minute since I’ve played some of the Borderlands DLCs so I can’t precisely remember how long, or how good, the content and side content was in all prior expansions, especially in comparison with Mad Ellie. Though props to Gearbox for giving everyone the 10 level cap increase for free. At the end of the day, if you’re a Borderlands fan, I’d say give Mad Ellie a shot, assuming you haven’t already. But if you’re a little more on the fence, it wouldn’t hurt to wait for a sale. The nice part about these games is that they aren’t live-service, so you’re not missing out on anything. And honestly, it may be hard to say, but no matter how much I enjoy Borderlands 4, it’s looking more and more like the kind of game you snag when it’s on sale for $40 or something like that.
Broad Scope Entertainment 