Borderlands: The Secret Armory of General Knoxx DLC Preview
So whilst we’ve spent our time in the Borderlands, after dealing with the Vault situation, we’ve travelled to Jakob’s Cove where a crazy doctor who looks an awful lot like Dr. Zed wearing a fake moustache has turned the population into mindless zombies and we’ve also been to fight hordes of enemies under the watchful eye of crazy, twisted and husband killing Mad Moxxi. But now that’s all done and dusted, the Vault Dwellers are soon to be tasked with their biggest challenge yet in the next piece of downloadable content for Borderlands; The Secret Armory of General Knoxx.
This next slice of the large and delicious Borderlands DLC cake continues the story past the end of the game, similar to how Broken Steel did with Fallout 3, so before playing this new content it is highly advisable you complete at least your first playthrough of the original game. You are able to travel to the new areas and start the new DLC quests before you have completed the game, however a lot of the dialogue and questions in the new DLC are based on what happened at the end of the game, so it’s best to complete the game first otherwise it’ll screw up the story for you. If you’ve already completed the story, in most people’s cases twice, and have levelled up your character to the current level cap at 50 (it isn’t a requirement but people who have owned the game for a while now would be at this level) can dive straight in.
To give you an insight to how the DLC starts without spoiling the ending to the main game, Atlas and the Crimson Lance are pretty ticked off after you practically wiped them off the face of Pandora, and now they are trying to regain their ground by coming back twice as strong as before. General Knoxx, the main enemy in this extended storyline, has been assigned to Pandora to command operations and frankly he doesn’t want to be there. Obviously they want the Vault Dwellers dead after they ruined their plans before. General Knoxx is annoyed, and he wants the job done as soon as possible so he can get off the damn planet. Obviously your job is to go in and wipe them all out like you did in the game, but it won’t be near as easy as it was last time.
The Crimson Lance have a lot more firepower and troops than before, so like the previous DLC’s you will encounter some new enemies. There are lots of new variations of the Crimson Lance; these include elemental variations that specialise in certain elemental powers such as the Crimson Shock Trooper that specialises in electrical attacks and electrical element weapons, then there is also the Lance Pyro who specialises in fire abilities. Lance Rocketeers have jetpacks giving them the ability to fly, don’t hold your breath, you won’t be able to pick up these jetpacks and use them for yourself, but who cares? Lance Combat Medics will become a pain in the ass as these will heal nearby Crimson Lance troops meaning it would probably be a good idea to kill them first before dealing with the rest. Also new to the Crimson Lance are Lance Assassins, these are female troops who move incredibly fast doing cartwheels and jumping about like they’ve taken too much caffeine and wield dual swords that deal deadly damage when struck by them up close, so these will prove a challenge to kill. Skag Riders are ridden by midget Bandits so you will have to take out both enemies and you’ll probably want to do it fast as some Skag Riders have three midgets riding them and others throw dynamite at you. Oh fun. Read on later to find out more about enemies you’ll be able to take out on some new wheels.
Obviously with all these new enemies, the level cap is being raised, hooray! The level cap in this DLC will be raised from Level 50 to Level 61, and there will be achievements based on getting to the new levels. With each level you will get a new skill point making a total of 11 skill points to be unlocked overall to be used on skill trees to specialise your character in certain areas of combat, powers and health. The enemies will be levelled corresponding to your levels so expect to fight enemies in their Level 50’s and 60’s, in fact the last boss will be a Level 64 and has been described as the toughest boss in the game. If he’s anything like the last boss from the original game expect a long and lengthy battle on your hands.
The new areas are very vehicle oriented so Gearbox has thrown in three new vehicles to play around with. The first
vehicle is called the Monster; this vehicle is a jeep with a driver and gunner seat, with the main turret firing three homing missiles with each shot. The Monster was in the original game but was not able to drive; it was driven by Mad Mel but had Skag armour plating on it. The next vehicle is called the Lancer; a Crimson lance military vehicle. Based on community feedback, this vehicle can house all four of your team, each having a special role to play. The driver will drive the vehicle (obviously); the gunner seat will employ a two stage laser and will sit in the usual position, the mine layer seat deploys land mines which will explode upon contact of enemy vehicles and enemies. The blast seat’s job is to stop anything from getting too close to the car, what this person can do is emit a concussive blast covering the radius around the vehicle which has been designed to take out anything that gets a little too close for comfort. The last vehicle is the Racer; there hasn’t been much known or shown about this car only that it’s the fastest car in the game and there is an achievement which involves taking out an enemy Lancer whilst in one.
There will be enemies you will encounter on the roads in the new areas which you use your vehicle’s capabilities to take out. For instance, the Drifter which is very similar in appearance to Half Life’s Striders will try to kill you and obviously your job will be to take them out. There will also be turrets manned by Crimson Lance scattered about too. These vehicles can only be used in the new areas meaning you won’t be able to take them for a spin around any of the locations in the main game and the previous two DLC.
There will be several characters returning in this DLC, including Scooter who plays a big role in assembling parts for the new vehicles and assisting you on the roads. Marcus is back, the gun dealer who owns all those vending machines. Even Mad Moxxi will be making an appearance. It’s unknown what role she will play in the plot, but in one of the newly released screenshots I did see a sign in the distance that looked a lot like The Underdome… we’ll find out soon enough. There will be new characters such as General Knoxx and Athena. Athena is a Crimson Lance assassin gone rogue so she will help you out in some way or another. In this DLC there are over 40 new plot missions and side quests to get on with, so it looks like our return to Borderlands will be indeed be a lengthy one.
There will be new weapons that will range around the new levels, so expect new gun models and more badass weaponry that’ll pack more punch. There will be a new level of gun rarity in the DLC, known as Pearlescent. This rarity was briefly encountered in the original as a gimmick but now these ultra rare weapons will have much more damage and more of the goodness you want, although these will come much rarer than orange rarity. The most likely place in the new DLC said to find these kinds of weapons is in the loot which the final boss drops. There will be larger weapon chests which will offer more weapons and ammo inside them too. Delish!
Overall this is Gearbox’s biggest DLC to date. Although no release date has been confirmed yet, expect to see it very soon and most likely at the price of 800MSP like the previous two DLC. Expect a review in the near future.
Preview by Ben Gray
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