Borderlands: The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned

While zombies in the media have become rather overdone, Gearbox have approached their first bit of DLC with spooky B-movie style panache, and created something equal parts charming and fun. The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned puts you on a deserted island, picking up the pieces of the Atlas Corporation’s failed mining operations. Said operations came to a halt when the population all turned into zombies, and you’re on the payroll to sort it all out.

Naturally, this means killing hordes of zombies – and we do mean hordes. You’re constantly mobbed by crowds of the undead, turning every combat situation into a frenzied gunfight. The zombies have little AI beyond “go for the throat,” which makes the entire experience rather frantic when you’re running low on health in the middle of the marshes. The quests themselves are great fun, too, and the eventual conclusion is both satisfying and utterly, utterly ridiculous.

For the money, you get about six hours of surprisingly fun gameplay, set in a large outdoor playable area and linked locations, which hold quests that vary between killing WereSkags (a new critter) and chasing down medicine from a bin, and earn you a lot of experience and loot.

Dr. Ned is also playable from just about any level, as the content will scale to you dependant on what level you started the playthrough: for example, if you start at level 36, that’s where enemies will start at – which is a great touch.

Feb 9, 2010