Xbox 360
More of the same is a common approach to downloadable add-ons for games, especially when the game is huge and what’s more is that, quite often, that’s fine by itself. It’s the approach taken with The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned, available for Borderlands on PS3, 360 and PC. If you smell a “but” coming (pun about zombie bowels notwithstanding), it’s because it doesn’t work out so well for Borderlands.
With Borderlands, you probably finished the game and started playing it again more or less instantly. The game lends itself to doing so and, with four different characters to play as, you’ll have done an awful lot of the same stuff quite a few times.
The biggest problem with the Dr. Ned content is that it doesn’t scale the difficulty enough; if you go into this new stuff with your level 50 character from the main game, it’s dull as hell. Everything you encounter (including the final boss) can be dealt with by standing still and holding R1 until it’s dead. That’s to say, no running around, using cover, grenades or any form of strategy required.
That said, if the character you use for the DLC is level 40 or below, you should be getting the right amount of challenge and have fun with it. Just take this as fair warning.
You see, as soon as you’ve installed The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned, you get the option to fast travel to the new area. Upon arrival, you’ll encounter zombie-infested swamps and a full moon that fills a large part of the sky. Soon thereafter you’ll encounter the eponymous Dr. Ned, who isn’t at all like Dr. Zed with the “Z” turned on its side and a big fake moustache on (his claims, not ours).
And so off you traipse through a blighted land. You’ll see some funny things, all of which would count as spoilers. On the milder side, there’s a strong series of Scooby Doo references.
Should you get Pound-per-hour DLC? It can’t be recommended unequivocally, but it’s worth having. That, and you’ll probably have a better idea than anyone if you’d like more Borderlands. So get this after you’ve already gorged yourself on the other releases of the season.
Think of it as the “wafer-thin mint” at the end of the meal.