Gearbox Software has done a fantastic job of keeping the DLC coming for its blockbuster hit Borderlands.  In the latest offering, Gearbox gives us a gladiator style of game play that you can enjoy by yourself or with up to 3 other friends.  Does Mad Moxxi live up to the scale and promise of the last offering or does it fall flat from lack of content as so much down loadable content seems to suffer from?

Mad Moxxi is named after a female character who is reminiscent of a circus leader with just a bit of crazy in her.  The music and storyboard used during the introduction of the character do a great job of setting the tone of what we should expect from the upcoming arena matches.  Once the intro concludes you are loaded into a staging area of sorts.  This area has all the vending machines you would expect to load up from and a bank teller to unload extra weapons and such.  The nice touch to the bank is the fact that you can purchase upgraded slot amounts.  So if you are a weapon farming whore like me this addition alone may be worth it.  After you stock up on any ammo you may need you are ready to earn your cred with Mad Moxxi.  You pick up one quest in the area which asks you to survive 5 rounds in each of the 3 venues.  The length to accomplish this feat is right around 45 minutes – a perfect length of time in my opinion.  Once you complete this task however your next quest is to survive a grueling 20 rounds in each of the venues.  Each separate venue will then take you approximately 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 hours to complete.  A mind numbing number considering if the host console disconnects or crashes you have to start all over again.

The rewards for completing these objectives are great for the die hard Borderlands fans and possibly for the achievment whores out there.  You recieve an achievement for completeing the first quest along with recieving an extra skill point.  This in essence gives your character an additional level of sorts to strengthen him even further.  Once you complete the second mission you recieve an additional achievment and another skill point to use how you want.  Skill points are precious in the game and the 2 extra you will recieve help to differientiate and strengthen your character even more.

The style of the game would be compared to “Horde” from Gears of War 2.  Those of you who though Borderlands was too easy will enjoy this surprisingly challenging content.  The more friends you add the more difficult and fun it becomes.  If you were a fan of Borderlands and were looking to get more co-op enjoyment out of the game this purchase may be well worth it.  If you are looking for a way to farm for unique weapons and gain some additional experience however this will not be for you.  The weapons table is the same as the game so nothing new there and you receive no experience for killing enemies in the arenas.  i would assume this was to alleviate people from power-leveling characters using the content but I can only speculate.

Mad Moxxi’s Underdome Riot is a great ode to “Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome”.  It encapsulates great co-op play with frantic and challenging levels; while adding additional rpg elements to further your characters progress.  The content is fun but there are a few things I feel should have been different.  The biggest selling point for Borderlands was the wide range of weapons; this content adds no new weapons.  There also should have been more maps.  The 3 are fun for a time but will soon grow stale.

If you were like me and enjoyed Borderlands and the great co-op offering it supplied then this content is for you.  If you weren’t wowed by anything the game offered in the first place then you may just want to pass this one by.