Borderlands: The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned Review

Dr. Moreau ain’t got nothing on me.

The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned is the first installment in what will hopefully be a long line of downloadable content for the highly enjoyable Diablo-esque FPS, Borderlands. This Halloween-themed zombie-laden DLC is here just in time for… Thanksgiving?!?! Okay, so maybe it seems a little late (or very early for next year), but zombies are always in season as far as I’m concerned.

[image1]You could almost think of this as a Left 4 Dead mod for the game. There are a lot of similarities between some of the enemies you’ll face and those from the EA franchise. Such as the Defiler who projectile vomits all over you, slowing you down to a crawl and making you easy pickins’ for his less talented undead cousins. That, of course, is on top of some very unique creatures, like my personal favorite, the Loot Goon, a giant Frankenstein of a monster who carries a weapons chest on his back that usually has some rare weapons to add to your arsenal. There are also some very impressive bosses thrown in to the mix. I’d even venture so far as to say that I actually enjoyed the final battle of this DLC almost more than the final boss in the main game.

Along with all the new living and less-living enemies, you’ll get a very humorous little story with an intro movie that actually had me laughing out loud (no, really, I LOL’ed). In fact, I’m sure some would argue that the plot of Dr. Ned is actually a little more fleshed out than that of the main game. There’s actually spoken dialogue and interaction with just about every new character that pops up rather than the main game’s walls-of-text.

At $10 or whatever that translates to in Microsoft fun money, you’re looking at at least another eight hours of gameplay (maybe more if you don’t work on the brain-hunting missions while doing all the other ones). At that price, Zombie Island just may be the perfect place for your next vacation, and for your next level up too. I went from being a level 40 Hunter to level 46 while playing through the new missions available. It arrived just in time too, as I was starting to lose interest in my second playthrough. If you’re still playing or are looking to reach that level cap with something a bit more engaging than grinding, I suggest you check it out.