The irony of this is, Claptastic Voyage should have been exactly that, and yet, down to some more classic Borderlands-esque shenanigans, I ended up spending way more time indulging in this package than I should have done.
Claptastic Voyage is still good, I just wish they'd learned their lesson from the main list and did a better job with the execution of it's trophies. There's absolutely no reason for a missable, non-story related trophy to be hidden that could have serious consequences on the amount of rework you have to go through should you miss it, but more on that soon.
Following on from the ending to the main game, Jack learns of a powerful, top secret code hidden away in Claptrap's memory by Tassister in order to keep it safe. It's called the "H-Source", and Jack digitalises the Vault Hunters to send them straight into Claptrap's brain to retrieve it.
You'll explore an entire new dimension, full of new environments, enemies, weapons and a brand new series of quests. The theme is a great concept for a piece of DLC - tapping into the subconscious of one of the weirdest Borderlands characters - Where his thoughts and memories are conveyed everywhere you look within different forms. The new selection of enemies includes bugs, glitches, trojans and viruses, as well as an excellent main protagonist in 5H4D0W-TP.
Glitched weapons are also a new addition to weapon rarity. Their properties will change every time you reload them, adding a hint of unpredictability to combat. This could involve extra damage dealt, a different firing mode or random elemental effects. The random volatility is a quirky idea, but this can backfire in combat, and bread and butter weapons are usually still the most effective way forward. The novelty does at least give gunplay a nice injection of variety though.
In terms of trophies, there are 10 to earn across the package, and there's not much information to take in at first glance. That's because 9 out of the 10 of these trophies are hidden, which ends up massively going against me here.
Only 5 of them are actually relevant to the new main questline arc, and the rest of these trophies are simply awarded for smaller tasks (or, actually much greater tasks, as it turns out...) which you'll uncover as you dive deeper into the DLC.
The main questline is broken down into 19 new individual quests across 5 chapters as you recover the H Source and stop 5H4D0W-TP in his quest to steal it for himself. It's exactly what you expect of any story-driven Borderlands content as you progress the questline through a series of linear missions, uncovering the new areas of the world along the way. Some of these areas will take you back to previous Borderlands lore, and as a sucker for nostalgia, it's a nice touch to see some of the old Borderlands worlds make an appearance at certain junctures here. As normal, there's also a ton of side content available to explore throughout simultaneously - Some of which is reflected in the other half of these trophies.
This includes 2 trophies dedicated to a post-questline arena mode called the Mutator. This is a repeatable arena that you'll only unlock after beating the final main quest. It's very similar to the Holodome but the twist here is that you can choose a range of modifiers to handicap yourself and reap better rewards as a result of beating 3 waves of enemies with said handicaps applied. There are 9 modifiers in total, and these include gradual loss of health, half gravity and slower reload speed. The premise is interesting, but after having exhausted the Holodome for previous levelling ventures, it felt just like another horde mode that blended into the post-game chaos.
It did help me continue the final push of my main character towards level 50 for the "Space Lord" trophy in the main list, due to the strength of the enemies being presented, and this is where I grinded out the final 4 levels for my character.
This wasn't where the real challenges lay here though, and we were in for one heck of a final stand with Borderlands : The Pre-Sequel;
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| Shadow of Your Former Self - Defeat 5H4D0W-TP. Wheely Fast - Outran the Wheel in the Temple of Boom. |
Just flipping back to the main questline - The "Shadow of Your Former Self" trophy, awarded for defeating 5H4D0W-TP, signals the ending of the story. It's actually a fairly smooth ride right up until you reach the end, then the difficulty spikes so badly, if you illustrated it on a graph, it would have an overhang. This is a common trap that Borderlands games have systemically been guilty of.
5H4D0W-TP has multiple forms and his final form is outrageous. He eventually transforms into a massive space station called EoS, dealing huge amounts of damage, spawning tough counterparts that fight alongside him, but most annoyingly, is an absolute health sponge. A successful fight takes upwards of 45 minutes to 1 hour, and I countlessly had my ass handed to me multiple times prior to this.
The general consensus from some research is also that of struggle, and it actually feels like they accidentally added a raid boss into the main questline. I was sufficiently levelled with my main character, had a powerful arsenal and even had the right types of elemental effect applied to weapons that perfectly counter robotic enemies (corrosion). The main problem is, he hits so hard, you can easily be dead in a couple of shots, and when you fight bosses that turn out to be themed on endurance, this is a combination for disaster.
The arena has some good pinch points where you can stay protected from attacks, and the glitched weapons are actually their most useful here. I found that reloading until I managed to see the glitch effect that deals huge damage per shot, and then aiming for critical hit spots, was ultimately the best method to chip away at the shield and health bar of EoS, but popping out of hiding spots and taking shots at the right moment was vital to not end up being melted instantly by a laser beam, so patience is still the most important trait for victory.
The additional enemies eventually start spawning in and create problems of their own, but it's also important to remember that they also exist as second wind opportunities, and these saved me on more than one occasion.
I hate artificial difficulty and boss fights that make you feel like you don't have any real influence on the outcome. That's never fun and Borderlands loves to crowbar in these bullet sponge bosses so it's not exactly shocking, but the fact it's included within a main questline, rather than treated as the side content for the sadistics amongst us who thrive off these things, is another oversight from a game full of them. Overall, it was just another exhausting experience with this game - but it wasn't the only one. There was time for a final "hurrah".
The "Wheely Fast" trophy, awarded for Outrunning the Wheel in the Temple of Boom doesn't fit the usual bill of a trophy of note. It's requirements are very simple and it doesn't involve any skill - However, it was the foundation for a costly error that broke my will with this game.
Towards the end of the DLC content, you'll reach the Subconscious area, and pick up a side mission called "Temple of Boom". You're asked to uncover the temple and find whatever secret hides within. During the mission finale, you're chased out the temple by a giant wheel which you have to outrun to unlock this trophy. I did not manage to do this the first time and the opportunity had slipped away without me even knowing the impact it was going to have.
Once I'd beaten the main questline, I'd noticed I still had a some secret trophies to uncover, and then it dawned on me that the only way I was going to be able to go back and grab this trophy was to play through the entire DLC with another character. This is where I turned back to my Claptrap playthrough I'd recently reached level 25 previously.
I jumped into the DLC for a second time and instantly ran into challenges. My Claptrap character was seriously under-levelled. Enemies start at level 31 upwards in this DLC and I was already struggling to make it through the earliest portions of levels. I had to jump back into the Holodome and farm experience until I was level 28 purely so I could just have a chance at surviving long enough to bypass combat areas within this DLC.
Some parts are just too difficult to bypass and I was dying far too fast. I could at least kill some of these enemies, but my weapons were ineffective and fights took way longer than necessary and I'd continue to die a lot but had no choice but to keep battling through. I couldn't even equip any of the guns I'd found within the DLC world yet, due to their minimum level requirements being beyond 30. It felt like the game was just taunting me at this point.
The biggest blocker comes right before you reach the Subconscious area of the DLC. A level 34 boss called the Denial Subroutine needs to be defeated in order to progress the story and he was essentially just way too powerful for me. I had to spend almost an entire day grinding an additional 5 levels to defeat him. This took me beyond level 30 and also allowed me to equip some stronger weapons I'd found that I couldn't previously equip.
To say I was burnt out from this entire game by this point would be a gross understatement. I reckon I'd easily spent another 20-25 hours slogging fruitlessly through this DLC again - and all I was doing was trying to earn a trophy that I should have already earned and thus could have easily avoided this entire exercise.
There are two costly mistakes the developers made here. Firstly, they made this trophy hidden on the list. It's non-story related and has no reason to be hidden from view. Naturally, I expected this to be a potential spoiler and refrained from any prior research, which is ironic given the fact that this is a mistake I've already made once with this game. Secondly, the fact it's also missable is criminal, and if you don't achieve it first time round, you'll need to go through around 75% of the entire content again just to reach the point at which you can earn this trophy. Why not provide an option to replay the mission? Borderlands has allowed you to farm missions previously. Better yet, why not just exclude it from the list entirely? I don't care to what extent it may be my fault. That's terrible game design.
I've done my best to enjoy this entry into the Borderlands series, even though it's given me very easy reasons to dislike it time and time again. The good stuff is still great, but the bad stuff leaves a sour taste. It's been about as bittersweet of an experience as anything I've ever played through.
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