Borderlands: The Secret Armory of General Knoxx Preview

Borderlands: The Secret Armory of General Knoxx Preview
Up goes the level cap in Gearbox's shoot and loot game.

February 19, 2010 - This isn't meant as a knock
against the Zombie Island of Dr. Ned, which I really enjoyed, but it
seems like the Secret Armory of General Knoxx is the downloadable
content Borderlands fans have been waiting for. It's the third piece of
content following the base game's release date last October, and this
time you get a whole bunch of upgrades.

The level cap, for instance, is finally being lifted up to 61 from
50. That means you'll have more skill points to play around with and
mold your characters into more formidable killers. What's even better
to hear, at least for hardcore Borderlands fans, is there'll be more
guns this time around, including an entirely new tier of rarity that
Gearbox mentioned would dramatically overshadow anything else in the
game.

Set in an all-new zone and featuring 44 new quests (side and main
story), this content will include a storyline focused on the
reemergence of the Crimson Lance. It's meant to be played after the
conclusion of the main storyline. So if you haven't beaten the game
yet, this would be a better option than swapping over to playthrough 2.
Or, if you're at the cap, then you can dive right in and start earning
new rewards.

[Trebuie sa fiti inscris si conectat pentru a vedea acest link]
The new vehicles can dish out a lot of punishment.

The
main town in the game is called T-Bone Junction, which sits on the
outskirts of a gigantic dried out lakebed across which stretch sections
of crumbling elevated highways. Since the zone is so big, you'll be
using vehicles quite a bit to get around, and Gearbox has included
additional types to get around. You'll need to do a quest to get the
first one, a two-person vehicle called a Monster. Once you collect a
bunch of parts to put it together, one player can hop in the driver's
seat and another into the turret to fire out homing missiles.

Because you'll be spending some time in vehicles, Gearbox has added
in a few more enemy types that are meant to be taken on while driving
around. During one section that was shown to us, robotic probe enemies
launched from the sides of an elevated section of highway a vehicle was
speeding across. A few missile barrages from the Monster's turret took
them out pretty quickly, but the threat wasn't entirely eliminated, as
turrets along the sides of the highway also served as threats.

We were also briefly shown a new four-person vehicle, which looks
sort of like a Hummer. This thing has room for a driver, a turret
gunner, and two others who can take advantage of mine layers and area
of effect blasts that shoot out from underneath the truck. I should
mention that these new vehicle types are only playable in the new
zones, so it doesn't sound like you'll be able to bring them back into
the base game to wreak havoc. Just before the end of the vehicle
portion of the demo Gearbox also showed off tall walking enemies that
looked a little like Half-Life 2 striders, reinforcing my impression
that there's a lot of cool stuff packed into this download.

On the ground, a few of the new Crimson enemy types seemed like
they could be fairly challenging. An assassin type enemy – nimble,
skinny enemies with dual blades that hop around and twirl to avoid
incoming fire – seemed particularly deadly. Also shown off in the demo
were jetpack enemies that seemed at least somewhat similar to the
floating aliens from the base game. And it wouldn't be Borderlands
without badass versions of everything, such as jetpack guys that fire
down rockets and hulking Lance troopers with arcs of electricity
snaking between their shoulder pads.

[Trebuie sa fiti inscris si conectat pentru a vedea acest link]
You, like so many others on Pandora, will die.

Outside
of the Lance facilities you'll also get a change to tangle with Skag
riders, who need to be taken down in phases. First you kill the skag,
then the rider topples off and keeps the battle going. When a couple of
these guys charge at you on the lakebed's dusty floor, it seems like
things will get pretty hectic, especially with four players in the mix.

More story elements have been built in as well, and Borderlands
veterans will see many characters return, which apparently includes
Moxxie from the second piece of DLC. General Knoxx seems to be pretty
entertaining to listen to, since he's annoyed with having to be stuck
on Pandora and isn't exactly the kind of macho, steely military boss
type of antagonist you'd expect.

Since loot is such an integral part of Borderlands, fans may be
happy to know that there's a new kind of treasure chest included here.
It's the biggest yet, hissing and twisting open to reveal a large cache
of guns, grenades, and ammo pickups. Even though the cap on weapon
proficiencies isn't being lifted here, it should still be fun to be
able to peer into some larger containers and have a shot at scoring
some powerful toys.

The Secret Armory of General Knoxx is being readied for release on
PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC platforms, but no word yet on exactly
when.