Borderlands 3: Designer's Cut - Review

When Psycho Krieg and the Fantastic Fustercluck released, I knew it wouldn’t be the last DLC, the game was doing to well and there were stories and locations yet to be told. What I was not expecting was for the next DLC to come so soon and to include an all new mode, but both statements are true, the question remains, is this a worthy addition to the Borderlands world, or was it too much, too soon?

The Designer’s Cut, which has an odd name, adds in a new game mode and new skill trees for each of the hunters, there is no new story DLC here, nor has another vault hunter been added. This is going against the grain of what happened in Borderlands 2, but this is not a bad thing as it gave the designers a chance to come up with something different, rather than just more story that is one and done. Before we talk about Arm’s Race, lets talk the skill trees, there are four news trees to discover, one for each of the vault hunters and while there are some fun skills to explore, they are not something you need to dedicate time to. I play with Amara, so I made some use of her new Enlightened Force tree, which provided me access to the Phaseflare action skill, which took some getting used to. Normally, I use the Phaseslam skill, which launches Amara up into the air, before slamming down into the ground, something that comes in handy when there are significant foes around you, but Phaseflare is almost the complete opposite.

What it does is allows for your power to travel away from you, so ranged attacks are possible with it, but more than that, you can increase its power, if you can attack it with a melee hit. The only downside is that it tends to target the enemy nearest to you, not the one you might want and while that is still helpful, it only becomes a problem is there are many grouped together. The upside to this new action skill is that you can manually recall it as well, which when you do means that you get to enjoy it hitting enemies on its return path, if you are lucky. What was fun about the skill is that when you upgrade it, you can change the elemental effect it offers to cryo, which can be helpful at times, but the best upgrade you can equip for it is the one where instead of dealing splash damage to other enemies, it can deal out health to your squad, giving Amara more play options. Now there are new trees for each of the other hunters as well, but I didn’t test them out and even if I did, I don’t know their old trees well enough to provide a balanced opinion.

The new game mode though, Arm’s Race is different and if I could use a simple descriptor for it, think battle royale, but with only 4 human players and you are pretty much there already. You and the members of your squad will set off to the Stormblind Complex where Axton and Salvador have set up their ‘reality show’ in order to make some money. The goal of the show is simple, throw people in and see how they survive wave after wave of enemies as they attempt to get to the final boss and if they beat him, they claim any loot they want to take with them. The catch is that in order to do this you need to leave everything behind, and I mean everything, your guns, grenades, shields and skills, both action and passive, you go in as if you were just starting the game, just with a lot of health.

When the game starts, you are dropped into a random place of the map and I say random because in my very first run, I was dropped near the very centre, with only a few skag pups and a spitter near me, it was very lucky. A nearby create provided some weapons and a shield and then I pushed on, the sad part was that between me and the boss, there were no more enemies, the good part, I was near the boss. After jumping into a very deep hole, I came upon the boss and one of the longest fights ever kicked off, it was a challenge, but through sheer stubbornness I was able to take him down, though it was close at times. With my victory complete, I scoured the loot that was left over, taking only the best and transferred it out and then myself, before enjoying my new spoils, but with that done, I jumped back down for another go.

This is the biggest strength, but also the biggest weakness of the expansion, repetition and that will vary for each player, but the overall impact is the same, as you play you have the chance to earn some great loot, but you need to take on that boss in order to take it with you. The second run I went for, had me near the outskirts of the map, which I thought would give me a nice solid chance to take on plenty of enemies and push forward, however I forgot about the murdercane. Again, if you have played any battle royale game, you will be familiar with the storm, or wall or otherworldly force to keep you moving in. Normally I am a cautious player in Borderlands, I like to take my time, rather than run in all guns blazing and that comes from experience, however this time there is no going slow as the wall would move in.

If you are someone who doesn’t like being forced ahead, or looping gameplay, then you won’t enjoy this, purely based on those factors, I suggest you look past it, because the fun comes in with having to pick up guns at the start of each run and trying for the best result. I will say though, if the boss were not the same each time it would be more entertaining. The other thing that I could not test out was the revival system, as I was playing early access on my own, but there are these beacons that dot the map and if someone in your squad falls, you can revive them there, how that plays out with multiple players is yet to be seen.

On the presentation side of things, the game is looking and sounding the same as it has always been, which is fine, though hearing Axton and Salvador again after quite the absence was a nice touch. The Stormblind Complex, as far as maps go, is pretty basic, not in a bad way, but there are no crazy levels or design elements, like the past two expansions had provided.

For the first piece of DLC for the second season pass, the Designer’s Cut is perhaps the most versatile addition to the Borderlands series, ever. Arm’s Race is a solid concept that takes the battle royale formula, but makes it work for a handful of players, but as it is the same thing each time, more traditional shooter players, or those that don’t appreciate that formula might be turned away. The new skill trees are sold add-ons and tweak the characters enough to be fresh, but still familiar, which is good.

The Score

7.5

Review code provided by 2K

The Pros

+New skill tress provide new ways to play for existing characters

+Arm’s Race has potential to be great fun with a full squad

The Cons

-Arm’s Race also has the potential to be a one and done experience for many

-Given the random drop points in Arm’s Race, you might get unlucky more often than not