Firstly, the quaint little scenario, though preying the recent popularisation of zombies and shooters (taking bets on the next DLC being about vampires), actually has a self-contained story that is more amusing than the story of the original game. The much more focused experience has allowed for the writers to make the best possible use of the quirky and dry humour that Borderlands had to offer. Basically, you head to Jakobs Cove, which has been overrun by zombies who are the reanimated former workers of the Jakobs Corporation (who made some of the game’s most powerful weapons). Dr. Ned, who despite looking like him is apparently not Dr. Zed, is supposed to have the cure and you need to help him out. Of course, players who have gone through Borderlands will realise that things won’t quite pan out as expected.
And that's just the first wave.
While the story itself is highly amusing and worthwhile to romp through for those who have finished the original game, there are a couple of things that could have been done better. Firstly, and probably most crucially, is that the difficulty is tied to your story progress and not your actual level. The problem here is that if you’ve levelled up highly through taking a lot of extra side missions, you’ll likely find that this piece of DLC is quite easy. Sure, there are a lot of zombie waves to contend with, so the lower difficulty isn’t so bad, but it probably would have made more sense if it was tied to your actual level and not story progress.
It’s not just the locale and focused humour that make The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned a refreshing change. Sure, the dank and dark mills of Jakobs Cove are a huge step away from usual arid expanses of Pandora. However, you’ll have to change your gunplay style somewhat to accommodate the unrelenting zombie waves. Zombies are often a good excuse for poor AI and cannon fodder, but fighting off the waves of undead scoundrels actually makes for furiously hectic gameplay. Some appear in front, some behind. Some pop out of the group and others drop from trees. In short, it’s different and it’s fun. That, and shuffling zombies aren’t the only creatures that you’ll be coming up against.
As with the original game, it’s more fun when you’re playing with your buddies. However, each of them needs to have downloaded the content before you can all get together. This could have allowed for some innovative distribution, but alas, none has transpired. Apart from the aforementioned differences, it’s business as usual in The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned. You’ll shoot, you’ll loot, you’ll pick up story missions and have the option for side missions. If you didn’t like Borderlands and expected something different, we have no idea why you're reading this sentence, let alone this review.
Not where you want your next holiday.
While Gearbox are certainly showing that they’ve put a big effort into The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned with a download size of over a gigabyte, the final contentious aspect, as with most DLC, is the length. You can romp through most of what the content has to offer in around three to four hours. Unlike the rest of the game, there isn’t that much to explore or find outside of what the content offers. So after you’re done, you’re just likely to head back to the main game and continue exploring the more fruitful nooks and crannies of Pandora. That is, until the next piece of DLC…
The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned is definitely a worthwhile piece of DLC that provides a nice variation to the Borderlands experience. While zombies might have seemed a bit of an overload, they’ve been implemented very well and the DLC makes full use of the wicked Borderlands humour through a more focused experience. It’s still good and unrelenting by yourself, but a real blast once you get two or more people playing through it. As with most DLC, the primary contention comes from the length, but it’s not something that’s stopped the avid loot hunters of the past.
Worth buying? Yes
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Downloadable content ratings system
We've given a 'buy' rating of 'Yes', 'Maybe', or 'No'.
Yes means that the content is either great value or brings some substantial additions to the game, or possibly both.
Maybe means that the content may be fun while it lasts, but may either be too short or not enough to fully justify the price tag.
No means that we don't recommend downloading this insubstantial content.
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