The Expansion that Defined the Series

Just two months after the release of Mad Moxxi’s Underdome Riot, the creators at Gearbox were back with another expansion for Borderlands. But unlike the previous two – The Secret Island of Dr. Nedd and Moxxi’s battle arenas – this new expansion wasn’t just chasing trends or meeting basic expectations. It wasn’t a zombie shooter like so many others, and it wasn’t trying to take the most famous bits of Mad MaxStarted with a single 1970s Australian exploitation flick (a popular genre in the country at the time), the Mad Max series went on to spawn three sequels, an entire genre, style, and what many consider the greatest action film of all time, Fury Road. Not bad from a little low-budget film about cars smashing each other after the fall of society. and shove them into the looter game. Instead it was a new area, with a new story, that actually tried to push the main game forward… and in the process it actually defined the direction the BorderlandsConceptually, Borderlands is Mad Max but set on an alien planet, with magic. The game play might be action-shooter-RPG fare, with a bit of Diablo thrown in, but the aesthetic is pure, Australian post-apocalyptic exploitation. series would take for the rest of its life.

Not that players knew this at the time. With The Secret Armory of General Knoxx, all players really knew was that the expansion would open up a new area, T-Bone Junction, and it would let players do a lot more driving as they cruised around the desolate wastes and broken highways of Pandora. But the mix of open driving sections, new missions, and a fun story with irreverent writing, actually gave players something deeper than they’d experienced before. And the sales of the expansion gave Gearbox a way to push the series forward and really find its true potential… which, in the short term, was fantastic.

In The Secret Armory of General Knoxx, the Vault Hunters are contacted by Athena, an assassin who used to work for the Crimson Lance, about a potential new threat to Pandora. It seems that one of the Lance’s top commanders, General Knoxx, learned about the secrets of the Vault, and the powers that could be unlocked within. He led a battalion to the far reaches of Pandora, with those secrets in hand, so that he could build himself an army and get ready to take over the world.

The only thing is that once he got all settled in, Knoxx realized that everything was bullshit. His commanding officer at the Atlas Corp. was a child (literally), his orders were written in crayons (also literally), and nothing Atlas did amounted to anything. Knoxx was on this desolate rock, with all the power he could control, but it wouldn’t mean anything at all to the galaxy. So his plan was to blow it all up and take the whole planet with him. The Vault Hunters have to step in and stop Knoxx before he pulls it off.

Structurally, T-Bone Junction is a very straight forward area. You start off in the central hub town and then, as you explore, you’re given missions that send you out, first South into one side of the wastes, and then North. Each side is defined by large stretches of highway followed by sections on foot where the player has to navigate the deserts before finding another area to drive around. Back and forth, along the highway system, as you’re sent hither and yon by Athena, Scooter, and Moxxi to fulfill your missions and get on the path to stop Knoxx once and for all.

The missions were pretty solid, too. You’d drive along a stretch, and then find a base to infiltrate and take out Atlas soldiers. Or you’d hop a ramp and take on criminals and in abandoned jail. There was variety in the locations, as well as the enemies, and it felt like this section of Pandora, despite being part of a DLC, actually felt more expansive and interesting than many of the main parts of the game. This area helped breathe new life into Pandora.

But it was the story for the expansion that really brought everything together. You’re not just a character wandering around endless stretches, collecting pieces of a MacGuffin for some vaguely defined reason. Right from the start you’re given a mission: help Athena prevent the end of the world due to the ravings of a depressed and insane general. Borderlands main mode didn’t have much story at all, but The Secret Armory of General Knoxx was absolutely soaked in story. You were given orders, sent out to do things, and it felt like you were really working towards something. It was so different, and so cool.

The snappy writing also helped. Athena was a straight laced, very cold character, but the game frequently had her communicate with you via encoded messages passed through radio advertisements. This is where the irreverent humor came in as the advertisements that Athena built on were for ENGORGE!, a male enhancement pill. Every time she sent you a message you’d get blasted with ENGORGE! and it was never not funny. This weird, dark, dry game suddenly slapped you in the face with humor out of nowhere. It was a turn for the game, but it worked out really well.

Knoxx also cut a pretty solid villain. He’d shoot you messages, you study his communications with his superiors, and in general he was a presence you felt throughout the DLC. This was a villain you were working against, such that when you finally came face to face with him it felt like a real confrontation. This wasn’t just some last little fight out of nowhere (which really was how both the main game, and Nedd’s island, played out), but the last big battle for the fate of the planet. This was epic.

Plus, the expansion ended with a massive drop of loot. That “secret armory” was your prize for taking out Knoxx, a big vault full of treasure you could go and loot (if you were fast enough). And you didn’t get to loot it just once, but three times in each playthrough. There were so many goodies, and if you aimed yourself right you were likely to get a backpack full of purples, oranges, and maybe even a pearl or two for your troubles. The loot was absolutely worth it, the best way to gather your gear, short of going and fighting the last superboss of the area.

This expansion did also bring in a superboss, the first for the series: Crawmerax the Invincible. This beast came as the last mission of the expansion, after you’d taken care of everything else, and it was rough. It was a massive sand crab that could kill you in seconds if you weren’t careful and organized. It was meant to be taken out as a four-person raid, and working as a team there were likely ways you could make that happen… or you could find the little cliff off to one side that technically sat outside the arena leaving you in a place where Crawmerax couldn’t see you. Either way, it was a fun encounter.

You can see how these elements redefined the series going forward. Borderlands 2 was about more than just collecting bits of MacGuffin; in that game you had a real foe, Handsome Jack, who you had to fight against for the fate of the planet. There was loads of irreverent humor baked into every interaction. There was loot upon loot, so much that came spilling forth from every boss encounter. And, of course, there were superbosses, raids for you and your friends to take out so you could get even better loot. All of that was started in The Secret Armory of General Knoxx, and all because this DLC worked to push the original game forward and the fans loved it.

This was the defining moment for the series. The perfect mix of action and story backed into an expansion for the still fresh Borderlands. And because of this expansion we got Borderlands 2, which became a massive hit in its own right, redefining not only the series but the looter-shooter genre as a whole… Not that the formula always worked as well as it should…