Borderlands 2

Mr Torgue's Campaign of Carnage is more content for Borderlands 2, not that I'm complaining. Gearbox Software's stupendous loot driven shooter was one of my favorite games of last year and I welcome any chance to return to Pandora, hell I never left. This time round your vault hunting hero is tasked with becoming the champion of the campaign of carnage, a violent and savage tournament set up by Mr Torgue, founder of the weapons manufacturer of the same name. This being Borderlands there's still a vault involve somewhere, you are a 'vault hunter' after all and we all know what vaults mean... showers of beautiful, gorgeous and thrill inducing loot.

Being downloadable content one shouldn't expect anything out of the ordinary and whilst Gearbox attempts to create something memorable here, it's nothing we haven't seen before. You'll still be blissfully shooting psychos in the face with all manner of crazy weapons and collecting all sorts of awesome loot of so many varied varieties, it isn't anything new or radically different from the familiar Borderlands formula, but it's still just as wonderfully satisfying as it ever was. So, if Borderlands hasn't quite scratched your lust for loot, loot, loot. Mr Torgue's Campaign for Carnage isn't going to change anything. However if all you're looking for is more Borderlands, than it might just be worth your time and attention.

There's certainly some worthwhile moments to Campaign of Carnage to. Whilst the humour in Borderlands 2 came across a little forced, the back and forth between Mad Moxxi and Mr Torgue caused me a good chuckle here and Mr Torgue is a wonderfully over the top figurehead, think Randy Savage with unhealthy levels of anger and adrenaline flowing through his body and you just might get the idea. As you visit the Badass Crater of Badassitude (Hopefully at this point you're starting to get the picture) and it's neighbouring areas, you'll discover some fun and challenging quests some of which have multiples tiers of difficulty for extra challenge, experience and loot. That said, Campaign of Carnage is less memorable than Pirate's Booty thanks to mostly forgettable boss battles and a lack of personality to the new areas for which you'll be exploring.

So I have mixed feelings towards Mr Torgue's Campaign of Carnage. It's not quite the crazy balls out addition I'd hoped for or as the potential to be, but fun can still be add. It's still Borderlands 2 after all and it's still unashamedly addictive. There are few extra things worth mentioning, for example the new Torgue tokens which can be earned via quests or looted off specific badasses and spent in the new Torgue vending machines for kick-ass weaponry. The sound design is great too with some pretty kick-ass battle music and guitar tracks accompanying you on your journey to tournament domination. Though on the presentation side of things I did suffer some strange frame rate problems in specific areas, an issue that plagued Pirate's Booty but wasn't occurring in the base game, so it might be an isolated issue or poor optimization (as was the case in one area of Pirate's Booty), I just can't be sure. Voice-work is still top notch, but this time accompanied by some of the more humorous and witty dialogue seen in the whole game, there's even a rather nice homage to video game reviewers in there too which is pulled off rather well.

So Mr Torgue's Campaign of Carnage isn't the most recommendable piece of downloadable content for Borderlands 2, unless you're looking for more reasons to play Gearbox's fun and frantic shooter (as if there weren't enough already). The Badass Crater of Badassitude is a welcomed addition to the season pass but one that isn't an essential purchase for those looking for something more worthwhile, it's still worth checking out if you have the season pass but hopefully there's better to come. If you must purchase a piece of Borderlands 2 DLC I'd still recommend Captain Scarlett and the Pirate's Booty over this, that's just my opinion and as we all know, on the internet everyone as an opinion.