Borderlands' first DLC pack is full of personality and enjoyable action, but is plagued by near-fatal technical issues.
If there was one thing lacking about Borderlands, it was it's story. Barebones from the start, the main plotline was both empty and uninspired. Zombie Island carves out its own narrative one hundred percent unrelated to the main game, which is a very good thing to say the least. It follows Dr. Ned, a surgeon who is performing strange experiments in and around Jakobs Cove. The story deals with Ned, of course, and the Jakobs Corporation, along with some spooky side-quests that double as more backstory to the plot. This genuinely entertaining story is, while nothing amazing, certainly befitting of the game's setting, which is all-round Halloween-themed cemeteries and swamps, along with some eerie walkways and foggy backdrops of the night skies overlooking small ranches. The strength to this DLC is its personality. Like the main Borderlands, Zombie Island contains humorous characters and great writing, which is complimented by solid voice acting and a moody soundtrack. It is a place that feels strangely alive - ironic given its theme - yet spookily isolated.
The visual aspects of Dr. Ned are mostly good. The environments are fantastic, and perfectly realised. The blurry, fogged backgrounds that mix with dimmed lights below the sky are great. The main area contains creepy, plain trees, lots of lit pumpkin heads and murky swamps that are conveyed very well, especially in tandem with the DLC's art style. The art direction of Zombie Island is terrific. It is an instantly moody game without being horror or terror-emphasised. The enemy design is equally brilliant. Zombies look decent - as good as you want zombies to look, I guess - but the bosses look excellent. There are also more enemy types, such as the Defiler; without doubt the most awkward enemy in the game, with its disorienting bile that is difficult to avoid. When enemies overwhelm in numbers, the framerate can drop, sometimes from low to downright unplayable. One particular quest in the game, titled "The Pack", is literally near-broken. Filled with a rigid, ten-minus framerate that completely disrupts the action and frequent slowdown, it is a quest that nearly pushed me towards switching the game off - it's that bad. There is also heavy texture pop-in and lots of screen-tearing.
The best part of the game, though, is its fun looting which has always been the forefront of the entire Borderlands experience. Here, enemies still drop loot and there are some fun times to be had in Jakobs Cove. There are new variations of enemies, such as Suicide Zombies and the awesome Tankensteins, of whom carry explosive barrels on their backs as well as the troublesome Corpse Eaters which are reminiscent of Gears of War's Kryll. There are some other great enemies that I won't spoil, but the boss fights here are excellent, perhaps better than some of the main game's efforts. Some of the main variations are also present here. For example, there are some Badass zombie types, as well as Psycho versions of zombies. Even midget zombies that leap towards you. Cool.
The quest design of Zombie Island is broken up into five new areas, with Jakob's Cove serving as the main hub of the area, especially as the location of the bounty board. Some of the quests here are really cool and imaginative, and feature some great aforementioned boss fights. Some quests also feature some references to culture like Scooby Doo, B-movie horror films and more. It's certainly not short on variety, that's for sure. Being a smaller world, Zombie Island's quests feel easier to access, minus the sometimes annoying backtracking in the main game.
The DLC will last around 4-5 hours, but that length depends on your level progression upon starting Zombie Island. I was a level 40 soldier when playing it and found it easy. Being a lower level may give some challenge, or it could be a situation where enemies scale to your level or story progression. The enemies on my Dr. Ned playthrough were in the range of level 35 to 37, and level 38 on the final boss. This complexity will also factor into how much you enjoy the expansion. I personally enjoyed it - save for the horrendous technical issues on the one named quest - but some may find it hard or annoying if a lower level. I recommend around Level 29-30 for a good challenge. After it has been completed, there isn't much incentive to return. Grinding is, as always, a possibility, but this DLC won't give much encouragement to return.
The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned is a fun and entertaining expansion that improves upon some aspects of the overall Borderlands experience, such as a better story and good sound design, but stumbles with regards to technical aspects and replay value. It comes highly recommend to Borderlands fans, though, because of it's continuity of the core game design - loot - and it's great quest design. It's an appealing DLC that will cater to everyone, but with some expense.
SUMMARY
Presentation 8.5 - Another great presentation with charm and personality.
Graphics 7.5 - The art style, animations and environments remain awesome, but the amazingly bad framerate almost ruins the entire thing visually.
Audio 8.0 - Good, campy voice acting and a cool soundtrack.
Gameplay 7.5 - The combat in a new environment is fun, but the framerate ruins some objectives and makes the experience nigh on unplayable.
Replayability 5.0 - You'll get a good 4-5 hours out of the game, and that's all.
Overall - 7.5/10