The Verdict: Borderlands: Mad Moxxi's Underdome Riot

Over the holidays, X-Play's Mike Demski and Michael Leffler booted up the latest Borderlands downloadable content, Mad Moxxi's Underdome Riot.  Rather than focusing on a singular, self-contained story like The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned, Moxxi focuses on team-based arena combat.  You and your buddies go in a room, enemies spawn in waves, you kill them all, rinse, repeat.  Having spent many hours playing Horde mode in Gears of War 2 as well as Firefight mode in Halo 3: ODST, the promise of fighting endless waves of enemies with Hellfire SMG's and Volcano sniper rifles seemed like a very appealing proposition.  Both have offered their take on Gearbox's DLC, with some mixed results to their shared experience.
 
Demski: I was so excited about this DLC.  Literally, the first thing I did after returning home from vacation was turn on the 360 and get the download started.  My hunter was at level 50, I already played through Dr. Ned twice, so I was definitely looking for something new to do in Pandora.  Throw in a bank to store your guns, two additional skill points, plus more achievements and you've got 800 Microsoft spacebucks that I can't wait to give away.

Leffler: My level 42 Siren was definitely ready to be the Queen Bitch of the Apocalypse again. And I LOVE teaming up with friends who are a higher level than me so I can just rake in the XP. So Demski and I started Moxxi's first task, defeat 25 waves of enemies on each of three maps. When it got hairy I had no qualms about hiding behind a rock and leaving Demski to die alone.

Demski: Despite a few close calls, we managed to rocket through Moxxi's first challenge.  But there were a few disappointments: no XP, and none of the kills counted towards weapon proficiency.  So at this point, we're really in it for the achievements and the loot.  Unfortunately, the loot drops are a complete disaster.  You have to haul ass to the middle of the stage to pick up whatever's there after a boss wave is cleared.  And since the waves keep coming, you only have seconds to see what's what.  We ended up picking up a lot of garbage guns out of sheer panic.

Leffler: Then we tackled the first of three big Coliseum challenges: 100 waves of enemies, aliens, bosses, screaming, weeping, and a sweet sweet achievement at the end. Oh, and fighting this challenge by yourself is impossible without gaming the system. I hosted the game so the enemies would scale to my weaker character, but Demski's level 50 still got gang-banged multiple times by the unforgiving enemies. At which point I was hiding behind a boulder leaving him to die alone.

Demski: I really appreciated that.  Thanks to all of the modifiers (think skulls from ODST’s Firefight mode) like low gravity, fast motion, no shields, or the dreaded vampire mode (where your health drains if you're not killing), the later waves became a real challenge.  I often ended up in the penalty box, where I could attempt to snipe enemies from up high.  But despite all the panic and yelling, we forged ahead, and several hours later, the end was finally in sight.  That's when disaster struck.

Leffler: We’re giddy, it hasn't been easy (6 waves of vampire in a row!?! You Gearbox guys are jerks!).  Wave 97 of 100 defeated!  We catch our breath and wait for wave 98 to spawn.  And we wait. And we look for the gun drop just ‘cause we're bored.  Nothing. Um, hello?  Where are the guys? Oh my God it freaking glitched.  We just spent three hours gaining no XP and picking up crappy weapons to ultimately not finish. I could have been spending this time playing Jurassic: The Hunted!

Demski: After waiting for several minutes and performing one last sweep of the map, we give up and exit the arena.  Maybe we can jump back in a resume our progress?  Nope.  I still can't believe you bought Jurassic: The Hunted.

Leffler: Dude, you shoot dinosaurs! How badass is that?! Although my one criticism is sometimes you shoot scorpions. And scorpions are NOT f@^&ing dinosaurs!

Demski: Noted.  Anyway, back to Mad Moxxi.  As if losing hours and hours of progress wasn't a big enough downer, I discovered that my shield, class mod, and grenade mod were suddenly gone forever.  I also lost my progress for beating the first challenge.  So basically, the whole thing was a wash.  After searching a few forums, it seems that other players are having similar problems.  So be careful!  I hope Gearbox puts out a patch for this, because there is no way that I will go back to the arenas and risk another incident like this one.

Leffler: I love Borderlands, but not even Moxxi's boob tattoo can get me to venture into the Underdome until they figure out a patch.

Demski: Can I borrow Jurassic?

[Editor's Note: We reached out to 2K for an official comment on Mad Moxxi's glitches and reported user issues, but have yet to receive an official response. We'll keep you updated on any patches, updates, or official comments from the publisher or Gearbox.]