Home Gaming Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel: Claptastic Voyage Review

Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel: Claptastic Voyage Review

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Claptastic Voyage (7)

There’s a reason why Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel is a polarising game. Some folks love the more detailed characters. Other people hate the iffy level design. The Zero-G combat is pure fun, provided that you can make it past the various bugs in the game. It’s a game that doesn’t hit all the right notes, but it is a Borderlands game that is important, thanks to the story that fleshes out the events between Borderlands 1 and 2. In the Claptastic Voyage however, the game goes somewhere few vault hunters have had the courage to explore. Prepare to enter the mind of…Claptrap.

Claptastic Voyage (17)

Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel’s single piece of big DLC may not be a game-changer along the lines of Borderlands 2’s Tiny Tina’s Assault On Dragon Keep, but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t charming. For years now, Claptrap has been the mascot of the series. He’s been a helpful reminder of quests that need to be completed, an assassin in disguise and a playable character in the previous Borderlands game. Claptastic Voyage however, fills in the gap between The Pre-Sequel and Borderlands 2, as players find out how Claptrap fell out of favour with Hnadsome Jack and came to roam the frozen tundras of Pandora who greeted players in the first sequel.

Claptastic Voyage (2)

To do that however, requires being shrunk down and digitised within Claptrap, ala Innerspace. Vault Hunters need to track down a mysterious packet of code that contains the hidden secrets of Hyperion, which happens to be buried deep within the mind of Claptrap and guarded by his various insecurity forces. Aspects of the Claptrap program roam his mind, while his ever-present consciousness tags along to help you out as you explore his deepest secrets and hidden history.

Claptastic Voyage (5)

And that’s something that Claptastic Voyage does get quite right. While the writing isn’t of the variety that’ll have you guffawing your sides apart, Claptastic Voyage is a bit darker than your usual Borderlands adventure, with a fair amount of heart and predictable plot twists as well. It’s actually a great story in total, one that is bolstered by some more imaginative level design.

Claptastic Voyage (6)

Claptrap’s inner core can be explored, from his network protocols through various memory hubs, while the game takes the chance to nail you with literal pop-up ads and new enemies. Once you get the chance to explore further into Claptrap’s memories, you’ll soon unlock new areas which revisit old locales but dress them up with new physics and broken code.

Claptastic Voyage (16)

Insecurity bots, glitches and various other bits of malware all stand in your way, and so does one bastard of a final boss fight, which will take you around 20 minutes or more to work through if you’re around the mid-30s in your character progression. Seriously, that’s one fight that goes on for far, far too long and illustrates perfectly how 2K Australia can nail some aspects of Borderlands and completely overlook some other crucial aspects at the same time.

Claptastic Voyage (8)

But as a piece of story-heavy DLC that focuses on the beloved mascot and brings the tale of Claptrap full circle, it’s pretty solid. It’s not exceptional, but it does do a fine job in the end.

Last Updated: April 10, 2015

38 Comments

  1. RinceThis

    April 10, 2015 at 13:44

    Still want to play the pre-sequal. I don’t think there is another game that I have had as much fun playing 4 player as Borderlands 2 though.

    Reply

    • Matthew Holliday

      April 10, 2015 at 13:49

      skill and item builds in this one are alot more team orientated, so it will be pretty fun with 4.

      Reply

      • Hammersteyn

        April 10, 2015 at 13:51

        Playing as the Baroness because my friends don’t like how claptraps special affects them.

        Reply

        • Matthew Holliday

          April 10, 2015 at 13:58

          wasnt a fan of claptraps special either, im busy getting Athena to 60 atm, good team build options, quite similar to the siren from bl2.
          replay value isnt as high as BL2, which i think is the only place they really went wrong with this.
          grinding through your 3rd playthrough onwards, gets a tad tedious, but i put alot of that down to overplaying BL2

          Reply

        • 40 Insane Frogs

          April 10, 2015 at 14:03

          That’s a pity, my claptrap is a trashcan 🙁

          Reply

      • RinceThis

        April 10, 2015 at 13:59

        Also sharing cool finds with certain builds was great.

        Reply

        • Matthew Holliday

          April 10, 2015 at 14:01

          yeah, certain gear is better on certain characters, which i like, in BL2, certain guns were just strong on everyone, but now with lazers, stacking abilities and different elemental preferences, specific types of gear work better on specific characters.

          Reply

  2. Ali G

    April 10, 2015 at 13:44

    Dis game just epic wiv colors afta tokin some epic Ganja.

    Reply

    • RinceThis

      April 10, 2015 at 13:52

      • Hammersteyn

        April 10, 2015 at 13:54

        Comment of the week is only gonna encourage him 😛

        Reply

        • RinceThis

          April 10, 2015 at 13:55

          Which is why I suspect staff involvement. From the top I tell you!

          Reply

          • Hammersteyn

            April 10, 2015 at 13:58

            Can we go back to not supporting DRM?

          • RinceThis

            April 10, 2015 at 13:58

            Ohhh, that is a close call… A very close call!

    • Kensei Seraph

      April 10, 2015 at 13:59

      Would someone please translate this into English as well?

      Reply

      • Matthew Holliday

        April 10, 2015 at 14:02

        the lack of respek towards Ali G is atrocious.

        Reply

    • 40 Insane Frogs

      April 10, 2015 at 14:04

      Aaaitt! West Staines massifs! Respekt!

      Reply

  3. Ali G

    April 10, 2015 at 13:45

    Da claptastic voyage iz wot yous get afta yous bone some slapper

    Reply

    • Kensei Seraph

      April 10, 2015 at 13:59

      Would someone please translate this into English?

      Reply

      • Hammersteyn

        April 10, 2015 at 14:01

        I think bone some slapper could mean having intercourse with someones mom?

        Reply

        • Skoobaz

          April 10, 2015 at 14:54

          Not yomama jokes again. Please…

          Reply

      • Geoffrey Tim

        April 10, 2015 at 14:10

        The Clap is a slang term for A sexually transmitted disease, specifically, Gonorrhea. A slapper is a woman of loose affection. So you’d have a claptastic trip after having sex with sexually promiscuous woman. It’s really not that hard.

        Reply

        • Kensei Seraph

          April 10, 2015 at 14:19

          Ladies and gentlemen, I think we have our insid*cough* translator.

          Reply

    • Greylingad

      April 10, 2015 at 14:45

      Ok, the item in front of you is not a drumset, a flute, guitar, a hammer, a set of pliers, a fish, a trombone, a cymbal, a steak, someone’s mom, a drug addict, or anything of the like…. Please refrain from slapping your bone on either, as the item is a keyboard and someone else might still have to work on it…

      Reply

      • Ali G

        April 10, 2015 at 14:54

        Masta blasta not me fault yous ain’t street smart, yous iz nots gona last minute in da ghetto, West Staines Massiff Iz gona slaughta yous

        Reply

        • Greylingad

          April 10, 2015 at 15:12

          Eat my sock in the ghetto underworld with splash of tomato sauce and a tiny bit of mayonnaise, this gangster plays football with a baseball bat on a keychain…

          Reply

          • Ali G

            April 10, 2015 at 15:26

            Why do yous af be so disrespectful an’ natta about me granmotha dig dat. Does ya wantz make me spitz up dere an’ tommy yous batty yous muppet? Iz it coz I iz blak?

          • Greylingad

            April 10, 2015 at 15:34

            Good Lord man! I wouldn’t suggest that you expose your grandmother to digging that, especially not with a bad back and all, and what do you have against Sesame street that you’d assault the muppets? They’ve been nothing but educational. And no, it’s because you type like someone being beaten with a severed limb on a unicycle while playing darts

          • Ali G

            April 10, 2015 at 15:41

            I don;t trust dem geezas bert an’ ernie dey be right batty bwoyz,

  4. Matthew Holliday

    April 10, 2015 at 13:48

    level design is fantastic, main boss is tough with nice loot drops, didnt think it was too long, but the breaks in between health drops could be shorter, story is ok and new guns are AWESOME.
    glitch guns pwn hard!
    worthwhile piece of DLC

    Reply

    • Hammersteyn

      April 10, 2015 at 13:51

      I just said the opposite 😛

      Reply

      • Matthew Holliday

        April 10, 2015 at 13:52

        was just about to reply to you aswell, i thought the level design was rad, the jump boosting adds another level of play
        in the DLC especially, thought the layout of maps was good, the boost points fluid and art wise, exceptional.

        Reply

        • Hammersteyn

          April 10, 2015 at 13:53

          I think my problem lies with the jump boosting. Does the height you can jump increase at all?

          Reply

          • Matthew Holliday

            April 10, 2015 at 13:55

            no, but im fine with that, boost pads, level layout and air thingy mods make up for it.

            levels are layered to allow for good slamming and varied combat, once you get used to it, height isnt an issue.

          • Hammersteyn

            April 10, 2015 at 13:56

            Is till get lost easily. And the jump boost seems restrictive to some objects. Not gonna stop playing though.

          • Matthew Holliday

            April 10, 2015 at 13:59

            never really got lost with the boost, but it does take some getting used to, between CoD:AW and portal, i didnt really take that long for me to get used to.

          • Hammersteyn

            April 10, 2015 at 14:00

            Cant remember when last I played either of those two franchises

  5. Hammersteyn

    April 10, 2015 at 13:50

    The level design is more than iffy. It’s atrocious. The jump boost isn’t that much help either. But the game is as fun as ever. Highly recommended

    Reply

  6. Killer_Bee

    April 11, 2015 at 15:41

    I just hope they Wont Finish The Pre Sequel on this…This was an Awesome DLC.

    Reply

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