Introduction

Mad Moxxi's Underdome Riot is the second downloadable content for Gearbox Software's sleeper hit Borderlands.

Mad Moxxi's Underdome Riot is a new concept for Borderlands, one the steps into territory of arena battle, similar to what we've seen in Gears of War 2 with Horde mode.

Mad Moxxi DLC also brings a whole new challenge to Borderlands time to dust off those guns go for a ride.

Getting into ‘The Underdome' isn't very hard at all, from any teleport stations in the game, and you will find yourself teleported to Mad Moxxi. There is no minimum level requirement to access the new DLC, or class, although we would recommend at least level 13 to 14 before you head into Moxxi's Underdome.

Taking a look at The Zombie Island of Dr.Ned (First DLC for Borderland) we noticed one a few things. Mad Moxxi is not a new mission or missions, or territory to explore it's more along the lines of a game add-on. This seems to be targeted to 'hardcore' fan rather than new comers or the casual fan.

Welcome to the Underdome:

Mad Moxxi's Underdome Riot seems to gain its inspiration by the 1985 cinematic cult classic, Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome (see what they did there?)
There are three large arena maps and a small arena lobby which you have access to vending machines.
Mad Moxxi has a new feature called ‘The Bank'. The Bank is exactly what you think it is a place to store items. The bank can be also be expanded by vendor machines, and the top-hat Claptrap will happily store and retrieve your items. This is really good if you have a whack if items and just need to dump them somewhere to have a look at it later.
But we don't really think it will work too well as a locker concept for the main mission, since you need to travel back to this realm every time you wanted to switch an item out. 'The bank' could have been really useful it could have been spread all across Pandora, like the rest of the vending machines.

The Battlegrounds:

Each map consists of a Small Tournament and a Big Tournament (Hell-Burbia, The Angelic Ruins, and The Gully). Each arena has five rounds with the boss battles at the end of each round. The first round is the 'Starter Wave' which is filled with bandits and skags. The second is the 'Gun Wave', enemies have guns. The third wave is the 'Horde Wave' which is mainly filled with charging Psychos. The fourth is the 'Badass Wave' featuring the big bruisers, and the fifth wave is the 'Boss Fight'. Sadly we have yet to see any new enemies small let down. After each round the sky will rain health and ammo, this will last for a few seconds before the next round starts.

Lack of rewards

Experience and drops are handled differently in Mad Moxxi. Enemies will no longer give experience points when killed, or drop items. The only looting comes when you kill the boss in the fifth wave that releases a few items underneath Moxxi's podium. From what we've seen it isn't any to insane and seems to be above par with what you should be currently equipped with.
I don't know why the decision was made, I can only assume it's to force people to play the main game to level up, however this fact is one reason I find not to buy the new DLC.

Achievements

Achievements in Maxi are based on overall performance on completing levels, not objectives like kill 20 enemies in a five seconds, although that would have been fun to add into the mix.

Final Thoughts

Mad Moxxi is a nice add-on to keep you playing for a long time. Fast paced action and tournament with co-op supported are very solid features.

With good we have some bad; Mad Moxxi does not address the current level cap. As mentioned before you really don't gain all that much fighting through Moxxi's challenge lack of experience points for killing enemies, no looting dead bodies.
Items are dropped after defeating the boss in the last round, and even then, it really anything to look forward to. It would have been nice go receive SOME experience when you consider the numbers you have to go through to make it through five rounds of ONE challenge.

With all that said Mad Moxxi does add a breath of fresh air, the game play will please all those looking for a little more challenge in their post-apocalyptic world. I do hope this isn't the last we see of Mad Moxxi!

Final Score: 7.5 out of a possible 10
System used: Xbox 360