Having finished every last quest in Borderlands in the last add-on pack, I'm ready for more. And thankfully Gearbox came answering. Or rather, Moxxi is here to whip us all into shape.

This add-on pack is quite a bit different than the last one. First off, it's an arena style combat challenge. Waves after waves of enemies come after you, and you got to dispense them all. After 4 waves, there's a boss you tackle, which happens to be one of the boss characters brought back to life from the main game. Then another round happens, and so it begins again. Overall, there are three unique arenas, and there's a rather superficial central quest that ties them all together. For a game limited to just arena battles, is it worth $9.99 and a few hours of your life?

WHAT I LOVE
The atmosphere - The Underdome is one of the best designed environments I ever seen in a game. It's got a mix of a nightmare circus, with Mad Max, with Bioshock's Art Deco style all in there. There are some signature hilarious touches as well. All the paints are worth purusing . The Clap Trap dressed up like a banker is too cute. And of course, there's Moxxi herself. She has the makings of a star. Her commentary is spot on, and even after listening to her ramble over and over, I still love hearing her. The new music also is rocking. In fact, I would say as a whole, Gearbox has done a great job of creating a world that has more flavors than a pack of Lifesavers.

The rules always change - I love how Moxxi will change up the rules for each wave. It makes playing each wave a new surprise, and you got to constantly change your strategy. One minute you are scrambling to find a sniper rifle that can shoot fast enough to take on a horde of rampaging mutants charging at you, the next you are aggressively running around killing enemies because your health will go down unless you take someone out. Best of all, you now have reason to use some of those weapons you typically never do. Which brings me to the next thing much appreciated...

The bank - Finally a way to store all your extra weapons! And you'll need to do it too. Because this arena style combat requires you to switch weapons pretty regularly as Moxxi will throw different rules at you (ie. Only Combat Rifles can do real damage! Elemental damage does extra pow! You have no more shields!), you'll want to have a good mix of arsenal ready to go at any moment. You can also upgrade the bank, which is nice if you are level 50 because it's been so long since you actually purchased anything useful.

Multiplayer strategy - It really helps to play this arena battle with more than one person. You'll constantly need to revive fallen comrades, and even if they die, they can still help out while being locked up in the tower, as along as they have a scoped weapon. They'll come back alive after each wave, so it makes for an interesting challenge deciding whether you should let your buddies die (because he sucks so much, maybe it's better to just let him help out in the safety of the tower), or make sure he's alive just in case you die, so he can revive you.

WHAT I HATE
The arenas - The arenas themselves are rather ordinary compared to the Underdome hub. They are simply redesigned sections of the main game, and don't really have much strategic design to them, except for the one where you can teleport around the level. It would have been nice to also see more than just 3 arenas to play in, since the last add-on pack had quite a bigger environment to explore.

No additional experience or cash - That's right, you heard me. You wont earn any experience while fighting in the arenas. While I can understand why this was done, so that it doesn't create imbalance during the main quest, it basically limits the type of people who would want to download this pack. Still it would have been nice to at least get 1/2 as much experience, or even a tiny morsel of experience. The problem with this issue is only hammered home because of the next issue.

Crappy loot - Seriously, after all that battling, why do they still give you loot that has no value whatsoever? Where's the carrot that the rest of game did so well in dangling in front of me constantly? When you do finish the full set of rounds (which means you have to at least beat 20 waves... it's a lot), you get an extra slots for your special abilties. Yes, that is worth it, but the loot between each round is just stuff you would never pick up.

Difficulty in juggling inventory in the heat of battle - It's become clear that the inventory management system is too cumbersome. When in multiplayer combat, you can't pause the game, so if you need to use a health pack, or switch to a weapon not readily available, good luck. It'll leave you highly vunerable. Because this add-on pack is designed to force you to switch your items around often, they sure don't make it easy to do so.

WHAT I RECOMMEND
Overall, this has been a really fun experience, and the challenges feel fresh. It's definitely worth the $10 cash you plunk down, though I would caution that you should be level 50 before you want to do so. I love how I'm going back into the rest of the game to level up my weapons and find a better mix of loot, just to prep myself for the arena battles. That being said, don't expect anything more than just a 3D version of Smash TV. This isn't like the last add-on pack which had whole new places to explore with all new quests. For someone like me, who LOVES Smash TV (Seriously, someone needs to bring back a sequel), this add-on pack rocks.

On a final note, I'm in love with Moxxi. I really hope they bring her back in the sequel because there's something oddly sexy,  hilarious, and dirty about her. I'd love to find out more about this character, as it's never really clear why she has ambitions to run a gladiator style combat arena, or how her past husbands are no longer around (did she kill them? Did they leave?) Or does the story really matter?

To my sweet and twisted Moxxi. XOXOXO. I'll be your 10th husband, even if it kills me.