The last, and surprisingly best, Headhunter Pack ends the nearly year and a half run of DLC for the Borderlands saga. I know that the Pre-Sequel is getting most of the press right now, and I forgot to post this way back on the week it was released, but another jaunt through it didn't take long. There's a remarkable amount of stuff in here to keep players busy and sated while we wait for what the future of the series may hold.
The Vault Hunter's are trying to take a tropical vacation to Wam Bam Island when, of course, trouble follows. On our trip, we get a wealth of enemies to gun down including the pirates from Captain Scarlett's, a ton of Savages from Hammerlock's Hunt, and a wonderful throwback to Borderlands' General Knoxx DLC with the Craboids. There is a wonderful mix and variation of enemies in this installment, and in the end that simple fact gives it a replayability the other Headhunter Packs lack.
Once you've taken care of the little things on this tiny paradise, you get to track down the abducted Hammerlock who is being sacrificed to Crawmerax Junior. Then after defeating the greatest raid-boss' progeny you get another son-seeking-vengeance to deal with- Sparky Flynt.
He's seeking to kill the ones that killed his father Captain Flynt. (No mention of the other possible family member Baron Flynt, who once punched Tannis' dog) Which serves as a nice segue into a story based optional mission that drops clues in for the future of the series itself. A group of assassins had been sent in to kill the current group of Vault Hunters and as players encounter them, they've all been killed by "friends," some known, some unknown- such as Zer0's cryptic and mysterious assistant One. (I played through as Krieg, Maya, and Zer0- soon I might have a go as Axton for the Hawaiian shirt) Each character has their own response dialogue and message to give a small incentive to play through with each one. (Here's a link if you don't want to replay it with more than 1 character- Assassins of the Assassins)
We get plenty of old characters like Crazy Earl and even a new face- after the death of our beloved Bloodwing, Mordecai's new baby bird Talon is a great addition to the story! Mordecai even quit his drinking to raise them. It'll be tough to replace Blood, but I have faith the writers will do the series justice.
The main set up of this DLC is an homage to the first game for 75%, then the last 25% is spent pointing towards what's to come with clever and extremely vague hints. The original Vault Hunters even pay fan service with the mentions of killing Crawmerax a lot and even a great callback to the "ledge exploit." This is a great farewell to a game many of us have played quite religiously over the last year and a half. It contains all the right nods to past occurrences and all the right hints to the future of the series, and it finally adds a true raid-boss finale to top off the list of awesome inclusions. Well done Gearbox, I am now awaiting the next installment.
It's also worth noting that while the heads for defeating Craw Jr. are a bit lackluster, the skins are quite excellent- beach attire for the whole team! Sure, I'm a little sad there's no Swimsuit Maya skin, but at least there's a wet t-shirt Salvador... Gearbox has given me the ability to dual-wield wet nipples all over Pandora and it makes me quite ecstatic to have the privilege to do so.
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