Borderlands: The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned

While zombies in the media have become rather overdone, Gearbox have approached their first bit of DLC with spooky B-movie style panache, and created something equal parts charming and fun. The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned puts you on a deserted island, picking up the pieces of the Atlas Corporation’s failed mining operations. Said operations came to a halt when the population all turned into zombies, and you’re on the payroll to sort it all out.

Naturally, this means killing hordes of zombies – and we do mean hordes. You’re constantly mobbed by crowds of the undead, turning every combat situation into a frenzied gunfight. The zombies have little AI beyond “go for the throat,” which makes the entire experience rather frantic when you’re running low on health in the middle of the marshes. The quests themselves are great fun, too, and the eventual conclusion is both satisfying and utterly, utterly ridiculous.

For the money, you get about six hours of surprisingly fun gameplay, set in a large outdoor playable area and linked locations, which hold quests that vary between killing WereSkags (a new critter) and chasing down medicine from a bin, and earn you a lot of experience and loot.

Dr. Ned is also playable from just about any level, as the content will scale to you dependant on what level you started the playthrough: for example, if you start at level 36, that’s where enemies will start at – which is a great touch.

Feb 9, 2010

Latest in Borderlands
One of the new Vault Hunters in Borderlands 4
Borderlands 4 release date set for September, and Gearbox has a dedicated reveal show coming this spring
Borderlands 4 Vault Hunters
Gearbox didn't set out to create an open-world game with Borderlands 4, but the FPS does have "open-world-like features, such as seamless travel between zones"
A mask in front of flames during the upcoming PS5 game, Borderlands 4.
In addition to "billions" of weapons, Borderlands 4 has "the deepest and most diverse skill trees" of any game in the series
A screenshot of the upcoming PC game, Borderlands 4.
Borderlands 4's tone sits somewhere between the first two games, which probably means less Skibidi Toilet and more Handsome Jack-style antics
One of the new Vault Hunters in Borderlands 4
Borderlands 4 moves beyond Borderlands 3 and Tiny Tina's Wonderlands as Gearbox promises "billions of weapons and accessories"
Borderlands 4 Vault Hunters
Gearbox boss Randy Pitchford is "testing Borderlands 4 on Steam," and just wanted to check and see if you can tell
Latest in Features
Asssassin's Creed Shadows kusarigama
My favorite weapon in Assassin's Creed Shadows is also the most misunderstood
Imai Sokyu leads the tea ceremony in Assassin's Creed Shadows
Assassin's Creed Shadows' tea ceremony quest is one of the game's best moments, but I wish Ubisoft would give us even higher stakes
Bloodborne
10 years on, Bloodborne remains an unmatchable feat of atmosphere thanks to the mind-boggling oppressive scale of Yharnam
Cropped key art for Revenge of the Savage Planet showing two player characters running away from lots of green goo, flanked by various googly-eyed wildlife
Revenge of the Savage Planet is a refreshingly colorful and light-hearted co-op throwback to the carefree action platformers of the noughties
Yasuke looks at a shrine in the water in Assassin's Creed Shadows On The Radar
"We don't want to force one terabyte of data on the players": Assassin's Creed Shadows' tech director on the clever tricks Ubisoft uses to "go beyond" current-gen
Kill Team: Blood and Zeal box on a wooden surface
Kill Team: Blood and Zeal pre-orders just went live, and I wish other Warhammer games were this weird