Repetition is one of the biggest problems a game can face. When you do the same thing enough times with no serious variation in the activity, it starts to lose its charm. This is what is happening with Borderlands; while new DLC packs give us new humor themes and locations to play in, the core of the game isn’t changing. It’s still about running from one place to another, doing various fetch quests, shooting enemies, and gathering loot. The previous DLC pack, Secret Armory, was a perfectly fine way to conclude Borderlands and Claptrap’s New Robot Revolution just offers more of what we’re already used to... so while it is decent fun, we’re hitting a saturation point.

The primary theme of this pack is that the cute, oft-victimized Claptrap robots have gone into revolt. Lead by an assassination-model Claptrap, they have begun merging with most lifeforms on Pandora and attacking anyone who resists (e.g. you) while they spout romanticized revolution and freedom/rights cliches. This is the main source of humor, with Claptraps going on about "if you prick us, do we not bleed?" and "viva la revolucion!", which is funny at first but wears thin eventually since it’s by far the most common note the jokes go for. Other than that, the primary appeal of this pack is a new area to play in that features a decent variety of terrain ranging from a new train depot style town, a junkyard, caverns, and even large military facilities. Most of your enemies this time are a mix of armed Claptraps joined by ’assimilated’ versions of other enemies; Rakks, bandits, giant burrowing insects, and more make their return with cybernetic and Claptrap-merged themes, though most of them fight in typical ways.

While the revolution and Claptrap assimilation themes are the main draws of this DLC pack, they’re not the only ones. Obviously the ’gun and loot’ play-style of Borderlands is still on display here, and the final boss is pretty interesting in several ways that should be left as a surprise for the player. There are also significant rewards for completing the missions in this pack; you can get storage upgrades, more skill points, and some huge cash/material pay-outs as well. If you’re still developing your character and want more then this would be a pretty good stop, though some caution is advised; anyone nearing the level cap may want to wait for said cap to be raised in the upcoming patch before taking on the Revolution.

Like the other packs, Claptrap’s New Robot Revolution costs $10 USD/800 MSP and provides several hours of play across lots of new missions. While not as impressive and varied as Secret Armory was, this is still a decent add-on for the game and worth picking up if you still enjoy Borderlands. That said, I do feel we’ve hit a point of diminishing returns and hope they’ll let this game stand as it is... it would be much better to work on a sequel than do any more DLC.