![]() Some effects aren’t as dramatic as others, and it’d be nice if those subtle effects were made more clear and useful, but much like Claptrap’s randomized VaultHunter.exe action skill, they introduce a fun shot of chaos into the already-hectic firefights. Every time you reload a glitched weapon, there’s a random chance of it being modified in one of a few crazy ways, like huge single-target damage at the expense of massive kickback. The new “glitched” weapon mods change things up too. They’re one-and-done, so you need to consider when to burn them carefully – and the fact that they might be a different color the moment you eventually do makes it an interesting decision. For instance, Volatile Bits are essentially floating clusters of polygons, that either heal you or deal big damage to surrounding enemies, depending on what color they are when you shoot them them. Story and characters aside, Claptastic Voyage iterates on the low-gravity shenanigans of The Pre-Sequel very well while adding more new twists. ![]() The result is a character I can still laugh with, but also, for the first time in the series, connect to. They somehow managed to make watching Claptrap’s struggle with self-hatred both entertaining and sweet. Trying too hard to make us care too deeply for such a light-hearted character could have backfired, but the writers knew where to pump the brakes. ![]() It doesn’t tug on the heartstrings quite as artfully as Dragon Keep, but Claptastic Voyage does shine some light on Claptrap’s inner workings, making him something more than the silly, wisecracking robot he’s been to us for the last six years - though, not much more. It feels chaotic and alien, but definitely cool and even thoughtful - especially when it treads into deeper waters. Zipping from place to place on neon-colored data streams is a Tron-era fantasy few modern games have realized, for instance, and seeing code glitches and memory degradation made manifest as obstacles or objectives makes Claptastic Voyage feel refreshingly unlike any other piece of Borderlands we’ve seen so far. Being set in a digital, Matrix-like world has upsides Claptastic Voyage’s environments are basically interesting abstractions of the inner workings of software, or of Claptrap’s memories, both of which are strange and entertaining in their own ways. Here, it’s a digital recreation of Claptrap’s notoriously scattered mind instead of Tina’s D&D fantasy world, but the setup is equally ripe with potential, and Claptastic Voyage dutifully makes the most of it, both in terms of gameplay and story content. At the same time, it’s a delightful departure from Pandora’s traditional trappings (to whatever degree you find masked, homicidal little people and robots who transform into pirate ships “traditional”). Much like Tiny Tina’s Assault on Dragon Keep does for Borderlands 2, Claptastic Voyage moves the Vault Hunters’ exploits into an imaginary realm that enables it to tell a very personal story.
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