Borderlands 2: Sir Hammerlock's Big Game Hunt

Borderlands 2's quest arcs had a good rhythm, of waxing and waning action, with large goals sliced up into numerous intermediate story beats, and less-intensive side-quests sprinkled throughout. The Captain Scarlett and Mr. Torgue DLCs found great success in implementing smaller scales of this same formula. But Sir Hammerlock's Big Game Hunt feels like it's made up exclusively of the lower-action parts; like it's all side-quest.

It's especially disappointing because of the awesome premise: following Sir Hammerlock into the untamed wilds to track and kill fantastic beasts, should be a blast. But this only happens in optional quests, and only a couple of times. The DLC's main story thread is about pursuing Dr. Nakayama, a truly (and self-admittedly) pathetic villain who, at the end, is actually terrified to fight you. And the journey to him is a brief, yet still disjointed sequence of mowing down natives and having Claptrap flatly give up puzzle answers to you.

The Big Game Hunt is still more Borderlands 2, and in that it does succeed. There are environments to explore, items to collect, and interesting enemies to fell. Actually, some of the enemies are a little too interesting -- there are way too many warriors with shields and masks, making life disproportionately difficult for a sniper, reliant on critical hits. But I digress; on the whole, this DLC is more Borderlands 2, which isn't bad.

But it could be better.

Better than: Sleeping Dogs: Zodiac Tournament
Not as good as: Borderlands 2: Mr. Torgue's Campaign of Carnage
And of course: there's another "invincible" boss, which will eat up plenty of your hoarded Eridium just to unlock.

Progress: Finished all the solo-able quests