That was awfully quick.
Once upon a time, the first Borderlands 2 DLC wasn't to be available until Oct. 16, but Gearbox surprised everyone today by announcing that Gaige the Mechromancer is now available for download.
She'll be the fifth character class to join the other vault hunters, Salvador the Gunzerker, Zer0 the Assassin, Commando Axton, and Maya the Siren. Gaige will be available for free for players who pre-ordered Borderlands 2. For those who didn't, Gaige can be snagged for about ten bucks, or 800 Microsoft Points.
Like it's done in the past, Gearbox has added Gaige's skill tree to its website, so players can plan out their character ahead of time, if they so desire.
Salvador dual wields, Axton has his turret, Zer0 is stealthy, and Maya can phaselock, but Gaige? She has a big friggin' robot on her side that she made herself, with the lovely moniker, the Deathtrap, which Gearbox's president Randy Pitchford described as Claptrap's big angry cousin, calling it a, "gigantic evil robot that'll just beat the living shit out of the enemies." Like Tiny Tina, this makes her one dangerous teenager, even by Pandora's reckoning.
The Mechromancer will be free to players who pre-ordered Borderlands 2 and were entered into the Premiere Club, or $9.99 (800 Microsoft Points) for other players. Gearbox has also added Gaige's entire skill tree to the Borderlands 2 official site, letting players plan their character early.
Pitchford recently spoke with fans via Kotaku, saying what we can expect from future DLC:
"We have some plans and some hopes and dreams...The stuff we're planning and working on for the Campaign DLC Season Pass is big DLC stuff - more like Knoxx. We're extremely far along with the first campaign DLC. The second DLC is also in amazing shape. The third DLC is a little farther out and the fourth DLC is just in the pre-concept stages. We will have other, non-season pass related DLC. The additional character (Mechromancer) is one kind of example. The Borderlands 2 team is fired up at the moment. Customer love for the game is driving us wild - making us want to do more and more stuff. So, expect that there will be even more beyond the big Campaign DLC in the Season pass and the add'l character. We'll announce more stuff as soon as we are able to be confident in the commitment of the details we share...Things like new weapons and enemies will come in campaign DLCs and other DLCs."
Lengthier DLC expansions ARE expected in the future. As for adding more character classes beyond the Mechromancer - "We created the ability in Borderlands 2 to add additional characters because we want to use that ability. The Mechromancer is the first one. I hope to do more. The success of the Mechromancer will help to define this. Our ambition and passion and our fans requests will also contribute to decision making about what we do."
