Shake that booty

Captain Scarlet and the Pirate's Booty is the first story expansion for Borderlands 2 and the overall plot sees you hunting after the legendary Captain Blade's lost treasure of the sands. The DLC takes place in Oasis, and the first person you meet here is Shade, a Hunter S. Thompson lookalike who's kind of lost his mind.

The first quest involves helping Shade by taking out the pirates that are stealing all the water from his town. After clearing out these enemies, you come to quickly discover that Shade is a f*cking lunatic.

Borderlands 2: Captain Scarlet and the Pirate's Booty (Xbox 360 [previewed], PlayStation 3, PC)
Developer: Gearbox Software
Publisher: 2K Games
Release: October 16, 2012
MSRP: $9.99

Shade learns that you're looking for Captain Blade's lost treasure, and directs you to go meet up with Captain Scarlet, another pirate looking for the legendary treasure. You need to use the new Sand Skiff vehicle to meetup with Scarlet, as the desert is filled with sand worms, a new creature type in Pirate's Booty.

The Sand Skiff breaks down the second you try to drive it, so Shade directs you to go meet the local townspeople who will have the parts you need to fix the vehicle. As it turns out, Shade is the only resident of the town and all the "people" you meet are just mannikins with loudspeakers attached to them. Shade pretends to be each citizen, and it gets hilariously creepy. Nothing but the best from writer Anthony Burch!

Once you've acquired all the parts, you can repair the Sand Skiff, which will remind you of the sand skiffs from The Return of the Jedi largely thanks to Randy Pitchford's love of Star Wars. You can equip the Sand Skiff with a machine gun, rocket launcher, and a explosive harpoon gun, and the vehicle handles really well thanks to its ability to strafe and move laterally. Although they can only hold two people at a time, there will be additional Sand Skiffs available when playing with four players.

Eventually, you'll meet Captain Scarlet, and it's made abundantly clear that she will stab you in the back the second she gets the chance to do so. Still, teaming up for the time being will benefit the player -- she knows the secret to finding the buried treasure. Her first mission has her sending you off to steal a key item from someone else that's searching for the treasure.

It's looking like Gearbox will easily have Vault Hunters coming back for more based on my hands-on time with the DLC. Pirate's Booty will be about eight to ten hours, and was likened to the General Knoxx DLC from the original Borderlands. On top of the new story, there will be new weapons, characters, currency type, enemies, side quests, and raid bosses that will keep you engaged well until the next DLC arrives.