Follow Us
Tiny Tina is finally getting her own game, from the Borderlands Series, Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands. Back in 2013, Borderlands 2 had an expansion update called Tiny Tina’s Assault on Dragon Keep: A Wonderlands One-shot Adventure, where they spoofed Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) with Bunkers & Badasses. It was a bold move as D&D was not so popular as it was back then, before the the release of the fifth edition in 2014. Gearbox Software definitely made the right move anticipating the return of D&D.
The Borderlands 2 expansion is getting a game of its own entitled Tiny Tina’s Wonderland, giving us another run for the mystical world of Bunkers & Badasses. The gameplay is pretty much the same with how we play Borderlands, as a shoot and loot RPG, except you get to create your own character, with different classes. Each class has its specialty and specific build to maximize damage and efficiency. They also replaced grenades with skills that has a cooldown to add.
Gameplay
When playing the game itself, one would think that it really is just a “Magic Counterpart” of Borderlands because of the same mechanic of killing mobs, collecting loot, fighting bosses, get stronger from loot, and so on. The main game however felt dragging probably due to having the pace of the game slower than the actual Borderlands. This might be the cause of immense exploration with the multiplayer feature. Although after finishing the game, there area a lot of post game content in store for you much like any other looter games. You have the Chaos Chamber where you will run through a randomized dungeon, hunting for legendary weapons and leveling up your myth rank. The myth rank is accessible after maxing out your character to level 40. There are also DLCs in the game since Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands also has a Season Pass. You will encounter various new challenges that will also be added to the Chaos Chamber for you to explore.
The things that the game could work on is their melee weapons. They should definitely keep having unique loot for melee weapons however they must work on how melee weapons can be viable as a main weapon. If they are to carry over something that was not seen in Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands, its definitely the dedicated drops. The lack of bosses to farm overall in Wonderland makes it hard to find the right drop that you want. It would definitely take time to find the right pieces of equipment you need to say you have fully completed your character. Overall, these are just possible improvements to make the gaming experience easier and more enjoyable for the players.
Story
The cool thing about the game is that you don’t have to take it very seriously as it doesn’t take you seriously with its hysterical dialogues and crazy scenarios. With the already goofy humor of the Borderlands series, imagine how absurd the dialogue is in this game. You will find yourself enjoying the silly dialogues, actually following the story, despite having a hard time defeating some of the bosses with random attack patterns. The best part about the game in terms of content is the game really breaks the 4th wall, referring to you as the main character or The Fatemaker. It felt inclusive as actually having a legitimate character in B&B.
Another aspect they included is having big names such as Ashly Burch, Will Arnett, Andy Samberg, and Wanda Sykes as voice actors of the game. With some of these comedians in the mix, the story telling was even more amazing because of how they deliver each given lines. They really know the right comedic timing for each scenario. Hopefully the next expansion of Borderlands would consider casting celebrity comedian guests. Aside from this, these celebrities also know how to also deliver drama in the mix, which is scarce in the franchise. Having comedy as one of the main themes of the game, a little drama would catch players by surprise and might entice them to actually follow the story.
Graphics
Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands just looks like the latest Borderlands expansion. It’s really not that different in terms of how the actual game looks like so that could be either a good or a bad thing. Good since the familiarity is there while bad since there’s no stark difference or improvement from the main franchise of the game. I would say the design of the characters themselves, mobs, bosses or enemies in general were the ones that they focused on. Each enemy was very detailed to make you appreciate them first before shooting them in their faces. There’s also a slight improvement in detailing each area compared to the main franchise. Maybe this is to test out for the next main expansion to come.
Music and Sound Design
The game’s sound design is appropriate, with each hit and move sounding just right. It really depicts how a looter shooter would really sound like. Each gun, no matter how weird they were, would actually sound like how they look like. Take the crossbow gun for example, outputting a sound of a crossbow tied to a gun. It sounds odd but it really sounds like it. Each mob or enemy also has a distinct sound effect that is also appropriate to their kind. You would really think that you are inside a D&D universe.
Of course, we wouldn’t miss out the game commentary, which is brought to us by famous celebrities invited for the game. The game commentary is done by Tiny Tina herself, Valentine, and Frette mostly, since they are the Dungeon Master and Advisors respectively. Having familiar voices in mainstream entertainment actually intrigues the player to listen since they already heard them before. After hearing Andy and Wanda’s voices at the start of the game, I was sold already to actually follow the story and listen to all of their dialogues. This is the one of the best parts of the game in my opinion since it really urges the players to listen and really follow the story.
Lastly, the game’s general music was not really noticeable since it followed how Borderlands does theirs. There’s not much improvement in that area, just appropriating it to the scenario with either medieval times music or battle music.
Accessibility
The game is accessible to Playstation and Xbox console users as well as PC Gamers for Windows. The game also has a very precise tutorial from Tiny Tina to show you the ropes in dealing with each scenario given to you by the game. You will also have the liberty to select the class and adjust the stats you want and see fit with your play style. You can also have a sub class after your main class to switch from time to time. The game is very flexible for the users given that you are free to choose what play style you want, how you want to grow your character, and what equipment you would use from your loots.
Score: 8.5/10
All in all, you can say that the game is worth the amount that you paid for if you are into looters. There are a lot of things you can do with the game from its flexibility with your character build. Their post game content as well is vast so you’ll have a lot to explore afterwards. You can even try out different classes and build if you want to replay the game in a different variant. If you found our Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands review helpful, you can see more game content here in our Gaming section.