Welcome minions, I mean meat bags, sorry I mean adventurers. We are about to embark on a brand new adventure controlled by the maniac DM/BM Tiny Tina. Last year, Gearbox announced Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands during Summer Game Fest. The latest Gearbox title is a spinoff of the popular Borderlands franchise and the Borderlands 2 DLC Tiny Tina’s Assault on Dragon Keep. Although Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands exists in the same universe as Borderlands, only a few of the series’ characters return in supporting roles. So is Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands a good stand-alone title in the Borderlands franchise? Let’s dive into our Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands review and find out.
Story
Like the Borderlands franchise, players adventure through the narrated world fighting enemies that Tina decides to throw at them. The game’s story focuses around Tina’s whimsies. At the start of the campaign, Tina is finishing her latest campaign where the heroes slay the Dragon Lord through the help of Butt Stallion. As a new player joins the party, Tina starts a new campaign but things do not go as expected.
After the tutorial area, the player is set to explore the overworld and save Queen Butt Stallion from the Dragon Lord’s undead army. Instead of things going as expected, the Dragon Lord gains sentience and causes the campaign to spiral out of control. Throughout the campaign, the Dragon Lord will insert his thoughts and opinions to the player; his goal is to sway you towards his side and create chaos amongst the party. Explore the world Tiny Tina tries to control and learn about those affected by the Dragon Lord’s evil.
In each level, you will learn more about the characters in that area, make new allies, and vanquish the allies of the Dragon Lord. Will you avenge Queen Butt Stallion? For a Borderlands game, the story of the game feels on par with Borderlands 2 Assault on Dragon Keep DLC. The game’s story will move players or make them want to collect shiny loot. Although the humor of the game sticks to its core foundation, it still draws inspiration from modern-day pop culture. Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands is able to revive players’ love of the Borderlands franchise after Borderlands 3 almost mockingly antagonized its core audience.
Yes, the created character’s personality is self-driven, but many fans of the franchise have been asking for this aspect rather than being stuck in a specific character role.
Gameplay Thoughts
The commentary in the game can be quite comical although it can be immature at times; ultimately that is to be expected when playing a game revolving around Tiny Tina. The game draws inspiration from various series that came before it. With references to Critical Role, WWE, Pirates of the Caribbean, Tangled, and even Jack and the Beanstalk. you never know what to expect. Each world has its own unique feel to it with personable and comical characters. Players can encounter previously fought enemies in random encounters and gain loot, experience, and even shrine pieces that will help players to level quicker. The overworld is not as bland as you might expect like other RPGs, there is more to explore than just a progression map.
At no point in the game does combat feel unbalanced even on higher difficulties. Before going into a new area, the game will warn you if you are under-leveled. At that point, it is your choice whether or not to power level before going in. By the end of the dungeon, the player will typically be at the same level as the area’s monsters; side quests can even power you past the threshold needed. Combat in Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands is pretty straightforward. The game’s mechanics works similarly to Borderlands where most gear will be obsolete before you hit max level. No shortage of loot.
Trying to play Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands cross-platform can be a headache. While playing on the Xbox Series X, the game would lag and continue to stutter step once trying to leave the social menu. If you want to play with your friends, it is easier to add your friend through Gearbox’s website and then invite them to your game. On numerous occasions, our game crashed when trying to invite our PC or Xbox One friends.
Building a character
Like DnD, players are able to build their own character’s look, background, and voice; the typical RPG start that players have grown accustomed to. The game’s create-a-character allows the player to design their character to their heart’s content within reason. In the create-a-character menu, players can adjust their characters’ height, weight, voice, facial structure, and build. Despite picking a character class, the player will have the opportunity to multiclass after completing a set story quest. Once the story is complete, you are able to change your secondary class at any time.
Unlike Borderlands, Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands uses a class skill and an armor skill instead of a grenade or active skill. Once the player has multi-classed, they can choose between each class’s abilities. Armor skills are determined by the chest piece equipment attached to the player. The armor skill will change the spell and controls how many spell charges the player has. Until reaching max level, gears will easily be replaced. Remember that item management is important; players can upgrade their item slots, weapon ammo capacity, and storage. Once the player reaches the end game content, they can battle in the challenge dungeon; additionally, players are able to reroll their gears item abilities. This can allow players to keep the gear they love while modifying it to the stats they need.
Visuals/Graphics
Throughout our playthrough, the only visual glitch we encountered was when the game would freeze or crash after navigating through the social menu. The cell-shaded art style continues to be the primary focus but feels closer to Borderlands 2 style than Borderlands 3. The game’s menu system and combat effect still draw influence from Borderlands 3, but that’s not a bad thing. Attacks will typically register most of the time. On a few occasions, we would encounter lag spikes when neither player would have issues with their internet causing some untimely deaths. Each level has its own aesthetic with the area offering a unique feel when exploring a different part.
Character and NPC visuals have a wide variety of color schemes. This allows the player to customize their character visual how they desire (paint their mini). While playing through Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands, players can find different customization kits to give their character more of its own expression. Enemies could have a similar character model but the alteration in color would imply their effects varied from their counterparts. There is a rainbow of colors to witness and a variety of gear and equipment to show off that rainbow.
The Overworld can be hard to look at, at first, but once the player realizes its efficiency compared to long cutscenes, it becomes a blessing in disguise. Even in the Overworld, each area has its own unique feel with areas changing artistic coloration. As you explore the overworld, your character will learn new abilities to open the map up; these abilities each have their own unique look and objects to look for.
Controls/Settings
Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands keeps the Borderlands style control scheme. Players are able to adjust the maps rotations, and how the player looks and moves. The game only offers two main controller schemes, default or classic. The player can adjust the button layout to meet their needs. The default controls are probably the easiest to use. Players can change their difficulty setting while playing but can not change between cooperation and competitive. The game does offer players an aim assist, ads snap, subtitles, and colorblind features.
These alterations make the game easily accessible for most abled gamers.
Audio
The game’s audio is pretty standard for Borderlands titles. Some weapons have their own specific sounds and feel. At the moment, no weapon has a sound that stands out above the rest, nothing like the chicken gun. Most character voices can be enjoyable to hear and don’t sound like each other. Some voice actors’ range went beyond their typical range. For example, the Chris Sabbat player’s voice sounded like British Almight. Barry Yendell’s voice was easy to distinguish whereas Kent William’s Pirate was a little harder to discern.
With the subtitles, even if you miss a piece of dialog it is easy enough to understand.
Replay Value
Outside of having difficulty connecting to other platforms, we had a relatively easy time playing Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands. Yes, the game does offer a lot of customization features but at the end of the day, they barely add to the game’s replay value. The game does give the illusion of choice, but from our experience, the variations in choices feel meniscal. Each option seems to have no long-term effect.
Sadly, Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands is the shortest Borderlands universe title to date. The game’s time to beat falls between the Tales from the Borderlands and Borderlands the Presequel length. Playing through the game, there appears to be a lot fewer missions to complete. In fact, Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands takes half of the time to perfect as base Borderlands 3. For a stand-alone $60 title, this feels almost likely robbery. Yes, you can replay the game, but why should you if you can switch between classes after beating the campaign. You can create different variants altogether, but at the end of the day, you have limited choices of where to go and what to do.
Verdict
Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands is fun to play through the first time or even while helping friends complete their campaign. Sadly, the game does not live up to the overall expectations that the team set. Yes, it still has the same Borderlands feel, but as a whole comes up a bit short. The story is enjoyable and the chaos dungeon does give players end game content, but at the end of the day, it is rather lacking due to limited missions and overall exploration. Why buy a $60 game you can perfect in under 35 hours when you can pick up Horizon Forbidden West or Elden Ring and get double or more gameplay for the same price. If you love the typical Borderlands art style and humor then it will be an enjoyable time, but if you were looking for a massively open-world look elsewhere.
The game’s overall story is enjoyable but the Dragon Lord still lives in the shadows of Handsome Jack. Despite playing through the campaign, there was no moment that really stood out to us. Yes, there are comical moments but not ones that you talk about at parties or ones that will carry on for years to come. As a stand-alone title, it’s more of an expanded DLC rather than an actual game.
Yes, the game is fun, and if you LOVE Borderlands you will have a good time; so get it. Otherwise, wait until the game goes on sale.
A digital copy of the game was provided for review purposes.
