Roll for Initiative!
In an effort to start this review off with a bang, I have a hot take on the Borderlands franchise that no one has asked for. I much preferred the original art style for the franchise; the gritty, Mad Max-esque world. But I completely get why Gearbox reversed course and decided to change the world of Pandora into the one we know and love. Out of everything that someone could say about the Borderlands franchise, ‘lacking unforgettable characters’ wouldn’t be one of them. Wisely, the team at Gearbox decided to follow up what I felt was a lackluster adventure in Borderlands 3 with giving the true starlet of the franchise her own game (Assault on Dragon Keep doesn’t count since it was a DLC first) in Tina Tina’s Wonderland.
Wonderlands sees our titular heroine BM’ing (that’s Bunker Master, I know what you thought) for what is the best-est game in all the Borderlands; Bunkers and Badasses. Which is itself basically a game of Dungeons and Dragons, complete with miniatures and a landscape that Tina has already created. Wonderlands does a decent job of setting up the story in and outside of the roleplaying game. Never one to break away from tropes the story sees Tina awaiting repairs for a broken space craft with a “handsome, hero type” named Valentine voiced by Andy Samburg and a “sarcastic droid who likes to murder” whose name is Frette and is voiced by the always funny Wanda Sykes and of course the player character. After some quick tutorial stuff, the game allows players to “paint” their miniature.
MSRP: $69.99
Platforms: Xbox (reviewed), PlayStation, PC
Price I’d Pay: $69.99
Which in a first for the series is basically creating a character from scratch. Players will be able to choose their body type, skin color and everything in-between when creating their heroes. The creator system isn’t super deep, but there are a ton of options and sliders which will enable most people to really embrace the role playing in Wonderlands. And of course, just like other Borderlands games as players progress, they will unlock various colors, armor skins and more to change up their characters looks. Because who wants to have the same looking armor for 154-hour adventure, am I right?
The overall narrative in Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands is pretty standard fantasy fare but with all the “comedic” trappings that the Borderlands franchise is known for. In this fantasy world instead of shields we use “wards” and instead of grenades heroes will lob “spells” at their foes. Each character can equip a melee weapon which range from swords, axes and hammers and come in all kinds of varieties thanks to the randomized loot system that Borderlands has always used. Even with everything that players have come to expect from Borderlands having a fantasy coat of paint the world still feels new yet similar at the same time. While the main quest will see players attempt to take down the Dragon Lord voiced with gusto by the indominable Will Arnett; for his atrocities against Queen ButtStallion, it was a lot of the side quest that I had more fun with.
Never one to shy away from a spoof, Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands is full of little Easter Eggs and nods to other pop culture media. One of note that I loved because of how much I enjoy the source material was a quest named “The Ditcher”. Any gamer of recent years should know that this is of course is referencing the uber popular series The Witcher and its protagonist ‘Geralt of Rivia’ who is relentlessly parodied here as ‘Gerritt of Trivia’; There is even a shout out to the Netflix Witcher series by way of a “Toss a Coin to your Witcher” reference. At one point during this quest the companions ask Tina why she made Gerritt, “such a jerk-face” to which she replies without missing a beat “not everyone is sunshine and candy balls. Some people’s got issues. He’s one of em!” delivered with such sassiness that only Ashly Burch can muster.
Speaking of, all of the voice artist in this game have done a dynamite job, even the random villagers just everyone’s voice was right. Which I think also says a lot about the writing for this game, in the past Borderlands games I have maybe chuckled at some things but it was never overly funny. However, I don’t know if it’s due to me getting into D&D recently so I was able to understand more of the jokes or what but I laughed quite a few times at this game. The banter between Tina, Frette and Valentine is often hilarious and then when you throw the Dragon Lord in there it’s always a party.
Combat is by and large the same from a kind of “shoot everything that’s an enemy” standpoint. However, Wonderlands does spice things up with the use of spells for grenades and giving each class multiple ultra-attacks this time around and with the use of a proper RPG overworld to explore. Tina is not new to the BM’ing game, and the world that she has built will be explored by players. As they navigate the terrain, you will rivers made from a spilled soda, bits of popcorn littering the board or my favorite a cheese curl that end up turning into a whole side quest in order to have it removed before the heroes can progress. The world that’s on display in Wonderlands is a joy to explore, it’s just as bright and colorful as other iterations of the franchise but with all the fantasy elements you truly don’t know what you’ll see next.
By and large there really wasn’t much that I didn’t like about Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands. While the team at Gearbox did a great job of taking care of some legacy issues there are still a few glaring ones that can hamper the fun. For one, when you join friends, players will be teleported to the nearest spawn/clone device. Well, that’s all well and good, but some of the levels are quite large and can mean quite the jaunt to get to the action. Which for me meant on more than one occasion I was just running through empty landscapes littered with loot because my friends had already been through this way. Only to finally catch up with them once the quest had been completed; I know what your thinking “Well you got some loot, why cry?”. Because I wanted to shoot stuff with my friends, that’s why. Its not a huge issue, and this series has done it for ages but with other games being able to link friends up easier there really isn’t any excuse that this is still a thing in this series.
Another little thing is that loot sometimes just felt kind of underwhelming for the effort I put forth to get it. Call me crazy, but if I down something some levels higher than myself I expect to get some decent drops. But then again, these games have always been about the grind, and this one is no different if players are searching for a perfect build. Just be sure to seek out the hidden D20 die around each area, the more you find the better your loot tables will look.
Well now, so what did I think overall about Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands? Well, I liked it quite a bit honestly, the humor was good, the acting was excellent from the main cast and the combat was just different enough to keep me engaged and constantly looking for better spells for my ‘SpellBlade’ class. I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the class system, Gearbox did a great job of crafting the classes and making them feel unique enough to fit in this fantasy world. While I would have liked to see more synergy between them ala real Dungeons and Dragons tabletop games there is just enough here to make players feel like they are contributing to the group dynamic. With some tweaks here and there, I’d love to be given the opportunity to play in Tiny Tina’s world again. She can BM for me anytime.
Review copy of game provided by publisher.
