As a longtime fan of the Borderlands franchise, there was no debate that I would be picking Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands up on the release date. There were mild concerns within the Borderlands community that this game end up being more like Borderlands 3, where it had an amazing look and feel to the game but was to be too easy with loot constantly dropping and a very forgettable story. Thankfully, Wonderlands is a fantastic addition to the Borderlands universe that is spearheaded by an amazing group of voice actors, creative customization options, and fun gameplay while remaining true to the Borderlands aesthetic.
The campaign of Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands takes place within a Borderlands version of Dungeons & Dragons called Bunkers & Badasses, this is not the first time we have played through something like this as one of the Borderlands 2 DLC, Tiny Tina’s Assault on Dragon Keep, was very similar. The story in Wonderlands is that you, the “Fatemaker”, are tasked with taking down the Dragon Lord (Voiced by Will Arnett) who is attempting to takeover Tiny Tina’s campaign himself as he has a strong hatred for the way she just throws away/kills off her B&B characters without a care in the world.
As anyone who has played through a D&D campaign before would know, there is constant chatter between your party throughout your campaign as the Dungeon Master, who is Tiny Tina (Voiced by Ashley Burch) in Wonderlands, builds the world and guidelines of the world in which your quest takes place. The game does a great job of incorporating funny spur of the moment changes as you are progressing through certain quests within the game by having Tiny Tina speak with the rest of your party, which are two-stranded thieves that Tiny Tina found after their ship crashed, Valentine (Voiced by Andy Samberg) and Frette (Voiced by Wanda Sykes). These other players become your advisors throughout the campaign. On top of the spur-of-the-moment funny moments, this game is overall very well written and will keep you entertained through the somewhat short playtime. Adding to the immersion of playing a D&D campaign, you do not travel directly from place to place while in your first-person view, but rather are taken to an Overworld where you are put into a third-person view and can make your way to the various locations in the game and even meet a few strangers with side quests along the way.
The campaign and side missions will take you roughly 10 hours to beat with moderate exploration. By the time of completion, you should be close to the max level (40) with decent gear which will make the endgame content feel easy for most. The only thing that is available postgame for those that did not purchase the season pass is a game called “Chaos Trials”, where you take on waves and waves of enemies as you gradually change difficulties and add extra challenges while working for the best gear in the game. Unfortunately, this gear will be useless unless you are planning on purchasing the DLC as there is no “Badass Mode” like other Borderlands games.
The gear itself has always been amazing in Borderlands and this continues that streak. On top of adding theme-appropriate weapons like crossbows, Gearbox also added melee weapons and spells into the game giving your character extra layers of customization and loadout building options that you have never had before. Spells take the spot where you’d typically find your grenades. The spells are unique and fun to play with as you discover new ones throughout your playthrough.
Speaking of customization, Wonderlands is the first Borderlands game where you are not forced to choose a single character throughout your playthrough where you can only make minor changes to their appearance. In Wonderlands, you actually fully customize your character all the way from your body type to your appropriate pronouns (he/him, she/her, they/them). This is a very welcomed addition as it makes it feel much more personal while playing and almost gives me more incentive to ensure that my character has the best loot because I want my character to be an absolute badass.
Overall, this game is an absolute purchase for any Borderlands fan and is the perfect game to introduce potential new fans to the franchise while exposing them to the fun and playful type of gameplay and dialogue that is consistent throughout all Borderlands games. Truthfully, the only real negative that I have about this game is that the story is too short and the postgame content is too repetitive to keep an average gamer invested until DLC is released. Wonderlands is available on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC.
