It feels like just yesterday, but Borderlands 3 came out nearly two years ago back in 2020. Flash forward to the present day, Gearbox has released Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands, a completely standalone game that ultimately bears no effect on the overall Borderlands story. While this game can be very inventive and fun, there’s a constant sense of zero urgency and lack of motivation to progress leveling and enhancing my weapons after the story has wrapped. That’s because the entire game is actually a game within the game, everything is made up from Tiny Tina’s imagination as she is the Dungeon Master of this fantasy story.
Based on the fourth piece of story DLC of Borderlands 2, Tiny Tina’s Assault on Dragon Keep, it can be argued that this entire Wonderlands game is maybe a glorified piece of DLC. I know it can feel like Borderlands 3 DLC, because it looks and feels essentially identical to it, but there is enough here to call this its own game. Ashley Birch is back voicing Tiny Tina, a role she seemed born to play, as well as a lot of fun guest voices such as Will Arnett, Andy Samberg, and Wanda Sykes. The writing for the most part is very top notch and keeps a level of fun and energy to the experience while playing. There are many jokes that don’t really land though, living in a post Deadpool and Rick & Morty world, it feels at times it tries too hard to hit similar comedic notes and fails to do so. Comedy is subjective of course and perhaps the younger demographic will eat this up more than me.
Gearbox took the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” approach, because it’s true. Borderlands is one of the ultimate “Looter Shooters” in gaming right now and the gameplay runs identically smooth and great as it did in the previous game. The only differences from this and Borderlands 3 primarily seems only like cosmetic ones. There are still thousands, if not countless weapons to find, with countless variations of such weapons. If you’re already sold on the Borderlands franchise, this is clearly not going to rub you the wrong way. The biggest difference that I could tell was they replaced throwing grenades with casting spells. Something I really dug was the Overworld map, where you are a chibi (almost classic Final Fantasy like) version of yourself walking around a game board to travel to other locations/missions. It’s really cute and a clever addition that adds to not only the comedy, but the whole aspect of Tiny Tina telling her story as Dungeon Master. Speaking of D&D, if you are at all a board gamer, I’m sure you’ll pick up on the games many Easter eggs and references.
With a campaign that can last you about 20 to 25 hours and pretty good post-game activities to do to keep you continuing to play, it should easily appease the hardcore Borderlands fans. For me, I really struggled to want to put time into a game that ultimately doesn’t matter at all in the overall Borderlands story. The journey had its fun moments, but when it ended, I personally didn’t have any interest to stick around. It’s fun to see these characters again, it’s always cool to play new Borderlands content, but it made me just want a Borderlands 4 where as with this, the argument of it being very expensive DLC will continue to come up. Like I said, there is a lot to like about this experience, and the price of admission is justified and does hold its own being a standalone video game. I just click with it and I wanted something more substantial.
7.5/10
For more information, visit: https://www.playstation.com/en-us/games/tiny-tinas-wonderlands/
Gaming since I was given an original Nintendo as a kid. I love great storytelling and unique ingenuity. When both collide in a single game, I'm a happy gamer. Twitter/IG @NickNavarro87
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