We met Tiny Tina for the first time in 2013 in Borderlands 2. More about you we learned at the DLC Borderlands: Tiny Tina’s Assault on Dragon Keep, which introduced us to the tabletop game Bunkers & Badasess, a parody doppelganger and playalike of Dungeons & Dragons. And in Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands awakens the living tabletop game for Gearbox’s second spin-off game in full length from the Mainline Franchise Borderlands again to life.
Regardless of whether you have met it in 2013 or not, Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands has its own independent storyline, which means that you know what’s going on, even if you have not played any of the other. I have already played about seven hours, and you can certainly say that its main attraction is to be incredibly borderlands in every way, form and shape. Nevertheless, it still feels fresh, thanks to the Gearbox, which takes over this “game in the game” concept and runs with it.
Bunkers & Badasses turns, similar to D & D, everything around the storytelling. And while Tiny Tina tells her own fantastic story, they play them. I realize immediately that in Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands is a lot of fun.
D & D is known to weave a story that players take a journey, and B & B is no different. The campaign is changing while Tiny Tina and her friends dictate what happens to you while you navigate through the Wunderlanden. Fortunately, it is the usual nuclear, funny and sometimes almost album humor, which is even more supported by the synchronous speakers they have chosen to bring the characters from Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands to life.
Ashly Burch repeats her role as an overrised Tiny Tina, which is a fantastic message when considering how much enthusiasm you put into the role. And then there are established stars like Andy Samberg (Brooklyn Nine-Nine), Will Arnett (Bojack Horseman) and Wanda Sykes (Ice Age), who connect the cast and deliver the impact humor, which we have here from the Borderlands franchise Know and love.
In addition to the quality of the cast, every character is gathered around the table of the B & B game and plays with them, which creates a pretty unique dynamic and connection.
But it’s not just about the storytelling, and I would be a fool if I believe that a borderland game wants me to focus on. When I enter the Wonderlands, I will be recalled and prompted to create the expansion of the matching opportunities of Gearbox and prompted my character sheet to play my role in the Wonderlands. So before you can play B & B, you must decide which of Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands classes or FateMakers you want to be.
I decided for Clawbringer and her Thor-like hammer, because I presented myself to give me a companion, the Wyvern kite, something that is not available at every class choice. This was admittedly a decision, where I was not sure when I started playing, as his skills in the waves of relentless enemies that blocked my way to almost every corner, something lost. However, after I had reached a certain point, I was presented with my secondary education, and here I felt my FateMaker really was brought to life. I had played with the idea, Stabbomancer, a humid assassin with swirling sound, as to select my main class. The chance to combine my classes to work on two skill trees and to double character talents was a great complement to the game.
The adaptation is much deeper than just your class. You can choose your pronouns, you can choose the distance and the angle of your eyes and you can even select the symmetry of your mouth. All this can be changed as soon as you reach the tavern, as I learned later. Really a relief, since I played incredibly safely for the first time. Regardless of what class you decide, you can be sure that you have to do hard and hard in any fight you are thrown into. And, similar to Tiny Tina’s own zealous nature, is busy.
The selection of weapons is plentiful for example. In Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands is the way you equip your weapons quite similar to earlier Borderlands games. While you work through the game, open slots, which means that you have to switch between more weapons. Seven hours in and I hold three; A sniper, a shotgun and a pistol. In Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands, your sign says, as you might know it from Borderlands, now your shield. And instead of a grenade you have the ability to act a spell.
There are many similarities with the fighting of other Borderlands games, as they will fire like crazy and enjoy the big, eye-catching numbers jumping out of the wounded body of their opponent. And similar to the Borderland’s franchise, you must also focus on improving your skill tree and to spend your valuable points for strengthening your strengths.
As a claw britter armed with my spectral hammer and wyvern, I decided to focus on my weapons and cause elemental damage with my skills. In addition to capability points, you can also form your FateMaker with heroic points that can be issued for areas such as strength, intelligence and skill.
So while I created my character and distributed my points, the adventure continued through the Wunderlanden. I meet Queen Butt Stallion, a shiny, majestic unicorn, which is also the ruler of miracle countries – why not? When Tiny Tina produces the form of the country, everything can happen.
After winning myself through the first few missions, I will also be introduced into a very important addition to the game, the overworld. It’s a game within a game, but it’s also a map within a map. In the Oberwelt, you control a wackelkopfigur of yourself, which moves from place to place. A welcome supplement, I would say, as earlier Borderlands games felt a little uncomfortable as each card split shared. The Overworld really contributes to bringing together the multifaceted world of Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands.
It is the lively tabletop area in which you travel between cards filled with combat encounters, activities, quests and explorations. And explore is the same better prey, right? Casual combat meetings are offered if you come into contact with a random figure on your overworld card – figures I am pretty early because there are potential for better prey, but no action behind it was and therefore did not succeed, and it did not succeed Interesting interest. At a moment in the Oberwelt, I came across a renegade cheese sheets left behind by Tiny Tina on the board and quickly turned into another majestic mission that contributed to make it clear that the game is dictated by the “real life”, But nevertheless full of fantasy.
From the Oberwelt I dive into different cards, make me on campaign missions and side quests, find lucky cubes (which raise their chances to good prey in the area) and look for yellow color markers that point out that parkour prey has been found. However, the missions offer little except shooting and plundering, similar to the entire Borderland franchise.
Although it is a staple food of the series, I have found that sometimes a little repeated. That should not mean that there is no excellent opportunity to hammer through a game, but sometimes I searched for a break in Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands and hoped for some lightweight variations of the Borderlands formula.
Thanks to the storytelling, you can occasionally find a break, but mostly it is only short duration. Understandably, if you consider that, as soon as I come into a co-op game with friends – as I like Borderlands games most likeless – less on history and spend more time to argue about what prey everyone lives Has. From the beginning, however, I was set to the narrative arc that there is a great evil boss called Dragon Lord, which I will defeat as soon as I have eliminated his henchmen. For a game that is so varied and dramatic, it is a too narrated story.
The true luminous star of Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands is, as I have already mentioned, really the game within a game concept. If you change your story to a cent (or a cubes), this is an extremely entertaining and humorous journey, even if the overarching action is a bit easy.
Andy Samberg’s figure, for example, is the self-detected Valentine, which at some point suggestions, I should seduce a drawbridge to fall off. Tiny Tina can decide in the middle of the narrative that the area is too easy and instead flood it with hordes of undead storming on a besieged village.
It is also worth mentioning that Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands was still technically impressive. When playing on Xbox Series X I can only welcome the visual skills and smooth gameplay I’ve experienced. Only in rare moments, I suffered from a delay through the sheer amount of things that went in front of this time, but it has also made some really epic moments with ease. Hopefully this performance continues during the rest of my piercing.
A fantasy game is something that the developer Gearbox wanted to do for a very long time, and here it is. I wonder if his emergence caused by the games created between the vision of Gearbox and the arrival of Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands was slightly distorted and strongly influenced by Borderland’s proven recipe instead of a unique own. But with such a popular formula it is absolutely understandable and is incredibly well transferred to this fantasy world.
After the first few hours I feel a lively and precisely worthy supplement of the Borderland’s franchise. Patience with the final result – it comes as soon as I see where Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands leads. However, I predict that she, as she said myself, is “spicy, like Jambalaya”.
