Tiny Tina's Wonderlands

The first spinoff to the Borderlands franchise is a hit and run that met my expectations after the bar was set with Assault on Dragonkeep. After playing the Borderlands 2 dlc Assault on Dragonkeep, I was 100% ready for another fantasy installment from this franchise. And Tiny Tinas Wonderlands does just that, giving us an even more expanded look at Tinas weird and wacky imagination. Making my character a Graveborn and then making my other class a Spore Warden, I found my abilities to be very useful and really fun. I also enjoyed the spell aspect of the game, which you use throughout the game instead of grenades. This was better than grenades and made gameplay truly awesome. The new characters this game has is also a highlight, especially Dragon Lord played by Will Arnett. I do wish he was in this game significantly more as I think besides Tina, was a major highlight of this game. I really enjoyed all the humor this game has, I love the fantasy vibes; maps are super colorful and vibrant, lots of cool enemies to kill, and they even have a cool new feature called the Overworld where you transverse the Wonderlands looking like a funcopop. But there is one aspect of the game that I think ruins my perfect score for this game; the endgame material. The Borderlands franchise has been really good with its dlc releases, with some of these dlcs being some of my favorites! But with Tiny Tina's Wonderlands, it's the opposite. Me and my friend checked out the chaos chamber for awhile, and while it's definitely a time waster, it's ultimately boring. We made it to chaos level 19, only because at first, my friend wanted to try and see if we could get some primordial-grade loot, but we basically came to the conclusion it wouldn't be worth it because all we had to do was finish the boring mirror levels. Now, I forgot to mention the true disappointment of this game; the mirrors of mystery. There's 4 mirrors; each mirror has 4 "levels" to complete, and lemme just say; the storyline to these are trash. Everything about it was boring and half-assed. I of course love the gameplay and some of the cool locations, but it was boring replaying the same mirror 4 times. This truly wouldn't of been that much of a problem if these dlcs didn't cost a lot, but 10$ for one mirror is not worth it. So, on that note, I truly hope some actual decent dlc gets added to this awesome game, because it desperately needs to wash out this bad taste it left with mirrors of mystery.

In all, a great game that took quite a bit of hours from me. I maxed out my level to 40 and got to mystic level to 103 before me and my friend got everything finished and called it quits. Without the dlcs, this game is something truly special from Gearbox, and I hope they expand some more on this in the near future.

Seriously, what happened to Gearbox? Did they lose their ability to write good stories and characters? The only redeeming quality of this game was that it had co op... Despite that the game gets extremely easy if you play the side missions, to the point that you kill every bad guy after chapter 6 with like a few bullets, the dice u have to collect was a pain in the ass, ruining the looting aspect of the game, the loot was HORRIBLE, i ended up increasing my luck, getting every dice, unlocking that chamber on the overworld and i was still getting common loot during the final chapter! Really bad jokes, abnoxious voice acting and repetitive missions and bad guys... If i was playing it solo i would have dropped it for sure bofre i finished it... Just REALLY BAD i expected more from gearbox!

Despite what I heard before diving in, I have to say I was pleasantly surprised with Tiny Tina's wonderlands. Despite some obvious flaws it manages to improve on certain aspects of The Borderlands series and lays out a solid campaign that keeps you entertained throughout. That is until you hit the DLC's.

Loading up the game for the first time I went in with pretty low expectations after hearing some bad reviews, for example I heard the overall game was totally woke (I mean what isn't these days) and it wasn't funny whatsoever, but I honestly found less agenda pushing than I thought and I have to admit I did laugh more than I expected.

Now while the humour isn't up there with the likes of Borderlands 2 it definitely holds its own and although some of the jokes didn't land whatsoever, others were genuinely laugh out loud, atleast for me. Tina is exceptionally funny as always and it's very refreshing to jump into a more well rounded version of the Dragon keep DLC from Borderlands 2.

The voice acting is superb and having people like Andy Samberg who knows how to deliver his lines perfectly really improves the overall feel and atmosphere of the game.

When it comes to music... there isn't any. I watched a few reviews on YouTube with one saying the very faint theme music that plays sounded like a cat being strangled by a violin. While I wouldn't go that far it does sound a little peculiar and apart from that there isn't any music to set the tone of certain maps or characters which is a shame. However the positive is you can play music in the background while thoroughly enjoying the gameplay.

The gameplay and core mechanics are exceptionally good. Having just finished yet another playthrough of borderlands 2 about three months ago with a friend, I noticed so many improvements, some little, some big, but all helping the game feel more well rounded and thought out. For example the fast travel really feels like an actual fast travel now. At any point you can open a portal and return to the "overworld" or to your base at brighthoof and then once you've done whatever you need to, you can jump straight back where you left off, right down to the exact inch of where you were standing. It's fantastic and simple but it's a massive improvement over having to run all the way back through an entire map to get to a fast travel station, travelling out and then having to run all the way through the map again once you return. Time saving is always appreciated for someone who plays games for a living.

The overworld is the new addition also where you navigate from a top down perspective a small version of your character on a board just like a tabletop game. It's a nice little feature that adds something new and keeps it fresh throughout your playthrough as you collect dice, shrine pieces and take on encampments of enemies to get better loot.

The levelling system and progression is as always superb. This is the main reason I play games like borderlands, the division, and almost any other looter shooters I can get my hands on. Good progression in a game is such a rarity these days with games like Forza giving you Lamborghinis at the start of the game, here here in Tiny Tinas it's a slow but constant building towards an over powered badass who is (almost) impossible to kill. You start by getting more loot than ever before but you have to pick and chose because some of it is just simply scrap for extra coins and some weapons, spells and wards can last you 5+ levels. The grind isn't really much of a grind at all when you always feel like you're improving your character and making them stronger with each passing hour. That's why I love looter shooters so much.

While the main story is very good and side missions feel better than ever, the end game just isn't as good in my opinion. It's a repetitive slog of running through chaos chambers time after time trying to improve your chaos level and hoping to find some better gear along the way. While this is fun at first it does wain after around 5 hours and you tend to simply play the game less at this point.

DLC's: Well I have to say I completely understand the outrage on this. People paid full price for a season pass or bought a very expensive edition of the game only to be hit with 4 pitiful excuses for added content.

Some are 1 hour tops, some are 10 minutes of gameplay with extra legendary weapons or items added. Now while I do understand this game was developed at a time where people were having to work from home and that does bring certain struggles and issues, it's simply unacceptable to call these things DLC's. Having played some of the best DLC's ever in the Borderlands series it's a real shame to be let down by gearbox on this. The only positive for myself is that during Black Friday I managed to get the chaotic great edition of the game with included season pass for £35 ($40) less than half the price of the game when it was released. If I had paid full price for the season pass then I would be much more upset so I can completely understand the backlash on this topic.

Overall a game that will definitely keep borderlands fans happy and although there is lots of improvements and adjustments that make the experience feel more well rounded than ever, it's slightly let down by very poor DLC's and a somewhat repetitive end game, however it's still absolutely worth playing and even if you don't laugh at the story or don't like the characters the gameplay itself will keep you thoroughly entertained.

Short story that's unfunny and boring, First DLC is a joke! Poor!

If your a fan of the other borderlands I would say skip this one as it's terrible!

Don't buy this game!

Good:

* Gunplay is solid as always * Writing is mostly a hit * Found the voice acting to be well done

Ok:

* Enemy variety is average * Side quests can be as fun as the main quest * Chaos chambers end game is a good way to extend the game * Game is a good length, doesn't over-extend its welcome * Story is fine, villain is interesting

Bad:

* Music almost didn't feel like it existed * Pop-in texture all over the place in * Game is largely way too easy for anyone with any FPS experience * Bosses are extremely forgettable for the most part.

Verdict:

Borderlands 2 remains the king of the series.