Game Review--Tiny Tina's Wonderlands (PS4)

"This is an outrage!  I am entitled to what I want at all times."

--Karen the Coil, Tina Tina's Wonderlands

Not as emotionally insightful into Tina as Assault on Dragon Keep but still a much better game in some ways than Borderlands 3, Tiny Tina's Wonderlands offers plenty of Borderlands-style quests and gunplay.  Centered on a Dungeons & Dragons stand-in called Bunkers and Badasses, which debuted in Assault on Dragon Keep back in 2013, it follows Tina and two of her friends as they play a tabletop game to stop a Dragon Lord.  This Borderlands game features an isometric Overworld for the first time, just as melee weapons appear for the first time--you could use a default melee attack or the blade on certain firearms in previous games, but now there are fully equippable axes and swords.  Tiny Tina's Wonderlands does genuinely expand the series mechanics, and even if its core story is one of the weaker ones of the franchise, it still contains moments of very well-executed comedic dialogue.

Production Values

Explosions of color greet players throughout the approximately 20+ hours of the game, if you complete many of the side quests along the way.  This is Tiny Tina's game, after all, so of course there are explosions!  At their best, the colors and animations look great, but the details of character models and environments might fill in after several seconds of remaining close to blurry textures, an unfortunate Borderlands staple in different games.  Far more consistently high quality is the voice acting from Tina, her two fellow players (besides the player's voiceless character), and the other NPCs, some of which are characters from other games worked into Tina's tale.  At times, the writing is even very clever, circling back to what were otherwise random ideas and comments Tina made that fit her strange personality, though Borderlands 2 remains the height of the the franchise's comedy.

Gameplay

As mentioned, one of the biggest additions to the gameplay is an entire new class of weapons with melee items, some of which have their own elemental or other bonuses.  For instance, a certain kind of axe might have a vampire effect where health is stolen from every enemy struck and transferred to the player's character.  Spells also replace grenades, but magic being the source of these attacks is not the only change to this mechanic.  There is no need to collect ammunition for spells as is the case with grenades in the prior games, as they have a brief timer that resets the attack.  Some spells have more than one use before they are completely depleted, and increasing a character's intelligence stat shortens the amount of time that spells "cool down."

The new Overworld, a very novel feature for Borderlands, is shown from a top-down camera perspective, complete with unlockable shortcuts, items, and enemies.  Walking through grass might spawn one of these enemies, which can be quickly dispatched by melee attacks--if they reach you first, an Encounter is triggered, where you are taken to a small map modeled after the surrounding region of the Overworld to kill attackers until a progress bar fills up.  Special Lucky Dice made to resemble the die from Dungeons & Dragons are scattered throughout the Overworld, as well as in the first-person locations, not counting the brief Encounter arenas.  Once you enter a specific place, the typical series camera perspective and gameplay resumes, and you can teleport to the Overworld or to individual regions at any time.

The rest of the game is spent shooting, bludgeoning, exploring, or solving very mild puzzles.  The main story only has 10 quests--11 if the epilogue is included.  There are far more side quests to complete that put more of Tina's imagined Bunkers and Badasses story on display.  Completing most, not even all, of the quests the first time through will put you at level 40 before the end of the game, at which point your character will no longer level up in the main sense and will gain access to a second experience bar of sorts for your Myth Rank, which can be continually filled up far past 40 times to unlock a separate kind of skill point.  Yes, there are Hero points, skill points, and Myth points, so there are many ways to improve your character well beyond the initial stats.  Upon completing the main missions, Chaos Runs are unlocked with their Blessings, Curses, and a new currency called Moon Orbs, meaning there is still a lot to experience even after defeating the final boss.

Story

Some spoilers are below.

Tiny Tina plays a game of Bunkers and Badasses with three companions, acting as the dungeon master who dictates the direction of the story.  Once defeated by Queen Butt Stallion (introduced in Borderlands 2), the antagonistic Dragon Lord has been released, using his creatures to attack Butt Stallion's city of Brighthoof and kill the queen herself.  The Dragon Lord says he knows he is in a tabletop game, and he points out that Tina is responsible for his actions as the main story unfolds.

Intellectual Content

Never going as deep into struggles with trauma and control as Assault on Dragon Keep, Tiny Tina's Wonderlands still lightly touches upon these things.  It is the case that some of the more explicitly philosophical humor and themes of, say, Borderlands 2, which Assault on Dragon Keep was DLC for, are absent.  Rather than the brilliant satire of something like fitheism found in the second game, here, the majority of the themes have to do with how Tina controls her game as dungeon master while the Dragon Lord realizes he is in a game.  At points, it is strongly suggested that this game of Bunkers and Badasses is actually happening in its own world alongside events in Tiny Tina's world, like a movie really happening as viewers watch it.  Some of the Dragon Lord's comments suggest this, and in a side quest, an NPC even flies out of the Overworld until one of Tina's fellow players says he thinks a bug flew into him.  More could have been done to explore this, but what is there does fit into the Borderlands style of meta humor.  in spite of the comedic atmosphere, the Pinocchio-inspired side quest In The Belly is a Beast is quite serious, showing yet again that even this lighthearted game series has a very dramatic, personal side.

Conclusion

Tiny Tina's Wonderlands is overall a great game thanks to its mixture of gunplay, multitude of quests, and fantasy emphasis.  There is plenty to do after the story is completed, and the gameplay itself is very well-refined by this point.  While it might be appreciated more by hyper-fans of Dungeon & Dragons, anyone who likes Borderlands will have a lot to enjoy.  As a full spinoff game that is closer to conventional Borderlands than Tales From the Borderlands (and its sequel), it does succeed in providing more fittingly bizarre lore for the story within a story Bunkers and Badasses is utilized to tell.  Tiny Tina's Wonderlands is very distinct in some ways from the rest of the main series while still keeping the best gameplay elements that had already been introduced.  It is a worthy continuation of one of gaming's most unique franchises.

Conclusion:

 1.  Violence:  The typical Borderlands aesthetic style is present without the prominent blood or mild gore of the other games.  The shooting and melee attacks do not produce as much blood.

 2.  Profanity:  Words like "damn" are used several times.