Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands Review (PC)

Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands is one of those games which feels like it should be a lot better in its own concept than it was in its execution. However, sometimes games can fail upwards, where the flaws still create something that is exceptional and a great experience. Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands is one of those games where failing upwards is a thing, and while it might have slipped under a lot of radars during the February/March flood of games, Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands could be a contender for Game of the Year… If it wasn’t for one nagging problem…

Name: Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands
Platform(s): PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S
Developer: Gearbox Software
Publisher: 2K Games
Game Type: Action role-playing, first-person shooter
Mode(s): Single-player, multiplayer
Release Date: Out Now

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7z4d_PsxIo

ROLL FOR INSANITY SUCKAS!!! (Story)

Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands takes place during Borderlands 2 and Borderlands 3, with Tina DM’ing a game of Bunkers and Badasses with Valentine and Frette the Robot. Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands is part RPG and part FPS game where you will be blasting your way through The Wonderlands, going through such locations as Brighthoof, the home of Queen Buttstallion (Returning from Tiny Tina’s Assault on Dragon’s Keep), Weepwild Dankness, Mount Craw, and many other zany and different locations as you track down The Demon Lord, a very generic bad guy who seems to be intent on keeping the players from playing a normal game of Bunkers and Badasses.

While you battle the legions under The Demon Lord’s command, mostly made up of Skeletons, Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands will see you teaming up with the likes of Paladin Mike and also Borderlands notables such as Mr. Torgue (as a Bardbarian), and Brick (The Fairy Punchfather). They’ll help you along your way as you take down all sorts of nasty creatures to save the world of The Wonderlands and get the Sword of Souls from The Demon Lord.

You might notice a lack of the usual story transcription that I usually do for these games, that’s because there is so much to Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands that I don’t want to spoil anything. There are moments where old friends return, a robot goes on a quest to get the best gear in the game, and characters get killed off suddenly that it would take forever to type it all out. Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands is a game that you have to experience for yourself in order to understand and enjoy what the game has to offer. So avoid the wiki’s and play the game for yourself.

A Cell-Sharded Wonderland (Graphics)

Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands is one of those interesting games where a clash of the usual and unusual come together to make a perfect harmony of stunning visuals that creates something special. While the visual style of Borderlands is the same cel-shaded style that we get to enjoy in Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands, it’s the smaller things like the use of everyday items in the overworld maps that makes things special. From tipped soda cans making a river, bottle tops used to make bridges, Cheetos blocking your path because they got dropped on the map by a messy DM, you’re going to find little moments in the world that will make you laugh as you would see something like this in your own game of D&D (if you play).

When you get into the actual levels of Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands, unfortunately, you see the dated and almost copy/paste Borderlands graphical experience. Everything looks like typical RPG fodder, losing the cel-shaded look of the overworld for a lot of boring browns and greys. Even the magical main city of Brighthoof looks so hum-drum and generic that it doesn’t seem too different to the main cities of Borderlands 3… Which keeps being the main problem… Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands looks like a Borderlands 3 reskin with something that feels a little better than the original, much like Tiny Tina’s Assault on Dragon’s Keep felt like a more fun version of Borderlands 2.

GUNS! MAGIC! EXPLOSIONS!! (Gameplay)

When you think about Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands, you would think of something like D&D on steroids, however, what we got in Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands is more Borderlands with a D&D reskin to it. You would think that Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands would have a focus on melee, magic, and other things that are D&D related than it would an FPS game… But there isn’t. While you do get magic spells which are very fun to use, the focus of Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands is just like Borderlands 3… Guns. Lots and lots of guns.

Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands spends a lot of its time giving you guns for the most part with bigger numbers and weirder names. Eventually, you do open up rings, armor, and necklace slots that help buff your classes and abilities to do more damage, but most of the time you’ll be using your guns to do that damage. Speaking of the classes, you get some interesting parodies on the Barbarian, Rogue, Mage, etc but since Borderlands has been using classes for a while now, there isn’t anything new here. You can also spend forever customizing your character, but chances are you’ll never see yourself outside of photo mode, so there’s no real point there except for more loot for you to pick up over time.

Unfortunately, Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands had a chance to do something really special with this game, but the more I write about my experience with Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands, the more I realize that it’s just another Borderlands game with a much better and random story.

Form a Party or Roll Solo (Replayability)

Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands does have some replayability to it. Not only can you do a New Game+ mode where you can keep gaining levels and get better loot, but that’s all there is to it. You do get some rush modes where you fight wave after wave of baddies, but you can do that in the normal game too, thus making the current end game pretty lackluster. However, Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands does have a Season Pass with 4 DLC drops that will contain new dungeons, loots, bosses, and mobs; so there might be something down the line that will make Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands a more replayable game than it is at this time.

The other way that you can enjoy Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands again is to team up with some friends and go out and kick butt together… If the servers work. At the time of writing, I have tried a few times to play Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands with friends in order to stream some content and just have fun like we traditionally do. Yet when it came time to join up and mow down the hordes of skeletons, the servers would have some sort of crazy meltdown and be down for upwards of 8+ hours a night… Something that really gets annoying with time differences because a majority of the downtime with fixes happens during peak playtime and also Australian daytime, the only time I could team up with others and play Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands… A huge disappointment.

When the servers did work though, Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands is an amazing multiplayer experience. Through new settings that allow you to play competitively or cooperatively (aka loot being shared between players or players getting their own loot) Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands gives you more than enough loot to get some good stuff pretty quickly and you do not feel guilty because of it. The online connection through Gearbox’s SHiFT servers is stable and lag-free when it works and provides a great experience for all players.

Rolled a Natural 20 or Natural 1? (Closing)

Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands is a game of great in concept but flawed in execution… But it’s an amazing flawed execution. While writing this review, I began to realize that Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands is nothing more than Borderlands 3 with a better story. There was so much potential in the idea of an RPG version of Borderlands, where magic would be more of a focus than guns, but when you can just take a good game, mix in its best DLC, and make a lot of money then why not do so? If you like Borderlands, then Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands is going to be well worth the purchase, but if you wanted something different, then best to avoid this game till it hits sale.

Review Disclosure Statement: Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands was provided to us by Gearbox Software/2K Games for review purposes. For more information on how we conduct and handle reviews here, please visit our Review Guideline/Scoring Policy for more info. Thank you

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