Imagine Borderlands
Borderlands is a compelling series, in the sense that there always seems to be a game (or DLC) working for it, and they’re all head-to-head. There is certainly a repetition difference and quality levels, but when I hear the word “Borderlands“It’s hard to think of a pivotal moment in the franchise’s history that helped it break through to the corporate stock market. Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands doesn’t offer such a striking historical moment either, but that’s for sure, which is mostly good news if you’re looking for another shooter shooter.
Tiny Tina’s WonderlandS (computer [reviewed], PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X / WILL)
Developer: Gearbox Software
Publisher: 2K Games
Released: March 25, 2022
MSRP: $59.99
So it is Borderlandsbut Tiny Tina is narrating everything with a fantasy /D&D color (same as her DLC for border zone 2) and can bend the story to her liking (from the thematic synthesis point of view). There are guns, classes and lots of loot to enjoy and hard work through, but now you can “roll” (choose) your own character instead of playing as a friend you can buy a character act.
Since classes are intrinsically important to BorderlandsI’ll go over all six gimmicks:
- Stabbomancer: A type of scam that focuses heavily on critical hits (cricks). While this is usually not a playstyle that I fully accept in most of these games, the dominant nature of Borderlands This system helps to get this up and running fast. “Crib upon crib” is how I put it, and the class transmission is fun to watch at a party and play.
- Clawsbringer: A companion class that also uses a hammer. At first, the difference between it and another companion class (Spore Warden) was less obvious, but over time the skill tree unraveled. Plus, the hammer is clearly designed around Thor’s “recall” ability, which you can do in the game.
- Spellshot: The type of mage that can use traditional spells like polymorphism, and is hard to deal damage with raw magic power. The main idea here is that you always have to cast spells, which in turn gives you a passive damage power that will wear off over time. It makes for a high-octane gameplay with some utility and is probably an easy choice for most people if they don’t know what they want to do but blow up stuff right away.
- Graveborn: A type of warlock that uses health as a resource. This is arguably one of the more complex classes in the game since you’re always interested in death, but it also has a pretty high level of performance. Wonderland needed a character like this for repeat playthroughs and veterans in particular.
- Spore Warden: Another companion class, using bows and arrows and focusing on poison damage. Given that the companion is a mostly passive entity, it’s also one of the less physiological classes to choose from, and the tagging fungal organism certainly makes an impression.
- Brr-Zerker: Classic brutal melee character using close-range combat abilities and fury. They use icy powers, which sets them apart a bit. This is the inverse of Spellshot, and is perfect for people who like characters like Brick from the series.
There is a good spread! Of course, everything uses guns and there is a dual mechanic, which greatly expands the build system. For my “main” character, I chose Clawbringer and Spore Warden for the dual companion action, which is fun, but naturally other combos exist. After choosing your initial class, you can choose your body type/appearance, pronouns, voice, background (things like “elve-raised” or “recovery hoarder”, subject bonus and spread metric) and overriding metric distribution.
In all of this, you’ll keep going on quests, cut short by tidbits from Tiny Tina and her crew (mostly her “party” with Andy Samberg and Wanda Sykes), as well as a joke from the evil Dragon Lord (Will Arnett). They are basically talking the whole time, which is equivalent to a course for Borderlands. If you’ve grown tired of Tina based on her sequences in other games, you might not get through without turning off the voiceover sound. I won’t, though.
Ashly Burch certainly doesn’t call it here, and Samberg and Arnett really take care of it, too, sending it up as needed. There’s a bit of a disconnect between the aforementioned meta “party” and your actual actions in the game, and although you can easily wave your hand while blowing things up, you can feel it. get that in the slower parts of the game. The narrative doesn’t take itself seriously, which is beneficial for a side story like this, but is sure to upset some people.
The villain will chat and talk to you “one-on-one” (just like handsome Jack can “break into your phone” and do the same thing in previous games), and joke is still a mile a minute. But with the relaxed “whatever happens” theme, much of the text feels less constrained, as the “hard” post-apocalyptic context is completely dropped in favor of something light. than. Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands‘the difficulty system helps with this, as you can swap between “comfortable, balanced and intense” at any time, which is a sliding scale of player damage (and emphatic boost) on elemental combinations), enemy damage and gold reduction.
There’s an exciting moment very soon that puts you in the kind of game Wonderland will be. I ran into a shipyard full of skeletons, with Tina depicting a catastrophic scene, with subsequent flourishes occurring on screen after her demise. It’s a fun vibe that the original Tina Tina The DLC nailed it, and it’s still pretty unique to this day. The text is just silly enough to work and its lowest moments never reach the lowest of Borderlands‘ shrunk back.
Some of the choreography feels boxed. A lot of the setup involves going to an area, slightly affected, then being asked to defeat an elite enemy: after that, a wall explodes and you can progress. When the ending zones are more open (like the one above) this burns a lot less, but some of the slots are so linear that it feels like a chain of arenas connected by pictures. exploding wall. On the contrary, I feel like Borderlands the series has gotten better at providing a variety of environments apart from the humdrum trash heap of the first game and Wonderland keep that tradition going.
Several elements of the inventory system are changed here (more focus on the melee gear slot, as well as the spells that can be installed). But it still has some of the same downsides and a bad design – especially a large amount of junk and having to manually select items to trash. Busy work and inventory Tetris metaphor (item limit) returns, but with more build options: it’s a trade-off.
To get to the new quests, you’ll traverse the “underworld” (seen in the screen below), which I’ll take or let it go on. Simply put, it’s set up like an old-school background world map, with elements of light exploration, very light “Puzzles” and a few basic “random encounters” send you to an arena to battle enemies for loot. In that same circuit it doesn’t matter because there is no over-dependence on it. At worst, you can often run around random encounters and pick the next area in less than a minute.
As is the case with most Borderlands game, the more you play, the more you unlock and the more fun you will have. The underworld lets you go more places, the dual class system opens up more builds, and there’s always the classic late game activity in the form of a “Chaos Room”, which is basically a random dungeon to play in back and a step up from some other games Borderlands equivalent.
Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands a lot of Borderlandsand softer fantasy fare can actually get people to join for the first time. With that in mind, it’s still more than Borderlandsso the same basic formula won’t magically change your stance if you’re a lapsed fan.
[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]
