What The Critics Are Saying About Tiny Tina's Wonderlands
It's been three years since players had a new "Borderlands" game to sink their teeth into — and many have set their sights on a spin-off title set within the greater "Borderlands" to rekindle their love with the series. "Tiny Tina's Wonderlands" not only hopes to deliver everything that makes a "Borderlands" title great, but also sprinkles new gameplay ideas and elements into a formula that fans have grown accustomed to. "Tiny Tina's Wonderlands" takes an idea first introduced in a "Borderlands 2" DLC "Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep" and runs with it, making a full game out of the fan-favorite "Dungeons & Dragons" spoof. That said, after the miss that was "Borderlands 3," can "Tiny Tina's Wonderlands" bring the series back into the good graces of players?
Reviews are starting to come in for "Tiny Tina's Wonderlands" and — though some have been quick to point out the title falls into some of the same pitfalls haunting "Borderlands 3" and that the series is approaching redundancy — generally critics have found it to be a mostly enjoyable and action-packed distraction full of laughs. Here's what critics are saying about the new "Borderlands" spin-off, "Tiny Tina's Wonderlands."
D&D Ala Borderlands Is Still A Blast
"Tiny Tina's Wonderlands" reintroduces players to a version of the "Borderlands" world told through the lens of NPC Tiny Tina's tabletop game "Bunkers and Bada**es." Though players will again find themselves traversing through a fantasy-inspired and "D&D"-spoofed world — just like in "Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep" — Gearbox has tried to double down on everything fans loved about the DLC.
Travis Northup of IGN describes the world as an "alternate-reality Dungeons and Dragons that replaces generic fantasy tropes with absurdity, gratuitous violence, and tons of guns regardless of whether they're setting-appropriate or not." Northrup would go on to say, "that's the magic of this larger-than-life looter-shooter RPG, which throws caution to the wind and embraces chaos and nonsense in favor of ludicrous and memorable moments."
That said, for players that aren't already on board with the style and presentation of "Borderlands" titles, "Tiny Tina's Wonderlands" isn't drastically reinventing itself. Players should still expect the game to make jokes at every opportunity, regardless of how they'll land. Forbes' Paul Tassi echoed these sentiments, saying, "My general sense is that Wonderlands will be appreciated by existing fans who have grinded as much Borderlands 3 as they can stomach at this point, and are looking for something, anything new. But if you're not already into this series, I don't think the switch to a fantasy setting is going to change much of anything for you."
Tiny Tina's Wonderlands Action Is Great But Not As Deep As Borderlands 3
"Tiny Tina's Wonderlands" commits to its setting in more than just presentation, adding some new features to liven up the action. One focus in the title is melee, something usually reserved for specific classes in previous "Borderlands" titles. As Owen S. Good at Polygon says, "It's a lot of fun. Elsewhere in the Borderlands series, if an enemy made it within melee or point-blank range, I felt like I'd failed in my ambition of being a marksman or an assault trooper. In Wonderlands, they get to meet the broadsword, kama, or morningstar I looted two levels ago."
Critics have also pointed out the unique classes introduced in the title. Chris Tapsell of Eurogamer praised this element of "Tiny Tina's Wonderlands" for "breaking out from the traditional fare of archer, rogue and co to slightly more interesting things like dragon summons and floating allied skulls." Critics were also almost unanimously happy with the discovery that players can multiclass after some time with the game.
That said, critics couldn't help but shake the fact that a lot of "Tiny Tina's Wonderlands" is reused from "Borderlands 3," even when it seems some features feel shallower. As Travis Northrup's IGN review put it, "it changes so little from Borderlands 3 that even with the setting being completely different I felt like I'd played it all before in the decade of time I've been enjoying the series already."