As I blazed through my backlog of video games over winter break, one game I found rather unenjoyable was Gearbox Software’s latest entry in the eponymous Borderlands franchise— Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands. Despite the exemplary gameplay and presentation of this expansion on Borderlands 2’s best DLC pack, the poor writing, unfulfilling level design and overall lifelessness mix to create a product that feels akin to a hollow recreation of the games that arrived before it.
By no means does Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands fail to deliver good gameplay from a technical perspective, as the game builds on the already excellent loot-shooter experience from Borderlands 3 and places it in a suitably chaotic landscape. Enemy encounters constantly force the player to keep moving, shooting and controlling the current situation, whereas bosses introduce enough variation from normal gameplay to provide fun and unique challenges. Additionally, the top-notch visuals and music do a great job showcasing a “Dungeons and Dragons” world crafted with chaos at the helm of creativity.
However, Wonderlands’ many flaws begin to appear via its writing, as it accentuates the issue the Borderlands franchise has suffered from since its third major installment. Borderlands 3 marked where the series shifted from darkly comedic yet serious tales to stories with lackluster moments and humor best described with phrases like ‘So Random, LOL’. The setting of Wonderlands — a world written by the franchise’s most chaotic character — exemplifies this issue, as almost all the comedy comes from pure randomness. Admittedly, the game does deliver the occasional funny moment, but this happens rarely among the metaphorical sea of bad jokes.
Additionally, the open-world inspired level design decreases the enjoyability of exploration, as areas lack anything interesting. While every area has several collectibles and side quests to find, and the collectibles grant the player perks like increased luck, nothing provides rewards that feel like they affect the gameplay in any noticeable way. For example, whereas special weapons in other Borderlands games alter gameplay enough to feel meaningful, the weapons one receives from optional content in Wonderlands feel either cumbersome to use, indistinct from everyday weapons, or underpowered compared to one’s current arsenal, which devastates one’s interest in these optional goals. This issue makes the vast levels feel like chasms with nothing but enemies to fight and meaningless trinkets to obtain.
These two issues annihilate Wonderlands’ gameplay loop. For example, level scaling usually does not affect gameplay of the other Borderlands games due to their implementation of side quests, as one can either complete them alongside the main quest line or accomplish them in interesting side areas. The funny moments and challenging gameplay seen during these side quests drive players to complete them. However, this motivation evaporates since players have almost nothing to look forward to in either side quests or side areas.
This produces the aforementioned lifelessness Wonderlands suffers from. Since a player probably will not complete optional objectives, they are not gaining the strength needed for the game’s later areas. The game forces players to complete additional content to gain experience and weapons needed to complete the main storyline rather than completing them for any valuable reason. Even if the gameplay is fantastic- regardless of what foes and areas the player adventures through- one still goes through the motions of playing the game rather than experiencing the game.
All in all, I would recommend Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands, mostly if you want unique gameplay based on Borderlands 3’s mechanics, and give it a 6/10.
