Tiny Tina is back! The popular break-out character of Borderlands 2 returns for another game of Bunkers & Badasses, a Dungeons and Dragon’s inspired role-playing game set within the Borderlands Universe where you must complete quests, vanquish foes, and Level-Up to overcome and defeat the dreaded Dragon Lord. You play as a character called Newbie, at least until you’ve made it through the Character Customisation, then you can be called whatever you wish.
Tina Tiny’s Wonderlands features an All-Star cast of voice actors both new and old, who do a great job at driving the narrative and keeping it light and entertaining, whilst also maintaining the same slapstick comedy that fans of the franchise have come to know and love.
I really do think the storytelling in this game is fantastic, and the comedy is as spot-on as always. There are lots of really funny and entertaining pop-culture references to listen out for and these would often make me smile when I came across them.
Joining the franchise as Valentine is Andy Samberg, who played Jake Peralta from the hugely popular TV series Brooklyn Nine-Nine as well as Saturday Night Live and The Lonely Island. Legendary comedian Wanda Sykes joins the cast +to voice Frette, a robot that used to work in accounting but now travels with Valentine as his navigator.
And another huge name in Hollywood known for his comedic roles in Film, TV, and other voice-over work, Will Arnett joins the cast to voice none other than the Dragon Lord himself, with Ashly Burch returning to the franchise once again to voice the incredibly disturbing yet totally adorable Tiny Tina. It’s worth mentioning that Ashly Burch has done a tonne of voice acting work within the video game industry with other notable mentions such as Aloy from PlayStation's Horizon franchise, as well as Cassie Cage in Mortal Kombat and Viper from the popular First Person Shooter game, Valorant.
Straight out of the gate you will notice Borderland's distinct Cel-Shaded art style which has been used since the first Borderlands game way back in 2009 and since Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands is a spin-off set within that Universe, it’s nice to see them continue to not only use this art style but also improve on it. It’s one of the things that drew me to the franchise, to begin with, and Borderlands has always done Cel-Shading right. I wish more games used this art style.
The game is beautiful and vibrant and each area you travel to has its own distinct characteristics and personality, which keeps progression fresh and leaves you feeling like you are in fact in a fairytale and that’s something that I really enjoyed.
The game offers 2 graphics modes, Performance or Quality. I’ve been playing with the Performance setting as I prefer 60FPS over 30FPS. Especially in a First Person Shooter and from my personal experience, I haven’t noticed any significant frame drops and the game has run nice and smoothly. Even in large combat sections with lots of enemies and effects going off. So that’s great.
So, something else I really liked about this game is the new Overworld, where you take control of your character but in a 3rd person setting, much like you would in a game of Dungeons & Dragons and this section plays much like Pokemon where running through tall grass can trigger an enemy spawn and thus a combat level, which is a lot like an arena. This area also has its own set of dungeons and side missions too and it really helps to break up the traditional linear progression from 1 area to another as seen in other titles.
Along the way, you will come across familiar faces from the Borderlands universe, such as Butt Stallion, ClapTrap, Brick, and even Torgue, and these guys will not only offer you quests but will also accompany you on some quests too.
And as we talk about quests, it’s important to note that I really enjoyed the quest design in this game. It’s so easy for developers to be lazy with a game like this and give you too many “Go there, kill this” & “Go here, collect that” quests. But Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands gives you plenty of quest variety to keep you busy and it prevents quests from becoming too much of a chore.
So, to conclude this review I would just like to say that if you are a fan of the Borderlands franchise like I am then be sure to pick this game up. Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands feels very familiar but also does enough to make the experience feel new and refreshing.
If I had to give this game a score from 1-to-10, I would give it a solid 8. I had a lot of fun with this one and I think any fan of the franchise would too.
Review By ReddersTV. Check out a video version of this review here:
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