Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands preview: Borderlands’ zany DM gets a bigger campaign

Just as in mainstream Borderlands, it didn’t take long for me to find my favorite weapon in a preview playthrough of Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands — Gearbox Software’s mashup of its 13-year-old shooter franchise with an off-the-rails, tabletop RPG actual play. Naturally, it’s not my fault.

Whatever the reason, my character class was able to use it to encourage reloading using the ammo left in their clip. It’s a disposable rifle, which the Borderlands series has done before; once done, you chuck the weapon, another teleports into your hands, and the discarded one blows up for some gratuitous violence. You can find it here. Tiny Tina’s WonderlandsThe deceased rifle summoned a kind of netherworld spirit which turned into a sentry gun that fired dark fireballs at the enemies.

I was struck by the large number of ammo containers that hostile goblins had left behind in the designated sub-boss battle area. So, I began throwing rifles and letting them do the dirty work. This was the highlight of the most notable evolution. Wonderlands From its predecessor Tiny Tina’s Assault on Dragon KeepUnexpectedly, a 2013 popular add-on. Borderlands 2.

Dragon Keep It was like Wonderlands Pure Borderlands. Running and gunning. Some clever dialog interruptions let you know that Tina was the module’s dungeon master in a similarly bonkers module. Bunkers & Badasses role-playing game. However, Dragon Keep, you’re still running around with Borderlands classes and the main world’s weapons.

Credit to Gearbox’s designers, the creativity and effort behind the weapon skins in Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands The company sells the product as more than a mere spin-off. The arsenal is still mainly ranged weapons — swords, morning stars, and axes are still right-thumbstick attacks whenever an enemy gets too close. The sounds, projectiles and reloading animations can be quite amusing. One weapon, functionally a grenade launcher, is reloaded by sprinkling magic dust over an open pot of crystals serving as the weapon’s magazine. The boss battle is at 18:45 on the walkthrough video. It summarizes Polygon’s story, and offers a glimpse into the media that was used to preview the game over the last week.

There are no class-restrictions on weapons in Vanilla Borderlands. Some weapons, such as those graded rare or above, provide passive, marginal buffs to classes abilities. Playing as a “Graveborn,” that meant I was trailed by a flying familiar (a “Demi-Lich”) also spitting attacks and only occasionally getting killed. Graveborn’s ultimate attack, such that I understood what I was looking at, converted some of their health into an overwhelming burst of dark magic, which put a premium on deploying it when it was sure to finish off my surrounding enemies.

The other class, which I played less of but which is featured entirely in the preview video above, is the delightfully named “Stabbomancer,” which functions somewhat like the preceding series’ sniper or Siren classes. They have a formidable melee attack that whips blades and then quickly disappear to safety.

Let’s be clear: While the weapons, armor, and spells of Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands Although they are unique, all of them still use the same shields and guns from the Borderlands universe. Wards can boost your shield rating, and absorb certain types of damage. Your armor can be enhanced with magic rings that have better recharge and capacity. The left bumper can be used to perform magic spells. However, they have a slight cooldown that can be adjusted by other gear.

The same applies to inventory and loading. Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands The main series also uses the same method. My character was level 9, and had 36 slots. It took a few quick trips back to Borderlands to retrieve all of their crossbows and smaller maces. No matter what my weapon’s capacity or rate of fire was, I was never in danger of running out of ammunition. I couldn’t tell if this was specific to this preview build, for the writers’ convenience, or if loot chest availability corresponds to the difficulty chosen (I took a standard setting). However, every corner was dotted with ammo and cash drops.

As for the story, I couldn’t pick up much with regard to the overall campaign goal. Note to the previewers: We were located in an optional part of main game. I was solving some workplace issues for a hapless group of enslaved goblins that I’d run across. Tiny Tina seemed to be providing the voices of the NPCs/mission-givers. Occasionally, others would break the ice by offering wall-breaking remarks, such as asking for the aggravating roll to detect magic.

Wonderlands’ meta-story looks like it will play a half-assing-it adventuring party (including A-list comedians Wanda Sykes and Andy Samberg, with Will Arnett in the role of the big bad) against a frustrated DM who is taking things way more seriously. I didn’t see Tina interpose directly on my story arc, but the game’s menus are clear that she will rebalance the game, even if players elect to min-max their builds.

Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands, First announced at E3 2021, it will be available for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5 and Xbox One. It will also launch on March 25, 2015, as a limited-time exclusive via the Epic Games Store. It’ll be available on Steam later.