Here be (dungeons and) dragons.
If you’ve been around a while then you’ll know life is full of top notch pairings. Wine and cheese. Turkey and cranberry sauce. Borderlands and Dungeons & Dragons. Yes, it’s doesn’t take that much of a leap to imagine these two concepts overlapping but I don’t think anyone could have predicted the success of Borderlands 2 DLC Tiny Tina’s Assault on Dragon Keep.
Debuting the idea of Borderlands D&D, Assault on Dragon Keep was a small, spin-off campaign to what was arguably the best main series title. Short though it was, the DLC is probably the most revered among players in Borderlands history, so it should be no surprise that an upcoming standalone entry is generating plenty of hype.
Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands was announced at E3 just last year, and is set to feature some big name celebrity voices at Tina’s table. Stevivor was recently given the change to go hands-on with a playable build of Wonderlands, and so far we like what we see.
Our preview build had two classes on offer: the Graveborn and the Stabbomancer. The Graveborn is a sort of pet-summoning necromancer type with a Demi-Lich companion. Sacrificing health for damage, she can either choose a high damage dark magic nuke or a steroid that constantly damages her in exchange for dealing more damage while it’s active. She offers a compelling, burst style of gameplay for players who can handle the self-damage trade-offs.
The other available class, the Stabbomancer, is your classic rogue type with tonnes of critical hit damage on offer. Where the Graveborn offers a burst damage style of play, I found the Stabbomancer to be better at sustained output instead. In our build he could choose between casting a large spinning knife in an area, dealing damage over time, or going invisible and bumping his crit chance through the roof.
Once we’d selected one of these (Graveborn for me, though I preferred Stabbomancer) we were off to Mount Claw where some goblins were in need of aid. Set on the cliffsides and mines of the aforementioned mountain, this snow swept vista was home to the Goblins Tired of Forced Oppression. Yep, there’s that classic Borderlands humour.
These goblins, being rallied by the hopeful GTFO inductee Jar, have been exploited by some bigger, meaner baddies and it’s up to the players to supply them with some much-needed freedom. On top of that classic Borderlands humour, Wonderlands also leans heavily into fantasy RPG tropes and of course the popular mainstream portrayal of Dungeons and Dragons.
The dialogue is as corny as those couple of Community episodes, but you can tell that the creators have crafted this with love. Of course, there’s also the options to Intimidate and Seduce some NPCs with suitably comedic results, with the dialogue spoken by both your player character and accompanied by some meta-narration by the characters at Tina’s table.
Despite the change in setting, moment to moment gameplay feels classically Borderlands and offers a lot for fans of the series. Much like Assault on Dragon Keep, grenades are replaced by spells and offer powers ranging from fire balls to lightning bolts and even meteors which can crush your foes. Borderlands as a series has always been known for the design and diversity of its weapons, and I’m pleased to report that Wonderlands is no exception.
The classic gun manufacturers that fans will be familiar with are still there, but their identities have been transformed to suit the fantasy setting. There’s crossbows and swords aplenty, as well as all manner of more traditional arms, covered in runes and given that distinctly fantasy flavour.
From our brief snapshot of Wonderlands sit certainly seems like Gearbox is on to a winner here. There’s plenty here for Borderlands fans and tabletop nerds alike, with that trademark potty-humour and tonnes-o-guns-play meshing well with the fantasy setting.
While sadly not a DLC for Borderlands 3, being a standalone game gives Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands far more freedom to really be its own thing. If the dev team can stick the landing and offer a compelling campaign, then all of the pieces will be in place for a rollicking good time.
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Tiny Tina's Wonderlands25 March 2022PC PS4 PS5 Xbox One Xbox Series S & X
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