PC Gamer - UK (2022-06)

It was a surprising move for a shooter
expansion, but it sure did pay off,
hitting an untapped vein and quickly
becoming everyone’s favourite DLC.
In 2 022, though? D&D is popular as
it’s ever been, approaching cultural
oversaturation, and
Tiny Tina’s
Wonderlands returns to
a well that’s close to
running dry.
While it looks like a
bouncy fantasy-
comedy, it plays like
Borderlands.
Specifically,
Borderlands 3. Some of the guns shoot
crossbow bolts and the grenades have
been replaced by spells, but moment-
to-moment it’s typical Borderlands

• you shoot hordes of bad guys who
  repeat pithy one-liners, then compare
  loot to see if the new guns and
  shields are better than the old ones,
  and then do it again.
  Being a review of a Borderlands
  game, I’m obliged by law to tell you
  about the best guns its randomised

loot pool spat out for me. A sniper

rifle that fired sawblades, each of

which did higher damage the more

sawblades were already in a target,

was a highlight. The Tediore guns

that don’t need to be reloaded –

instead transforming

into throwable

explosives then

teleporting a fully-

loaded replacement

into your empty hands

• have returned, and I
  got one that didn’t
  become an explosive
  but instead became a
  laser pixie that harassed bad guys.
  Another summoned hydra heads that
  vomited poison. Which was nice.
  One significant change is
  character creation. Rather than each
  class being tied to an individual
  character, you play as a nameless
  newbie, building a face and colour
  scheme and choosing a voice (you
  can even alter the pitch, an option I
  haven’t seen since Saints Row IV),
  and then choose any class you want.

GET A (MUSH)ROOM

I spent most of my time as a Spore

Warden, a kind of fungal ranger with

a walking mushroom pet I upgraded

so he farted poison. A few of the

classes get NPC allies; my co-op

buddy played a Graveborn who had a

floating skull friend. My mushroom

companion really came into his own

when I played solo, even able to

revive me when I dropped in the

absence of a co-op partner. While

co-op is a chaotic good time like

always, having an NPC ally makes

playing alone an even more viable

option, and it was already a totally

satisfying way to play.

Of course, I had to revive the

friendly fungus sometimes too, which

got me into trouble more than once.

Though actually the worst thing

about him was how distracting he

was. He’d hop around in the

background when quest givers were

talking, his floating title

‘MUSHROOM COMPANION’

appearing in big white letters visible

over the NPC’s face. His detailed

buttocks were distracting too.

The Spellshot’s class ability, being

able to slot in two spells rather than

one, seemed underwhelming at first,

but when you get spells that drop ice

meteors on skeletons – who take

bonus frost damage because they

don’t have skin to keep them warm,

just go with it – it seems worth it. But

the Stabbomancer being able to

throw a spinning melee weapon that

becomes a blade tornado you can

reposition around the battlefield?

That’s my current fave.

Melee weapons are a new

addition, but not a game-changing

one. Your regular melee attack, still

mapped to V for some reason,

becomes a whack with whatever

sword, axe, or stick you’ve picked up.

They’ve got randomised stats, though

nothing as wild as the guns. Same

with armour, which mostly boosts

your class abilities like relics do in the

mainline Borderlands games, rather

than providing any actual protection.

T

iny Tina’s Assault on Dragon Keep, the Borderlands 2
expansion that doubled as a loving parody of Dungeons &
Dragons, came out in 2 013. That was a year before fifth
edition revitalised interest in Dungeons & Dragons, two years
before Critical Role premiered. At the time, jokes about
Dungeons & Dragons seemed pretty niche.

GUNDALF

TINY TINA’S WONDERLANDSis stillverymuch a Borderlands banter-shooter

By Jody Macgregor

I spent most of

my time as a

Spore Warden,

a kind of fungal

ranger

NEED TO KNOW

WHAT IS IT?

A spin-off that’s bigger

than an expansion,

smaller than a

standalone Borderlands

game

EXPECT TO PAY

£60

DEVELOPER

GearboxSoftware

PUBLISHER

2K Games

REVIEWED ON

Windows 10, Ryzen 9

5900X, 32GB RAM, RTX

3080

MULTIPLAYER

Yes

LINK

2kgam.es/3LV0G52

1

CAFFEINE PROCESSING

Wake-up juice keeps a DM

alert to shenanigans.

2

THE POWER OF

IMAGINATION

Also known as: stealing bits

from movies.

3

SNACK PROCESSING

80% sugary treats by weight.

4

DICE HAND

For fudging rolls as the

story demands.

5

ENCOUNTER DESIGN

“I’ll just put in one puzzle

door, they’ll love it.”

YOUR DM

Anatomy of a Dungeon Master

1

2

3

4

5

Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands

REVIEW

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