Tiny Tina's Wonderlands

Whenever I think about first-person looter-shooters that have outstanding writing, over-the-top characters, and pop culture references coming out of every orifice, it's hard for anything to come above Borderlands in that respect.

- Neil Hetherington

Despite Borderlands 3 falling short in the writing and character front, it still had solid DLC campaigns that tickled my tick boxes.

When the prospect of an entire game based around the Assault on Dragon Keep DLC from Borderlands 2 was teased, I couldn't help but be invested in the development of that title. Now here I am, with Tiny Tina's Wonderlands in my hands, and can't wait to get stuck in.

It was here that I hit my first issue, as I sat waiting for a good half hour at the title screen, wondering when the game was going to start. This is when I looked at my second monitor and saw that the game was requesting to link with my Epic account to do some back-end shenanigans, which I assume is for the whole cross-play malarkey that players can enjoy. So don't do what I did and sit there like an absolute plum, waiting for something to happen.

The game kicks off with a cinematic conclusion of a Bunkers & Badasses session. We see new faces emerge with Valentine (Andy Samberg), Frette (Wanda Sykes), and the Dragon Lord (Will Arnett) doing battle at the top of the Fearamid. One other character sticks out, known only as Newbie, with their non-painted model as pointed out by the Dragon Lord. This newcomer character just so happens to be me, I am the Newbie!

Once this session ends, Tiny Tina, our resident Bunker Master, kicks off a brand new game session, designating me as the Fatemaker; the hero of her new story. Valentine and Frette act as my advisors throughout my adventure and Tiny Tina hands me a character sheet to start detailing my avatar. As this departs from the usual pick-your-protagonist format from previous Borderlands games, I was presented with the choice of six classes - BrrZerker, Clawbringer, Graveborn, Spellshot, Spore Warden, and Stabbomancer - with the Clawbringer being my selection for this review.