Borderlands has in many ways been a franchise that hasn’t really done all that much you’d consider brand-new, with Borderlands 3 launching as pretty much an extension of what had come before. Which isn’t a bad thing per se, it was a minute since we got one of the great co-op action-RPGs with Borderlands 2 in 2012.

As a high-fantasy standalone off-shoot that introduces spells, skeletons, goblins, build-your-own hero mechanics, and more, Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands captures the juvenile and over-the-top spirit of the series in a form that both celebrates and elevates some of the series’ greatest strengths.

The latter is exemplified by what is perhaps the best Borderlands end-game experience to date, the new Chaos Chamber mode. With this and progression borrowing so many elements from Diablo 3 and Hades, it all begins to feel like a loving homage filtered through the first-person insanity of Borderlands.


An experience where you can find a legendary SMG that fires off a poison beam that bounces between enemies stacking insane elemental damage. You can also equip a spell that has your character snap their fingers over and over spawning giant ice-spikes underneath sentient, and angry, mushroom brutes. In a very cool bit of design, spells can be cast (or fired) whilst you’re shooting too; resulting in screen-filling pyrotechnics.

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As a high-fantasy standalone off-shoot that introduces spells, skeletons, goblins, build-your-own hero mechanics, and more, Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands captures the juvenile and over-the-top spirit of the series in a form that both celebrates and elevates some of the series’ greatest strengths.

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When the original Borderlands hit the scene back in the day the term looter-shooter didn’t really exist so it was labelled by many as “Diablo with guns”. The setup here is that Tiny Tina is hosting a tabletop dice-rolling game of Bunkers & Badasses (aka Dungeons & Dragons) with a story that evolves and changes according to her whim and the commentary of your in-ear companions. A goofy and overly confident knight of sorts voiced by Andy Samberg, and an always-plays-by-the-rules robot stickler voiced by Wanda Sykes.

Throw in Will Arnett as the evil Dragon Lord and the often nonsensical tale becomes one filled with genuinely funny set-pieces and dialogue. Taking inspiration from one of the most popular expansions for Borderlands 2, expanding the game-within-a-game concept does, well, wonders for elements that are similar to what has come before. The high-fantasy setting allows traditional branching Borderlands maps to cover a broader range of backdrops; from castles to dungeons to giant beanstalks to forests and a desert that manages to out-do the barren Pandora of old in terms of scope and imagination.

This carries over to the characters and stories and quests you complete, where even though they all end up with you shooting at stuff there’s just so much visual and narrative variety it’s impressive. One side-quest has you stumble on a village of Murphs who are being tormented by Garglesnot and a mysterious ‘Blue rage’ virus. A clear and on-the-nose Smurph parody, right down to there being just the one female, it nails the ridiculous nature of the premise with vintage Borderlands humour. If such a thing were, err, a thing.

Another has you helping a Secret of Monkey Island inspired pirate rescue their love, insult fighting included, whilst familiar Borderlands character Brick returns as a fairy godmother you need to help after you mistakenly help a magic bean do its thing and destroy a town, beanstalk style.

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Throw in Will Arnett as the evil Dragon Lord and the often nonsensical tale becomes one filled with genuinely funny set-pieces and dialogue.

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As is the nature with a joke-heavy comedic story there’s so much thrown at you that not all of it hits. Catching up with Queen Butt-Stallion of Brighthoof is shrug-your-shoulders silly. Helping an insane Don Juan reunite with what you think is a woman but is actually a blonde-brushed broom, and then watching “them” jump off the map together and land in the game’s Overworld, is hilarious. Of course, comedy is subjective, but Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands is that rare thing, a straight-up videogame comedy.


Taking place in a fantasy world does shake-up the Borderlands formula in meaningful ways that go beyond the setting and the addition of equippable rings and amulets and spells and armour. Plus, a melee weapon that’s actually useful. There’s the aforementioned Overworld that connects all of the varied locales with a tabletop setup that involves finding secrets, completing side-quests, and entering mini dungeons that take the form of large-ish portal-connected rooms that reward you with a big ol’ chest or quest item.

It’s here where level design feels more involved than the by-the-numbers Borderlands stuff found elsewhere. These dungeon rooms are kind of like arena maps in a competitive shooter.

The best stuff though, is what matters most when it comes to action-RPGs. How the new gear, elemental damage, spells, and crazy guns that fire-off spinning saw blades synergise; giving Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands a true action-RPG vibe. From character sheet stats to buff, classes to choose, skill trees to progress though, and plenty of numbers and percentages to sift through and calculate.

Great stuff to be sure, but a lot of it is at odds with the Borderlands core underpinning it all. The UI for one is identical to Borderlands 3’s, so yeah, it’s not great. In fact the addition of several new items (and loot) types makes it even more cumbersome in terms of comparing items and figuring out what’s what. The learning curve is as much coming to terms with the UI as it is understanding skills and stats and what they bring to the table. Case in point, the Diablo 3 Paragon inspired Myth Rank system that unlocks when you hit the Level cap of 40. It’s a mess of icons and confusion that only began to make sense to me once that Diablo connection was made.

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Taking place in a fantasy world does shake-up the Borderlands formula in meaningful ways that go beyond the setting and the addition of equippable rings and amulets and spells and armour. Plus, a melee weapon that’s actually useful.

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That said, you can play through the entirety of the campaign with a strategy focused squarely on guns, guns, guns, and hey, more guns. Straight-up shiny loot action where you finally get that pistol or assault rifle you’ve been looking for. Where you end up is digging into how one spell or item buffs another and how it fits within a specific build. Opening the door to genuine diversity with the ability to melt even the biggest Elite Badass Troll.


A hypothetical door that also leads to the end-game Chaos Chamber mode, a mix of systems and mechanics that promotes risk, reward, and player choice. It’s fantastic to say the least, and if you’ve played a decent chunk of Diablo 3 the easiest way to describe it would be as a riff on Rifts and Greater Rifts. Here the mini-dungeons found in the Overworld serve as a template for a randomised dungeon run that blends various enemies, backdrops, objectives, buffs, debuffs, and bosses with a big ol’ loot room at the end.

Not only is the combat pure Borderlands action with the spells and swords and magical rings adding more ways to create chaos, but the well-designed arena maps add a new layer to the Circle of Slaughter stuff from Borderlands 3. The Hades connection arrives when you finish a “room” and are given the choice of two portals. With icons representing a curse, a Butt Stallion buff, a loot chest, bonus crystals, or something else. It gets even deeper with the introduction of crystals because these can be used to purchase per-run buffs via totems or saved for the final loot room where you can choose an item-type to spend them on for loot.

Throw in Chaos Runs that are trials used to increase the difficulty, rewards you get, as well as unlocking new tiers of Chaos-powered items to find, and yeah, the loop is addictive, fun, and worth the price of entry. When you get to this point you also unlock an enchanting table to alter passive abilities or even make purple items a viable choice. The fact that the Chaos Chamber is enough to sustain several hours of solo and co-op fun, makes the recent Season Pass announcement feel like a bonus rather than something required to sustain longevity.

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Chaos Chamber mode, a mix of systems and mechanics that promotes risk, reward, and player choice. It’s fantastic to say the least, and if you’ve played a decent chunk of Diablo 3 the easiest way to describe it would be as a riff on Rifts and Greater Rifts.

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In the end, Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands is a confident and very welcome step forward for the Borderlands series. It embraces its action-RPG roots in ways that feel fresh and familiar, and does so without being a detriment to the core concept of being an experience with a bazillion crazy guns to equip and have fun with. But in keeping a lot of the core of the series, in terms of mechanics and UI, and even the number of gun types (sniper-rifles could have been removed entirely), there’s just enough holding it back in a place where it, well, borders on brilliance.