In 2013, Gearbox created a surprise with the excellent and hilarious DLC of Borderlands 2 entitled Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep, where we were immersed in a crazy role-playing game. Nine years later and after a Borderlands 3 where the explosive teenager had a completely secondary role, she is entitled to her own adventure with the spin-off Tiny Tina's Wonderlands. A successful return to the front of the stage for Tiny Tina?
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- Nervous and addictive gameplay
- Successful character creation and development
- Technically and graphically very clean
- A new game within the game for the endgame
- Quite insipid narration and WAY too talkative
- Navigating in large laborious areas
- Completely forgettable soundtrack
- Inevitably quite repetitive in the long run
For this new standalone title, Gearbox intends more than ever to mix FPS looter shooter and action-RPG, since it is no longer a question of embodying a pre-established character, but of creating our own hero in a fantastic medieval universe... with guns. If some mechanics have been re-adapted to stick to the famous maxim "shut up, it's magic", Borderlands fans will certainly not be unduly disoriented.
Test carried out on PC via a test version provided by the publisher. Tiny Tina's Wonderlands will be released on March 25 on PC (temporary exclusive on the Epic Games Store), PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S. Cross-play is supported on all platforms, provided you create a SHiFT account. On consoles, it is possible to play in split screen, with two only on PS4 and Xbox One, and up to four on PS5 and Xbox Series.
“Do your character sheet, losers! »
Tiny Tina's Wonderlands takes us out of the search for the Arks for a while and places her timeline...somewhere between the three canonical episodes. The adolescent expert in explosives is in any case here much younger than in the third opus. She once again devotes herself to her other passion: the role-playing game Bunkers & Brutasses, an adaptation of Dungeons & Dragons with the crazy sauce of Borderlands. At his table, we have Valentine and Frette, two sympathetic characters, but with relative usefulness except for comments that are rarely relevant and often annoying over the course of the adventure.
And then there is our character, the bleusaille, whose figurine has not yet been painted, who will be raised to the rank of Hand of Destiny, the only hero capable of defeating the Dragon Lord. The game board is thus set up for an extremely basic and interventionist story, which in our opinion does not come close to that of the DLC of Borderlands 2. Due to its spin-off status, the game must be self-sufficient in its narration… and the sauce generally does not take. This despite the return of well-known heads like Claptrap or the most magnificent of queens… Etalon du Cul!
First of all because each quest is an opportunity for endless diatribes, and the universe of Tiny Tina is content to be a nest of references mixing pell-mell the Legend of King Arthur, the Smurfs, Pinocchio, The Witcher , and many others. Finally, the iconic humor of Borderlands and the few dazzling outbursts from the boiling brain of Tiny Tina rarely manage to tear us away more than a sigh of the nose. Shame.
Fortunately, Tiny Tina's Wonderlands is far from lacking in great qualities, starting with the creation of our Hand of Fate, a first in the franchise. The character creation engine is quite complete (and can be even more fleshed out with purely cosmetic loot as you progress) and allows for some madness.
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Then comes a system of very typical role-playing statistics such as Strength, Dexterity or Intelligence, which will improve, for example, our damage and our critical strike chances or the recharging speed of our skills. Finally, we can choose between six classes with truly unique gameplay and skills, which complete this feeling of freedom offered on this point. Around level 20, we will have the opportunity to couple our starting class with a second, to create our own build and make it even crazier and more powerful.
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Once our character has been created, we are launched into the world of Tiny Tina, with a frankly shimmering first scene. While retaining the cel-shading touch specific to the franchise, the game is, in our opinion, generally successful graphically and technically. Apart from a few rare framerate drops, the fluidity was there in ultra at 1p throughout our game, despite the obvious chaos of the fights. Too bad the soundtrack is perfectly forgettable (just like the VF, to which we greatly prefer the VO notably carried by the sparkling Ashly Burch in her iconic role of Tiny Tina) and only very poorly energizes them.
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Hand (of fate) on the loot
Perfect transition to talk about one of the biggest strengths of the game: its fights. Those who have played Borderlands 3 should be on familiar ground. Each weapon manufacturer and category of guns has its unique character, we trade grenades for spells, but the salt of what makes the fights in the franchise is very present. Note that the melee is greatly expanded, since this spin-off offers a wide range of weapons such as axes or swords with their own statistics. At the start of the game, however, the fighting will be quite soft due to weak weapons and an underdeveloped character. But the pace picks up pretty quickly and becomes downright frantic towards the end of the game.
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Another essential part of a Borderlands game: its loot system. And there again, the famous loot shower is of course present! It is always with some pleasure that we see blue, purple or orange borders in the mountain of loot on the ground to see if any of this equipment will come to make our character even more powerful. The synergy between all these pieces of the puzzle is superbly well put together here and makes the progression addictive, despite its wobbly narration.
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Unfortunately, most of the items collected will end up on sale, and it happens very (too?) often that our bag is full, asking us to sort it out and go to the store to empty it and continue the adventure. This is coupled with another frustration: navigation in the large areas of the game. As in previous Borderlands games, teleporters are scattered over them, but are limited to a maximum of three per area. In the absence of a vehicle… of a mount, we will often make long round trips on foot which we would have done well without.
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Despite everything, exploring each area with a fine-toothed comb is essential, because they are overflowing with objects to collect, each of which has a real use. The dice, scrolls, orbs or poem sheets indeed allow us, by collecting them, to permanently increase our statistics and our chances of recovering better loot. Similarly, puzzles and obelisks summoning waves of enemies will put our agility and skills to the test to also give us permanent bonuses once all are completed.
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Finally, the side quests (quite rare compared to previous games) deserve our full attention, despite the weariness that their incessant dialogue generates. Completing them will systematically grant us its weight in gold and experience, but above all unique pieces of equipment that can greatly strengthen our build and facilitate our progress.
Shrines and soda cans
In addition to the large areas that we are used to surveying in Borderlands games, Tiny Tina's Wonderlands has another novelty for the franchise: a game board seen from above with a nod to the J - Old school RPG. Without being an absolutely essential addition, it has the merit of bringing a bit of variety to the gameplay.
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Our character with the disproportionately large head will thus be able to move on this plateau in order to reach the large areas in which we will return to FPS view, but not only. As in the old J-RPGs, we will indeed come across random encounters acting as compartmentalized arenas where we will have to eliminate a certain number of opponents in FPS view in order to recover various rewards.
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Exploration from top to bottom of this plateau will also be essential to obtain permanent bonuses for our character or on the campaign map, such as increased movement speed (and this is not a luxury!). To do this, we will need to find dice scattered on the board, or collect shrine pieces that can be found by exploring or in mini-dungeons.
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Finally, secondary quests exclusive to the game board are also part of the game and should not be overlooked either. Some indeed open the passages necessary for progress, others give access to unique equipment or even the famous pieces of sanctuaries and dice to collect.
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Mythic enchanted chaos with friends
Once you reach the maximum level set at 40, the experience points earned will no longer be used to fill our skill tree. A new panel will open for our character: Mythical Rank. Very similar to the levels of brutes in previous titles, we will be able to increase our character's statistics in four branches, but in a clockwise direction. Still, this allows us to perfect our build by choosing the statistics that interest us as a priority.
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Shortly after level 40, the main story should quickly point the tip of its nose, after a big twenty hours of play on maximum difficulty, having explored each major area at around 80%. As in Borderlands 3, a Chaos Mode will then be available, increasing the overall difficulty of the game, but also necessarily the quality of the loot.
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An Enchantment system will also open up to us, allowing us to modify these affixes introduced in Borderlands 3. This will cost moon stones (quite easy to obtain) and will allow us to adapt various pieces of equipment to our build. Another point where Tiny Tina's Wonderlands does better than its older sibling, in which these affixes were purely random.
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But where Tiny Tina pulls her last hairpin is in a new endgame mode called Chamber of Chaos. A real game in the game very similar to a procedural run in a roguelike, this mode offers us to put our build to the test in compartmentalized arenas similar to those found on the game board. , several portals are available to us. One will allow us to apply curses that change the rules of the current run for better loot, another will allow us to obtain Ass Stallion's blessing, and so on.
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As loot, we will mainly have crystals to spend to acquire bonuses that apply to the current run, or to obtain a shower of loot at the end of the run, after having slain one of the bosses encountered. during the progression (generally impressive, but not necessarily very difficult). This mode will also unlock Chaos levels, which will apply as much to our next runs as to the base game.
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To wrap up our roundup of Tiny Tina's Wonderlands, we had the opportunity to join forces with the good Nerces to see what co-op play is worth. After having battled with the social system of the Epic Games Store and SHiFT, we were able to see that it works overall well with little latency. A higher level player will also not waste his time helping a less advanced comrade, since the level of the enemies is individually based on that of the participants. Similarly, the loot will be of the level of each player, unless you have set up a common loot at the start of your game.
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Tiny Tina's Wonderlands: the opinion of JVFR
If you were expecting slices of fun and a capillotracted scenario like that of the DLC which inspired Tiny Tina's Wonderlands, you may be quite disappointed. But if you loved the gameplay of Borderlands 3, this spin-off should amply satisfy you. We find this nervous and chaotic side, but with a medieval-fantasy sauce with greater freedom to develop our character as we wish.
Endowed with a solid lifespan, despite a sometimes laborious and somewhat tiresome progression, the latest Gearbox title will largely keep you busy while waiting for a possible Borderlands 4. The endgame, among other elements, is much better than that of its elder , and DLCs are of course planned to extend our stay in the crazy and colorful universe of Tiny Tina.
Nine years of waiting for the explosive teenager to return to the front of the stage as she deserves, and overall we are not disappointed with the role-playing game at her table! Despite its few flaws, Tiny Tina therefore wins the pretty score of 8/10 with us.
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After an excellent DLC on Borderlands 2, the explosive Tiny Tina makes a remarkable return in a spin-off where she once again leads her own crazy role-playing game. If the narration leaves a little to be desired and struggles to emancipate itself, the gameplay of Borderlands 3 crossbred with medieval-fantasy RPG largely makes up for it all, animated by a solid artistic direction shimmering to the eye.Most
- Nervous and addictive gameplay
- Successful character creation and development
- Technically and graphically very clean
- A new game within the game for the endgame
The lessers
- Quite insipid narration and WAY too talkative
- Navigating in large laborious areas
- Completely forgettable soundtrack
- Inevitably quite repetitive in the long run
