When Gearbox Studios announced Tiny Tina's Wonderlands, a fantasy-themed spinoff, during this week's Summer Game Fest, it anticipated fans' comparisons to the Borderlands 2 DLC Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep. But Gearbox clarified that while would keep the same conceit - Tiny Tina is the dungeon master of a game of "Bunkers and Badasses" and is constantly changing the game around the players - Wonderlands takes place in an entirely new world with new characters (other than Tiny Tina) and incorporates new battle mechanics, like spellcasting.
Tiny Tina's big strength
Gearbox has a tendency to reuse and recycle the same Borderlands concepts and characters that previously resonated with players. Handsome Jack, the baddie in the extremely well-received Borderlands 2, is considered to be one of the greatest video game villains; knowing this, Gearbox constructed the less-well-received Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel around Jack's origin story.
Besides giving players more of the humor and crazy antics that they've become accustomed to over the course of the game, Assault on Dragon Keep explores Tina's grief over the death of Roland, a playable character in the first Borderlands and a central nonplayable character in Borderlands 2. Tina, refusing to believe that Roland is really gone, makes him a character in the DLC's universe. The other NPCs, who are playing the game as Tina DMs, are looking for a way to tell her that Roland isn't coming back ... but of course, this is Borderlands, and what should be simple just isn't.
The storytelling is silly and inane, but there's something much more powerful and profound lurking just underneath the surface. Unlike almost everything else in the franchise, this aspect of the story isn't overdone - it's quiet and understated, a meditation rather than an explosion.
Emulating the best of Dragon Keep
Gearbox likely chose to spin Assault on Dragon Keep into its own game because of its critical reception and acclaim from players. If Wonderlands wants to rise to the level of its DLC predecessor, it has to remember what made the original great in the first place - and it's not dragons and guns.
