In some ways, Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands is just more Borderlands. The humor is good, the story is enjoyable, the gameplay feels fantastic, and the loot is plentiful. Very plentiful. If you’re someone who didn’t like Borderlands and are hoping Wonderlands is a different experience to invest in, then it may not be different enough.However, Wonderlands does have some key differences, both in its narrative and gameplay, that can push it over the edge for you, especially if you’re a fan of table-top role-playing games. If you’re a fan of Borderlands and are worried Wonderlands might be too different, don't worry too much. Most anything that has been changed is almost certainly better, while the things that are different serve to freshen up the Borderlands experience.
7 Spells Instead Of Grenades
Wonderlands swaps out the tried and true grenades and explosives with the more fantastical spells, and it works incredibly well. Short cooldowns and not having to worry about resource management means that spells feel powerful and like a vital part of your kit, rather than a negligible weapon to use.
Additionally, pairing your spells with your class’s action allows for some really cool combos. One class in particular, the Spellshot, lets you combo two spells together, allowing you to live out your wildest dreams as a spell-slinging wizard.
6 More Classes
Borderlands 3, like all other Borderlands games before it, launched with four classes. Wonderlands ups that to six. While there are some that struggle to eke out their own unique identity, feeling like reworked classes from the before times, they are each special enough to warrant their existence.
This leads to two possible outcomes. If you’re someone who enjoys Borderlands games and likes playing through them several times over, then six classes, instead of four, adds incredible value. If, however, you’re someone who plays games once, maybe twice, you may experience some choice paralysis when selecting your starting class. Fear not, though, because down the line, you get…
5 Multiclassing
An extremely welcome addition to the Borderlands formula, Wonderlands introduces multiclassing, allowing you access to two classes’ abilities, feats, and actions. These aren’t half-classes, either. Your secondary class will be just as present as your primary one. Not only does this help solve not knowing which class to choose, but if you're a fan of replayability in your games, the ability to mix and match classes increases the number of possibilities in future runs.
If you had trouble deciding which class to choose when the game started out, now you can have the best of both worlds. When you defeat the game’s main campaign, you can choose to swap out your secondary class with another one. However, be warned, you will not be able to change your primary class unless you start a new campaign.
4 Custom Characters
Previous Borderlands games had you choose between four classes, but each class also had its own character. If you wanted to play one character with another character’s kit, or even your own custom character, you were out of luck. Tiny Tina’s changes that.
You can customize your appearance, voice, background, and more at the start of the game, and your character has a lot to say, too. It’s a welcome addition, and necessary considering how customizable real Dungeons & Dragons lets you get. With any luck, Gearbox will take the custom character system forward into their inevitable next Borderlands title.
3 Fantasy Setting
Borderlands has its own techno-apocalyptic style when it comes to the games. However, Wonderlands switches it up with a wholly realized fantasy world. While you won’t find any locations that are really unique to Wonderlands, they will be incredibly varied.
Snowy mountains, giant bean stocks, rivers of orange soda, and much more await you in this mystical world. A setting like this really shows off the Borderlands art style when it isn’t confined to using scrap metal and barely functioning sci-fi technology. It’s a breath of fresh air, and incredibly vibrant.
2 Melee Weapons
Surprisingly, melee weapons have not existed in Borderlands games until Wonderlands. It’s surprising considering how good and sometimes vital they feel to combat. While you won’t be performing any wild melee combos, though there are some classes with melee-inspired actions, finishing off an enemy when you run out of ammo saves you some time and speeds up combat in a fun and engaging way.
Thanks to the fantasy setting, melee weapons fit into the game almost more than guns do. After all, running down an enemy with a sword or hand axe makes a bit more sense in a swords and sorcery setting than shooting a cryo-submachine gun at them.
1 The Dragon Lord
Borderlands has had one of gaming’s most beloved villains with Handsome Jack. In Borderlands 3, however, the twin live streamers Troy and Tyreen were… less beloved. In Wonderlands, the villain is the evil and powerful Dragon Lord.
While he still isn’t Handsome Jack level, the Dragon Lord creates a fun villain that’s married to the swords and sorcery setting, and presents a dangerous and often comical threat. It helps that he is voiced by Will Arnet, joining the incredibly star-studded cast of Wonderlands actors.