A One-Shot for those who never got to play

Tiny Tina

B&B

Tiny Tina’s Assault on Dragon Keep: A Wonderlands One-Shot Adventure was released on November 9, 2021, and is currently free on PC until midnight on the 16^th. It was released on the Epic, Xbox One, Series X and S, Steam, PS4, and PS5. This is the original DLC that appeared in borderlands 2 with a few surprises and a fancy new name. This game does not need the original Borderlands 2 game installed to play. Upon opening the game and looking around for a bit, it appears to be borderlands 2 with only the DLC and minus the rest of the borderlands 2 game.

For those of you out there who enjoy first-person shooters combined with dungeons and dragons’ aesthetics mixed with a fluff-loving firecracker of a protagonist and a dash of crude humor, then this is the game for you! After a bit of research from the Borderlands community, the loot pool contains guns from the original game plus some added DLC guns. They added a rainbow chest that seems to be a regular golden chest that they give out shift codes for on social media after a bit of play testing. The only difference between the two is that this one contains an additional two smaller side items like grenade mods and shields.

Now for the spoilers. If you have not played through this content, I highly advise you to play the game for yourself and then come back to finish this article. Ok, now that you’re back and addicted to Borderlands, we can get on with what’s inside.

They do give us a new opening animated sequence with Marcus doing the narration. The game does show the original story-line of Tina avoiding Roland’s death and using the game as a coping mechanism which anyone who has played through can tell you is a roller coaster of emotions for an invested player. They offer a new loot catapult that I’m not going to spoil (bring 10 eridium with you). There is a new pool of shields that weren’t in the original game called the Kite, which comes in all different rarities. However, it is unknown whether there is a legendary version yet. There are two new original game quests that they integrated into the new game. The first is Marcus’ hunt for the Bane, so be on the lookout for Marcus in that fancy new armor. The second remixed quest is the well-known and loved Face McShooty quest. I do have to say that I am a bit disappointed in this quest. I appreciate that they brought him back, but Gearbox knows that people travel as far as the map allows to get the head shot for that quest. They could have given us a bit more distance, is all I’m going to say. Regardless, it is still an entertaining side quest to encounter.

Gearbox also decided to add 6 new cosmetics to the game. Each Vault Hunter now has the chance to find a new character head. Seraph Crystals have been included in this, along with Earl’s Eridium vending stop. The Norfleet has been added to the random enemy drop pool. Farming for legendaries can be challenging considering the loot pools are so high for each boss. The drop rates are significantly low, and the loot pool is significantly high. This means that it could take a person a very long time to get specific gear for a build. Action skills are also different for this game, considering the level cap is only at 35. You unlock your character’s skill tree at level two, and for every level you increase, you earn 2 skill points at a time. Finally, beating the game doe unlock Ultimate Vault Hunter Mode. So for those of you who want to keep going back and farming for the perfect build, Gearbox kept that in too.

Now for the dirt and grime. As a massive fan of the Borderlands franchise, I think they missed the mark with this one. If the intent was to get new players involved in the lovability of Tiny Tina as a character, then they nailed it. After playing all the content ever released, sinking endless amounts of hours into loot farming, sending dev’s reports on bugs, I feel like this is a poor attempt at a cash grab by Gearbox yet again. This a great game for anyone who wants to get introduced to Tiny Tina and this is a great game for anyone who has never played Borderlands 2. This is content that was initially released over 8 years ago. There is no logical reason why they released it free for a week on PC and not every other platform. For comparison, they gave the fans some service when they released Commander Lillith’s DLC before the release of Borderlands 3, and it was free on every platform for 2 weeks. Not PC for a week. Also, it was new content.

With the good, the bad, and the utterly irrelevant into account, it’s still some premium content. At the end of the day, if you find that you do want to try it, I suggest purchasing the Handsome Jack Collection because it comes with Borderlands plus all DLC, Borderlands 2 plus all DLC, and The Pre-Sequel plus all the DLC for only $10 more on every platform. That way you get all the content they have produced instead of paying that much for 8-year-old games. Borderlands is and always will be a beloved franchise in the community. Gearbox has found its home in the hearts of many despite all the ups and downs.