Tiny Tina's Wonderlands started off pretty strong, with lots of environments to explore and enemies to kill with a mix of the tested Borderlands' formula with regard to guns, and the addition of spells in place of the usual grenades the franchise is known for. Spells did shake up the gameplay flow quite a bit, to the point that the loop was fun and engaging enough for players to find new and interesting things to do or farm for even upon getting to the endgame, which mainly consisted of grinding Chaos Chambers for loot. However, the DLCs released thus far for Tiny Tina's Wonderlands weren't met with that same excitement and satisfaction on the players' side.
That happened mainly because there was little to no communication on Gearbox's side when it came to the contents of the $90 bundle that included the Season Pass. Players mainly knew that the Season Pass entailed four DLCs and that they would join the game sometime after Tiny Tina's Wonderlands' release to provide alternatives to the endgame meta through new loot. The DLCs would also possibly come with new activities for players to tackle in order to increase the game's longevity. The problem is that the pre-order bundle didn't state that these would be bite-sized DLCs with no story development and barely any new content, leading to some fans who expected more robust expansions being outraged by the whole ordeal.
Why Tiny Tina's Wonderlands Should Have Done Better With Its DLCs
As players discovered with the first DLC for Tiny Tina's Wonderlands, called Coiled Captors, as well as the second one called Glutton's Gamble, the new content introduced would actually last them no more than 10 or 20 minutes at best. The DLCs were basically very short dungeon-crawler modes that didn't introduce major new areas or enemy variety, but instead consisted of a dungeon to clear and nothing more. This was especially bad because the second DLC was seemingly adding new enemies to the base game due to its banner featuring gingerbread men, but instead, players were greeted with skeletons wearing gingerbread men-like suits.
This brought nothing new to the experience apart from visual changes, which the game didn't really need in the first place. The disappointment on the players' side is understandable because Gearbox is not even communicating when the next Tiny Tina's Wonderlands DLC comes out anymore, leaving frustrated fans totally in the dark.
The third was supposed to come out on June 16, if it was meant to follow the same release plan as the first and the second. Yet, it didn't, and there's no indication of when it will indeed drop, with Tiny Tina's Wonderlands players being left to speculate about the release date being next week alongside a delayed big Wonderlands patch. It's also possible that the next DLC will release much further down the line.
Overall, Tiny Tina's Wonderlands is another release that shows how misleading pre-order bundles can be when players are not fully given details about DLCs, as they cannot truly make an informed decision about whether they should purchase the base game or its bundles. This trend has been a topic of discussion many times in the past, and it's becoming clear that players want to be capable of deciding for themselves if they want to commit to Season Passes and bundles or not based on the actual content being revealed beforehand, rather than upon release.
Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.