Loot shooters are a genre of their own with complicated premise. Not every title was as convincing as Destiny 1 and 2, and yet many games try the project and fail miserably. Now I’ll introduce you to a game that had what it took to overshadow Destiny 2 – but the developers chose to let it die.
Which game is it? There aren’t many loot shooter options on the market anyway, and those that were supposed to compete with Destiny 2 are either forgotten or dead.
But what if I tell you that there was actually a title that would have eclipsed Destiny 2, but despite the great potential it was simply abandoned by the developers? I’m not talking about Anthem or anything like that, I’m talking about Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands.
Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands has a magical, wacky world in a fantasy setting that not only offered a cool story, but also a ton of classes, a ridiculous character creator, and a wide array of weapons and spells for you to hunt down. Despite such a solid framework, the game was abandoned and to this day I wonder why.
Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands trailer shows the wonderfully stupid world of the shooter with gameplay
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An open world, cool story, humor and a lot of absurd guns!
To be honest I’ve never been a real Boderslands fan. I got my start with Borderlands 3 and that was actually the only Gearbox game I touched. But when I heard about Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands, I became aware.
I felt like this game could be a good replacement for Destiny 2 considering that each player can create their hero, choose a class, level them up and eventually grind unique gear.
So I got hooked on the game, bought the game and played it right away on day 1. First of all, Tiny Tina is not made for every player. The game doesn’t take itself seriously, has a lot of humor and tries to make you laugh with every quest. Despite that, because the game isn’t that serious, it’s so cool.
Whether you’re battling wailing skeletons or cunning goblins, the absurd voice lines of enemies always make laughter and grinning faces – including me.
As far as weapons go, there are plenty of options to give your opponents hell. Either you cast deadly spells or throw explosive baguettes around you. There are many guns in the game that are so absurd that you want to play them all.
Personally, I actually thought to myself during my playtime “the game is so good, there must be some DLCs with more areas, missions, weapons and armor”, but they didn’t come. The game sank into insignificant nirvana and when they did announce DLC I was speechless.
What happened to the game? Basically nothing. Gearbox announced three “DLCs” for €10 each, each bringing a new boss and loot. Defeating these bosses revealed new areas in the Chaos Chamber’s repetitive endgame content.
Basically a DLC that you played through in a few minutes. Not only other players but also I was disappointed because I had seen bigger potential. A DLC with a big map expansion, a new main quest with a villain, new weapons and possibly fresh classes.
Since Tiny Tina doesn’t take herself seriously anyway, there would have been a lot of leeway as to what new content could be added. This is not possible in Destiny 2 with its serious plot. I was very disappointed and still am, because the developers were too quick to shelve such a good game.
Despite the disappointment, Tiny Tina Wonderlands still lingers downloaded on my hard drive in hopes that maybe a good DLC will be released after all, although I know that will never happen.
What do you think of Tiny Tinas? Do you think the game is cool or didn’t you like the setting? Feel free to let me know what you think about games that you saw more potential in!