Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands

Best: The fantasy theme. Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands is part spin-off, part follow-up to the fantasy-themed Borderlands 2 expansion, Assault on Dragon Keep, arguably the fan favorite in the series. Wonderlands takes that campaign’s fantasy trappings and runs with it for a whole game. Pistols become crossbows. Bandits become reanimated pirate corpses. A castle turns into a giant beanstalk with shattered ramparts and malevolent mushroom people. It’s like Borderlands went to the renaissance faire—an idea that, on paper, shouldn’t work but, in practice, totally does.

Worst: Paper-thin expansions. Historically, the Borderlands games have rolled out four significant campaign expansions, typically spread out over a year after release. Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands also has four post-release expansions. They’re not really full campaigns, though; really, each one is a themed, endlessly replayable single dungeon that you grind repeatedly for better loot. There’s a story—something about a magical mirror operated by a witch—but it pales in comparison to the depth you get in, say, any of the terrific Borderlands 3 campaigns. Three have come out so far. The final one, “Shattering Spectreglass,” is due out soon, Gearbox says, and will also introduce a seventh class to the game: the poison-focused Blightcaller. Who knows: Maybe it’ll wholly redeem the DLC.