There’s no doubt that Tiny Tina was one of the best new characters introduced in Borderlands 2. This remarkable thirteen year old can hold her own against any sadistic enemies wandering the wastelands. She also knows how to throw one hell of a tea party. So it’s no surprise that Gearbox have decided to bring her back for the latest Borderlands 2 content. Assault on Dragon’s Keep casts Tiny Tina back in the limelight and let me tell you, if you thought her tea parties were wild, then wait until you experience her board game sessions.
Gearbox continues to make great use of the Borderlands 2 cast. Various characters make a cameo within the board game adventure. Some become permanent additions. Others make minor appearances and have a noticeable and important impact all the same.
Assault on Dragon’s Keep may have a fantasy theme, but unquestionably, this is classic Borderlands. There are more weapons to find and experiment with. Plenty of quests to play through. Special abilities to use against enemies. You’ll feel right at home!
As you might expect from Tiny Tina, it’s completely batshit insane from the start. Tiny Tina isn’t exactly afraid of danger and she likes to get stuck right into things. However, she expects that same mentality from everyone and wants characters to dive right in and face, what is presumably, the game’s titular dragon from the beginning. After much discussion with the other characters(who are assisting her in gamemaster duties) she eventually sees reason and makes the dragon disappear.
Events such as this help set the stage for the unpredictable nature of this DLC. Game elements literally change right in front of the player. Buildings will materialize out of thin air at her madam’s whim. Even characters change their roles and behavior on account of Tiny Tina making up a story on the fly.
This also means that there are lots of places to visit because the gamesmaster is rather undecided on where she wants. It’s ok, though. We’ve come to expect this from her, right?
The fantasy theme means that players get taken to some unusual, but exciting new locations. The town of Flamerock serves as a hub of sorts for players to interact with other characters.
For the most part, the town people are a lively bunch, and as usual, the clever layout makes it easy for players to go about doing quests and so on in far away locations, travelling back and forth between areas.
Of course it’s not a Borderlands 2 experience without lots of enemies to defeat. Fortunately, Assault on Dragon’s Keep delivers in abundance and has plenty to keep you busy. Even better is that enemies are all fantasy themed. Characters have to face the likes of undead warriors. Some of these even have insane weapons like massive axes to chop characters up into little bits.
Taking on some of these enemies is no easy feat, especially as the player progresses further on the game board session. It seems like a good idea to play through the main Borderlands 2 story first before attempting this content.
While the DLC follows the same structure as previous content, this time round quests are randomized. As already mentioned, everything is constantly changing because of Tiny Tina’s inability to make a final decision. This makes for some amusing moments where the quests’ objective is changed several times.
This unpredictability keeps players on their toes and even manages to make the usually tedious fetch based quests a lot more fun.
The fantasy theme also does wonders for what is probably the most ambitious Borderlands downloadable content to date. If anything, it raises the stakes in terms of quality and shows downloadable content is a fantastic tool for continuing to keep players entertained long after completing the main story. It’s clear that the developers had a fantastic time creating this content, and I think players will have just as much fun playing it.
One thing is for sure, you’ll never forget your first time playing Bunkers and Badasses.
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