Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands is even more D&D inspired than the assault on Dragon Dungeon

As a direct sequel to the Dungeons & Dragons-inspired Tiny Tina’s Assault On Dragon Keep DLC for Borderlands 2, Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands relies even more on the tabletop RPG structure for its gameplay. Wonderlands incorporates a more robust character creator, the ability to multiclass, and many other mechanics and features that D&D fans are likely to recognize.

The character creator in Wonderlands represents one of the biggest deviations from the structure of the Borderlands games. Wonderlands does not feature established characters. Instead, you customize your own hero, including their race, physical appearance, voice, and personality.

“Votre voix, votre apparence, tout cela est indépendant”, a déclaré à GameSpot la productrice principale de Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands, Kayla Belmore. “Vous pouvez choisir votre propre voix et d’autres choses amusantes dans lesquelles nous ne pouvons pas encore nous plonger, mais cela touche même la personnalité de votre personnage, pas seulement l’esthétique, et tout est indépendant. Vous pouvez regarder et sonner comme vous le souhaitez à l’intérieur ces ensembles de choix. Nous ne lions pas vraiment le joueur à quoi que ce soit. Même toutes les fonctionnalités ne sont pas humanoïdes – vous pouvez avoir des ailerons de requin sur la tête ou ressembler à un orc. “

Le directeur créatif de Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands, Matt Cox, a ajouté que le créateur du personnage est complètement séparé de vos capacités et compétences. Cela signifie qu’il n’y a pas non plus d’objets spécifiques à un personnage dans Wonderlands. “Nous voulons que vous puissiez exprimer vos visuels et votre style de jeu, comme vous le souhaitez”, a déclaré Cox.

Cette philosophie s’étend aux arbres de compétences. Wonderlands aura le choix entre six classes distinctes, chacune avec son propre arbre de compétences unique – le développeur Gearbox Software partagera des détails plus spécifiques sur chacune à une date ultérieure.

“Il y a deux aspects différents dans la création de notre personnage”, a déclaré Belmore. “L’un est la pièce esthétique où vous pouvez choisir à quoi vous ressemblez, et puis il y a les classes de personnages. Chaque classe de personnage aura des capacités que nos fans sont habitués à voir, et plus profondément dans le jeu, vous pourrez avoir le option de multiclasse.”

La capacité de multiclasser permettra, soi-disant, aux joueurs de créer des combinaisons bizarres mais puissantes. Quand j’ai demandé comment cela fonctionnerait – en utilisant l’hypothèse d’un joueur combinant Gunzerker de Borderlands 2 avec Siren de Borderlands 3 comme exemple possible – Belmore a confirmé que j’étais sur la bonne voie. Elle ne voulait pas encore confirmer que l’une ou l’autre classe (ou quelque chose comme eux) serait au pays des merveilles, mais en termes de ce à quoi les joueurs pourront s’attendre, c’est l’idée. Vous avez la possibilité de prendre deux ensembles de compétences complètement différents et de les assembler, ce qui est un concept de RPG très sur table.

“Vous choisirez votre classe principale, puis plus tard dans l’histoire principale, vous pourrez créer une classe secondaire et mélanger et assortir ces deux classes et arbres de compétences – c’est votre personnage pour la campagne”, a ajouté Cox. “Mais une fois que vous aurez battu l’intrigue, vous pourrez revenir en arrière et respec votre classe secondaire. Vous devrez donc toujours vous en tenir à votre classe primaire, mais vous pouvez essayer un autre secondaire.”

Votre capacité à façonner votre personnage ne s’arrête pas là – il y a plus à faire au-delà des compétences que vous débloquerez via vos classes primaires et secondaires. “Vous avez aussi des points de héros à dépenser aussi bien en très classique [Dungeons & Dragons] attributes, ”Cox said. “And these all talk about different things like a melee attribute or a spell attribute or a skill recovery attribute – it’s like a character sheet.” “

According to Cox, you’ll be able to put Hero Points into your strength, dexterity, intelligence, wisdom, build, and alignment. These hero points are separate from the skill points that you will also earn throughout the game. Skill points apply to more traditional skill trees, where you can unlock new abilities and perks. Hero points build your character so that it can more easily specialize as a specific class.

“You have some kind of unique attribute that lives outside of that list of ‘hero stats’ and that’s luck,” Belmore added. “And that’s something you can affect by completing an endgame challenge. And the luckier you – the more you do that challenge – the better your chances of higher rarity loot.”

But before you reach the end of the game, you’ll have to overcome the main Wonderlands campaign, and that means dealing with Tiny Tina. Wonderlands takes place immediately after Dragon Keep, so Tina is back to a rowdy 13-year-old herself, as opposed to the older and slightly more adjusted 20-year-old Tina seen in Borderlands 3. As the bunker master, Tina has control of the campaign, and just like Dragon Keep, it will step in to set the scene, prank or role-play, similar to a D&D dungeon master.

“That’s one of the great things about Tina: this chaotic energy,” Belmore said. “It lends itself so well to the idea of ​​a tabletop RPG where you have that lopsided bunker master. And she’ll absolutely shape the world however she sees fit, which has huge effects on everything. The story itself- even is not reactive. [Tiny Tina’s Assault On Dragon Keep] where it’s just Tina playing the plot. “

Part of that plot will now take a third-person perspective, another deviation from the Borderlands formula, which always unfolds – both in gameplay and cutscenes – in first person. As you travel from location to location, Wonderlands will unfold on a tabletop view, where you’ll see yourself (and your allies if you’re playing co-op) as miniatures.

“We call it the Overworld,” Belmore said. “So one of the ways to explore the bigger world is to use that recessed third-person view. We’ve got a pretty linear main plot, with tons of side missions. Plus, with a little bit of exploration, you can find these five optional options. maps that, if you’re a tabletop RPG nerd, act as mods. So they’re connected to the main story, but they’re also their own standalone storylines. “

“You can have dynamic encounters,” Cox added. “So you can spawn a small enemy, and then you’ll be transported seamlessly into a first-person fight where you do a little fight, collect your loot, and come back to explore the Overworld more. So Overworld really acts just like that. – compared to the previous games we did – like the large area that connects all the experiences. “

“And the customization you choose also shows up in your bobblehead character,” Belmore said enthusiastically.

Despite these deviations from the formula Gearbox established with the Borderlands franchise, both Cox and Belmore have said that basically Wonderlands plays out like a Borderlands game. It’s still a loot shooter game, although Gearbox has taken steps to improve the Borderlands formula.

“We wanted to make sure we embrace the strength of what we do best, and this looter-shooting loop is going to feel very, very familiar to fans of our games,” Cox said. “But instead of worrying about the number of guns in the game, we’re focusing more on the variety of fantastic weapon types you can have. So it’s more about the scope of gear. fantastic to ensure a high check mark on the number of guns we have. “

He continued, “We still have our procedurally generated loot, so you’ll definitely see different parts on melee weapons and different abilities for spell books. But it’s more about the new types of gear that you can. combine into a meaningful experience so that you can play however you want. “

“And even some things about guns have changed,” Belmore added. “You’ll see different firing mechanics than in previous titles and the addition of magic-based crossbows and cannons, which are certainly a little different from what we’ve done before.”

Movement during combat has also evolved to better integrate Wonderlands’ spellcasting and melee attacks into existing Borderlands firing mechanics. Borderlands 3’s faster movement returns, as do the glide, drop, and climb mechanics of those games. Wonderlands takes it a step further by adding a new melee-focused movement mechanic.

“If you are just out of melee range when attacking melee, you will slide towards your enemy,” Cox said. “It’s like an automatic glide. So you can sprint and glide like in Borderlands 3, then if you get mixed up at the end of your slide at the correct distance from an enemy, you can continue to glide directly into the enemy. and close the distance in a really fun way. “

“It’s as satisfying as it sounds,” Belmore added.

During our conversation, I also asked Belmore and Cox to get additional details on the story and narrative themes of Wonderlands, as well as the final content of the game. Both have promised that players will have a A more detailed look at these aspects of Wonderlands ahead of its launch, which is just around the corner.

Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands is slated for release on Xbox Series X | S, Xbox One, PS5, PS4, and PC on March 25.