Tiny Tina’s Assault on Dragon Keep, the latest DLC for the massively popular Borderlands 2, could possibly be the fourth and the final planned DLC for the game, but it definitely shows how a DLC should actually be made and played out. Tiny Tina’s Assault on Dragon Keep is the best of all Borderlands 2 DLCs, all hands down.
Borderlands titles have always been known for their witty puns and comic book style-themed approach, and even if the previous Borderlands 2 DLCs may not be able to show that completely, but the developers with Tiny Tina’s Assault on Dragon Keep have worked endlessly to provide that very content.
One the best things about the DLC is the fact that fans might easily mistaken it for an entirely new game if not the company decided to keep the usual characters. The comic book styled appearance of the game also serves as one of the helping hands for the in-game combat and assaults, with Tiny Tina emerging as more than just an exciting side character.
The DLC, originally teased at Pax East 2013, but not confirmed until it was accidentally leaked by lead writer Anthony Burch, offers a diverse set of locations and enemies. Captain Scarlett and her Pirate’s Booty was a bit bland, Mr. Torgue’s Campaign of Carnage was an improvement over Scarlett but could have offered much more, and Sir Hammerlock’s Big Game Hunt was tedious, but Tiny Tina’s Assault on Dragon Keep is probably the best DLC of the lot.
Assault on Dragon Keep is set in a fictional world created by psychotic 13-year-old Tiny Tina. The Vault hunters from the game in the series also get a sense of purpose here, getting to play a game of Bunkers & Badasses (with Tina acting as the Bunker Master and the Borderlands 2 characters as the player classes), while the second game’s protagonists deal with a Hyperion agent for information. The game of Bunkers & Badasses is basically a tabletop fantasy RPG with Tina as the Grand Master, meaning everything happens as Tina wants it to happen.
As promised earlier, Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep introduces a number of new items: guns, shields, fantasy-themed class mods, and spell-like grenade mods. Moreover, there is also a new system that classifies weapons by manufacturer, prefix, and color scheme. For example, Hyperion weapons feature the Diamond prefix and are white, whereas Bandit has the Quartz prefix and pink colors.
The DLC makes sure that the player is no longer stuck in Pandora, and it needs to be said that the new setting is even more chaotic than the insanity seen on Pandora. The new medieval world is much more exciting, and everything changes as rapidly as the ADD mindset of the 13 year old Tina.
Tiny Tina’s Assault on Dragon Keep, without a doubt, is probably the best way to plan out a DLC. In all, it offers about ten hours of great gameplay with new baddies. The overall work on the DLC shows how the devs were more than willing to build the game from the ground up to offer that added impetus to the DLC. Easily worth the money.
