Gearbox is consistently a very contradictory game developer to me. Each time I try to talk about one of the games from the company, this is a site to review the games after all, I always end up veering into discussion about the company itself and why I'm still a fan of their games despite their actively hostile practices. Gearbox’s history is of a largely slow-build ground-up company which started by doing contract work for bigger companies, went on to switch directions 4 times, then finally lands on their most successful IP and has been animorphing into a AAA games company ever since. It doesn't quite follow the typical game development company's story, but is still just close enough to be stereotypical and thus be comparable. The Gearbox Software that worked on Half-Life: Opposing Force is such a distant memory to the 4th spin-off Borderlands game, the team all different and the practices of the company now much more corporate. Given how much of the modern Gearbox is defined by this psycho-anarchic anti-capitalist formulaic IP, it's ironic Wonderlands is the compass the studio must now follow to escape the corruption within the studio created following it's series origin.

The game itself centres around Tiny Tina, the bunker master and character in charge of your role-playing game Bunkers and Badasses (BnB), stuck in a cave following a disaster that struck herself and two characters (that you've never seen before) as you play a role-playing game she's made. The game itself is designed largely by Gearbox creatives, the developers and leadership team behind this looter-shooter RPG series, as they were stuck at home following the pandemic that affected the entire studio (largely made of new talent following Borderlands 3) as you play a meta-game they've made. If it wasn't obvious by this simple construction of the game's premise, the game is about the game itself. The other characters standing around the table (who don't get to play but are additionally in charge of telling the story, just in a lesser extent) represent a team of fresh faces in Gearbox, while your character that can't help shape the story in any direct way is exactly that but for the real you. Simple pattern association reveals the focus is not on the ttrpg inside the video game, but the video game inside the real world with the ttrpg being analogous to the Borderlands series as a whole.

So what's that narrative about? Tiny Tina (Gearbox leadership) tells the tale of an arbitrary amount of fatemakers (vault hunters) who survive an attack by a villain and are left stranded. They venture to a civilisation that is under attack by that villain and must now defeat this villain while defending the people of this civilisation, while partly only obliging due to their own selfish greed for big numbers (damage or monetary). This has been the exact same generic construction for the first act of a Borderlands story ever since Borderlands 2, and it's mentioned Tina has been telling this exact same story to every person she can get to play BnB with her, which makes it extra interesting that Anthony Burch (the lead writer for Borderlands 2)'s sister, Ashley Burch, voice acts Tiny Tina herself. However, the break on the formula comes when the villain suddenly appears before the player during a cutscene (importantly a non-interactive moment in the game), kills the most important character in the story, and disappears with an important story element. There's many interpretations to what the villain of Wonderlands is analogous to (a nondescript original intent of the series, the soul of the artform being left apart from the corporate product, a coalescence of themes and ideas presented in the series being betrayed by a safer story), but I believe the villain is the series itself personified. We learn throughout the story that the villain is the first character Tina played in BnB (the first venture into creating art in the medium), and had made such a radical moral decision that it turned the character evil (the series had such a radical shift (I think they're talking about the focus on capital growth and becoming a corporation following the extremely anti-capitalist messages of Borderlands 1 & 2) that it irreparably turned the company away from creating impactful art). Now the villain (series) tries to use the world created by Tina to destroy itself and be free from the cycle (repeated releases) of being corrupted and misused over and over again (of being shaped towards more capitalist sentiments and away from anarchic human art).

Gearbox has been licking it's chops more and more often recently at the signs of more 'evil' game development company actions taking place within it's own walls. Just to bring up the most recent example, 3 years after selling out to Embracer Group (owns Deep Rock Galactic, Goat Simulator, Satisfactory, Shadow Warrior, Hellboy, Middle-Earth Enterprises (basically the LotR IP), and the Marvel's Avengers game to name a few of varying quality), Gearbox Interactive (the main development company) had received sizeable layoffs in March 2024 following an announcement by Take-Two interactive to acquire the studio, however no actual decision had been made yet despite the amount of genuine developers and artists who got suddenly thrown out of a job. The reason I keep saying 'fuck Randy Pitchford' when I talk about the evils behind the company is because he tends to be the final deciding factor in a majority of these decisions and keeps being a generally unpleasant person, especially with his tendency to take a nice relaxing vacation immediately following any of these controversies. The game series is being heralded by a money-grubbing indifferent leader who regularly makes destructive long-term choices for the company just to reap more short-term rewards. I've said that I should feel indifferent towards the studio and the series, as the apathy would stop the consistent betrayals to the individual experiencing the beauty of the series' art, however the company's failings and PITCHFORD are opposed by other creatives who intend to create genuine and impactful pieces of art.

Matt Cox (no not the true crime one) might be my favourite person in the leadership at Gearbox Interactive today. After starting in Gearbox as a lead boss designer for Borderlands 3 (one of my favourite parts of the game), he moved to associate creative director for the Borderlands 3 Bounty of Blood DLC (my favourite DLC in the game, that managed to actually tell an impactful interesting story amidst the sludge known as Borderlands 3's story), before becoming THE creative director for Tiny Tina's Wonderlands (and I'm giving it an 8 so that should tell you it's pretty solid). As vague as this is, the creative choices of Bounty of Blood and Wonderlands seem very similar given the context of fuelling introspective analysis of stories within the medium itself. I don't think Matt Cox has figured out what to do with formula for Borderlands' gameplay yet, as while the game is better balanced it also feels slow and like various systems are mismatched in the game overall. It's still a game made out of Borderlands 3 though, so this game scratches that number go up shiny build specialisation feel-like-a-god itch no matter how you make it. I should make it clear that I don't actually know if this is all Matt's doing or just coincidence he's a creative lead for my favourite Borderlands experiences in recent years, however I can respect anyone who manages to turn a sought-after cash grab into a genuine attempt at creating meaning, especially when it relates so close to the company they recently joined.

However my main issues with this game come from just that, it is attempted first steps towards change and not anything truly substantial. While the addition of melee weapons and heavier RPG gameplay customisations are the strongest improvements on conventions created in Borderlands 3, it still falls into the same problems and formulas that got it here. The game released rushed in order to make back losses in the company from the pandemic, the quest length is somehow longer, characters joke for similar unnecessary lengths, crunch was still caused within the company (following employees being betrayed by the pitchford and in the middle of a pandemic), etc. Seeing the messages by a couple of the developers and designers who worked on the game only served to exasperate the disconnect between the individual humans working on this project and the company as a whole, featuring shoutouts to family, quick comedic messages, expressions of passion for the project, messages to the player, and quotes representing ideals. While I'm not expecting to see sudden major changes within the company or in the series, I expect some form of legitimate change to occur before the series sinks in it's own greed (and it may even be too late, but that depends on what Take-Two does if it buys the company). The end of the game features the villain (the series corrupted by corporate greed) finally offering itself up to the player and leaving itself at the whims of the table’s choice (allowing itself to accept the influence of the artists around the table), and a watchful Tina (Gearbox leadership) who has changed to accept influence from those playing with her (TAKE NOTES RANDY) lets the player give mercy to the villain and reconstructs the important story elements to retell Tina’s intended story (likely representing the creative works and corporation finally reunite and accept influence from each other to tell a story/sell a product together). If Gearbox manages to accept any influence from this story then there is hope for the series to regain it’s artistic value, however New Tales from the Borderlands did follow from this game…

Also as a random additional note, mad respect to whoever added the kawaii metal song to the credits, that was hilarious to find for the second time.

Really makes you feel like sharing the power to create, and be in awe of what can be made when you do