Developer: Gearbox Software
Publisher: 2K Games
Rrp: £7.99 (Steam)
Released: 25th June 2013
Available on Steam
Played using: Mouse & Keyboard
The worlds been saved… Again and the Vault hunters settle down to relax and play a game, and that game is Bunkers and Badasses! A game that looks awfully similar to a certain famous tabletop game. Who knew that Tiny Tina was such a good story teller that you would be transported to that mystical realm?
This DLC is quite possibly the most intelligent DLC I have come across in a long time, hell it might be one of the most intelligent things I’ve seen any game do. In this DLC not only does it give you a lot of background to Tiny Tina and her emotional state after the events of the main a game but it’s also a deconstruction and critique on gaming and the culture surrounding it. And I don’t just mean video games, I mean tabletop games, pen and paper RPG’s the whole thing. Even the seemingly throw away gags shine a light on some of the more ridiculous elements of the collective culture.
As with the other DLC new enemies are introduced, except unlike the others EVERY enemy is unique, you won’t find them in the rest of the main game or other DLC’s. You have RPG staples such as skeletons in their various varieties, knights, golems, sorcerers, orcs and dwarves. As you can imagine most of these enemies don’t use ranged attacks very often, so to counteract this they have in really increased health, do tons of damage and can knock your character back quite a distance. Those that do have a ranged attack aren’t weak though, they hit pretty hard themselves and because it’s a arrow rather than a bullet your character gets temporarily slowed, making the melee attackers job that much easier.
This game is the closest thing I have seen to the old total conversion mods since Total Annihilation Kingdoms, almost everything has been changed. The music is made to suit the fantasy environment, the vending machines and the their slogans have been changed too.
There are lots of interesting editions too, like chests that have two D20’s (twenty sided dice) on them, the quality of the item inside will depend on whether you choose to roll once dice or two. The higher the roll the better, rolling one dice is free but rolling two costs eridium.
To be honest this entire DLC could have been sold as a stand alone game, like Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon. I’m glad they didn’t choose to go down that route as a lot of the humor would have been lost.
Recommend it? Hell to that! If you own the main game I insist you buy this DLC! It’s smart, funny and a hell of a lot of fun. As you would expect it’s chock full of references to various fantasy stories and shows as well as geek culture as a whole.
