Just standalone DLC for BL2 sold as a full game, in case you don't want to play BL2 and just want to directly get into Tiny Tina's Wonderlands afterwards. In theory as things in this DLC don't really make any sense unless you played BL2 main story beforehand.
For positives: Story is alright, it has that garbage "fart piss ♥♥♥♥" humor sprinkled into it which isn't even done in a funny way. Farts. Laugh. Claptrap did something. Laugh at him.
There are some fun references here and there and map design is truly out of this world, especially for Borderlands franchise. I didn't play the DLC back when I was doing my BL2 playthrough so I appreciate having it more as a "standalone" thing.
For negatives: The enemies are pretty annoying to fight. Some teleport a bit too much, others fly... If you were to play this from Borderlands 2 then you'd have pretty easy time since the weapon roster has big variety, but in here most of your weapons are going to be projectile-based which makes combat more miserable than it should be. If you're curious, there's no UVHM, only TVHM. Balancing is screwed up since this was never intended to be played as a standalone game but it's generally liveable. The flow is typical for Borderlands 2 where you're constantly walking between point A to point B so it's nothing too crazy, just a big waste of time. Reminded me of modern "open world" games where it's just fetch quest collectathon, guess old habits die hard because Borderlands 4 was a big fetch quest in itself too. Modern day "tripel A" gaming amirite?
I wouldn't recommend this game at all to anyone suffering from epilepsy and are sensitive to flashing lights, some effects for ex. getting zapped by a skeleton with thunder will flash your whole screen.
So, the final question is... Why the negative review?
I'm myself not a fan of it. It's cute and fun, one of the best DLCs but it just ultimately falls flat due to Gearbox having humor of a toddler who sank in the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ and couldn't shut up about it since. It has a good groundwork, especially for a game DLC but it's clear that this isn't a separate game with it's own identity when you're playing through it. It would benefit far more from being completely detached from Borderlands franchise and becoming it's own game with it's own lore, characters, world & story. For the price they're asking, not worth it. Buy BL2 on sale with DLCs and play it through that, it will be far better.
