I very much liked this game. I was concerned that it might be a bit too short because that seems to be something people mention but in no way, did i find this game short. In fact, it kind of drags on a bit towards the end as you unlock everything there is to do/manage (I wish you could unlock all these things a bit faster)

People compare it to Pillars of Eternity, and it looks the same, it is similiar/same engine and its a CRPG inspired by the infinity engine era. But i thought this was actaully a better game than PoE. (However, I did play PoE 2 years ago and it was before expansions for it came out, both games have been improved since that time)

The story is really cool. choices and consequences, reputation and stuff like that ties in nicely and is satisfying. The Role playing aspect is really cool in how your character ties into the story. Intuitive and sensible dialgoue options with really cool NPCs who have Reactive NPC portraits (rather than static pictures) lots of killable NPCS. I think you can also kill every single one of your would-be companions in dialgoue as well when you first meet them. The lore is really cool and the way there is an ingame encyclopedia with little wiki-like colo-rcoded hover tool tips about certain subjects as you play it is really neat and should be a standard in games of this nature the xp/skills/stats system is very balanced, functional and intuitive. the auto-combat ai is simple enough and works well for the game.

Another thing that makes this game shine is the way the world is a harsh and wicked one. There is not much place for good characters to make their way in Tyranny. This will turn some people off. (Be prepared to choose between lawful evil and chaotic evil type decisions.) I went into this with the mindset that there would probably be some kind of rebellion, and i'd inevitably defect and go chaotic good. There's nothing like that here. And I only had that kind of expectation because thats the way these games ALWAYS are right? So see, its different and I like that. :)

Only reason I dont 5 star it is because a game like this in this era doesnt have influence, and I probably would not do a second playthrough of it even though I have every reason to suspect you could do things quite differently. The DLC is kinda a cash grab. The Tales from the tier is something that should be in the game already (Random encounters are a DLC feature in a CRPG???) and the others are just extras i'll never look at.

Tyranny takes a lot of strides forward for the genre, unfortunately the length and lack of well fleshed out side characters restricts Tyranny from being regarded amongst the all-time best CRPGs. The overall plot and setting for the game is truly superb, and I loved the amount of detail given whilst still remaining very accessible. Combat is much improved over Pillars of Eternity, but limited enemy variance and simplistic dungeons don’t give it an opportunity to shine to its full potential. The writing and impactful dialogue choices are the stand-out of the entire game, and these greatly add to the replayability.

Story

The main draw of Tyranny is that you are a “bad” character serving a tyrannical overlord, and whilst I can see that perspective it’s not so clear cut as I was led to presume. This leads to Tyranny’s greatest strength, a complex notion of justice and morality. The world of Tyranny toys with the player’s own morality and righteousness, in a way that is incredibly clever and engaging. Personally I felt that I could always justify my terrible actions through service to a greater purpose and better outcomes for all, I was willing to get my hands dirty for the greater good. I never felt I was playing a “bad” character, though I definitely wasn’t a “good” character either, I fulfilled my responsibility when I had to, and pushed the boundaries when I could.

The main way that Tyranny explores a player’s sense of justice is through their choices. It’s common that choices have significant effects on the story in CRPG’s, though I have never seen it as well executed as it is here. The player has reputation with all of the world’s various factions and characters, and each choice influences these reputations. Each faction has “favour” and “wrath” opinions of the character, and whilst this system is gamey it is great for making it clear to the character how their actions affect different factions. I can see myself doing at least another two playthroughs of the game, just to explore how these different choices affect the story.

The writing in Tyranny is across the board brilliant, as should be expected from Obsidian at this point. In particular I love the setting, and how this is slowly introduced to the character in a very accessible way. Tyranny is a completely new setting, and is also quite unlike other games which is why I was amazed that it was able to introduce a fairly complex new world without being overwhelming, which was a criticism I have of Pillars of Eternity. The world has a short history, though I was most impressed by the pre-existing complex relationships between the different factions, by learning about these relationships it greatly added to the depth and fantasy of the world.

The story isn’t perfect however, I’d say there are too few companions and they are generally a bit boring as well, which was not true for Pillars of Eternity. I expect this is especially the case if you don’t have the fairly overpriced DLC (Bastard's Wound), which adds companion quests and it’s inexcusable that they aren’t in the base game. The game is also fairly short for the genre, I ~100% cleared the game in 17 hours and I wasn’t particularly rushing through the game either. This is helped slightly because of the good replayability, though the short length does make the excellent story quite compressed, especially at the later portions of the game and I wonder if there was some funding issues that forcibly minimized the scope of the game.

Gameplay

I found the gameplay of Tyranny to be very satisfying and engaging, and a vast improvement on many other games in the genre. The main improvements were to be found in combat, characters have a very large number of unique and powerful abilities, in addition to artifact, reputation and tag team companion abilities. There is a wide range of powerful loot to be found and min-maxing stats is great, if a little simplistic. Complaints here are limited enemy variance, and inconsistent difficulty but these do not significantly handicap the great combat.

For the most part you will be travelling around exploring new locations, solving basic puzzles and engaging in superb dialogue. When travelling around the player encounters random text-based events that give players an opportunity to make simple decisions resulting in loot, reputation, items or combat depending on choices and events, I only encountered the same event twice in my playthrough. “Dungeons” are fairly simplistic compared to other games in the genre, and even though they are very quick to complete they were still interesting, however none stand out as being particularly memorable. In dialogue the player has many different options to pursue, with each option leading to new knowledge about Tyranny’s characters, world and factions. The dialogue options are a real standout of Tyranny’s gameplay and there are several tense and thought-provoking choices throughout the game.

Presentation

I was immediately struck by Tyranny’s artstyle, in both a positive and negative way. The character creation introduces the cartoony style with simple shading and details, I was very glad to see that this style doesn’t particularly carry over to the art of the maps and environments which mostly retain the beautiful design style from Pillars of Eternity. I don’t think the cartoon style suites the character or tone of the story that Tyranny is pursuing, I don’t mind them individually, but I would’ve preferred more realistic and detailed character models. I will say that the character designs themselves are incredible, with such diverse looking characters and each design suites the personality and story very well. In particular Tunon’s design was most impressive.

The spell effects are amazing and make it incredibly rewarding to using certain abilities. In addition the armour and weapon designs are varied and I like the look of most of it, each artifact also has a unique and interesting style. The music was a delight as well, it often plays in the background without getting in the way too much and adds to the tone and atmosphere of the locations.

The story takes place in a brutal fantasy world called Tiers. Long ago, a dark godlike creature known as Kyros defeated the armies of mortals, killed their heroes and took control of the entire world as a tyrant. The triumph of evil was absolute and final, so nothing the players do can change it. The main protagonist of the game is someone who takes advantage of the situation. The player takes on the role of an officer in Kyros' army, serving as judge and jury for the common people and ensuring that the tyrant's will goes unchallenged.

But this does not mean that we have to take on the role of a psychopath who takes pleasure in killing innocents. We can provide the obedience that Kyros expects from him and at the same time not be a tyrant. Such character development is also possible. In addition, the high social status of our hero allows even small decisions to greatly influence the state of the world. The player can shape the future of the game world and its thousands of inhabitants.

Tyranny starts with character creation. We choose not only the characteristics of the protagonist, but also the course of the war that ends in the defeat of the forces of good. These decisions will have a huge impact on the state of the kingdom during the campaign, so you can choose things like how big the damage to the world is and what the balance of power between the various organizations looks like at the very beginning.

During the game the player mostly explores the world, completes quests and fights. The combat takes place in real time and includes an active pause. Many companions will join the player during the adventure. The relationships with these companions will influence not only the story of the game, but also the combat. The combo mechanic allows the player to create attack combos involving multiple characters. The better the relationships with the party members, the stronger they will be in battle.

Like any other good RPG, Tyranny offers a character progression system. Skills similar to those found in The Elder Scrolls series are developed by using them in the game. Experience points earned are used to gain new levels, thus increasing the character's base stats. The game offers an average of 30 hours of gameplay with additional packs. In addition, after the game ends, you can transfer your existing save to a new game and start the game from that level.

Intro

I was looked forward to playing Tyranny for years. Fallout: New Vegas proved Obsidian can do "evil" exceptionally well and i loved Pillars of Eternity. Unfortunately, some of the core elements are flawed and soured my experience.

The Good

But let's start with the good. The story, characters and worldbuilding are great. Terratus feels like a tangible place. NPCs are all very different and entertaining. They all have unique skill trees too. There are tons of options in dialogues and you rarely feel like you're forced into a certain path. Spellcrafting allows for a decent variety in using magic. The graphics are good for a CRPG. The music is nice. And the options menu is extensive.

The Bad

In Skyrim your character would level up by improving skills through using them. This worked really well for the most part, because you only had one character and unlimited opportunities to level skills. Tyranny has the same system, and it's awful. Because there are no respawning enemies or the like, you have limited opportunities to use skills. This will tempt you to pick skill-related dialogue options and to extend combat by keeping the last enemy around so you can cast a bunch of spells. It's just a terrible choice for a CRPG.

A related problem is the spell system. Like in games such as Two World 2, you craft spells from various elements called Sigils. The higher your Lore, the more elements you can use. Every 5 points of Lore allows for another upgrade. So you're constantly keeping an eye on your mages to see if they have gained enough Lore and you're constantly fiddling with the damn spell menu. Again, this system works well in a single-player game but not for a party of four.

Crafting is also deeply flawed. You gain five Spires throughout the game. Three of those can be upgraded to allow for crafting. You can smith items, brew potions or do research. This takes in-game time and doesn't start until you gain XP. And there's a ton of stuff to craft, so if you actually want to use any of it you have to use gamey tactics. Learning a new Spell Sigil counts, for instance. So you will start a research project and a smithing project, learn a new Sigil you bought and then travel aimlessly between locations so that time passes. It's no fun.

Conclusion

Despite Obsidian releasing a couple of DLCs, Tyranny still has bugs like missing dialogue. Of the five spires, two lack a related dungeon area. Combined with the core design flaws mentioned above i think it's safe to say that Tyranny is an unfinished game. Obsidian almost certainly wanted to create something more expansive. Another indication of their original goal is that most of the story revolves around gathering allies (like in Dragon Age or Mass Effect), but they never actually come into play. The final stage of the game involves a trial, one or two boss fights and picking an edict to invoke. The rest of the story is played out in animated cutscenes. It's really disappointing.

Tyranny could have been a great game, now i wouldn't even call it good. It's still quite solid though, and definitely worth playing. Just be aware that Tyranny has some serious flaws and feels unfinished.