Tyranny - Bastard's Wound

Three separate notes. One for people just wrapping up their first Tyranny run, one for brand new players and one for all. Seasoned Tyrants If you are wrapping up a Tyranny game and are just adding this you should know you do not gain experience defeating characters more than a couple of levels lower than yours. That means unless you are willing to play without gaining new experience for most of the encounters you will have to start a brand new game with the DLC added. This is not bad news. Tick the New Game+ box at the choose new game settings and I'll explain. Starting the game with all the levels and skills you've earned and any two of your favorite special items makes a big difference. Yes you can keep that badass weapon you've cared for like small child and that killer piece of armor you've been strutting around the Tiers with. There are also new vendors that will sell you things you had no idea you would need and you have all the gold you hoarded to the end of your first play-through to spend. The enemies will be on your new level. It won't be a cake walk but you'll have a lot more fun thrashing them with your high skill and a wide range of abilities you are now very familiar with. You'll also know a lot more and be a much better tyrant. And really isn't that what we all want? Brand New Tyranny Players If you're adding this DLC to a Tyranny game you haven't played yet this is a good addition to a wonderfully conceived game. The simple and very flexible spell crafting system and the fact that you can learn to use any weapon you like have probably ruined me for other rpg games. All I suggest throwing in the Tales from the Tiers content if you like random encounters that may or may not end in bloodshed and who doesn't. Have fun.

I waited for it, bought it immediately and... I will be more careful next time. pros + new location + companions quests, finally! + new ending + new tricky achievements cons - you have to play BW only in Act 2 (I prefer to see a big DLC as a standalone) - dialogs and choices (or absence of them) in quests in Bastard Wound are not OK comparing to original Tyranny: the story itself is good, but the spirit is totally missed. You save bunch of ppl from murder - nobody reacts. You kill some important characters - guess what? - nobody reacts. You need some information from prisoner - and all you can do is kill for her another NPC. Oh, really? This is not a Tyranny then. - for companions quests, you need to run through all map from one small location to another and spend there 2-3 mins. that's kinda stupid. Could we have more interactions next time? - Lantry's quest is bound to Bastard's Wound location. I don't want to play all this BW again to complete his quest, it shouldn't be that mandatory. - the same Old Walls easy puzzles - no new companion

I hate to leave a comment like this, but this DLC is not playable if you choose to go to the Vellum Citadel. The key items you need to progress are in an area that is only unlocked if you choose Lethian's Crossing over the Citadel. The game never communicates this, either before or after you make the choice. Not even the wikis are particularly clear. I saw confirmation on a Reddit post, of all places. The only reason I know it's not a bug is that the area that has the key items only opens as part of a quest that I can't do because I picked a different quest. Afgain, there is no warning or confirmation. This is a game that takes dozens of hours and now my playthrough can't even get through the content I recently bought. This is my second playthrough and it's not clear at all where to find the keys, let alone that I can't find them. There is no reason the player could not do both those quests or at least access both areas in one playthrough. I feel cheated. There's missable items, and then there is making your DLC unplayable if you pick the wrong arbitary quest line. The quests are not connected in any way, and I made this decision 10 hours ago. Why even have the DLC location pop up if I'm locked out of it by my choices? This feels cruel and it's baffling to me that such a good game could make such a hostile design decision. If anyone wants to tell me I'm wrong, that would be most appreciated. I was actually quite enjoying the story.

I loved Tyranny's first act so much that I bought Bastard's Wound to enjoy the content on the first run-through. This was a mistake. The expansion pack has three components, as others have said: a new area, a few companion quests, and random enounters. I actually rather liked both the random enounters (which are cute and add a little flavor) and the companion quests (which are well done and in at least one case involve serious character development). That said...the new area was terrible. Like, I'm going to skip it on future play-throughs terrible. I hated basically everyone in the new area. And not like in a cool, morally ambiguous way. In a "you're all assholes" sort of way. I initially chose to be peaceful and kind and whatnot and by halfway through, I just wanted to kill everyone. And the dungeon diving was the worst. The rune keys and a teleporter mechanic are abused to make an incredibly windy, hard-to-navigate dungeon that goes across 3 maps (with long loading times...), and then they have the gall to send you one 2 different quests where you have to search for things...and one of those quests involves searching for *hidden* things that manifest as a faint sparkle until you're right on top of them. They also change the rune key dynamics, vastly increasing the range at which you can both activate the glyphs and push buttons, which feels like a decision made to facilitate sloppy design. Anyway, if it's on sale for $5, consider getting it just for the "lesser" content. Don't buy this at full price.