Tyranny - Bastard's Wound

THIS REVIEW COMES COURTESY OF A SHAMELESS OBSIDIAN FANBOY (who bought Bastard's Wound from GOG after I swore I'd never buy anything from them again and knowing full well this expansion is a scam) My conclusion? NO. Reason? This is content that could have, even should have been included in the base game. This "expansion" consists of Barik and Verse loyalty quests - which are positively alright but should not be sold at extra cost - and the Bastard's Wound scenario which offers nothing unique and is a rehash of another Old Walls dungeon run only more tedious. Gating Barik and Verse's loyalty missions behind paid content reeks of EA levels of crooked dipshittery. Fans of Sirin will be disappointed to know that the poor girl is doomed to wear that helmet forever. Story-wise BW is nothing remarkable. BW's scenario is ripe for exploration under Tyranny's premise but does nothing with it. Available choices are glaringly formulaic - almost childish in their obviousness and simplicity - and one-note compared to the base game's robust offerings. It features no interesting characters, not much in the way of intriguing conflict and the whole thing is over like real freaking quick - crookedly quick for the asking price. There are also woefully few side quests and some of them are straight up broken and cannot be completed. Not that they're terribly interesting anyway. This expansion is a scam. You're getting virtually nothing for a price that should be included in the base game. I paid for this with hard earned money and rewarded bad behavior. Don't be like me. I feel dirty.

This expansion is more of the same. So if you want more Tyranny? Then this is okay. To go into a little more detail. You get some companion quests. Those are decent, but a bit shallow. No real emotional "oomph" to them. You also get to explore some new maps. There is some interesting lore about the old walls, but the plot isnt THAT good. This is NOT like say Throne of Bhaal, where you get tons more story and a new epic conclusion. Not a must, but I enjoyed it.

I honestly can't say there was anything WRONG with this DLC. It added a new region, some story, a lot of lore, and some character side-quests. Sounds great, doesn't it? I thought so, too. I like to split Bastard's Wound into two parts: Verse and Barik's companion quests, and the actual Bastard's Wound region, which includes Lantry's companion quest (and initially hints at a Sirin companion quest, but then unceremoniously dumps the idea...). Verse and Barik's companion quests were actually really good. As weird as Verse's backstory and 'sisters' sound described by her, I could oddly relate to her and felt a much deeper connection with her character. Barik's was definitely my favorite, with loyalties, fighting, and a single but powerful emotional "oomph!" PLUS being able to free him of his twisted iron and bronze cage. If just those two stories were in a separate $5-$9 DLC, I would buy it. But the other half of Bastard's Wound? Eh... I've found it very difficult to pin down what EXACTLY about the Bastard's Wound turned me off, but I just simply wasn't interested. Period. It didn't suck me in like the rest of my 36 hours well spent on this amazing game, it didn't engage me. I suppose some serious lore junkies might have enjoyed it though. As for Lantry's story, I... really... didn't care. Don't get me wrong, I like Lantry (meaning, I LOVED Lantry, he was such a well-written character!) but I just didn't care for his companion quest. It was very long, very drawn out, semi-difficult, and just... boring. I wasn't really interested in what awaited around the next corner while playing through his story, and truthfully I wasn't interested enough to speculate. All-in-all, though, a good DLC. Perhaps not a solid A+, but a good DLC. If you loved Tyranny and/or Verse or Barik (or both!) then I highly recomment buying it. If not, then don't waste your money.

Companion quests are a mixed bag (Barik's was fine, Lantry's was kind of boring) but the new area you can access is so, so very buggy. Ignoring the fact that I felt shoehorned into actions I didn't want to take (which is basically the opposite of what the base game offers), there were simply so many bugs, some of them completely blocking my progress. Had I known how bad the new area is, I would have just skipped Barik's questline and not bought this DLC.

Where are Sirin and Eb quests. For the price, this DLC is very light and a continuation of paradox abusive policy. In the end, the interesting content is the one that come for free with the patch for everyone. After the paying portraits, Paradox is seriously getting on my nerves they are more and more unfriendly to their customers..