Tyranny - Standard Edition

This game offers exactly the type of immersive fantasy roleplay experience we FRP fanatics love. The story is intriguing, the pacing is good (it never became boring), characters --- for those who care --- do have some depth, combat pretty dynamic, plenty of interesting skills, special attacks and --- with party limited to four characters --- easy to organise. In comparison to other members of the RPG revival genre such as Pillars of Earth and Wasteland, I find it to be much more interesting. Also, I would say that the complaint that the game is too brief to be unfounded (unless you compare the monetary value of a time unit spent in this game to , say , discounted Skyrim). if you have other content in your life, it will last you good two weeks at least (normal/hard difficulty). The only negative remark which comes to my mind is that the Act III was obviously rushed. Somebody was hitting deadlines, I guess.

Frankly, I'm not disapointed. I just finished the game (with Tales of the Tiers and Bastar's wound) and played close to 50h. It's a very interesting old fashioned RPG. I would love to play Tyranny 2. It looks like Pillars, by the gameplay and graphics, it's a very good thing. Hope Obsidian will continue to create this kind of RPG !

First of all, the game is not short. If you spend less than 25 hours with it, you're just deliberately rushing it for the sake of it - just reading the dialogues probably takes at least 20 hours. The length is fairly good for what the game has to tell and show so you have to play it like Diablo to find it "short" - but then you should ask yourself why do you play a classic RPG like hack 'n slash, that's not the point, is it? Then, it's the actual game. It's good but it's nothing epochal. The combat is interesting, more diverse and less frustrating than Pillars of Eternity. The music is... adequate. The story keeps you interested and that alone makes it good but it's not all the original or devoid of cliches as you might expect. The setting is nice and unorthodox but not fully utilized - the alleged evil which has won the war against everybody but a few stubborn factions turns to be not-so-evil, it obviously can't keep order within its own camp all the while being explicitly obsessed with establishing global order, the characters - allies and enemies - can hardly be painted black or white and your own character is allowed to be a near-saint if you choose him/her to be. Even the most "evil" decisions you can take fall more in the category of selfish and even necessary depending on the circumstances so if you're expecting to blow Alderaan just to make an example of the rebel scum, look for another game, this one won't allow you to go nowhere near as far. Should you buy the game? Probably you should, if you like classic RPGs. There is a lot to read and most of the time its worth reading it, the combats are neither too frequent, nor too scarce (just about right) and the overall experience achieves what any game aims at - to entertain. Just don't expect to have your mind blown.

At first I was scared off by the negative reviews and, well, dark tone of the game. But man! This is definitely a game made by people who love isometric RPGs. The beginning, with the Conquest mode, is a fantastic introduction to the world and also well worth replaying, because the choices reverberate through the rest of the game. They can even open up alternative endings. The characters are fun and well voice-acted - they have a certain oomph that just wasn't there in Pillars of Eternity. I cared about how they ended up, and the banter was enjoyable. The story is solid, the world is very interesting ... where's my Tyranny 2?! The talent trees give the characters a unique feel. The magic system is particularly neat, where you find sigils and customize the spells, making them stronger or have extra effects as your mage levels up. The only downside is that the combat isn't as engaging as it could be, but it's painless if you play on Normal. In short, if you like isometric RPGs and especially if you want to see something new, definitely worth a buy.

Wow. Obsidian did it again. With their superb writing, they managed to draw me in the game as very few games nowadays do. I enjoyed every minute of my conquest of the Tiers, every judgement I cast, every dialogue I led with diverse characters and every enemy I defeated. Bravo. This RPG brought back feelings of greatness of generation of games long past. 10/10