Tyranny - Standard Edition

Really enjoyable and engrossing old-school Baldur's Gate-style RPG ruined by strangely specific bugs. Some buffs persist even when the source of those buffs are removed, stat totals don't always add up for some unknown reason, etc. The worst; switching party members under certain conditions causes them to lose all their talents/spells. The only way to correct is to reload back to a point before the corrupting action took place and you don't always know when that is. So you have the potetnial to take a corrupted save forward for a long time without realising and then you are pretty screwed if you are affected. So, it's fine, it's "playable" to an extent but lets face it; part of the enjoyment of games like this is establishing your builds, synergising your effects, looking at all manner of stats and deciding how to make the most out of what you have got. And when those numbers won't add up or there is a chance it's going to go corrupt on you as you advance then that part of the game isn't enjoyable anymore. It's like you can't even trust the rules of the game. I really want to like it more but the uncertainty of the experience because of the bugs mean I'm not finding it an ejoyable experience. I'm 1/2 way through Act 2 but I think I am done. Try it out if it's on a very cheap sale I'd say.

The game is around 15-30(depends on the reading speed) hours with doing all the possible quests.There is around 10 side quest that can be finished without noticing.The game feels like a demo to be honest.There are 3 acts.The first feels good and it is well made.The last act is like 2 hours going around and killing your enemies.As a whole the game is unfinished and disappointing,in the second half it is obvious.Good example is the acquiring of the spires,the first two have and extensive dungeons while the last two are just go there read some paper and you get it.In the whole game i was in 3 or 4 dungeons(depends on what you count as a dungeon).Ooo and the choices are so stupid.There was a choice to save one of two people that are about 20 meters from each other.I split my party and attacked the enemies but one of them dies even if there is nobody around them.The writing is solid yet very predictable(I was predicting what is going to happen in the Unbroken quest line in the end of the first act) for the most part but there are some times that takes you out of the game and you are asking yourself "What the F...?".

that led me to quit this game prematurely before reaching the end. I don't think tyranny is as great as people claim in reviews and I try to elaborate on that. the first issue I got is the writing which seriously lacks in quality. don't get me wrong, the premise is decent but the writing which is supposed to keep the player interested until the finish-line, is rather tacky to say the least. words are randomly picked and dispersed like a chef haphazardly acting for an instagram shot. prose range from mediocre to bad and this is crucial to any rpg that heavily relies on text to compensate for lack of visual fidelity and budget. but as I have come to learn, obsidian didn't have the time, nor the budget, so I guess that's a paltry excuse for the bad writing? furthermore I didn't like the fact that you are considered a surrogate of a powerful adjudicator yet for some odd reason that has me scratching the back of my head, you also are treated like the lowest runt in the command chain. you will in fact waste your precious time fighting mobs, some interesting bosses and running errands like a thrall, rather than overseeing and meting out justice like the right hand of a central figure. which brings me to combat. nothing extraordinary has been done here. it feels lackluster, lame and uninspired. which honestly begs the question, why the devs forced so much of it, on the player. but I'm not too interested to deal any longer with this game and as such I will give it a 2/5. subpar and should be avoided if you consider there are superior options on the market for far cheaper.

* Extremely short (30 hour maximum). * Extremely buggy, with quests becoming unresolvable if done in the "wrong" order. * Extremely unpolished, with spelling errors everywhere, quest texts being wrong or updating seemingly randomly or unintuitively, not being able to talk to certain people about things you'd be able to discuss with them, dialogues being nonsensical if you're doing things in the "wrong" order (even if the order makes perfect sense to your character). There's hints of a really, really great game in there, somewhere, but between having adopted many of the worst issues of Pillars of Eternity and it's expansion(s), such as messy combat, engagement rules, seemingly randomly teleporting opponents to deal with common "exploits" (i.e. basic tactics), etc., and actually doing some things *worse*, such as actually having a worse UI (something considered impossible by many) and even fewer CNPC:s (some which are straight-up snowflakes); it's just not there yet. It does some things really, really well. The Conquest mechanic is truly well-crafted and gives some genuine replayability, the skill system is flat-out superior to PoE (and many other games), the classless system coupled with the magic/spell system is actually really well-made once you shake off the belief that this game is just Pillars of Eternity with a different coat of paint, and the game world is overall actually really interesting and beautifully crafted, with an iron/bronze-age society undergoing conquest by a ruthless warlord laying the foundation for something that could be something like Fantasy Rome, but without the greco-roman schtick. But it desperately, desperately needs about 10 patches and 2-4 major, major expansions. And I genuinely wish that it would've used more art assets from PoE just to diversify; I doubt anyone would've held it against them. It could've used another year in development. It's sad to see something so beautiful so marred.

I have only one big issue, but sadly, it makes game almost unplayable for me. Not sure why other people does not mention this, maybe my computer is cursed, but combat is almost impossible because moody nature of all characters. e.g. at beginning of combat enemy archer hits my team member. My leader (set to defend part) immediately charges towards him and ignoring everything, for example that big dangerous boss. No matter if i ordered something before, or after charge begun. He takes it just as recommendation and continue to charge. Well yes, If i am not happy, just change AI script, but they always override my orders. Or just turn off AI, but then I just must babysit all characters, on degree, when ordering executing special ability let them stand stupid and not continuing in attacking. This is probably purpose, why they reduced party size. Micromanaging six characters would drive me crazy. My most successful tank is actually mage guy. He is running around battlefield chased by like three enemies, while rest of party remove archers. To bad, mage suddenly stop running and start something else (typically dying) or rest of party stop doing their job and start chasing Tom and Jerry, and ideally taking some attack of opportunity... If soundtrack consisted just from Yakety Sax, it will made more sense than this. Maybe I am expected to make connection with characters or something like this, maybe identify myself with main protagonist, but sadly, my party consists just from Idiot, Twat, Jerk and Missy Brat. (Stop running you Idiot, start running you Jerk, Stop attacking and taunt them as I told you ten seconds ago you Twat, would that spoiled Brat finally set that boss on fire please? I sad that boss!) I consider myself a huge fan of both, Obsidian and isometric RPGs, but I never felt so much frustration.