Tyranny - Standard Edition

Before I start with my review I want to make sure that you know where I come from. I played every single infinity engine game starting with Baldurs Gate and my favourite of the bunch was the breathtaking, philosophical masterpiece, known as Planescape Torment. I sorely missed the depth and creativity that i learned to love playing those games. Only a handful of games oozed a certain kind of atmosphere and left you with a sense of accomplishment afterwards. Many modern rpgs where great in their own way, but there was always something missing that I couldn't find, and that's the power of one's own imagination. Games like Tyranny, work with a lot of text and written descriptions, and leave enough room for you to create your own imaginations. A lot of breathing space for you as a player. A game, leaning heavily on it's narrative structure, opens up to YOU, to add whatever feels right within the world that you inhabit. It treats you like the creator of your own story and not as a consumer of force fed data. I had enough time for 2 playthroughs. Once as a Kyros loyal, the second time as an ally of the defeated Tiersmen. I've read several reviews where people complained the game was too short, but they overlooked the fact that this game was built in such a way, that each of your decisions would alter your gameplay, quests, maps to discover and the fate of the whole realm drastically. There may be certain similiarities, but each playthrough is different form each other. This is a game for adults, not because you play as an evil maniac serving a dictator, not because it titilates the mind with gore, combat and sex, but because it faces you with difficult decisions, that have hard, life changing consequences. Nothing and no one is black and white in ther views and actions, which gives the game a depth that most games can't even dream of. To make it short, if Baldurs Gate and Planecape Torment had a Baby, it's deserving, glorious offspring would be Tyranny.

This is an RPG that takes several hours to progress, but there are bugs that can leave you unable to leave the map to move on. The worst part is that it seems to be a roulette but you can run into them since the beginning of Act I.

Finally finished the game the first time. I will probably go for another play-through in a couple of months from now with a different faction and different choices. The game works great, I've encountered very few bugs, none game-breaking, so kudos for Obsidian for delivering a great game from the start. Now to the details, story is great, has good writing, though sometimes (rarely) your choices are narrowed down by the previous choices. I would've wished that sometimes I could have the freedom to go in a different direction (a more chaotic approach). But in 80-90% of the cases you can do just that. You can betray alliances, re-shuffle alegiances etc. Combat is good, in the style of Pillars of Eternity, lots of spells and abilities, however I played on Normal mostly to enjoy the story so it can be different on higher difficulties. Character development is great, you can start out as a fighter and develop into a mage if you want, you're not limited in any way in what type of weapons/spells you can use. I also love the way you can create new spells with different effects. Too bad other games don't have this anymore (looking at you Bethesda, for removing this great feature post-Morrowind). Crafting is ok, the selection of armor/weapons is a bit limited, for example I haven't found a way to get/craft any unique leather armor (maybe different choices would've unlocked one though). Still I think it's decent enough especially since you can upgrade any type of armor/weapon to masterwork which is the highest level. As for those who say that it's to short, I disagree, it has a decent length, not Baldur's Gate -like, but about Fallout -like. Though a better comparison would be The Witcher 2. It has enormous replay value since choices can alter your path entirely, with entire areas locking/unlocking depending on the faction you choose to side with. All in all it's a great delivery from Obsidian. I just hope it won't be ruined in the future with Paradox style DLCs.

I bought this game too quickly without reading some more balanced reviews. Hard to define why but i feel ripped off and wish i could refund it. I play many crpgs and this one despite its premise this one felt regressive in game design. The execution of the choice system quickly felt fake and restrictive.

Tyranny is better than Pillars of Eternity in almost every aspect, and PoE was a pretty good game already. One of the best experiences of playing 'Evil' protagonist ever made in videogames