Tyranny - Standard Edition

Tyranny is a great game that I can definitely recommend. The gameplay is based on Pillars of Eternity, but it is a bit tweaked up and feels more similar to Dragon Age: Origins, which I really liked. It allows pre-buffs, your character has 6 skill trees from which he/she can pick skills, and the other members of your party have their own unique trees. I was also much more engaged in the story and actually cared about other party members more than in PoE. While you are in the world where the evil side had won, don’t let that fool you. Even though you can pick one of the more or less evil main factions in the game, there is also an option to revolt and side with the rebels, and you can do much good even in this troubled world. What really stands out though is the replay value. Depending on which side you choose and what choices you make, you get to explore different areas and the story unfolds differently. This really makes want to experience the game again with a different faction. There is a LOT of text in this game, and the total play time will highly depend on whether you want to read everything or not. Personally, I found most of the text very interesting I was glad to learn more about the world, so my first play through took almost 40 hours. This really depends on the difficulty you set, the amount of text you want to read and whether you want to complete only the main story without side-quests.

This is actually the first review of a game I have ever written .. as Tyranny prompted me to do so. IMHO - It's one of the most refreshing titles in the last 10 years when it comes to computer RPG's (and my 'top' few fantasy cRPG picks when it comes to the STORY [as its all about the story, dug!] are PS:T, BG2, NWN2: MotB..). It's on that level, IMHO. Not sure where all the reviews about it being short come from, I'm __20__ hrs in and it feels like I'm maybe half-done (2 Spires are mine). So if I get 30-40 hours of a good story out of this, then I'm more than happy and anxiously looking forward to the next one. The plot itself and the atmosphere is as if Glen Cook (Black Company), Steven Eriksson (Malazan Book of the Fallen) and George RR Martin got together and had a baby with the Pillars of Eternity game engine. There's just so many (un)intended similarities with factions and characters of the Malazan series and the Black Company that it .. warms my heart, because I'm IN it now and I can INTERACT with those factions/characters. Characters are absolutely amazing - very convincingly written, there is an engrossing amount of dialogue you can have with your party members to learn their rich and very deep and interesting stories. I must first admit that i was reluctant at first when it comes to the combat engine - as i truly hated combat in Pillars of Eternity - but it doesn't in Tyranny. Not sure why, as it's very similar! And I'm writing this before I even finished the game, so that says something! I also ALREADY want to replay it to make different choices and see how they will shape the world and what the consequences will be! HIGHLY recommend for every _classic_ RPG nerd with a fondness for mature dialogues, morally ambiguous choices.. and much more. Go and play it. You won't regret it. Oh, and my first playthru is on 'Hard' difficulty if that's in any way relevant to what I wrote above. There were several few spots where I had to reload a couple times and rethink strategies!

This is the first computer RPG I've ever played that made me feel almost like I was playing a pen-and-paper RPG. The choices are that intricate and deep. Playing through just the intro is amazing, and I am not a person who gives praise lightly. The NPCs are also great and detailed and fun and well-voiced— much more than I usually find in a CRPG. The combat system is much like Pillars of Eternity, and works fairly well. There's a bit more micromanagement than I'd like, given that the combat AI leaves a bit to be desired. Still, it's not bad, and that's a minor complaint. There are also currently some bugs, though I imagine they'll be fixed relatively soon, and given the scope of the game, there are honestly very few of them. The worst gripe I have with Tyranny is that it ends abruptly, just when I felt like my character was really starting to hit stride. I honestly considered dropping a star for this, but on the whole I think the game still deserves a 5/5.

To all sceptic players, that this game is too short... For my 1st playthrough on PotD difficulty and expert mode ON it took me around 63 hours. I did approx. 95% of side quests and exploring. To compare it with Pillars of Eternity, on same difficulty it was 1/2 of the time spent (in PoE I had 120h). And I also have to mention that the replayability of Tyranny is definitely higher. If you liked PoE, this is a no-brainer.

liked: * challenging at first. * trying to game the system. * some of the dialog and philosophy is interesting. disliked * feels rushed; lots of cut'n'paste going on. * never really in control; always running errands for others. * steal without consequence. * combat is ponderously slow, even with fast mode. * leveled npcs and loot. would like to have seen * a more versatile magic system. see legend (1992) aka: The Four Crystals of Trazere. * completed game. * non-leveled npcs/loot instead of artificially blocked regions - if you go there too early you just get one-punched. * automation options, eg: heal when below 50%, guard mode, always taunt, use party buffs only. * create laws in your territory, hire people to govern, see the consequences. * given the above, more towns. * stamina based APs instead of cool-down: attack as fast as possible then catch your breath, or pace it. * option to switch off environment fx.