Posted on: April 20, 2019

tikatyr

Games: 118 Reviews: 5

4.5 stars! Great game. (50 hours for me)

As most people checking the game I am a big RPG fan. I played most of the major RPG games in the last 20 years. I would say that Tyranny is a very special game and has a place among the great. The strongest and most unique point is the choices you make. This is emphasised from the character creation screen, where you get to make war decisions even before the game starts. This choices are fairly easy to understand, i never felt confused about them, but they will impact the game from beggining to end in a quite meaningfull way. NPC characters will often evoke your past actions and judge you by them. The story is about factions. It's a military and political story, about the conquest of a territory. While in many games, you get to choose faction A, B or C and stick to it to the end, here it's very different. First, their are many many different factions and people you can influence. Then you are never forced to choose a specific way, and can very much make your own way, with your own moral compass. You can be loyal to faction or a character, then choose to betray pretty any time you want. Their are many major endings, then probably a few hundrends small variations in the ending of the game that acount for your choices during the game. Something as insignifiant as choosing "remain silent" dialogue option many times during the whole game, will be noticed in the endgame. Many persons critique the ending, saying it's too short, rushed. I did not feel that. I think the ending makes sense. The choices you make will also affect your fighting ability. You will gain new abilities based on your standings and affiliations. In no other game have I seen such a nice and deep connection between combat and story. You can even find legendary items that come with their own abilities. My only critique it is that combat becomes a bit easy and repetitive by the end of the game. Because of lack of friendly fire you can easily spam big AOE spells, and it's the main tactic you use.

Is this helpful to you?

Posted on: June 8, 2019

Wrongfire

Verified owner

Games: 137 Reviews: 23

Early game review

I'll update this review if things change later on, but so far I'm very happy with this game. I'm shocked to see obsidian titles having such a love/hate relationship. I really don't get it... Now, the world seems to skirt the line between Dragon Age and literally every fantasy game ever, but it has a few unique touches that I can appreciate, from the Edicts (extremely powerful magic scrolls called upon by people like the main character) to the excellent execution of a new world. What I mean by that is that the dialogue is full of lore that you can hover your mouse over to learn more about. Even early on into the game I feel like I'm up to speed with all these previously unknown terms and can easily immerse myself into the events of the world. My favorite aspect is how you can handle situations in so many ways, from combat to civil conversations to tense exchanges, the games reputation system takes into account how people view you, not just as an invidivual, but as a part of that faction. It's very involved so far with characters constantly bringing up past actions, backstory, and dialogue choices. Now, the game isn't perfect. Already I have seen some bizarre choices with dialogue, for instance I had a character introduce me to someone, and then explain to that person 3 different ways, that they were joining my party. It was strange... "Meet this person, someone you are joining."... "Are you prepared to join this person!?"... "You are joining this person on their journeys" To sum up the odd exchange. It hasn't been the only flaw with the writing either. I find it odd how characters just drop modern swears and phrases as well. While I don't expect them to speaketh ye olde english the disregard for the time period and setting has been noticable a few times. I'm also not blown away by the combat, but it isn't bad. It's servicable and not much more. Id recommend this to people looking for an involved, choice driven RPG. That's where this game shines.

Is this helpful to you?

Posted on: June 13, 2023

Louard_le_Barbare

Games: 295 Reviews: 126

A future cult classic?

Bad news: the villains have conquered the world. Good news: you’re on their side! Tyranny has a great concept for an RPG: it’s a tale that has brutes and psychos as main characters, heroic rebels as antagonists, and offers provoking thoughts on the nature of dictatorship, evil and power. The game fully embraces its dark and unconventional premise, putting you in the shoes of a high-ranking officer from the get-go and allowing you to shape the world around you through your words and actions. The wide variety of dialog options lets you take different story paths and interpret your hero as you see fit: while you can play as a “benevolent tyrant” of sorts, behaving as an evil jerk and sowing fear everywhere you go is a valid and often rewarding option! The story is great overall. The world of Terratus has distinctive aesthetics, is detailed and credible, and is populated with well-rounded and unique characters. Some of the most psychotic companions even manage to end being strangely likable, which should tell you something about the quality of the writing. I don’t have a lot of bad things to say about Tyranny. While it has been criticized for being short, it will last for a good 40-50 hours if you don’t rush through and is very replayable. At worst, it has a lot of content and fairly complex game mechanics, which can get overwhelming: you’ll need to keep an eye on a number of parameters including your party’s equipment, consumables, spells, skills and interpersonal relationships, as well as manage strongholds, oversee how each faction treats you… The combat system is also in-depth. It took me a little while to get comfortable with it all and learn to enjoy it, so it’s not a game I’d recommend to anyone. In the end, Tyranny’s mechanics are as deep as its writing, and it really delivers upon its simple yet great twist on roleplaying games. It’s not just a power fantasy where you get to be the bad guy; it’s a fantastic RPG that I would recommend to any fan of the genre.

Is this helpful to you?

Posted on: November 15, 2016

Iandolan

Games: 476 Reviews: 2

Expected more from Obsidian

A was fairly disappointed with Tyranny, great premise, intriguing world, lots of potential, but its VERY short, compared to previous releases (esp pillars of eternity) and while the character creation/what roles you played in the early conquest are fun and add to the replay value, there is limited scope for character and npc development and the levelling up felt very constricted. Nothing much has been added from Pillars of Eternity and a few fun bits have been taken away, It feels like they planned to do a lot more, but ultimately ran out of time. Too short, but could have been amazing.

Is this helpful to you?

Posted on: January 12, 2017

BlackyNoir

Games: Reviews: 3

A big miss…

…for this game. To be clear: it's not a good RPG. What's being sold by the marketing, playing some kind of legate of a victorious evil supreme lord, making real tough choices with real consequences is just not true. You will spend most of your time mob killing people, crawling through maps, looting corpse, selling batch of iron swords… does that sound like a legate job or life? There very very little diplomacy, intrigue, moral and legal questions or dilemma. And on top of that combat is messy. You won't know who's who on your screen, who's doing what when to whom. A full mess. Even worse, if the game was a tabletop rpg it would be labeled Narrativist, as the game impose incoherent and ludicrous scenes. Like the leader of your enemy taunting you for 5 minutes literally just 2 feet away, then just running away. And you can't move during all that, at all, the game deem you able to play it only once the pseudo cinematic as concluded. And not once or twice, but a lot. A lot. And the writing isn't tip top too. And even worse, the game railroad you all along. Yes you can choose, right at the very selective moments, one of the 4 paths scripted for you. Once you do, even if the game and a whole lot of NPC tell you to be subtle, you won't be because you can't. The game will make choices for you, even a whole lot of unreasonable or incoherent one. You're not making choices, you're not making A local temporary arbitration, you're choosing every damn quest and decisions for your character until the end of the game. Decisions being go there kill them, even though the quest givers usually have whole armies at their disposal, somehow again and again and again a young “diplomat” like you is needed for this FantasyNavySeals RPG of killing people and selling their petty stuff back to the local quartermaster, sorry merchant. Could have been a good game. It's not.

Is this helpful to you?

Discover CD PROJEKT RED games

Highlights

Featured

Close, but not an exact hit

Tyranny - Standard Edition

Other ratings

Add a review

Edit a review

Delete this review?

Report this review

Additional Details (required):

Report this review