Tyranny - Standard Edition

If you've ever wanted a RPG that deals with political power games in an evil nation, in a fantasy world setting, this game is very good for that. There are some things that are not executed well, though. For one, there's this build up about the overlord, Kyros, and what the overlord might know about what's going on during the events of the game. At the end of the game you expect those questions to be answered, but they are not. Now, I think I get what they're doing. Probably leaving it up to your imagination. Or, perhaps that's the excuse. There are some things you don't want to leave to the imagination. Otherwise, you have a game with an anticlimactic ending. That's what we have here. There are inconsistencies. For one, I betrayed a faction a party member belonged to. After a long time of battling that faction alongside this party member, the fellow suddenly has a problem with it. It's because they set his response to happen when you talk to him next and I hadn't talked to him in a while. They should've made it an automatic pop up conversation not too long after the betrayal happened. I encountered things like this numerous times. These are not so much bugs but poor decision making during design. Speaking of factions, the game has way too many of them. It's the same mistake I've seen made in the past with games from other companies. Gaining favor or wrath with some factions is pointless, because it has no real effect on the game. But, you don't know that unless you've played the game before. I spent hours working to gain favor with a faction, only to have it all go in the trash during an unavoidable moment when a NPC from the faction (Gregos) decided he didn't like me. There was nothing I could do about it. Was irritating at first until I discovered any favor with the faction really was meaningless, anyway. So what was the point from the start? If it were possible I'd give the game 3.5 stars. It's more than just 3 stars but quite short of 4 stars.

Yes, at first, it seems like any other top-down RPG, and anyone who's played Baldur's Gate or Pillars of Eternity will quickly get the hang of it. In fact, it was so generic that I actually considered uninstalling it as I was playing 2 other games at the time. But, I gave it a chance and I'm glad I did. What I really enjoy is that your reputation figures largely in this game to the degree that it can greatly effect the course of your story. What makes it tricky is that you have reputations with different factions that are antagonistic towards one another while, at the same time, you must insure that you please your Overlord. It's often a fine balancing act. I found myself several times stopping to think for minutes on which answer to choose. I'm playing it by making the choices I would in real life and it's like walking on egg shells as the 3 main factions that I am allied, as well as my leader, are quite evil. At the same time, you often find that, at times, you must be ruthless, though softer options are availabe to you. I look forward to seeing where my choices take me. Recommended.

It took me time to play this game, and frankly I don't know why... With Pathfinder and Torment, it's one of the best RPG of the last decade, by far (other games are great too, like Underrail or Battle Brothers but... graphisms). The game mechanics are pretty neat : you improve your skills by using it. That makes your specialization meaningful, from being versatile to highly specialized in few skills. As for spells, you create your own depending on how you want to fight. A battle mage can specialize in short ranged spells for example. There's plenty of factions, and most of them have an opposed one. Meaning, you'll build up favor and wrath quite quickly depending on who you choose to support. Gaining favor or wrath gives you passive and combat abilities. Your "fortress" is a "five locations" one, each one can be specialize (forge, library, training hall, infirmary) giving you specific bonus and research abilities. And you can hire merchants and trainers in them. Training is important, it gives you an edge in battles as well as allowing you to progress to the next level quicker. There's four different paths to follow (but you can choose more by being into compromises) : from being allied with one of the major faction or... following an anarchist path. Which allow you to replay the game many times. That's why 40-50 hours tp finish the game is not that short as you can start all over again. The story is pretty ok, quite original as we are "the bad guys" at the beginning, Fatebinder of Kyros, supreme chief of Terratus who's about to dominate the last remaining free lands, the Tiers. Overall, it's pretty deep. It always can be improved, but if offers a mix of different kind of gameplays that's refreshing. I'm not much into "5 stars" but this one clearly deserve it.

I think the prologue and ACT1 were so masterfully crafted that with Obsidian's budget I was bound to be disappointed by the rest. I was in love with game up until the middle of ACT2, then I just... got bored. It's feels too short, but not as much as the players make it out to be - only ACT3 is offensively disappointing. +fantastic, original premise you've never seen before +great worldbuilding +diverse cast of characters (I didn't feel attatched to any of them, though) +team attacts! I need some more of that in other games +spells crafting aka the only crafting I can stand +prologue choices actually MATTER -none of the quests past ACT1 really stood out to me -felt surprisingly linear in many aspects (why won't you love me, Hegemon? I just wanna serve you!) -didn't make me feel badass, most of the time I wasn't even allowed to go full Satan -several game-breaking bugs (damn towers!) -boring puzzles -towers were pretty useless

The game is very nice. It has some great visuals and an absolutely awesome setting. Basically you're a minion of an 'evil overlord' figure who is about to finish his conquest of the continent to tighten his (hers?) iron grip on the land. This is a very welcome break from the regular heroes' journey who saves the world (from an ancient evil that just woke up). Unfortunately, the engrossing setting and being witness to two evil armies' infighting (what a refreshing story!) isn't enough. Tyranny comes up short. It is short on: - Characters: you compose your team out of just a handful of NPCs. In my playthrough I didn't recruit one and never met another; that means I had 4 characters to choose 3 from. They aren't also that interesting, lack personal quests and at least 2 of them have very limited equipment. - Challenge: The combat is very easy and fast to reach "win more" scenario in which you don't even need to pay attention to skills usage since your team cannot die and/or loose. - Playtime: I played quite inefficiently and loaded a lot and still finished the game in 20 hours. Act III is an insult. It's basically an epilogue that happens moments after a great story point. This coupled with certain symbols in your 'base' makes you feel cheated out of half of the game. - Features: Since this game is so short you don't get to use everything in it. You feel it the most right at the end when you unlock a supposedly major feature and using it just ends the game. - Satisfaction: The story ends right when it starts to be really interesting and right after the plot confronts you with some major questions about why your character can do what he/she can do, why he/she was allowed to do those things by the (kind of omnipotent) Evil Overlord. It's really frustrating. - Replayability: it's hard to make yourself play through this game again knowing that it will conclude so abruptly as if there was another half of this game that just wasn't released. Wait until it's cheaper.