Tyranny - Gold Edition

!!!! ATTENTION !!!! To fix the Game-not-Starting-Bug delete all contents of the C:\ProgramData\GOG.com\Galaxy\redists\peer folder (should be msvc-15 to -18). That one apparently does something cloud-saving yada yada. It wont break anything, since the next time you start Galaxy it'll just redownload, so create a shortcut to the folder to delete its contents every time you wanna play ^^ Weird bug, but what works works, i guess. Review: Great game; Cyberpunk-phenomenon, though: Amazing base and ideas, stimulated my fantasy and got me deeply invested, but just doesnt implement them as well as one would hope. Must play though for a good old-school RPG-fan!

The concept, story, and writing are all well done with only very few exceptions (the most blatant I experienced was a companion character that was irate with me just a moment before acting all chummy when I spoke to them again). So, yes, the game itself is great - better than Pillars of Eternity, in my humble opinion. But the ending comes so abruptly that you feel that the train has derailed just as it got up to speed. DLC is incoming and this DLC will likely be the closure that was withheld from the main game. I cannot recommend what amounts to a book with the last few chapters ripped out to be paid for separately. Update 9/8/2017: Still not a complete game. The story is sitting at the climax and they are dragging out the build-up. All the DLC released thus far is "side quest" stuff (and the latest requires you to replay Act Two if you want to experience it, despite Act Three being the current end point). I'm all for developers receiving just compensation for their work. But this is a cliff-hanger of a game with the conclusion being held hostage while they peddle auxiliary content.

I found myself really invested in the story. Although the end leaves the player wanting more, the game contains a lot of moral choices. Compared to a lot of games, you can stick to your roleplay and you are not forced into a specific moral, neither you have to choose between being a paragon of benevolence or a cartoonish vilain. I really enjoyed reading the collector guide book to learn the lore *before* playing the game. This allows to roleplay and make early choices as informed decisions instead of learning key information along the way which would completely alters your perception of the world. The spell system is great and I had fun trying new combinations each time I found a new rune.

I would give this a 5 except that years after it's release it still feels unfinished. As far as storytelling goes, this beats POE hands down. There is political intrigue, likeable characters that you can actually get to know, and enemies you can really love to hate. There are four paths you can take to the end, and although taking one paths excludes the others (which rules out some items), it seems fitting that this should be the case. I mostly played as either a two handed warrior or as a mage in my playthroughs and both offered great skills and were a lot of fun in terms of gameplay. Sword and shield looked king of interesting, but I'd rather deal damage than be a tank. The dual wielder or archer skill trees did not cut it for me. I'd love for there to be a follow up but I think the makers were not happy with the commercial success of the game so it looks very unlikely. That's a shame as a second game leading to a confrontation with Kyros would be epic.

I was excited for this game, because I heard it lets you make impactful decisions affecting the entire world. That's true to some extent, but as many before me have said, it is surprisingly linear. What's most important in a roleplaying game to me, are limitations. Like if you'd play a thief in some other game, you might not be able to take on enemies head on, and have to find paths around them. Or, like in Tyranny, when you make decisions that some of your party members absolutely despise you for, you'd expect them to leave, or even fight you. But tyranny is extremely inconsequential when it comes to your party. A party member might tell you how horrible you are, and that they won't stick around, and then they do. They'll even wait for you to pick them up, if you leave them behind. When it comes to roleplaying in the main quest, there are some decisions you get to make, but there was one obviously stupid one the character just makes for you. To be spoiler-free and still a bit more clear: A character, who is seen as an adversary by you and your party, asks you to show him something. Even though everyone knows, that it's an obviously bad idea to comply, there was no option to not show him the item. I kept reloading and winding my way through the dialogue tree, but there was no way around it. Still: If you're looking for a CRPG just for the battle system's sake, I think it's really cool, and the game does give you a good deal of freedom in that regard.