Tyranny - Gold Edition

This is classic Obsidian: interesting ideas presented in the least engaging way possible (hence the scrapbook analogy). Pacing of info is a serious issue, even beyond the massive lore dumps. The game blows most of its original ideas straight away and there's very little to discover as you slog through hours of uninspired quests. Let me be clear, this is NOT a game about choice. At the MACRO level you get to choose 1 of 4 paths but at the QUEST level you're almost completely railroaded, even when better solutions seem obvious. Most of Tyranny's quests offer even less choice than the RPG standard of pacifist/violent resolutions. The second major criticism is the maps. In a word, they're tiny. Most of them are barely bigger than the screen and basically 1 encounter. Even the major plot locations are equivalent to very small dungeons in older CRPGs. I can appreciate the desire to break from that dungeoneering mould but what they've come up with instead doesn't work. Areas in Tyranny feel more like rooms from other RPGs than proper locations. Gameplay-wise, it's basically Pillars of Eternity without classes and with a poorly implemented Elder Scrolls-style skill levelling system. The most notable feature is spell creation where, instead of preset spells, you unlock schools of magic, spell types (touch, cone, ranged, etc.) and other modifiers to make your own. It's interesting but having to constantly update your spell configurations for all your mages is very micromanagey (on par with equipping squadmates in Mass Effect 1). There are lots of other tangential systems (resting, food, buffs from random encounters, etc.) with minor status effects to manage but they feel way too inconsequential for me to bother. Actually trying to engage with them all would feel like a spreadsheet management game.

I recently replayed this again, its such a fun game with great world building. The only shame is there is not a Tyranny 2 as the I'm left wanted more after this replay just like the first time I played it

I enjoyed the story, the choices, the mechanics, the combat, it is everything I wanted and did not expect to get from Tyranny. The only issue is that it is a bit short, but it feels very replayable. I started my second playthrough right after the end credits. Let's see how replayable it is.

The only worthy successor to Planescape Torment

You must know that when you're playing games, most of the times you're losing precious time which will never be returned. Better read Dostoevsky, playing ping-pong, and of course playing chess. Anyway, sometimes is fine playing games, in the case of rpg when the story, the atmosphere, the tactical combat sucks you in and you really enjoy the experience . But that for me is really rare, it happened with only with Baldur's Gate I & II , which i replayed recently. Oblivion, The Witcher, which i finished some years ago, i'm not sure, Now I'm a bit older, and growing more fond of the wasted time. That said, I finished Tyranny, too. That was not a memorable experience. At normal level the combat is very easy, the AI almost does it by itself. So if you're a die hard rpg player, i would recommend to play at hard level for a first play through. I planned to play at that level for my next play through, but that will never happen, for the following. The game is nicely done, though the engine (Unity) makes it a bit "artificial", i don't how to explain better. You don't really have the feeling of exploring a World (which the game makes you believe is quite big), but just to unlock new locations, and quite in rapid succession. The writing : too much of it. The scenario has some good ideas, surely simplistic, and the characters, the dialogues miss the mark of really CARING about characters and situations. At some point, i just stopped reading and clicked my way through to the end. The point of this game is choosing a way, a moral orientation, but what is the point if you don't care at all about any of the factions and the characters which the game presents you? They feel just empty cartoons. That was it, i won't replay this. Hope it helps, maybe for the older guys out there. Take care.