I'm kind of conflicted on this one. It is definitely one of the more interesting RPGs I've played, but "interesting" isn't necessarily the same thing as "good". I do intend to play this again sometime, but for now, here are my thoughts based on one playthrough (Scarlet Chorus path). In terms of roelplaying Tyranny's record is mixed. On the one hand, I can't think of an RPG that did as good of a job in getting me "in character" as Tyranny. I found myself thinking about situations and events as my character would, instead of just roleplaying as myself. However, when it comes to actually giving you choices for your roleplaying, the game stumble a bit. Sometimes, there's an impressive amount of options available to the player; other times, the game seems needlessly restrictive. Once you've sided with a faction, the game seems to assume that you'll act in their interests no matter what, outside of giving you a few opportunities to abandon them and switch to the independent path. Combat is engaging...for the first few hours. However, it gets repetitive before long, and the difficulty takes a nosedive a bit into act 2. I actually stopped spending the skill and talent points I got on level up to try to artificially increase the difficulty, but even then, the game wasn't hard (I was playing on Hard, btw). As for Bastard’s Wound, I have a hard time recommending it. On the on hand, the new location and lore it provides is pretty interesting, but on the other, I can’t imagine anyone playing through the base game and thinking “You know what would make this game better? Spending even more time in the Oldwalls fighting Bane!” Well, this review turned out somewhat more negative than I thought it would. If GOG allowed for half stars, I’d probably give it 3.5 (the dreaded 7/10), but since I still do genuinely want to play it again, I think I’ll round up to 4.
