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.
This is an absolute delight as a parkour game. With only some minor teething problems, it delivers spatial problem solving as well as Portal and better than Prince of Persia, all in unbroken 1st person with only 2 main inputs ("up action" and "down action"). Unfortunately, this jewel is sharing a room with the worst parts of Far Cry: mandatory, awkward gunplay and melee combat & 1st person cutscenes in which everything important happens. Not everyone cares about plot but everyone DOES feel pacing. I think it's a shame that such a lovingly crafted vision of the future is paired with such juvenile writing. But the bigger issue is that, up until the final few (worst) levels, there's little to differentiate them at all. In every one, the police chase you almost immediately (to the point where it loses all impact and you notice the artificial danger) and you flee through the same office/rooftop environments while your earpiece directs you to the next cutscene trigger. This really feels like a collection of demo levels slapped together.
The general consensus is "Sands of Time with worse plot, worse tone & better gameplay". Unfortunately, I don't agree with the second half of that. Attacks can multi-hit (thank god) and sand extraction is gone. The thing is, I didn't mind sand extraction - its frustrations were a symptom of the REAL issue: the inability to select targets or control the Prince's movement orientation and this has NOT been fixed. Other changes are even more annoying: almost all enemies have massive lunges on their attacks so evading attacks through movement is barely possible. And, for all its faults, Sands of Time at least understood that its combat system is tailored for juggling groups. Warrior Within has a much bigger focus on terrible, repetitive 1v1 boss fights with huge healthbars. Outside of combat, the only notable change is an incredibly clunky free camera which gets stuck on everything and gets dragged by the movement keys. I honestly can't decide whether this or the old fixed camera is worse.
