The main plot is alright and ties together the two main games, the new characters are nice, the gameplay is still solid, there's great loot and also some of the new areas are quite well designed. A lot of the criticism on this expansion is quite overblown. However, theres no denying that there are issues: the writing is very inconsistent outside of the main quest and some of the lines feel like they were written by a teenage intern, not to mention the sidequests suck and don't add much to an experience that already feels quite distant from the sprawling adventure of the original games. One note ragarding the "controversy"... A bunch of people got mad somehow at the presence of a transgender character, citing how forced and hamfisted that revelation was. It's all a bunch of bs. It's one very minor and missable character that gives you a small fetch quest (which you can ignore) that is only completable well after half-way through the story and only if you complete such meaningless quest AND you press them for more info on why they asked you to complete it in the first place they will reaveal to you about their story. It's the exact opposite of it being forced on you.
Tyranny is to Pillars of Eternity what Planescape: Torment was to Baldur's Gate.
