Tyranny by Obsidian

[ArenCordial]

I've only managed to get part way through act 2 but I'm liking it so far.

Pros
-The world and characters are far more engaging that Pillars.
-The writing so far has been good.
-The conquest system is character creation is very well done. It makes your character feel like a bad ass, gives you character history, changes the world, and connects you to your character all at once.
-The spell creation system is pretty fun. Mages are fun here I recommend playing one.
-Combos are fun.
-The reputation system is nice. You basically can earn loyalty/fear with your companions and favor/wrath with the major npcs and organizations. They are not mutually exclusive so you can progress both at they same time.

Dislikes
-You can only have a party of four.
-Pillars is more tactical than Tyranny.
-Pillars imo has a better UI.
-The game is smaller than Pillars. So far the game is very tight and focused so expect linear experience though your choices will create variations and different paths in the game. There's no hub city and the maps are fairly small so don't expect a ton of side quests. This plays into the narrative though and helps avoid that feeling that your character is the peasant errand boy/girl.

 

[QuantumPion]

I thought Pillars was only mediocre, after finally finishing it over 80 hours. I think its shortcomings were the weak plot (started out OK but got dumb at the end), lack of items and customization, weak magic (until the end game when it was OP), too much battle micromanagement, and worst of all, pretentious writing full of fantasy technobabble unique to the setting which was hard to follow. How does Tyranny compare?

 

[Fenixgoon]

thought i'd bump this thread after doing a playthrough. i really enjoyed tyranny, though it does have some flaws. the story is relatively linear, but interesting. the other major NPCs - all the archons - are reasonably well developed.

pros:
interesting party members and ability to customize them
reputation system gives you a number of options in conversation
good is not the default (it's actually hard to be good in this game)
spell creation system is an interesting take. for the most part i like it.
combo skills with party members - can be useful, though not always. downside is, it requires 2 party members (for those of us who micro the hell out of the game during fights)


cons:
UI is clunky. status effects are not easily displayed. limited to 1 spell/item quick bar (wtf?)
story - ending came way too soon. i expected there to be more.

 

[StinkyPinky]

I thought Pillars was only mediocre, after finally finishing it over 80 hours. I think its shortcomings were the weak plot (started out OK but got dumb at the end), lack of items and customization, weak magic (until the end game when it was OP), too much battle micromanagement, and worst of all, pretentious writing full of fantasy technobabble unique to the setting which was hard to follow. How does Tyranny compare?

You may not like it then. Tyranny is a shorter game with more emphasis on replayability but the core gameplay and style is similar to Pillars. It does have less "fantasy technobabble" though.

 

[GodisanAtheist]

Just finished my first playthrough of Tyranny and it's my first iso-rpg in a long time (last iso RPG I played from start to finish was probably planescape:torment some time in the early mid 2000's).

What a breath of fresh air. I will always have a soft spot for a games that set a high bar and fail to meet it rather than games that are execute generic content perfectly. As a result, I end up having a soft spot for Obsidian as a developer in general.

The game is just fun and very forgiving for people either not familiar with the genre or who have been away for a while. If it wasn't a design decision, it was certainly a happy accident because the game's story really forces you to get away from the old hero trope and really embrace the role of conquerer, Noble/psychotic or otherwise.

It can be really difficult to be the bad guy in most games of this type and the entire narrative and game mechanics feel like they're built around playing a hero, and tyranny turns the whole thing on its head.

The game isn't long, but it also doesn't feel like there is much filler, and there is not one fetch quest in sight. A 20-30 hour campaign that has plot progression on an hourly basis is worth a 200 hour campaign padded with long transit times and mountains of fetch quests.

While the whole thing can be a little jarring at first, the game also does a good job dropping you into the world and steadily revealing the lore and logic that makes this world tick. By the end of the game, you have a fairly firm grasp on the internal logic and themes of the universe.

After a break playing something in another genre, I'll come back and run through the game with a different set of choices.

Lastly, I'm surprised that this game didn't generate more discussion than it has. You'd think all the other "old timers" on here would be pining nostalgic for this kind of thing!

 

[DaveSimmons]

Lastly, I'm surprised that this game didn't generate more discussion than it has. You'd think all the other "old timers" on here would be pining nostalgic for this kind of thing!

I helped fund Pillars, Torment, Wasteland 2, and Shadowrun (among others) but so far I've only finished the original Shadowrun campaign and parts of Pillars and Wasteland 2.

With Pillars I've played up to the first town, but I made the mistake of choosing a mage. At low levels they're weak, and it annoys the puffin out of me that ranged spells target the location where a person was, not where they are when you finish casting. Unlike any other ranged attack. My blast of energy travels much slower than a throwing ax, because reasons. Just like with a bow where once you start to draw it you're unable to adjust your aim. Oh, wait, you can! Gah!

With Wasteland, I made it to the ag center but was annoyed enough by the gas trap puzzle to stop. I should get back to it.

Long story long, with a short stack of unplayed retro RPGs, plus more like Divinity OS 1, I haven't been paying attention to Obsidian. This sounds interesting though, I think I'll add it to my Steam wish list.

 

[Sonikku]

Obsidian gave us KOTOR 2, which is my favorite Star Wars story ever so I shouldn't be surprised. (God I wish KOTOR 3 hadn't been taken from them in favor of SWTOR!) I really ought to give this one a try. Sadly Tyranny utterly pales in comparison to games like Battlefront 2 in sales, which is not a good sign for the future of these kinds of titles.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Obsidian gave us KOTOR 2, which is my favorite Star Wars story ever so I shouldn't be surprised. (God I wish KOTOR 3 hadn't been taken from them in favor of SWTOR!)

Mine too, and the dark side path in it was very well done. They even had my light side character falling towards the dark side for a moment to get some sweet, sweet false inheritance lightsaber loot

They also did Fallout New Vegas which had by far the best story and side quests of the 3D Fallouts. I should start Pillars over with a class that isn't so annoying to play and try it again.

 

[rivethead]

Sadly Tyranny utterly pales in comparison to games like Battlefront 2 in sales, which is not a good sign for the future of these kinds of titles.

I wouldn't read too much into comparative sales of totally different types of games. Fact is, the RPG genre is not dead. There is money to be made there. And developers know this. In fact, 2018 is supposed to be a banner year (pun intended) for RPG releases (Bards Tale IV, Banner Saga 2, Darksiders III to name just a few of the titles I have my eye on).

http://www.pcgamer.com/the-rpgs-of-2018/

 

[DaveSimmons]

Steam has it on sale at 66% off, $15.29 for the base game, or up to $25.94 for bundles with DLC that reviewers say should have been in the base game.

 

[Ranulf]

Its the same price on GOG, they're having chinese new year sale with flash deals.