Tyranny - Review @ PC Gamer

[HiddenX]

Henriquejr spotted this Tyranny release day review from PC Gamer:

Tyranny review

The story of Tyranny is of delightfully mythic proportions. Within the first 10 minutes, I ushered forth a volcano in the middle of a library full of forbidden texts, condemning an entire civilization's history and knowledge to the flames. Like that volcano, the power fantasy central to my character's story is earth-shattering. RPGs have commonly dealt with the trope of a hero rising up against adversity to claim their destiny, but Tyranny takes that concept to unprecedented highs as it flips it on its head: I'm no hero.

[...]

It's hard not to let an ending like that color my impressions of Tyranny. At the same time, my second playthrough has reminded me what a memorable journey it was before everything deflated in service of setting the stage for a sequel. Tyranny has fantastic ideas and its worldbuilding is unparalleled, but botches the execution, preventing it from all coming together to form a modern classic. When the story isn't pushing you to make specific decisions or bombarding you with repetitive combat, it feels like it could have rivalled the likes of Baldur's Gate 2 or Planescape: Torment. It's still worth playing, but Tyranny falls far short of the excellent standard set by Pillars of Eternity.

Score: 75/100

More information.

 

[HiddenX]

PCGamesN Score: 8/10

 

[mbpopolano24]

"...but Tyranny falls far short of the excellent standard set by Pillars of Eternity."

Considering that the 'excellent standard' set by PoE was mediocrity, falling short from that means that T is just bad (as expected).

 

[redman5427]

Its released? I thought it was just announced like a year ago.
I guess they were probably working on it before announcement of release.
I have never really looked into it, you know, too many games already but it may just be the reviewer had a problem with it.

I may check it out.

 

[forgottenlor]

One Steam review compared it to Planescape: Torment- Namely great story and reactivity but poor mechanics and combat. In a way that's heartening and I'll definately get the game sooner than later. On the other hand its sad that they went in this direction. I don't know why they think rpg players want shallow mechanics. You'd think by now they'd know who their core audience is. Divinity: Original Sin and Pillars proved you could sell a modern rpg with complex mechanics.

 

[azarhal]

One Steam review compared it to Planescape: Torment- Namely great story and reactivity but poor mechanics and combat. In a way that's heartening and I'll definately get the game sooner than later. On the other hand its sad that they went in this direction. I don't know why they think rpg players want shallow mechanics. You'd think by now they'd know who their core audience is. Divinity: Original Sin and Pillars proved you could sell a modern rpg with complex mechanics.

If someone is calling the combat poor in Tyranny, they shouldn't have liked PoE combat that much either. It is mechanically the same outside of the smaller party size, no friendly fire and slightly different stats system.

 

[Ripper]

Any word on the nature of that time limit that we weren't too clear on?

 

[Carnifex]

Sounds mildly interesting, but right now I'm having a blast with Dungeon Rats and will probably play Avadon three next. Might grab this one on sale at some time in the future.

 

[henriquejr]

This is my thought too, Carnifex: right now I am playing Avadon 1. Let's see how many time until Tyranny gets discounted 50%

 

[ElderGnome]

I'm playing it and enjoying it. Happy to pay full price for games like this and PoE, it's how I "support" developers I like. Buying their damn finished products.

First impressions is that it's pretty good, satisfies an itch. It's fun to play as the bad guy, the dialogue is decent, etc.

Combat is fine, nothing fantastic. I don't understand the complaints, it's RTWP similar to Baldur's Gate (Without the awe-inspiring D&D combat system behind it, sadly) - if you enjoyed PoE's combat you'll think this is fine.

If you didn't like PoE, I can't imagine you would like this game either. If you're fond of RTWP CRPGs like PoE, BG, etc - you'll find this a worthy addition to your gaming library, I'd think.

Picked up this, Xanadu Next, Dungeon Rats and Civ 6 this week; it's been a good couple weeks for games. I have yet to even open Dungeon Rats or Xanadu Next.

 

[fadedc]

Enjoying it so far, but I guess I will see how I like it with more play time. Combat is a weakness, but it seems like it might be a little better than PoE combat, if only because your characters seem to use abilities on their own somewhat intelligently. So between that and the smaller party sizes, I feel like I can focus on optimizing 1 or 2 important party members while just checking on the other 2-3 occasionally.

But again, I'm pretty early in, and I often change my mind on games after playing them more.

 

[CelticFrost]

Long day today, will get into it on the weekend.

 

[azarhal]

I played a little bit as well. I really liked the conquest section, I think that Dragon Age Inquisition "War Table" should have had section like that.

Punching people in the face while freezing their asses and setting them in fire with spells is also totally awesome. I think I might like this character progression more than PoE class based one...but I'm still only level one so there is still time to find it boring or bad down the road.

As for "evil", so far it just looks like Game Of Thrones conquering at work...It might be the look of the conquest map that makes me think that though.

 

[rjshae]

The review seems reasonably balanced, presenting Tyranny as somewhat of a mixed bag. I get the distinct impression though that the development of Tyranny was cut short. Perhaps they are waiting to see how it sells before starting on an expansion?

 

[ChaosTheory]

I'll get it eventually, but I'm not an evil-rules-the-world fan.

 

[Wenzil]

Does anyone else see the irony in the release of this game at this time? I'll see if I want to play it...in four years.

 

[luj1]

Its released? I thought it was just announced like a year ago.



I guess they were probably working on it before announcement of release.

Nah, its just a super cheap/sloppy project, uses same assets like PoE

 

[Damian]

I agree with the reviews. I played it for a couple of hours, the story is great, graphics are passable but the gameplay is clumsy. ie the are place you cant click on that you can pass through, my team members are constantly getting bugged out. I say wait for the patch.

 

[CelticFrost]

I agree with the reviews. I played it for a couple of hours, the story is great, graphics are passable but the gameplay is clumsy. ie the are place you cant click on that you can pass through, my team members are constantly getting bugged out. I say wait for the patch.

This would be a shame as they did a great job with the white march part one and two.

 

[BoboTheMighty]

Somehow this looks more interesting than PoE, how stable is this? Any need for a Sawyer, patch or a dozen, in the next month or so?