Tyranny - Preview @GamePressure

GamePressure has played Tyranny and shared their impressions.

The premise of this project is very interesting: the events take place in a land called Tiers, the main difference between other typical fantasy worlds being that here, the Evil had already won. The protagonist isn't a good candidate for a saint - the players will control an officer of the army which conquered Tiers, and according to the devs, he's going to be a no-good scoundrel. The players can keep his nasty character in check to some degree, but there's no place for chivalric deeds of a knight in shining armor. Analogically to Pillars of Eternity, the players will create an avatar at the beginning, and the team will be assembled throughout the game.

Enacting a rather villainous hero may not be the most original idea of the decade, but whenever such idea has been utilized, it was approached in a lighthearted manner (see Dungeon Keeper or Overlord). In case of Tyranny, however, we're dealing with a serious and gloomy story, a negative Mass Effect of sorts; no matter whether Shepard was an idealist or a renegade - he (or she) always saved the Galaxy. Meanwhile, the protagonist of Tyranny is a bastard through and through.

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Group skills are yet another novelty in the combat system - these are certain skills that the members of the party use together with the main character. For example, one of them can knock down an opponent who is then finished off by the protagonist. Such sequences are, obviously, dependant on the chosen skills, as well as on the opinion that the team members have about the protagonist. That's nothing new, of course, but such dependencies are always a welcomed addition to the classic RPG convention.

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The overhauled interface, which is now much more legible, is also an advantage. There are contextual text quests, which are completed solely using dialogues. Usually their point is to test the protagonist's skill and abilities levels. Such trials often appear during dialogues with NPCs - having a sufficiently high level of a given skill will unlock additional dialogue options. I've learned that such occurrences are supposed to be much more frequent than in Pillars of Eternity.

Since we're talking about skills - let's talk character development. This time, the protagonist is classless - using skills often will increase their efficiency, similarly to the solution known from The Elder Scrolls series. Along with the development of certain attributes we unlock skills and spells. There will also be the possibility to create your own spells, but there's not much information on this element so far. The items carried by the team are also going to be important.