Obsidian Entertainment are known for making amazing story-driven RPG games and rarely disappointing. It’s been just 3 years since their amazingly successful Kickstarter project Pillars of Eternity was released and rather unexpectedly, while the expansions for the game have been in development and sequel was mentioned as being in pre-production, a completely new game was announced. Though, the reasons for why Tyranny came “out of nowhere” are rather simple – the concept for a game like this was developed in the studio since mid-00s and the finished product was just one of many iterations of the idea, finally given life. Yet, this seemingly quick development cycle of the finished game left a mark.
The concept for the game is surprisingly fresh – you are a willing part of a the final push of a conquest, in the name of the seemingly immortal all-powerful Overlord. The rest of the continent has fallen under the push of Overlords armies led by powerful Archons – humans (mostly) with magic abilities of unparalleled power. You’re not a rebel, you’re not “good guy”, but the Overlord isn’t a “bad guy” either, not in a more convenient high fantasy way anyway. What’s so fresh about it, is that this is a story less about good or bad, despite the fact that some of the marketing for the game might’ve led you to believe that, but rather it’s a game about being a gear in the machine of conquest, one that slightly reminds of the Roman Empire, except mixed with myths and magic. You get caught up with something bigger than yourself and become bigger, while dealing with questionable decisions and fragile alliances. It’s really unlike any RPG story I’ve had to deal with before, both purely story-wise and mechanically.
Because, mechanically, there are also a lot of really cool ideas to make everything click together. You build reputation with every major faction you meet, every major character in a way that feels deeper and better than the similar concepts from classic Fallout titles. Your choices get you through very different playthroughs, with several distinct playthroughs and even major locations that you might never visit in your playthrough. And even the basic RPG things like attributes and skills feel so much more in line with this approach to storytelling that goes the way you direct it – instead of necessarily sticking to “experience” and ‘classes” all your abilities develop as you use them, which can be done in combat, during exploration or in dialogues. Oh and also in the “random encounter” type things on the map, except now I need to talk about DLCs…
DLCs for this game are… weird. I mentioned that the game was seemingly developed rather quickly and you can feel that in many things. Locations are usually very tiny (though it’s not necessarily bad), sure, but where you can feel it most is in the fact that the game kind of just… ends. You do get a closure on most immediate things, especially if you’re playing with DLCs, but it’s hard to avoid the feeling that the ending is just rushed, that there was supposed to be more and not just a quick epilogue that’s more of a hook for a potential sequel, than a proper closure. And without DLCs there’s even more feeling that the game was simply unfinished, since some of the things in the base game are left without a conclusion, while a particular playthrough is left without a logically expected ending choice, which is now added as part of the DLC.
Tales from the Tiers, the first DLC, feels so much a logical part of the main game, that it’s hard to imagine the game without it. Essentially, it adds a lot of very little details and tiny events and mini-quests to the game, that help flesh the world out, without ever feeling like it wasn’t there in the core game. Except when it suddenly references events that are not valid anymore because characters it involves are dead or something… But despite being so well-weaved into the main game and feeling like it should’ve been there from the start, it doesn’t address the more major unfinished elements. That’s what the Bastard’s Wound DLC does. And it’s almost as if it’s half things that should’ve been in the main game, with proper closures for several of important characters, and half completely unnecessary boring dungeon crawl. With the second half being seemingly added just because otherwise DLC would be too small. While there are bugs and strange things in the better part of the DLC, and it does feel like it was meant to be part of the main game at some point but unfinished by game release and finished later, the things it adds are welcome. Not enough, but welcome. The titular part of the DLC, however, despite a few interesting moments and discoveries about the world lore, is incredibly tedious and unfun to play through.
Given that the DLCs were the final content to come out for the game, I’m afraid we might never get a sequel. Which would be a real shame. I’d really love to see more stories in this world, and more usage of this particular system of skills/attributes. And I’m very likely to return to the game later and try all the other different kinds of playthroughs – there’s almost classic Fallout-like freedom and “choose your own adventure”-ness to the story here that I’d really love to see in more story-driven titles. Should you play Tyranny? Definitely. Should you grab the DLCs? Sadly, the game will feel less complete without them, though the whole Bastard’s Wound location still feels mostly pointless and unnecessary (and it won’t influence your main story in any way whatsoever as well). So yeah, you best get the DLCs as well. Tyranny is more amazing than you might think it is. But it’s also not something it could’ve been. Here’s hoping, another game in this setting will be developed and will become all that Tyranny could’ve been. But even so, Tyranny is a really good game.
P.S. Oh and it’s a relatively short, for a cRPG, game with 30 hours per playthrough (with DLCs), with almost no filler and all good content. Also, I cannot avoid mentioning the really cool idea of built-in popup hypertext about important events and people, and even additional dialogue, in the game that is an improvement over the similar ideas in the original Pillars of Eternity. Really cool stuff that seemingly returns in PoE 2.