(This is n0t a review. May contain slight spoilers for some.)
RPGs have come and gone throughout the years, however, there are times when an RPG steps in a completely different direction from the rest. Tyranny would be one of those games since it’s taken a giant leap away from the norm already. Not only has Tyranny returned to the original isometric style of a top-down/three-fourths view of the game, but it has gathered a lot of elements from past RPGs such as Baldur’s Gate, Ice Wind Dale, and the open moral choices of the original Fallout and Fallout 2 for the PC. Obsidian Entertainment and Paradox Interactive actually revived this style of gameplay with Pillars of Eternity almost two years ago, and that game was a smash hit.
Tyranny already steps away from the original idea of a hero rising from nothing to become the champion of the world, no. Almost immediately, Tyranny lets you choose important decisions at the beginning of the game that helps to mold the world of Terratus into what your character will experience. Once you’re complete with all these major decisions, your character begins their journey as one of the key figures of a conquering army. Some might say you’re starting the game as an evil character, but I think that’s a bit of a blanket statement once you get started into the meat of the game.
All the characters (that I’ve met so far) have a place in the game. The ones that join your party and the different factions in the game vying for power, all have a deep narrative that could be affected by the decisions that you’ve made in building the world. The characters and factions will either have loyalty, fear, or wrath, towards your avatar. The best part about this are the very many different choices of discourse you can have with the characters that build relationships with them.
The combat in the game is similar to the Baldur’s Gate and Pillars of Eternity. It’s best described as a real-time-with-pause style of combat where you can queue up your characters actions in the middle of the combat. Currently, I’m playing on the second hardest difficulty so the combat is already intense. Even though I do have the option to pause the conflict midstride, the computer A.I. has absolutely no mercy for my characters. If your “wizard” has taken a lot of damage, the opposing NPCs tend to attack with ferocity in order to take that character out of the fight. I’ve already had two companions drop on me and it was only my third conflict in the game. I’m not sure if the other lower difficulty modes are nicer to you, but the mode I’m playing in at the moment eliminates all targets with extreme prejudice.
Wrapped up, this game is already on the top of my suggested RPGs that people should play. The graphics are gorgeous and the world is extremely unforgiving in the sense of its narrative. Again, you’ll feel like you’re working for an evil empire because the two factions you’re working with are taking over all the lands of Terratus. However, if you look at history, the conquering army is usually the first ones to unite a divided and broken land; which is what’s happening in Tyranny. (Google Oda Nobunaga from Japan and you’ll know what I mean by unifying divided nations.)
from Nerd Reactor
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