Preview Tyranny Intro Movie and Character Creation Stream + Dev Diary Video #1

[Infinitron]

Tags: Brian Heins; Feargus Urquhart; Matt MacLean; Matthew Singh; Nick Carver; Obsidian Entertainment; Paradox Interactive; Tyranny

Today is the first day of the annual Gamescom trade fair in Cologne, Germany, and as it happens, one of the first games to be showcased there is Obsidian's upcoming RPG, Tyranny. A few hours ago, project director Brian Heins and systems designer Nick Carver were guests on Paradox's Gamescom livestream, where they gave us our first look at the game's intro movie and character creation sequence. Tyranny's character creation seems similar to Pillars of Eternity, but also different, compensating for the lack of race and class options with additional background and cosmetic choices. Unfortunately, the demo cuts off right before the most interesting-sounding part of character creation - the CYOA sequence where you define your character's choices prior to the beginning of the game's story. You can watch the entire thing here:

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As an unexpected bonus, Paradox have also uploaded a Tyranny dev diary video to their YouTube channel, the first in a new series. It's a basic overview of the game's premise, featuring various Obsidian personnel. There's not really any new information here, but a good deal of new gameplay footage. Oh, and apparently Kyros the Overlord is female? Here's the video:

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Hopefully we'll see more of Tyranny before Gamescom is over. I'm still holding out for a release date announcement, too.

 

[an Administrator]

You can play as a fat plus size woman XD

 

[Sizzle]

The Shock Magic (High Interrupt) and Cold Frost Magic (Slow Down) are pretty Skyrimesque

 

[a mod]

Games for subhumans, by subhumans.

Oh, and dat map of the world

And oh boy that 2d art is even worse when comparing it to the 3d stuff. Why in the fuck do shit tier games all do their art this way now?

 

[Machine]

IDG this art style, is it supposed to be some sort of greek/minoan pottery inspired shit or what? Either way these 3d models are pretty horrid...

-hey , we should do some sculpts for this Tranny game
-just inflate arms of stock models and hPolish that shit fam
-you got it boss

 

[BlackGoat]

That writing...

"You betrayed Graven Ash, the Legion, and our northern countrymen. As far as I'm concerned, you are a traitor!"

lel. So bad.

 

[Fairfax]

That's one of the most disgusting beard I've ever seen in my life.

That writing...

"You betrayed Graven Ash, the Legion, and our northern countrymen. As far as I'm concerned, you are a traitor!"

lel. So bad.

And the voice acting...

 

[jungl]

I didnt see the tranny option in character creation. Do we assume our character is already a tranny post op or starting transitioning? I'm confused.

 

[skyst]

The art style looks a lot like Torchlight. That said, it is an improvement over Pillars of Eternity. I appreciated the greatsword not being larger than the wielder for a change.

 

[Maculo]

Although the interviews were weak (that one guy with the beard just staring into the camera towards the end), the character creation system was better than I expected. Still, it is hard to get hyped for this game. The character does not seem "evil," but rather a mid-level bureaucrat or cop (not the judge Dread kind). Furthermore, I get the sense that "evil" in the setting is just an empire expanding. Outside of that, everything else seems to be an attempt at moral grey and not the Kreia kind.

Edit: I do not know why it is so hard for Obsidian and Bioware to write evil. It just feels like there is a massive disconnect here. They want to have an "evil won" setting, but they do not want to touch any act or belief that would create controversy (slavery, eugenics, etc). The greatest evil they seem to be able to come up with is an empire expanding and imposing rules.

 

[Scruffy]

why is that guy wearing a fake beard?

 

[Infinitron]

Edit: I do not know why it is so hard for Obsidian and Bioware to write evil. It just feels like there is a massive disconnect here. They want to have an "evil won" setting, but they do not want to touch any act or belief that would create controversy (slavery, eugenics, etc). The greatest evil they seem to be able to come up with is an empire expanding and imposing rules.

That's because "evil" here is just a shorthand for "the typical conquering bad guy faction in a high fantasy setting", who in D&D settings for example usually have a "Lawful Evil" alignment.

 

[prodigydancer]

I like that they have actual weapon skills. In PoE weapon proficiencies were mostly superfluous. Of course, on PotD extra Accuracy was nice but it felt nothing like AD&D where not having a proficiency meant a huge penalty to THAC0 and only one attack per round regardless of your character class.

 

[MRY]

Iron weapons had the advantage of only needing a single source of metal to create. Once people figured out how to smelt iron ore, it became much cheaper to outfit a larger number of soldiers. Early iron weapons weren’t better than bronze – they were often heavy and brittle. A bronze sword might bend or grow dull in combat, but it wouldn’t shatter. However, when you can outfit ten soldiers in iron for the cost of one soldier in bronze, you’re able to bring a much larger force to the field.

This was one of the things that allowed Kyros to conquer. The Overlord controls the secret of smelting iron ore, so has access to a cheaper source of weapons and armor, and can outfit a much larger army than any other nation that tried to resist.

The Disfavored . . . small in number, Kyros's iron-clad legion . . . .

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

That said, I think the art looks great, I love the hammy writing and voice over -- it reminds me pleasantly of Sacrifice -- and overall it looks like a lot of fun. If the commentary didn't describe the game in such a Serious, Important, and Revolutionary way, I really would have no qualms about this at all. Like Sacrifice, I think it could be a great hybrid of like Pirates of Dark Water level cartoonishness with growling grim darkness.

For example, if this scene (the art, the voice, the text) doesn't make you smile, shame, shame:

 

[Infinitron]

The "You betrayed us therefore you are a traitor" line sounds weird/bad (although you could be charitable and assume it's in-character writing of an inarticulate character)

 

[MRY]

The writers really had to push themselves.

(Less sarcastically, I took the line to reflect the hyper-federal nature Kyros's armies -- since the armies vie with each other, as well as against Kyros's enemies, betraying some subfaction != betraying Kyros. I assumed the context of the line was something like, "I am a Fatebinder of Kyros!" "You betrayed the Iron Legion and Graven Ashe. As far as I'm concerned, you're a traitor.")

 

[BlackGoat]

I see nothing special about the hammy writing and VA. Seems pretty standard as far as video games go.

 

[MRY]

It's been a while since I've played games regularly, but back when I did, there was a lot of overwrought writing and flat delivery -- Star Wars prequel-type problems.

 

[veevoir]

I like the fact they animated Age of Decadence background.

 

[Fairfax]

PoE had much better delivery compared to the bits in that video, specially the companions. Most of them, that is.

 

[Maculo]

PoE had much better delivery compared to the bits in that video, specially the companions. Most of them, that is.

I was thinking the same thing. I did not particularly like the voice actors in PoE, aside from Eder, Thaos, or the elf-ghost chick. Yet, Tyranny makes the PoE haminess look quite tame.

 

[mikaelis]

Iron weapons had the advantage of only needing a single source of metal to create. Once people figured out how to smelt iron ore, it became much cheaper to outfit a larger number of soldiers. Early iron weapons weren’t better than bronze – they were often heavy and brittle. A bronze sword might bend or grow dull in combat, but it wouldn’t shatter. However, when you can outfit ten soldiers in iron for the cost of one soldier in bronze, you’re able to bring a much larger force to the field.

This was one of the things that allowed Kyros to conquer. The Overlord controls the secret of smelting iron ore, so has access to a cheaper source of weapons and armor, and can outfit a much larger army than any other nation that tried to resist.

The Disfavored . . . small in number, Kyros's iron-clad legion . . . .

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Could be that they are two tiers above bronze. Meaning that they can manufacture shitty iron weapons in spades for the masses, but also have the knowledge (emerging as the game unfolds?) to do it in an advanced/slow (hence limited) way for the elite warriors, no?

 

[Infinitron]

I think the Disfavored are small in number because of their rigorous recruitment standards (see the Barik short story), not because of their equipment.

 

[mikaelis]

I think the Disfavored are small in number because of their rigorous recruitment standards (see the Barik short story), not because of their equipment.

Aye, got carried away and missed the obvious

 

[prodigydancer]

IDG this art style, is it supposed to be some sort of greek/minoan pottery inspired shit or what? Either way these 3d models are pretty horrid...

-hey , we should do some sculpts for this Tranny game
-just inflate arms of stock models and hPolish that shit fam
-you got it boss

You are not anus_pounder.