Game News Tyranny Released

[Infinitron]

Tags: Obsidian Entertainment; Paradox Interactive; Tyranny

Today is the release day of Tyranny, Obsidian's new choice & consequence-focused isometric RPG set in a fantasy world where evil won. Ever since it was announced back in March, Tyranny has received a great deal of scrutiny on our forums - for its premise (which some doubted today's Obsidian was capable of handling with sufficient depth), for the writing in some of its development updates, for its artistic style, and for its openly streamlined combat system. Even I think there was something tone-deaf about the way Obsidian and Paradox handled the game's marketing.

In recent weeks, however, opinions of Tyranny seem to have softened somewhat, as videos and livestreams featuring actual gameplay became available, revealing it to be pretty much a Pillars of Eternity total conversion with some interesting features, and not some completely horrible abomination. Now it's out, so we can find out for sure whether Obsidian's Pillars-meets-Dragon Age-meets Elder Scrolls-meets-Age of Decadence experiment has succeeded. Here's its launch trailer:

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There are a bunch of release day reviews:

PC Gamer 75/100
PCGamesN 8/10
PCWorld 3.5/5
IGN 8.3/10
MMORPG.com 9/10
GameWatcher 9/10
Hardcore Gamer 4/5
Fextralife 8.5/10
Game Rant 4.5/5
WCCFtech 9/10
Expansive 9/10
GamingOnLinux
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As you can see, they're generally positive, but a few dip down into "mixed" territory, citing issues with the game's story and combat. Are these issues for real, or are they just a case of game journalists allowing themselves to be dumb/lazy/edgy with a somewhat obscure title? Our review, which will hopefully be out in the not-too-distant future, will surely answer those questions. Or you can answer them yourself. Tyranny is available now on Steam and GOG for the price of $45. It'll be interesting to see how well it does.

 

[The Brazilian Slaughter]

lol RTwP abomination by the stripped-out corpse of Obsidian

Who the fuck cares

Pity post

 

[Bumvelcrow]

Parts of that video looked like PoE, parts looked like D:OS, and parts looked like Torment 2. Running animation reminded me of ToEE. None of it looked particularly original or distinctive, but for some reason I still want to play it. Obsidian, I'll give you £20 for it. The more you stall, the less I offer.

 

[crawlkill]

I feel like I've changed as a person that I'm not excited about this. waiting on reviews! will we ebber get another New Vegas? oo can say

 

[Crooked Bee]

I'm honestly surprised at the generally positive reviews. Thought this would be a critical flop for some reason (independent of the actual quality of the game) - I guess because it seemed that no one was following the game or cared, plus the press do like to give average reviews to Obsidian occasionally.

 

[Bumvelcrow]

I'm honestly surprised at the generally positive reviews. Thought this would be a critical flop for some reason (independent of the actual quality of the game) - I guess because it seemed that no one was following the game or cared, plus the press do like to give average reviews to Obsidian occasionally.

Hard to read too much into reviews any more. They look like typical I'm not sure whether I'm supposed to like this or not scores. Did I completely miss the hype for this game or did Obsidian stealth-release it onto an unsuspecting public.

 

[CWagner]

Did I completely miss the hype for this game or did Obsidian stealth-release it onto an unsuspecting public.

I feel like the codex certainly tried to hype it.

 

[Infinitron]

Did I completely miss the hype for this game or did Obsidian stealth-release it onto an unsuspecting public.

I feel like the codex certainly tried to hype it.

Doing the job nobody else would.

 

[Shilandra]

Eh, didn't know this was coming out so soon. Might as well try it out seeing as how i was already at a loss for what to play next and I just won a big bet. No skin off my teeth if it turns out below par. Hope it can perform!

 

[crawlkill]

Hard to read too much into reviews any more. They look like typical I'm not sure whether I'm supposed to like this or not scores. Did I completely miss the hype for this game or did Obsidian stealth-release it onto an unsuspecting public.

I was shocked to realize it'd come out, thought it was ages away. But I don't...really know where I get gaming news from, now I think about it.

on reflection I think I'm not excited because I thought PoE's worldbuilding was terrible and exhausting, somehow detail everywhere but none of it turning into my understanding the setting at all, and I don't relish the thought of plunging into another new Obsidian setting and being subject to the same bad exposition

 

[Bumvelcrow]

I just won a big bet

Another one for the Trump tag!

 

[commie]

Oh so in the end they went with a 'realistic' palette after the 20 pages of Codex rants against the Torchlight style concept art. Good. Also I keep reading that its 'short' at 20-30 hrs which is good too if it's nice and focused like Fallout or Gothic was. At least Obsidian might have learned unlike others that less is more.

 

[dfrangipane]

Here's another review from Shazoo: https://shazoo.ru/2016/11/10/45781/obzor-tyranny

 

[duanth123]

PC Gamer

Fans who adore Pillars of Eternity for its in-depth and demanding combat will be disappointed as Tyranny pulls a Dragon Age 2 and simplifies things with middling results. Party size is limited to just four characters instead of six, and friendly fire is nonexistent—greatly reducing the need for proper positioning and strategy in combat. These problems are further compounded by poor AI. Enemy parties will gladly let you axe their feeble mages without protest, and my own companions were liable to make stupid decisions if I wasn't there to catch them.

 

[Bubbles]

PC Gamer

Fans who adore Pillars of Eternity for its in-depth and demanding combat will be disappointed as Tyranny pulls a Dragon Age 2 and simplifies things with middling results. Party size is limited to just four characters instead of six, and friendly fire is nonexistent—greatly reducing the need for proper positioning and strategy in combat. These problems are further compounded by poor AI. Enemy parties will gladly let you axe their feeble mages without protest, and my own companions were liable to make stupid decisions if I wasn't there to catch them.

Here's what the same reviewer said on the same issue a few hours later:

I really, really liked PoE at first and had this great impression of it, but I just lost interest because I couldn't focus on it as much as I wanted to and wanted something more bite-sized to play.

From what I remember, the combat in PoE was pretty interesting, but that was only within the first 15 hours. I've seen lots of complaints that it gets very repetitive here too. I suspect—but can't say for sure—if you have the same problems in PoE, they're probably present in Tyranny. Likewise, what you liked about combat in PoE is probably also present in Tyranny. That is, of course, barring stuff like Tyranny not having friendly fire and smaller party sizes.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/5c8172/tyranny_review_thread/d9up2yw/

 

[Infinitron]

Yes, my remark about game journalists in the OP wasn't entirely speculative.

 

[an Administrator]

It's too expensive.

 

[markec]

Fuck Obsidian.

 

[deama]

Well, this time they designed it so it's not as annoying playing it solo, so it should be nicer for me.

 

[Jezal_k23]

So is it a given that there will be DLC? This puts me off of getting it now, especially since I've read there's a cliffhanger ending which honestly just pisses me off (but to be fair I don't know if this is true). At this point I'm more inclined toward waiting until all the content comes out to then get it when they release an edition that features everything.

 

[Infinitron]

So is it a given that there will be DLC? This puts me off of getting it now, especially since I've read there's a cliffhanger ending which honestly just pisses me off (but to be fair I don't know if this is true). At this point I'm more inclined toward waiting until all the content comes out to then get it when they release an edition that features everything.

There might be DLC, but it's not a "given", I would say. Might depend on sales.

 

[Jezal_k23]

For me it depends on how cheap the cliffhanger is, which is the thing that upsets me most depending on how they handled it. I can accept some degree of planning for an expansion/sequel/DLC or whatever, but I don't think it's ok to make an unsatisfying story on its own. I guess I'll just wait and see how people react to the ending.

 

[flabbyjack]

Looks like it's time to buy Pillars of Eternity.

 

[Bubbles]

Another reviewer weighs in on NeoGAF:

Im after 90% of the first playthrough and lot of talk with friend who is doing his second one. Tyranny isnt bad and has really good ideas but execution is at best mediocore.

1. Enemies - there are only 3 types of enemies: humans, ghosts and inteligent humanoid beasts. Thats it. In Fantasy RPG... You will fight with archer/mage/warrior combo like 40 or 50 Times and it become really boring rly fast.
2. Abilities - this game is flooded with them. You get skills from class tree, companion reputation, faction reputation, artifacts, spell crafting and... you get tired of them very fast because you fight same enemies over and over again...
3. Charaters - mostly well written and likeable.
4. World - interesting and unique but game didnt show its full potential.
5. Dungeons - booring. Very simillar with medicore puzzles and you fight same ghosts over and over again. Did i mentioned there are only 3 types of enemies?

Story and choices
This is the most important part and reason i still play this game even though gameplay become boring after 5-6 hours.

There are some realy fun characters and some really good dialogues. Most of the time you can role play your character really well thx to mamy dialogue options and many decisions you are forced to make. And all that is cool, but unfortunately only for 8-10 hours...

After that you will notice that the only choices that really mattered in global scale were choices in first act. During First 4-5 hours you can chose one of 3 factions or fight with all of them. After that the only choice is to stay with your chosen faction or fight with everybody. trust me, you want to avoid the last option. Killing every armed person in the game isnt fun at all...

All in all Tyranny is trying to make really unique and cool stuff, but unfortunately it feels rushed and unpolished. Every classic RPG fan should Play its first act but after that everthing is going down the hill.

www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1310880&page=5

 

[Haba]

Tyranny may be shit, but I am certain the coming years under Trump regime will help Obsidian make Tyranny 2 great again