Obsidian was on the verge of bankruptcy. A house with roots as big as oaks well planted in the role-playing field had reached the critical point, due to hasty and poorly completed projects, titles that failed beyond belief and flights of fancy ended in tragedy after a head-on with the very hard wall of reality. . Then, suddenly, the rebirth. It is not the work of the (few) notable video games that came out of the dark period of the software house, but of a simple return to the past called Pillars of Eternity. In an era where action and showmanship have eaten up almost everything, the answer was only one: to restore the essence of role-playing games to fans of the genre. Choosing to follow this now abandoned path has however placed the software house in front of new dilemmas, all related to its future. How to move once you have regained the niche of the veterans of the GDR? How to stay on top when so many equally willing development studios have now smelled the economic potential of the thing? Tyranny is the answer, a new title that owes a great deal to the glorious Baldur's Gate and company, but refreshes it all with a good dose of nastiness.
If life can teach you anything, that something is that "evil always wins": Tyranny's review!
Power is order. Perhaps
Tyranny does not try to eradicate the foundations laid by the predecessors in the genre or at least it does not try to do so from a gameplay point of view. The Obsidians have in fact chosen to scatter the cards on the table only as regards the narrative, which rests on an unusual opening to say the least. In this title you do not take on the role of the hero of the moment, but you play one of the subordinates of a powerful ruler known as Kyros, committed to imposing the edicts of his master on the few regions still populated by those who have not subjected themselves to his want.
These edicts, however, are not simple laws but real mystical proclamations, capable of devastating entire populations instantly. It may seem like a sparse premise, yet the Obsidians have frayed and elaborated it beyond belief, creating a strange fantasy world where the classic races have almost disappeared (apart from the beastmen here there are only human tribes and factions) and the territory of Kyros is controlled by the watchful eye of the Archons, individuals of rare power who have sworn allegiance to the dark lord. The end result is a web of alliances, discontents and unstable balances that it is up to the player to whittle and readjust according to their will, with permanent results on the entire game world. Whether you decide to indulge in the most vulgar violence or meticulously apply the law to favor your lord makes no difference: you are not Luke Skywalker here, you are Darth Vader; your actions will inevitably lead to some large-scale tragedy and the most that can be done is to choose the lesser evil. It's just a shame that these potential-rich gears don't fit perfectly into the messed-up tangle of ramifications of the game, thereby creating obvious late-campaign imbalances due to that or that alliance. It is then impossible not to criticize the closure of the adventure, which leaves a bitter aftertaste unfortunately perceived in more than one Obsidian title in the past: that of the hasty cut. In practice, the house does not seem to have lost the habit of the "unsatisfactory ending", although the timing of the tight money and the restrictive terms are old history.
Bow down or die
Our final criticisms do not represent a rejection of the game's storyline, we want to clarify it; they are simply cracks that have dented a background that can develop in excellent ways with a little more effort.
Tyranny still boasts more than a notable moment and is at the same time an incredibly wordy title, in which long conversations you can see an evident willingness on the part of the Obsidians to outline their new universe. The industriousness of certain elements is such, for example, that it has infiltrated the fundamental mechanics of the game, which are at least partly built around the relationships with the various factions and characters encountered in the adventure, and on the prologue called "Conquest". It is precisely from this initial phase that it is appropriate to leave, since it is a screen that shows the Tiers region (the place where the Tyranny campaign takes place) in the form of a three-dimensional map, on which the player is asked to select various strategies to conquer the main strongholds of the enemy. Already these choices, made during the very first minutes, significantly influence the unfolding of the adventure, opening up additional dialogue options and changing your relationship with some factions. The relationships are then reconnected to the second factor described above, that is the relationship of the protagonist with the various characters - mainly members of his team and Archons - conveniently indicated by two bars that represent the level of favor and that of anger (or, in some cases, of terror). Raise one of the two bars adequately and not only the story and the dialogues will change, but you will end up with comfortable additional powers related to that faction or supporting actor. Quite an interesting way to link moral choices and conversations to combat mechanics.
Sword and swashbuckling are always swashbuckling and swashbuckling
Note the presence of these additional powers linked to your moral choices, because within the Tyranny combat system they are the only real innovation. In fact, the group also includes some interesting combos that can be performed by the protagonist once he has properly interacted with the various members of his team.: these are powerful techniques, with high recharge times (there is no mana, so these are the only limit of use of most skills) that can often be decisive in high-level battles.
A winning idea, to which are added even powers linked to special artifact weapons that can instead be reused only after resting in a camp; only the basic system is almost identical to that of Pillars of Eternity, with the same problems and limitations. From the point of view of positioning, in fact, the characters do not get flanking bonuses of any kind, ergo the damage increases only if you attack the enemies from hidden (which is much less difficult to do than you might think) or if they wander around. owe the opposing resistances with the usual combination of magical enhancements and weakenings. In short, we are still faced with mechanics that closely resemble those of Baldur's Gate, far from the complexity and interactivity offered by a product like Divinity: Original Sin, and enriched exclusively by the game-book-like elements inserted inside the dungeons. Puzzles, alternative roads and changing areas of the game maps are in fact presented with clear icons, which offer limited options and require specific characteristics of your team to be overcome. It worked fine in Pillars, but from the next title we sincerely expected a more creative use of this gimmick (or at least more options in some cases).
Beauty in devastation
The system of spells and powers is significantly more innovative. The former are customizable thanks to a witty menu where you can combine runes and symbols found during the campaign, and then equip them to the various fighters of the group based on their mystical knowledge; the latter instead are enhanced by dint of being used and are not - at least in the case of the protagonist - limited by a class selected at the beginning, since the development of one's alter ego is free and divided into numerous skill branches.
Less significant, but still pleasant, are the spiers, huge towers scattered around the map that replace the improvable fortress of the previous Obsidian RPG, and are closely linked to the progress of the story. In conclusion, Tyranny is a game with deep and well-oiled mechanics, which however has not been able to evolve in a really significant way what Pillars of Eternity had offered. On the other hand, it even maintains similar technical deficiencies, with comrades' pathing that often goes to that country and enemy artificial intelligence that can be circumvented with various tricks even at high difficulties. These are really annoying bugs, because apart from the usual bugs and dancer artificial intelligence, Obsidian knows how to use Unity properly and Tyranny boasts some damn inspired maps and an exceptional artistic direction. It must be said that past experiences seem to have paid off, as we didn't find any bugs capable of breaking the game during our test. We close with longevity, on which it is appropriate to make a separate discussion. The title is not particularly durable for an Obsidian product, so much so that an experienced player can complete it in less than twenty hours (the presence of a "fast mode" that speeds up battles and movements can greatly shorten this duration); however, it is an extremely replayable RPG, precisely by virtue of the many moral and relational choices available, and the big changes to the campaign that certain choices cause (although the endings tend to return all more or less to the same point). Depending on how much the game world conquers you, Tyranny's duration will increase exponentially.
Comment
Digital Delivery Steam Price 41,99 € Resources4Gaming.com8.2
Readers (16)8.4
Your voteThe latest addition to Obsidian once again demonstrates the house's familiarity with old-fashioned RPGs and initially conquers with a premise full of potential. This energy contained in the game, however, is never fully released, since - despite a great depth of the systems and a considerable underlying solidity - the ramifications connect less smoothly than expected, due to a final phase that is clearly more hasty than the bars. initials, and suddenly closed in the moment of climax. Too bad, but if you love the genre, there is still no need to miss this title.
PRO
- Impressive ramifications related to factions and characters
- Solid old-fashioned mechanics, with some interesting gimmicks
- Commendable art direction
- Interesting premise and full of potential ...
- ... which, however, is not always exploited to the fullest, especially in the advanced stages
- Unsatisfactory finish
- Few significant innovations compared to what has been seen in Pillars
- Reversible artificial intelligence and some technical tricks
