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[Soulblighter31]

https://translate.google.com/transl...nicht-so-gut-wie-Pillars-of-Eternity-1212881/



PC Games germany gives it 81 /100

"Tyranny is a nice pastime with an unusual scenario, but it is not enough for the modern classic."

After the all-you-can-eat-buffet called Pillars of Eternity, Obsidian sets the scene at Tyranny: The bustle of secondary tasks and optional locations has been trimmed, the rolling-play system is even simpler than the quasi-predecessor and the exciting battles Suffer from a deficiency of different types of opponents. The result is a slimmer, more focused experience that focuses on the main story and its many decision-making moments. Not a bad idea, because the consequence with which Tyranny punishes me for my virtual deeds is unique.

 

[Moff]

Sounds great, choices and consequences are what I love most in an RPG

 

[CrichtonKicks]

I hope reviewers give it at least 2 play through. Anything else would be selling it short

 

[Anno]

Looks like German Eurogamer also pushed out a review early? Seems positive and gets their recommended tag from what Google translate can tell me.

 

[Labadal]

I hope reviewers give it at least 2 play through. Anything else would be selling it short

I doubt we'll see that in this busy period.

 

[Xater]

Looks like German Eurogamer also pushed out a review early? Seems positive and gets their recommended tag from what Google translate can tell me.

Yup they liked it quite a bit:

"Good role-playing game full of dialogues, factions and lots of stuff to read. Not the best Obsidian has ever made, but a great experience."

 

[Karak]

Rated it a Buy for ACG.
Fantastic quality overall with some bugs and a couple little issues here and there.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBJg5waC2uA

Pros
World Building
Theme
AI improvements
Music

Cons
Bugs
UI overhead

 

[bjaelke]

9/10 from both Gamewatcher and Gamerant

http://www.gamewatcher.com/reviews/tyranny-review/12728
https://gamerant.com/tyranny-review/

 

[Nzyme32]

Several sites are mentioning a "Winter Months" type additional content coming eventually - if I'm glancing at these correctly (not got the time right now). Good to hear they will keep supporting it with content, if true


MMORPG: 9/10

GAMEPLAY – 10 | Every bit of Tyranny is on point and more refined than its predecessor (Pillars of Eternity). Combat is elegant, impactful, and measured in a way that makes sense. Your choices and their consequences seem black and white, but the true outcome is never telegraphed. Crafting and managing your empire via the Spires is an addictive activity, but not essential if you choose to ignore it. It’s a beautifully complex and rewarding RPG.

VISUALS AND SOUND – 8 | Tyranny is a very pretty game, but that’s a summation that only applies if you like the retro perspective and artistically designed models. Its hand-drawn backgrounds are a thing of beauty, as are its particle effects.

POLISH – 9 | Obsidian’s RPGs are often derided for their bugs, but only when they are made on other people’s engines it seems. Like Pillars of Eternity, Tyranny runs on Unity and uses a modified Pillars Engine. In short – it’s very polished, works very well, and I only ever ran into one bugged quest that simply required a reload.

LONGEVITY – 9 | Initially, I was expecting Tyranny to be a “shorter” RPG. But 20-25 hours for the main story, 40+ for the side quests and completionist modes sounds great. Add into that the factor that the Conquest starting campaign and replay value added because of how starkly different the game’s choices make the narrative, and well you’ve got a lot of RPG goodness here.

VALUE – 9 | Few games these days seem to pack enough content for the amount they ask you to put down. Obsidian, however, never disappoints. There’s a whole lot of game, and it’s replayable in a way few RPGs are (as noted above). Well worth the $45.

Hardcore Gamer: 4/5

Tyranny offers a unique RPG experience where the standard good vs evil format is turned on its side. Serving as Kyros’s Fatebinder, the player is free to carry out their master’s will as they see fit and watch the effect it has on the world. This is not a game that can properly be played casually as it is simply too complex and too vast to get the full experience from fifteen minutes a day. Mastering the nuances of everything that is offered and learning how to best interact with each faction and party member will take time. For those who have the time and desire, however, this is one of the more rewarding time sink titles available. With the winter months on the horizon, Tyranny is a highly-recommended game to lock yourself away with while waiting for the weather to warm up.

 

[Anno]

Rated it a Buy for ACG.
Fantastic quality overall with some bugs and a couple little issues here and there.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBJg5waC2uA

Awesome. Was hoping you would get your hands on this.

 

[Karak]

Awesome. Was hoping you would get your hands on this.

Indeed. Happy to have been able to as well.

 

[Xater]

Judging by these early reviews it seems like Obsidian did again not disappoint. Really looking forward to playing it now.

 

[Nzyme32]

WCCFTech: 9/10

Tyranny perfectly encapsulates what makes a role-playing game great. With superb writing, an engaging story and setting, solid mechanics and huge replay value, the new game from Obsidian Entertainment is a must play for all true RPG lovers. Tyranny isn't just about the triumph of evil: it is the triumph of role-playing games.

Pros

Super writing
Excellent story and characters
Solid RPG mechanics
Spot on presentation
Choices system leading to huge replay value

Cons

Might be overwhelming to genre newcomers

 

[Maintenance]

Getting hyped by the scores, must lower expectations.

 

[bjaelke]

Combat is elegant, impactful, and measured in a way that makes sense

Hmmm, this goes a bit against what PCGamesN (8/10) are reporting.

It’s such a shame, then, that fights are largely boring, especially when compared to Pillars of Eternity. The system itself is fantastic, perhaps the best descendent of Infinity Engine-style combat, but the actual encounters are bizarrely conservative, with most enemies being simple soldiers and the occasional magic user, who generally just stay in one place and wait for you to engage them before moving. Patrols are rare. When Tyranny does introduce an enemy that’s not just a plain dude with some weapons and the same abilities you’ve seen a hundred times already, they’re quickly forgotten, and it’s back to fighting more soldiers.

http://www.pcgamesn.com/tyranny/tyranny-review

 

[Dalibor68]

Good reviews so far!

 

[Moff]

Ok I'm happy, it's a hit.

Not reading anything more now.

 

[Nzyme32]

PC Gamer: 75

That abrupt end is conflicting and frustrating. On one hand, I'm excited by the prospect of a sequel and the implications that it has for my character. On the other, the ending feels so abrupt and unsatisfying—relieving none of that pent up emotion or tension I had. It sets the stage for a final battle, but then slams the door shut on the story and slips a half-hearted summary of what happens next under it and the credits roll.

It's hard not to let an ending like that color my impressions of Tyranny. At the same time, my second playthrough has reminded me what a memorable journey it was before everything deflated in service of setting the stage for a sequel. Tyranny has fantastic ideas and its worldbuilding is unparalleled, but botches the execution, preventing it from all coming together to form a modern classic. When the story isn't pushing you to make specific decisions or bombarding you with repetitive combat, it feels like it could have rivalled the likes of Baldur's Gate 2 or Planescape: Torment. It's still worth playing, but Tyranny falls far short of the excellent standard set by Pillars of Eternity.

Repetitive combat and an abrupt ending spoil what is otherwise a remarkable feat of worldbuilding.

 

[Karak]

Hmmm, this goes a bit against what PCGamesN (8/10) are reporting.

http://www.pcgamesn.com/tyranny/tyranny-review

They didn't play on harder difficulties. Those changes occur there and its explained in the fiction as well.
As I said in my review which I test all AI levels. The differences is HUGE in AI setup and choice on each level.

 

[acidagfc]

They didn't play on harder difficulties. Those changes occur there and its explained in the fiction as well.
As I said in my review which I test all AI levels. The differences is HUGE in AI setup and choice on each level.

Hmm, should I start on Hard\above average difficulty then?
I generally tend to playing Normal diff settings in games, however if AI is at disadvantage at lower settings, I'd rather go Hard from the get go.
EDIT: Okay, read the review. Hard it is.

 

[Anno]

They didn't play on harder difficulties. Those changes occur there and its explained in the fiction as well.
As I said in my review which I test all AI levels. The differences is HUGE in AI setup and choice on each level.

Does it handle difficulty the same way as PoE? Larger, more varied encounters rather than just buffing up enemy stats until you hit Path of the Damned?

 

[depward]

For someone essentially fairly new to the genre, does it make sense to:

1. Play my already-purchased copy of Pillars of Eternity (played a grand total of 15 mins)
2. Purchase Tyranny and play that

It seems like Tyranny is a shorter game that seemed a bit more simpler... but reading some reviews stating it's a bit more complex and in-depth.

 

[Nzyme32]

They didn't play on harder difficulties. Those changes occur there and its explained in the fiction as well.
As I said in my review which I test all AI levels. The differences is HUGE in AI setup and choice on each level.

Does it handle difficulty the same way as PoE? Larger, more varied encounters rather than just buffing up enemy stats until you hit Path of the Damned?

He's right, I completely forgot about this also being mentioned in the Dev Blog:

Game Difficulty

Tyranny will ship with four difficulty settings for the game: Story Mode, Normal, Hard, and Path of the Damned. Each of these difficulty settings will affect how challenging combat is with Story Mode being for players who mainly want to experience the story and reactivity of the game. If you watched any of the videos from E3, this is the difficulty setting you saw.

As difficulty increases, we focus more on the AI and tactics of enemies rather than just adding more enemies to each encounter. On harder difficulties enemies will choose targets more effectively as well as use their abilities more frequently and strategically. We also replace some weaker units with more challenging ones at higher difficulties.

 

[aravuus]

Definitely higher scores than I was expecting, thought most of them would be around 75-80.

Will try and finish the game at least twice or thrice if I have the time, that's for sure.

 

[Jb]

John Walker at RPS has some mixed feelings about the game but does say that it lets you do some pretty fucked up stuff and reacts to those choices fairly well.
It reminds me of how disturbing some of the options in a game like KOTOR were despite of how infantile the Star Wars universe can be. I'll pick this up when I'm done with the few remaining big games of the season.

 

[bjaelke]

They didn't play on harder difficulties. Those changes occur there and its explained in the fiction as well.
As I said in my review which I test all AI levels. The differences is HUGE in AI setup and choice on each level.

That's reassuring. Thanks for clearing that up.

 

[Karak]

Does it handle difficulty the same way as PoE? Larger, more varied encounters rather than just buffing up enemy stats until you hit Path of the Damned?

More varied and higher versions of the same characters(not necessarily more in #) but far more intelligent use of skills on enemies parts and it sure did seem like a large amount of stacking. Also I had enemies moving around the BF alot which some reviews state they didn't. I am sure that depends ALSO on just randomness. But difficulties matter here especially as your party is also more intelligent.

 

[Levyne]

My review isn't ready yet, but my favorite change with Tyranny is the limit to four party members. In PoE I often found that there was so much going on that unless you pressed spacebar every 5 seconds, it was just kinda a cacophony of skills and I was never 100% sure of the flow of combat. In Tyranny, having 4 roles I find that while objectively more limiting, yes, it is just a tidier experience.

The maps are a bit limited in size and a lot of the side quests and miscellaneous objectives do boil down to finding a person place or thing in one of these smaller maps. The main game quests are a lot more interesting. While that may not seem so surprising, we've had games recently in Deus Ex MD and Witcher 3 where the side objectives were just as good if not better.

The "base building" on the spires is a little better than the equivalent found in PoE, but that's not a high bar and not by much.

While the overarching narrative isn't too interesting for me so far (I haven't quite finished yet u_u), the moment to moment writing is really dense and mostly great. For instance, I love the companion Sirin. I suggest putting her in your party when you can because she has a very interesting history and I found myself reading line after line of her dialogue when for PoE I found myself kinda skimming the companion fluff.

Basically, if you liked PoE, I feel like this is a trimmed, refined version where it might tidy up some things such as combat but it does feel more limited in scope wrt maps, cities, etc.

But I am not finished yet so these are in progress thoughts after about 18 hours.

 

[Karak]

Hmm, should I start on Hard\above average difficulty then?
I generally tend to playing Normal diff settings in games, however if AI is at disadvantage at lower settings, I'd rather go Hard from the get go.
EDIT: Okay, read the review. Hard it is.

IN short ya probably

 

[J Jizzle]

Its a good game then.

That's a relief, it's always worrying when there is an embargo on reviews right up until the release date. I know it's the trend now but I like knowing I'm not getting excited for something that isn't worth my time.

 

[Levyne]

Re: Difficulties I've been playing on Normal, which had been fine for a good while until I unlocked more and more of the companion combo abilities. Now I'm slowly finding out that those are pretty overpowered and do kinda trivialize a lot of encounters. While they are balanced in the sense that you often can only use them once per rest or whatever, I'm always topped out on camping supplies and you can always rest at the towers too.

So starting on hard may be a bit of a grind at first, once you get companion abilities and such it will probably feel like a good place to settle into. Though I will say that normal is not so easy that you don't have to think at all, it just gives a fair bit of room for mistakes and laziness.

 

[Gbraga]

For whatever reason I never noticed this game until very recently. It looks amazing!

 

[Kimaka]

I actually got it on Amazon. I'd like having a box for it, it's cheaper than Steam, and when Amazon tells me it will be delivered tomorrow then that's usually true.

Damn, if I knew that the EU was getting a boxed copy I would have waited. Guess I'm double dipping eventually.

 

[Xater]

Re: Difficulties I've been playing on Normal, which had been fine for a good while until I unlocked more and more of the companion combo abilities. Now I'm slowly finding out that those are pretty overpowered and do kinda trivialize a lot of encounters. While they are balanced in the sense that you often can only use them once per rest or whatever, I'm always topped out on camping supplies and you can always rest at the towers too.

So starting on hard may be a bit of a grind at first, once you get companion abilities and such it will probably feel like a good place to settle into. Though I will say that normal is not so easy that you don't have to think at all, it just gives a fair bit of room for mistakes and laziness.

Can you switch the difficulty at any time?

 

[Moff]

Unlock in 2 or 3 hours?

 

[Corpekata]

Can you switch the difficulty at any time?

You could in Pillars. IIRC only changed encounters that weren't loaded in yet.

 

[Karak]

Can you switch the difficulty at any time?

Ya. And starting at hard is instantly doable. Even for one of my friends who has never played an ISO he started on hard and if you pay attention you are good to go, minus random bad luck and bad setups.

 

[Corpekata]

Unlock in 2 or 3 hours?

2

 

[Labadal]

Unlock in 2 or 3 hours?

45 minutes for me.

 

[RadialBlur]

I used to love these type of RPGs, but after 15 hours of PoE, my interest fizzled out and now I'll probably never finish it.

Really making me second guess buying a game like this whereas it used to be an insta-buy.

 

[Corpekata]

45 minutes for me.

No, the store page is misleading. Now when it says 1 hour, it means 2, it switches to a "Less than 1 hour" thing once it's within an hour.

 

[Labadal]

No, the store page is misleading. Now when it says 1 hour, it means 2, it switches to a "Less than 1 hour" thing once it's within an hour.

I see. Thanks for the heads up.

 

[Lister]

Can't wait for tonight! Some hot cocoa and some Tyranny.

Reviews deifnitley sound encouraging!

 

[Durante]

I like pressing spacebar every 5 seconds.

 

[Anno]

I like pressing spacebar every 5 seconds.

Indeed.

Though the one thing I wish someone would invent for these games is like a post-battle replay that shows the whole battle again in real time rather than through my pauses every few seconds.

 

[IlGialloMondadori]

I used to love these type of RPGs, but after 15 hours of PoE, my interest fizzled out and now I'll probably never finish it.

Really making me second guess buying a game like this whereas it used to be an insta-buy.

I felt the same way at 15 hours. Then, I kept going. Now, I'm at 100 hours, and in the final act after doing the expansions. Great game.

 

[Sliver]

Just about done with Planescape for the first time (its amazing!), either gonna be picking this or Age of Decadence up after. Loving this cRPG revival.

The whole idea of a short, super reactive story that lends itself to replays really appeals to me.

 

[Gaz_RB]

Indeed.

Though the one thing I wish someone would invent for these games is like a post-battle replay that shows the whole battle again in real time rather than through my pauses every few seconds.

I've always wanted that! Would be so sweet in a game like this. Like a cinematic replay mode.

 

[Vargavinter]

No, the store page is misleading. Now when it says 1 hour, it means 2, it switches to a "Less than 1 hour" thing once it's within an hour.

I see. Thanks for the heads up.

Mine is unlocking right now.

 

[AndyMoogle]

The GOG version unlocked for me 8 mins ago.