When I first heard about the new RPG game Tyranny,<\/em> I looked at some screenshots and they immediately reminded me of both the Baldur\u2019s Gate series, as well as the equally lauded Pillars of Eternity. <\/em>What all of these games have in common is that you play them from an isometric, top-down perspective. That\u2019s not a big surprise, considering that Tyranny<\/em> and Pillars of Eternity<\/em> were both created by Obsidian Entertainment. Ferociously talented game designer Feargus Urquhart, one of the original founders of Black Isle Studios, now works for Obsidian, so it\u2019s no wonder that all of the games look and play very similarly.<\/p>\n However, Tyranny<\/em> introduces a new and intriguing ripple into the equation, at least story-wise. What happened, if instead of the usual sword and sorcery trope where you play as a hero trying to vanquish evil, evil has already won? Well, almost. Tyranny\u2019s main baddie, the evil warlord Kyros has conquered the majority of the game\u2019s world, with a small hold out of rebels still occupying a region to the southwest portion of the map. It\u2019s an interesting premise, and I found it really intriguing. I mean, can you imagine if J.R.R. Tolkein\u2019s Lord of the Rings series had been written from the perspective of the conquerors, and featured a Middle Earth where the evil mastermind Sauron had already taken it over?<\/p>\n In Tyranny,<\/em> you step into the boots of a Fatebinder, a sort of evil Judge Dredd fantasy genre equivalent. Indeed, as a Fatebinder, you serve as a lieutenant of Kyros\u2019 forces, and are a judge, jury, and many times executioner, to any form of resistance to the dastardly overlord\u2019s rule. The game opens with a brilliant and well-developed character creation system. Once you have you evil minion up and running, you can either start the game after the downfall of the last bastion of resistance has been subdued, or you can play through the conquering and annexation of it.<\/p>\n If you choose the latter, whatever decisions you make, as your forces are raping, pillaging, and plundering, will affect matters as you progress throughout the game. For more immersion, I chose to play this final conflict out, and let me tell you, it isn\u2019t for the squeamish or faint of heart. Tyranny<\/em> is a game that, despite its 16 or over age rating, introduces some pretty heavy and grisly goings on. Torture, rape, and lots and lots of murder, are all on display, and Tyranny <\/em>plays it all out with a straight face, so don\u2019t expect much in the way of humor or inflection. It\u2019s a game that not only forces you to make some rather murky choices, but makes you think about them afterwards, even after you\u2019ve ended your gaming session. We\u2019re talking \u201cwhat did I just do\u201d stuff here.<\/p>\n Shortly thereafter, Tyranny<\/em> makes it apparent that you must make a choice between supporting one of the two main factions of Kyros\u2019 armies. One is a more multitudinous band of bloodthirsty anarchists, and the other is a smaller but more organized group of lock-step fascists. Since the two sides are quarreling with one another, you\u2019ll soon discover that saying the wrong thing around either one can be bad for your health. Therefore, learning how to navigate the tumultuous political waters is paramount to your survival.<\/p>\n The gameplay mechanics themselves are very similar to Pillars of Eternity,<\/em> so veterans of that game will be right at home here. I really enjoyed Tyranny\u2019s<\/em> skill-based system, in that whatever weapons, skills, or spells you utilize the most, are the ones that you gain more experience in. This is much more intuitive and logical that any of the more rigid, class-based systems that many RPGs tend to adhere to.<\/p>\n Tyranny\u2019s <\/em>graphics really nailed the mark, and serve to further draw you into the game\u2019s murky world. The combat and spell effects, in particular, are extremely well done and fun to watch. The pre-rendered environments are also beautiful to behold, and you can tell that a lot of work went into them. The enemies are mainly of the evil human variety, so I\u2019d consider Tyranny <\/em>more of a low-fantasy game. You won\u2019t see any pointy eared Elves or grumbling pot-bellied Dwarfs here, just a bunch of backstabbing fellow humans\u2014lots of them.<\/p>\n In all, I\u2019d say Tyranny<\/em> is a great RPG entry, although some of its subject matter can make you want to take a shower after wading through it. It builds upon Pillars of Eternity\u2019s<\/em> gaming mechanics, and features much improved graphics. It\u2019s also more dialogue driven, and the often unpleasant decisions that you are forced to make have even heavier consequences this time around. I\u2019d say that if you\u2019re looking for a truly unique fantasy RPG that bucks the usual fantasy tropes, try it out. Just get your shower ready because you may need to use it.<\/p>\n SCORE: 84%<\/p>\n Tyranny <\/em>offers beautiful visuals that suit its fantasy theme. However, you have to have an equally fast gaming PC in order to play it at a decent framerate. So, you may just want to invest in a decent gaming rig:<\/p>\n Visit CyberpowerPC\u2019s website<\/a> to check out all of the other great deals as well!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Tyranny Obsidian Entertainment\/Paradox Interactive I\u2019ve played a ton of computer based RPGs in my time. Well, let me preface that by saying that I\u2019ve always been an RPG fan in general, ever since acquiring the role-playing bug through long hours spent playing pen and paper games. I made the transition over to the digital realm… Read More »Tyranny Review \u2013 So Good to be Bad<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":5888,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2732],"tags":[2520,741,2537,2488,67,2486,2632,2634,2635,2607,2633],"class_list":["post-5887","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-games","tag-4k-gaming","tag-cyberpower-pc","tag-fantasy-games","tag-game-review","tag-gaming-pc","tag-ian-kane","tag-isometric-games","tag-obsidian-entertainment","tag-paradox-interactive","tag-reviews-2","tag-tyranny"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5887","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5887"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5887\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5894,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5887\/revisions\/5894"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5888"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"tyr2\"](\"http:\/\/www.cpgaming.gg\/w\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/tyr2.png\")
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