I Recommend: Tyranny

Binding fates and taking names!

So I consider myself an eclectic gamer who really does pay attention to the game of the day no matter what their genre or my chances of actually ever playing them. I know when the newest FIFA comes out and about such a game's pros and cons even though I've haven't owned a FIFA since '05, the same could be said for Forza games and even Just Dance. (Have to keep up to date on Ubisoft's super seminal franchise, afterall) As such, when it comes to a genre that I'm super invested in, RPGs, and a studio I love making them, Obsidian, I expect to have an encyclopaedic knowledge of them up in here. That should be a given, I shouldn't even have to look it up; freakin' osmosis should just kick in. Therefore when Epic Games decided to give out some Obsidian games in their free program I scoffed in the knowledge that I was likely already well versed and experienced with all the titles that could possibl- what the heck is 'Tyranny'? Why have I never heard of this? It came out a year after Pillars? How could I not have heard of this? What the heckin' heck?

So yeah, apparently Obsidian managed to sneak an entire RPG around me about four years back and I'm only hearing about this now. (How sneaky of them) And to be clear, Obsidian is the sort of company whom I very much expect to hear about whenever they make moves. Ever since 'Fallout: New Vegas' dropped and I realised that these guys beat Bethesda at their own game, I made it my mission to note everything that comes out of their offices, because there's a good chance I'll like it. I never got the chance to give 'Alpha Protocol' a try, which saddens me because despite the heavy jank which people claim the game shows I literally adore the premise. Stealth-based spy-themed RPG with choices and an odd sense of humour? Did Obsidian read my dream journal for that one? But that loss made me all the more dedicated to snapping up every one of their games whenever I got the chance, lest I be left short again, so I have no idea how 'Tyranny' slipped me by. (Well it's in my hands now.)

But what about the game itself, what has Obsidian thrown together and how does this differ from the isometric formula which Obsidian themselves helped revive back in 2015? Well actually this time the very premise pretty much sums up the USP, because Obsidian went for an off-the-cuff premise with this game and I have to admit I was dubious at first. (Okay, that's not true. First I played it for 2 hours and then I looked up what it was roughly about. Then I was dubious.) Essentially 'Tyranny' takes place in your everyday fantasy world without the crazy races but not without magic. Plus, there's an all-powerful agent of evil who seeks control over the entire world, par the course for any game out there. But things diverge from the norm, because instead of telling the story of a simple farmer's rise to becoming the 'hero of us all', 'Tyranny' starts at the end of that story. After the Tyrant has already seized control of the entire world and won, all that's left is the subjugation of some bumpkins out by the coast who are such a non-threat that they're busying fighting themselves by the time you arrive. Oh did I mention; you're also very much on the side of the Tyrant and consolidating their rule. (Talk about flipping the script!)

Now the reason this had me worried, even after playing the intro and quite liking what I was seeing, was because of the way it was marketed on the Steam page. "Tyranny turns the archetypal RPG story on its head!" the description reads "The player is not a random villager!", 'this isn't your grandma's RPG!' Yeah I made up that last one but you get the sort of vibe this is going for, right? 'Everything you expect out of a game from this genre? Yeah, this game completely changes all of that so buckle up for a envelope pusher!'. It's the kind of marketing that lays itself into what the story isn't over what is, and it gave me the impression that the game would mirror that sort of direction. The result of such situations would typically be a promising premise that get wasted when it could have been something really special. Luckily, my fears were so far off base that it's almost embarrassing, 'Tyranny' doesn't miss an ounce of it's potential.

Set in a world where the villain has won, Tyranny knows exactly what sort of world it's trying to build as it establishes a struggle between lawful tyrannical order and unrestrained chaotic freedom in a manner that's almost reminiscent of Shin Megami Tensei. The world building towards this is fantastic, and though it demands a lot of the player, in terms of reading heavy and detailed passages, it proves itself rich and deep enough to earn that commitment. Terratus is a plane that is shaped very much by the cult of personality which the regime forms around the all-powerful and mysterious Kyros, and as soon as you are positioned as a agent of this regime it'll become clear that traditional concepts of good and evil aren't really going to apply here. By most traditional standards you very much are the 'bad guy', but in this narrative that are no more side left apart from Kyros', and that fact alone paints this laudably natural coat of grey over each dilemma in the game and each system feeds that amorality beautifully.

Just like in New Vegas, the players will find a lot of their actions will be driven by the desire to build or sully relationships with close party members, factions and even just the various societies around 'The Tiers' (The region under siege). And just like in New Vegas, this allows for unique shades of personality and opinion to enter into decision making in a manner that doesn't quite happen with mortality-shader RPGs. And within this dictatorship relationships can shift and devolve over the matter of a few dialogue choices, thus players are always hyper aware of their interactions and the way it shapes those around them, to a degree that honestly shocks me in that I never really knew I wanted it this deep. But as if to wrap it all up in a beautifully neat bow, the very reputation system and it's quirks even get naturally tied into the overarching narrative in a manner so clever that I had to clap my hands together when I heard it. Or read it, I guess. (It's amazing how masters of their craft can blow you away even when you think you've seen everything.)

If there's another general feature of Tyranny which I cannot in good faith go without mentioning, it would have to be the the choices and consequences. Now, if you know me you'll know that I hate games wherein 'choices have consequences' is waved as a chief selling point, as it's almost always a prelude to disappointment as it merely draws attention to all the ways in which such a system doesn't live up to it's promise. Literally everytime it's a letdown, from 'Cyberpunk' to 'Life is Strange'; it's never as deep as they say. Tyranny, however, plays with this is a very subtle way wherein actions have consequences that may not be obvious all the time, and may not try to be flowers of opportunity either. Sometimes a choice you made in the prologue scrawl (Which is an extensive and important section) will shut down a potential interaction you could have otherwise had, or ingratiate you to someone you've just met, thus opening up more freedoms to interaction. It's hard to describe but I find it be a very honest approach to the concept where I have found myself frustrated upon coming against a wall, but its a wall I've built myself and thus I'm only immersed deeper by that frustration. (Does that make sense?)

I'm being very vague about my time with Tyranny and the parts of it that I loved and that's because I'm both still chipping away at the game and this isn't a review; it's a recommendation. Sometimes when a big shiny new hotness comes along and promises the world, what you really need instead is a robust and reliable clunker with a few tricks up it's sleeve and fine motor. (If you can even decipher that horrendously mixed metaphor) Tyranny won't blow you away with it's graphical fidelity (it does look pretty, but more artistically) nor it's gameplay; (it's basically just a real-time RPG like any other you've played) but it will satiate that hunger for solid, clever stories wrapped in an unfaltering RPG shell, if that's what you're so inclined towards. So unless the final act I'm approaching manages to screw everything up to an unreal degree, I'm pretty comfortable calling Tyranny my recommended game of the month. Because that's a thing I decided that I'm going now and you can't tell me it's dumb, I already know that it is.