Review of Tyranny

Nice review, thank you Maylander.

Great review. Hits it dead on the nail. I think the game runs very smoothly, I haven't run into bugs so far. The small size of maps and lack of opponent variety are the biggest detriments I see. I like the lore and world better than Pillars, the mechanics less so. In a year with few highlights so far though, I think Tyranny is probably second only to Stranger of Sword City in terms of my "Game of Year" so far.

Nice review Maylander.

I also just finished the game. I agree with the pros/cons and also the lackluster exploration aspect. That kinda made the game boring to me (I prefer PoE to Tyranny personally).

Saying that, I liked a lot my unarmed spellcaster main character. Much improved animations for unarmed fighters compared to PoE, clothing where I could see the tatoos without feeling naked and the spell system works well with melee characters.

Great review once again Maylander.

I agree with your pros & cons but you failed to mention the long load times. As it seems Obsidian failed to realize that 2-5 minute load times between each area is not ideal.

https://steamcommunity.com/app/36296…1032429308102/
https://steamcommunity.com/app/36296…1032433008371/
https://www.reddit.com/r/TyrannyGame…ng_load_times/
https://www.reddit.com/r/TyrannyGame…loading_times/
https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum…ilable.981444/

Obsidian's excuse was to blame the Unity Engine.

We've determined that there is a Unity issue that was fixed for Pillars of Eternity, but has since regressed to a non-working state in the newer version of Unity we're using for Tyranny. The problem is that the mechanism we're using to load character portrait art (and potentially a few other things) from disk can also be used to download files from servers. Because of this, Unity queries the Windows Proxy Settings for the currently logged-in user prior to deciding that it needs to load the file from disk instead. On some users' machines, the contents of the Windows Network Connections will include entries generated by third-party software such as LogMeIn Hamachi and VMWare. The Windows function that Unity uses to get the Proxy Settings for the user tends to hang for long periods of time if it encounters one of those third-party network connections. It's probably not able to get what it wants and just ends up waiting for a timeout. I suggest looking in Control Panel -> Network and Sharing Center to see if there are any network connections added by third-party software. If there are, try disabling them to see if it fixes the problem. Please let us know what you find.

Originally Posted by Couchpotato
Great review once again Maylander.

I agree with your pros & cons but you failed to mention the long load times. As it seems Obsidian failed to realize that 2-5 minute load times between each area is not ideal.

Maybe he didn't have long load times? Because I do not (game is on SSD).

I got long save time though, but that went away once I removed Steam crappy save cloud thingy.

Originally Posted by azarhal
Maybe he didn't have long load times? Because I do not (game is on SSD).

I got long save time though, but that went away once I removed Steam crappy save could thingy.

Yeah it seems to load faster on some SSD's, but I never had this problem with POE.

It amazes me that Obsidian failed to correct this, or even admit this problem before the games release. As this is not a small problem that is easy to miss with early testing.

Load times were definitely an issue for me. I got into the habit of getting up and getting something to drink/eat/do something rather than sit through it. I enjoyed the game enough to at least consider a second play through, which is an incredible rarity for me.

Similar to Dragon Age: Origins, most parties will likely end up with a tank, DPS, healer + one random, most likely some type of caster as they are the most flexible. I would personally prefer at least one more spot in the party to add some mix and match potential.

More on this.

The characterizations tank-DPS are inappropriate.

The system wants to inflict the highest rate of damage possible during a fight while sustaining the lowest rate.

Due to the multiple damage, it is not possible to get one character highly proficient in sustaining or infliciting all the types of damage.

Depending on the fight, one party member might be tasked with sustaining a type of damage, others tasked with dealing damage.
The distribution is not permanent and changes depending on the fight.

That is flexibility by the way.

As to spellcasters, all characters are spellcasters. This comes to further the flexibility of the party as every member might come proficient in a specific type of spells.

Any engine set to work on rubbish hardware too will have long load times.
It's nothing new, remember elevators from Mass Effect?
I'll take Obsidian's side here. Today. Tomorrow, if they make another game with Unity, then it's their fault. If an engine sucks, kill it and move away, don't stick with another Gamebryo.

One way to test the combat system is to play and replay over and ogain the same fight. Which means reloading a large number of times.

That issue of lengthy reloading times is specific to certain users.

I'm on SSD, load times are in the few seconds in most areas, but there is one area so far that takes like 15 seconds to load (Lethian's Crossing), which sucks because there are a bunch of houses there, and every time I go in a house, it's that annoying 15 second load again when I exit.

But yeah. At this point in time SSDs are a must, really, buy one, no, don't ask, go and buy one, now.

Not now. But this (black) friday.

Originally Posted by ChienAboyeur
Load times were definitely an issue for me. I got into the habit of getting up and getting something to drink/eat/do something rather than sit through it.

PoE suffered from the same thing. I found that trimming down your save directory helps a little. The rest of it is probably code related

Eh? I had no load problems with PoE.
However, all my games are on SSD. I'm not even sure if mentioning SSD on PC is needed any more, prices dopped so much it basically became a standard. Unlike bloody (and overpriced plastic) mushrooms.

Originally Posted by azarhal
Maybe he didn't have long load times? Because I do not (game is on SSD).

I got long save time though, but that went away once I removed Steam crappy save cloud thingy.

Originally Posted by luj1
PoE suffered from the same thing. I found that trimming down your save directory helps a little. The rest of it is probably code related

Could be that I simply had too few savegames (two normal ones per character + the auto/quick saves) or that my rig is too strong for it to be an issue, but I only had problems with the initial load (first loading of a save after opening the game). Otherwise I would have mentioned it.

Ye keep a small save dir. it happens on most riggs with PoE/Tranny as your save folder gets bigger and bigger unless you install on SSD I guess. I definitely saw a difference when I deleted around 30-40 save games and brought it back to like 3 slots.

Thanks for the Review. I played the game, unfortunately, and I would have to give this pile of Obsidian dung a 2/5. The combat is just brutal, and the whole concept just feels completely contrived to me.

Weak review. Failing to see most things from different point of views and extremely ambiguous ratings. Especially the summary is atrocious.

Originally Posted by Maylander
Pros:

• Good writing
• Choices and consequences
• Lots of skill checks
• Spell crafting
• Character progression

Cons:

• Restricted exploration
• Somewhat clunky combat, especially early on
• Not enough options in terms of party setup
• Limited scope

What is "good" writing? Most people found the majority of the characters to be annoying special snowflakes that swear way too much.
What is good about lots of skill checks? It's an extremely cheap replacement for actual gameplay.
Choices and consequences are standard and Character progression even more so - how are these Pros? They should be a given and the game at hand is average in those at best, making it not special at all.
Somewhat clunky combat. What is somewhat? Is it clunky or not? To most people it just felt incredibly boring for reasons.
Limited scope of what? A story needs to focus on certain parts or otherwise it will be just boring.


Basically all you are saying is: "x is shit but I can't express how shit it is and think it's actually not that shit… maybe." How is t hat even a review?

Originally Posted by Cepheiden
What is "good" writing??

One that doesn't make you think you'd write it better yourself.

Originally Posted by luj1
One that doesn't make you think you'd write it better yourself.

If that's the case, any writing is good writing