Writing isn't that good. Archons are too cartoonish
Agreed, but the writing succeeds in what it sets out to do. Although the game’s ‘heavy’ in many ways – your character basically starting out as fantasy Chaos Nazi middle management participating in a ruthless, semi-genocidal war of conquest – the ‘tone’ of the game is actually rather schizophrenic. There are strong cartoony elements to the visuals, voice acting is over the top, characters are over the top, humor is often silly rather than genuinely dark/sarcastic/laconic, etc. This ‘bites’ with the grim and serious nature of the overall setup in the game.
I think that’s deliberate, because playing that role in a somewhat more ‘realistically’ presented setting á la The Witcher - or even just a generally more serious-feeling fantasy setting - might be too confrontational and / or uncomfortable. When it comes to playing a character in a game with a serious and grim setting (even with a fair bit of appropriate humour), the player character is, at worst, a nominally neutral character who has the inclination and possibility to do at least some good amidst the horror and madness.
That’s not the case in Tyranny. Even if you want to be less of an a-hole because of purely pragmatic reasons (‘if you treat the peasants reasonably, they’ll be productive peasants for the Empire’) or want to force/persuade the quarreling Evil Empire factions to cooperate, the game railroads you into decisions or consequences that are unmistakably bad and might not even make much sense.
By making much of the game ridiculous, silly and over the top, the emotional impact of the bad stuff (massacres, executions etc.) is softened. A lot. Maybe not good from an immersion perspective, but it allows playing an ‘Agent of Evil’ and still have some lulz rather than feeling acutely and permanently uncomfortable.
Otherwise, I like the game and think it’s pretty good (if flawed in a number of ways). Just don’t expect to play a ruthless, pragmatic conqueror in a somewhat believable Iron Age / Bronze Age-ish fantasy world, 'cause this ain’t that game.
