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Tyranny
Tyranny puts you in command of a Fatebinder's choices as you try to shape a conquered realm, with tactical combat that pauses for party commands. At $7.19 from 
Fanatical, weigh that story-led, single-player experience against your current budget and interest in deliberate combat. At $29.99 on Steam, this offer is $22.80 lower for the same base game.
All-time low ~ $4.48across Steam & third-party stores
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Price History
Past 36 months · Updated dailyHistorical Low~ $5.952023-12Current Low Across Stores~ $7.19Fanaticalvs. Historical Low+21%
Prices cover Steam and 39 authorized stores; only legitimate offers are counted. The chart shows weekly market-wide lows and Steam's official price across the past 36 months.
01About Tyranny
In Tyranny, the tyrant has already won, and you serve as a Fatebinder deciding how the conquered lands should be ruled. Your choices shape alliances, enemies, the story, and even the world itself; tactical real-time combat pauses for commands to your party. Steam players rate it 87%% positive across 9,905 reviews. The Steam PC release date is November 10, 2016.
Credits
Developer
Obsidian Entertainment
Publisher
Paradox Interactive
Lowest recorded in 36 months
$5.952023-12-12 · GameBilletBase game · same records as the chart above; USD history, not a regional Steam low.Language support
| Language | Interface | Subtitles | Audio |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| French | Yes | Yes | — |
| German | Yes | Yes | — |
Show 3 more languages
| Language | Interface | Subtitles | Audio |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spanish | Yes | Yes | — |
| Polish | Yes | Yes | — |
| Russian | Yes | Yes | — |
Steam PC edition data · 2026-10-22
02Before you buy
Interface and audio
English is available for the interface, subtitles, and full audio. French, German, Italian, Polish, and Spanish are listed with subtitles.
Solo play
The Steam PC version is listed as single-player. Its combat uses tactical real-time action with pause and party-based mechanics.
PC requirements
Check that your PC can run the game before buying.
03Frequently asked questions
What role does the player take?
You play a Fatebinder serving in the Overlord's army, with authority in the occupied Tiers.
Can choices change the game world?
Yes. Choices affect the story, alliances and enemies, and the layout of the world.
How does combat work?
Combat is tactical and real-time, with the ability to pause and issue commands to your party.
Popular Steam reviews
Native-language selection · 10 reviewsSelected helpful reviews in this language show both recommendations and criticisms. This selection does not represent the overall positive rating; opinions reflect the version reviewed.
RecommendedSteam player
It's too bad there's no neutral option for Steam reviews because I recommend it to cRPG fans, but don't recommend it to everyone else. Tyranny is Obsidian's latest cRPG with a twist. Instead of trying to save the world and beat the bad guys you're working for them. I received Tyranny for free for review purposes. My thoughts of Tyranny are not biased, or brought in any way. I always give my honest opinion on games and just because I didn't pay for this one doesn't change that fact. The Great: Graphics: Tyranny is a really good looking game. The environments, spells, particle effects, and even character models looked great. Usually cRPGs would do one thing really good while lack in other areas. Tyranny does everything good. I was really surprised by how good the character models looked and it made me want to spend some extra time creating my first protagonist. Character Creator: I didn't care much for the character creator until I got to the end of it. After I finished creating my first character I was able to choose my past exploits and how I helped Kyros take over the world. It was really awesome because my choices actually affected how certain factions acted towards me in game. If I decided to kill the queen the Vendrien Guard would call you, "Queenslayer" and want nothing to do with you, but if made peace with them they'll approach you with respect. There's a lot of replay value here because I want to know what the game would be like if I choose other options in the character creator. I've already started my second playthrough because I want to get a different ending in the game. Sounds: The soundtrack is awesome. As soon as the game started I heard this epic music in the background. It set the tone for the rest of game. It was imposing and sounded like a theme that a world conquering tyrant would have in my opinion. The other sounds in the game are good too. Casting spells sound like you would expect them to sound in a cRPG. There is voice acting in the game, but it's not fully voiced. I don't like this at all and I wish games like this would stop doing it. If you're going to add voice acting in your game that's fine, but make sure you do it for the whole game or don't bother doing it all. I could be talking a companion of mine and they'll speak a few sentences, but after that they won't talk anymore. I'll have to read walls of text until they decide to speak again. Thankfully the voice acting in this game is really good. It's Well Optimized: The only bug I ran into in my 25 hours of gameplay was a weird animation bug. Instead of my companion walking behind me like she should have been she was sliding all over the map. My FPS never dipped, and I never experienced any game breaking bugs. This is one of the better optimized games that has released this year. The Good: Story: It took me a while to care about what was happening in this game. I'm a fatebinder of Kyros and I help impose his will on the frontlines of battle. The lore in this game is really interesting, but the execution leaves much to be desired. I know Obsidian wanted to give the player as many options and branches as they could, but I would have preferred a set narrative over the many that we have here because none of them feel complete to me. I don't want to give out any spoilers because the game will be released in a few hours. Some of the storylines were really awesome and they way I could end a certain edict was fantastic. Getting to know my companions, the Archons, and plotting in the shadows was fun, but I never really got invested in any of it. The ending was really cool even though it ended abruptly and I do want to play through the game again to see what different choices I could make this time around. The Bad: Gameplay: I don't really enjoy playing cRPGs. I'm more of a aRPG guy, but the gameplay here is good if you don't play as a mage. There was a good variety of weapons for me to choose from, but I ended up going mage and regretting every second of it. Playing as a staff wielding mage was really boring to me. Staffs attacks are really slow and the magic system is slow too. It doesn't matter how many points I put into my quickness my spell cooldowns never changed. I don't know if this is a bug or intentional, but I stopped investing in the quickness stat just to be on the safe side. Another thing I don't like about magic in this game is the way I acquired new spells. In order to learn new spells I had to hunt them down and find them. This goes with the lore of the game because only Archons can create their own spells, but it's a bad game mechanic in my opinion. Leveling up my skills in the magic skill tree is pretty pointless if it doesn't teach me any new spells. In order to learn how to do AOE attacks I would need the right sigil and have a certain amount lore points. The problem with this that by the time I had enough lore to do AOE attacks I was at the end of the game. I never had a chance to enjoy my new abilities. Playing as warrior or rogue is a lot better. Skill cooldowns are faster, I do more damage, and battles are over faster too, but when compared to Divinity Original Sin's gameplay this is just average at best. UI: I'm not a fan of the UI in this game. It's not modern enough for my tastes. Most cRPGs have a below average UI and this game is no different in my opinion. Loot: There's plenty of loot to find in Tyranny, but very little of it was worth my time. The legendary items that I found were great, but the majority of the items were worse than items I had found a few hours earlier. I never found any good staffs in the game. The most dps I got out of a staff was about 9dps while the rest of my party did a average of 25-35. A.I. The A.I. in this game is brain dead on every difficulty level. My party members did a decent job of engaging enemies without me having to issue them commands, but there were too many times when no one did anything even after I gave them a command. They would just stand there running back and forth doing nothing. This has got me killed a few times on higher difficulties and it's really annoying. The werewolf companion's A.I. is the most broken of all of the companions while the mages seem to have the best A.I. out of the bunch. Other npcs A.I. was just as bad as my companions. I can't tell you how many times I engaged in combat and murdered everyone because they wouldn't fight me back. The Verdict: I had a lot of fun with Tyranny, but I can only recommend this to hardcore cRPG fans. If you love games like Baldur's Gate, and Pillars of Eternity you'll love this game. You probably already preordered it and is just waiting to play it like everyone else, but if you're just a regular gamer trying to find a good game to play to hold you over until the next AAA title releases I would recommend waiting for this one to go on sale before buying it because it's not worth $45. The gameplay will satisfy the hardcore cRPG fans, but do little to impress someone new to the genre or anyone that's grown tired of it. 75 End Note I purposely left out some features, and details in this review because I don't want to spoil the game for anyone on release day. I would rather you play and find out for yourself rather than having it spoiled by a game reviewer. If you enjoyed this review you can find more of my reviews over at drakulus.com.Show moreShow less
32.5 hours at review673 people found this helpful
Received for free
Not recommendedSteam player
I liked this game a lot until I started paying attention. I like the combat, I like my companions, the story itself is nifty, and the setting, "Evil has won" is really cool. The execution of the character creation (with the conquest system) was also excellent and a nice touch. But you don't actually have any choices, and your hard won reputation with a faction gets easily wiped out by things. For instance, early in the game you have to pick a side between two technically *allied* armies. You can't do any compromise, you can't stay out of it, you have to pick, and no matter how much either side liked you beforehand, the one you don't pick now hates you for the entire rest of the game, and all of your previous positive actions that built up a positive reputation get wiped. You can still piss off the faction you chose and burn that bridge, but you can't go be friends or make amends with the guys you didn't pick, that ship is sailed, in a way that just seems forced and absurd. Later this trend continues. I started working with a group of people, and we were getting along great, they liked me more than most of my allies did. And then the next mandatory mission in the quest I'm in forces you to kill one of their lieutenants (he just won't cooperate, there is no way to make it work, despite lots of dialogue options that try to trick you into thinking you can make it work), and all of your positive reputation gets wiped. Not oh, now they have misgivings, gone, like I might as well have killed them all in the last two missions because they've forgotten that I ever did a nice thing period. And that's absurd. The game on multiple occasions forces fights and violence when it doesn't even make sense, and it has a reputation system (which is actually great when they use it) that gets wiped whenever you get railroaded into certain paths. And you're supposed to be this agent of justice who can consider different options and make your own path. Nope.Show moreShow less
17.3 hours at review914 people found this helpful
RecommendedSteam player
Overall Score: 9.0 / 10 Quality 8.7/10High quality game Performance9/10Performs well, but needs a good pc for high settings Utility 9/10No crashes, rare pathing bugs in combat, has cloud save Controls 8/10Nice, but no camera rotation (hand-drawn backgrounds); No pad support Gameplay 9/10Classic RPG gameplay with a focus on moral decisions Challenge 10/104 difficulties, permadeath mode + expert mode (= no tutorials and hints) Content 9/10Easily 20h+ & high replay value, many decisions that influence story/ending Diversity 8/10Isometric RPG: Many dialogues and tactical combat; interesting plot twists Immersion 9/10Feels like an interactive fantasy novel; Many moral decisions to be made Design 9.2/10 Very nice design overall, but the story is clearly the highlight Visuals 9/10Great visuals, but the graphics of the character models look a bit outdated Sound 9/10Good dubbing actors (english only), atmospheric SFX and an epic soundtrack Texts10/10Amazing - tons of well written dialogues and a fresh, original setting Mapping 9/10Mostly rather small maps; Simple, yet pretty and detailed level design Interface 9/10Nearly perfect and well designed menus & HUD Additional Note: Beware, if you don't like reading in games - this game has a lot of text-based gameplay. Tested with: 1920x1080; Windows 10 Home, 64-Bit AMD FX-8350, 8 x 4.03 GHz Nvidia GTX 970 (3.5-4GB) 16GB DDR3 RAM; Samsung SSD Settings: Ultra If you liked this review check out my archive and see how other games scored!Show moreShow less
17.6 hours at review440 people found this helpful
Not recommendedSteam player
Tyranny is an excruciating case of a game that has so many great ideas and premises, but falls short in terms of execution every time. One thing it more or less delivers on is allowing you to play as the bad guy, which is the whole point of the premise. It uses a Dragon Age 2-style relationship system where doing evil things is rewarded just as much as doing good; if you do, people fear and respect you, which is a valid option in terms of forging a relationship. The whole idea of being a simple bureaucrat, a mid-tier manager in an evil Empire, who's just doing their own thing, is also great. Shame it's buried under so much unnecessary clutter. Case in point: character generation. Instead of just picking a bunch of options, you are invited to play through 'Conquest'—a small VN-like mini-game that allows you to forge your character's backstory, making choices and getting to know the setting simultaneously. What an awesome idea! It immediately breathes life into lore-dumps, making the history of the game world pesonal and thus important to you. This is suppoted by wiki-like commentaries to many dialogues, reminding you of who this or that guy is or what choice you've made in your backstory regarding a certain faction. Unfortunately, both systems, while very inventive, and simply underutilized. You do remember who Kyros is after a while, so the general commentary becomes unnecessary, while the personalized additions are sparse. What is, unfortunately, not sparse at all is infodumping. This game has so, so much unnecessary text. I have nothing against reading in games. I have everything against reading the whole history of a random in-game village disguised as character dialogue. This is not what text-heavy games are supposed to be about. Plentiful lore in no way equals good or engaging lore. And while the first act of the game kept my attention, since it revolved around a straightforward and engaging conflict between three factions that you could influence in any way, after that the game became lax and unfocussed, with me honestly having little reason to care about the verbose histories and descriptions. Neither the characters nor the factions were deep or charismatic enough to keep things interesting, unfortunately. As for the gameplay, it's thouroughly mediocre, with there being little to no tactical encounter design, the enemy variety being extremely low, and spell creation, while awesome in theory, ending in a puddle of similar-looking-and-feeling-dealing-some-damage-wth-different-colors effects. The visuals and music are also just... there, and the limited voice acting is bad. Short games are fine. Games with limited systems are fine too. Unfortunately, I think that Tyranny actually fails at what it tries its hardest to achieve, and its numerous creative ideas do little to save it.Show moreShow less
23 hours at review543 people found this helpful
RecommendedSteam player
Reviewing Tyranny is a little bit weird for me because it's a game that personally I really loved playing (and still am playing), but at the same time I realise it's not for everyone. There's definitely room for improvement but the things Tyranny does well it does really well and I feel like it's one of those games that will be more successful as a cult classic than it was at the time of release. THE GOOD: The spell system is F KING AMAZING free ham and blowjobs for whoever designed it. The writing is generally top notch and it makes a lot of difference to the atmosphere of the game. For example having really well written introductions for when you approach a new area or character really helps to fill in the visual gaps left by the aging Infinity engine. Most of the characters (one exception) are engaging, well written and are backed up by excellent voice acting. The way the game handles an evil protagonist is gutsy as hell and for the most part it works. There are times when the game takes you down path of the boring, homogenised evil (like killing a group of mercenaries for mouthing off at you), then quickly but casually points out the reality of your actions in a way that's actually pretty confronting. There were times when I couldn't help but draw parallels with Trump's America, Geert Wilders' Party for Freedom etc. and I think it's impressive for a game to be that thought provoking. It's better than Pillars of Eternity. THE BAD: For a game that was designed to appeal to fans of the old Infinity engine games Tyranny does a better job of giving you the illusion of choice than it does it of actually giving you choice. There are two main factions you can ally with and this has a huge effect on the story, but as I progressed I found this really just gives you two linear story lines rather than one. The last chapter of the game feels rushed and I get the impression it was released before it was fully completed. Given how much effort went into the characters I'm disappointed they didn't include companion quests a la Baldur's Gate II. The game would benefit hugely from some balancing work, particularly with respect to loot drops, disparity in spell usefulness and the class distribution of recruitable NPC's. I know this seems like a minor thing to complain about in a story driven game, but without going into too much detail it's a case of multiple problems which are minor by themselves multiplying each other when you put them together. Kind of like 3x3x3=27 instead of 3+3+3=9. If you're a fan of the old Infinity engine games and don't mind playing an evil character then you should buy this game immediately.Show moreShow less
64.8 hours at review373 people found this helpful
Not recommendedSteam player
the game is interesting, but the gameplay is bad. just read a guide and pretend you're doing a playthrough -- it will save you about 20 hours and $40. here's a rough list of why the gameplay is bad: healing is based on % max hp. maxing vitality breaks the game. none of my guys ever died. spells can gain an AOE effect & a bounce effect. this stacks your damage multiplicatively to the tune of ~20x the dmg the devs were planning on you doing. it also works with healing spells so you can heal all your guys to full with one spell mages can wear full armor at no penalty. my ending group was 4 de-facto mages in full armor & shields which is everything that 40 years of D&D tried to stop from happening. i never bought or sold anything in the entire game. i skipped the entire economy system and still dumpstered this game. you can skip the entire base-building system. it's a money sink that adds no value item scaling is terrible. the weapons you start with are within an order of magnitude of power of the weapons you will end with. in other words, loot is irrelevant in this game. i'm pretty sure you can beat this game with 4 naked characters. skills are irrelevant and lame. there are only 2 skills: spell-esque abilities that are worse than spells and passives that give you marginal boosts to stats. i'm pretty sure you can also beat this game without ever picking skills for your 4 characters. the evasion system in this game is additive, which is stupid for a bunch of reasons. basically it means that each marginal increase of evasion you have is better than the last this evasion system also means that your accuracy is far more important than your damage. for example, if you raise your chance to hit from 10% to 20% that's the same as increasing your damage by 100%. in almost every case you get more effective DPS by raising accuracy. the flat damage block system punishes low-damage, high-attack-speed builds. every single fight in the game is the same. it's 4 of you initiating a fight versus 4-8 enemies. boss fights are you versus 1 enemy that summons minions. level design is bad. there are only 2 types of levels: 1) you walk around and clear the map, and 2) same as 1 except you have to open doors with keys you find somewhere else on the level. i cannot emphasize enough how lame every single level in the game is. the art is nice & scenery is varied, but damn it's so homogenous. yes there are tons of choices in the plot, but NONE of them meaningfully affect gameplay. if everyone hates you it doesn't matter. if everyone loves you it doesn't matter either. you can blindly click every dialogue choice in the game and finish. there are no dead ends and no consequences. if you're a baldur's gate fan who wants to play a bad version of D&D with an interesting story/morality angle then go for it. if you want good gameplay above plot then skip it until it's on sale.Show moreShow less
42.1 hours at review476 people found this helpful
RecommendedSteam player
So, I often think of CRPGs as different GMs. Balder's Gate 1 is kind of a crappy GM - they don't know how to really roleplay and their plot is kind of rote. But they did a TON of homework, so you can go anywhere and find something there. It may be kinda stupid, but it is there! Balder's Gate 2 is that GM, but they got better at writing and roleplaying. Now, characters are better written and the plot is more interesting! Planescape Torment is the dude who may railroad you, but they've got such a great plot and setting that you don't really care. Tyranny? Tryanny is the GM who watches as you walk into their carefully pre-written campagin of evil and chaos, with deep lore and politics in mind, and blink as you say: "So, I stab my ally in the back. All of them. At the same time." Tyranny blinks again. Then Tyranny smiles and says: "Okay, so, now, you find yourself working for..." Tyranny has some of the best choice based gameplay I've ever seen. Work for one side? Work for another? Work for a third? Work for yourself? Play people off one another? An amazing number of different choices lead to different outcomes. I've played the game three times and still haven't seen everything it has to offer. Add to that a fun, fast paced combat (which you can set to the easiest mode if you just want to enjoy the narrative) and my presonal favorite companion NPCs, and you've got one of the finest RPGs out there. Plus, you can do drugs with grandpa Lantry and have fun for the whole family!Show moreShow less
71.8 hours at review373 people found this helpful
Not recommendedSteam player
Great game but one I can't recommend because of the publisher. I own a ton of there DLC and games if you look at my list. Unfortunately they raised the prices of all there products before the steam sale, so the discount looks like more than it really is. (EDIT: This was as of May 18, 2017 and in currency that were not US dollars) Will not be buying any more products from this company again. If you like the game that is fine, but do know your supporting this type of price gouging in the future.Show moreShow less
6.2 hours at review416 people found this helpful
RecommendedSteam player
I personally think that this is the most underrated classic style cRPG (come-back) of all time. I also think that it has a lot of unused potential and some shortcomings that is why my OVERAL RATING is 8.5/10 I really consider this game a spiritual successor of Baldur’s Gate and I will try to explain why - please see the below: Let’s start with: CONS: (Although this is a great game it has shortcomings that prevent it from being magnificent) - Not a lot of exploration – the maps are really small and they could have been much bigger. For example a city where Tuton resides is only the court building where you enter right from the world view. Similarly the forge where you travel half a world’s map to is only an inside of a forge building with no outer-areas (imo it is a bit lazy of the creators) - Not a lot of side quests – Tyranny could use a lot more and without DLC’s companion quests the side quests are almost non-existing - This game could use 1 or 2 bigger cities – what you get is a couple of bigger settlements but no city in size of Amn or Baldur’s Gate – this is a pity - No stealing feature - When you loot from NPC’s chests next to shops or even in private households the owners (who usually stand next to their belongings) do not mind you robbing them (even if you pick a lock) - No day/night routine for NPCs – they just stay in one place for most of the time - AI of opponents is okay when they are engaged in fighting but if you run back (sometimes it is impossible due to small sizes of maps) the enemies will often split in two smaller groups which you are able take one by one. So sometimes the other group is just standing there beyond the eye-sight, listening to their comrades being murdered few yards away from them NEUTRAL - This game could have been longer but this is not really a con for me as it has so many paths to offer that you can replay it many times and each replay will offer you locations/dialogues/events that were not available in previous gameplay due to the choices you made PROS: (Cons aside, now just focus on all the great things this game has to offer) - Choices you make matter in the world. They really do and they affect every aspect of the game - Prologue – Even at the very beginning of the game before you actually start playing you are faced with many important choices to make about events concerning your Hero. Do it wisely as it will pre-forge the world you are going to explore - There are many ways to build your Hero with intuitive skills trees and stats. - I really like the dialogue tests depending on your stats (although it is quite easy to get all these stats to good enough levels to pass most of the tests – except for the wisdom which sometimes is hard if you do not play as a mage – especially that you only have a couple of trainers of this skill) - Dialogues and story writing is incredible it reads almost like a book – there is loads of text but it does not feel like a chore (like in Pillars of Eternity sometimes) - You can really chose how bad you want to be. You can be a proper d**head murdering everyone and using your position to force people to do things; there is a lot of swearing and realism to it as well. You can be part-evil with some moral standards. But you can also be neutral or good if you like. You can betray, follow along or kill everyone if you like. - This is low fantasy so the magic items and stuff like that are there but you will not find Magic Needle +9 behind every corner or as a loot from a wild dog. It is all very sensibly implemented. - This is low fantasy so you will find yourself battling mostly humans and there are just few creatures in the game. Yes! No clichéd goblins, warewolfs, orks, mammoths, dragons etc. etc. There are a few creatures and they all have some lore behind them. - Random encounters on the world’s map – they are mostly text-based (although from time to time they will transfer your party to a unique location) and do not offer a lot of significant loot but they are well written, interesting and fun with many choices of what you can do. But beware even if you chose wrong and want to replay it, the random encounter will not be there after you load the game… - Good balance between fighting and reading – you get just the right amount of both - Fighting system – I know that a lot of people prefer the turn base fighting system in games like that (POE, DOS or Wasteland 2) but I personally love Baldur’s gate type of fighting real time with possibility of pause. Also the team skills as well as reputations skills you aquire by gaining or losing reputation with fractions/your companions are a nice touch and a breath of freshness - Difficulty level – well scaled very well I would say. I started the game on the highest difficulty level with death enabled and the game is challenging all the time (but not impossible) what I like :) – what I like even more is that you cannot change this level of difficulty down during the gameplay (you could change easy/medium/hard but not extreme). I always hated changing the difficulty level enabled by default as this is like lame cheating. There is also extreme extreme option where you have just one save and if you die you have to start over but I would not dare :p - Voice acting of companions and some of the NPCs is really well done - Companions/NPC you remember and they matter to you – I personally like Verse, Barik and Voices of Neratt - The music (sound track) in the game – some say it is bad and almost non-existing but I found it just right. It is there during fight and in some locations and during some events but sometimes there is just silence. I think it gives the game just the right atmosphere and I do not really like games where sound track is overwhelming and you struggle to hear people or sounds of fighting - The atmosphere of the game is really unique - The lore of the world and its history is very interesting and engaging – also you get to know the lore in very natural way. You do not sit in from of game’s own Wikipedia and force yourself to read all about monsters/cities/realms. Instead when you read and chose through the dialogue (with any NPC) you can highlight the mentioned key-words and the pop-up description will explain everything in few sentences. - Your hero is not just some no-one who becomes a saviour of the world. You start as someone and you can take him even higher. - The main plot is very engaging and it keeps you hooked - I liked the idea of towers that can be upgraded to buildings (like forge) and you get your personal staff of workers, vendors, trainers etc. Unfortunately this feature cannot be fully enjoyed as the game is a bit too short to get the towers to their full potential and if you were focusing on them too much you may feel disappointed. Again I did not feel this way as I knew how much gameplay I can expect from Tyranny per playthrough and I treated the towers as additional feature. Lastly I will produce a list of classic cRPS that has been released lately with 1st being the best for me (that I already played of course) 1. Tyranny (8.5) 2. Pillars of Eternity (7) 3. Divinity Original Sin (6.5) 4. Torment tides of Numerata (6) 5. Wasteland 2 (5.5) And then the classics: 1. Baldur’s Gate (all the instalments) (10) 2. Planescape torment (9) 3. Icewind dale 1 (8) 4. Icewind dale 2 (7.5) 5. Neverwinter nights (original) (7)Show moreShow less
9.3 hours at review242 people found this helpful
Not recommendedSteam player
Ironically one of the most tame CRPGs I have ever played. I could go on and on about what immediately struck me as a step backwards in the genre mechanically, but there is a more important problem: You do not get to actually be a villain in this game. In an unpleasant twist, it is Tyranny where I have felt more like a bitchboi fetchquest servant more than any other CRPG I have played. Instead of feeling like the servant of an all-powerful overlord, it feels like you're the personal doormat of every person you talk to. For example, there is NO ATTACK BUTTON? May I ask why? This is a game where the premise is that you're working for a very morally questionable empire, and yet you can't even attack neutral npcs. Something that has been a near staple in the genre (it was in Pillars, but not here?) That limiting of player autonomy is prevalent throughout the entire game. Do you want to kill the soldier that mouthed to you or the people witholding information? You can't. Do you want to find your own solution to 2 commanders bickering? You can't. It's not necessarily that these problems are unique to this game, or that this sort of "railroading" is unheard of. It's the fact that the game bases it's premise off of "being evil" but then limits you just as much (if not more), than other games in the genre. Overall, the game was more of a disappointment than it was bad. But with such an interesting premise, with so much promise, isn't that worse? :EDIT: Several people have commented about the gameplay, so I'll address it as well. It's good, but again, it's sort of a step back from PoE and Divinity. Where the former refined a lot of mechanics from older games, and the latter added some new depth with environmental attacks, this one feels like a straight step back from PoE. The gameplay plays essentially the same as PoE but worse. That's due in part to bugs. Several times throughout my playthrough, an order would just fizzle out. An attack order would result in a character walking up to an enemy, then standing perfectly still for several rounds of combat. Co-op abilities with your companions (an interesting new addition) ended up being more trouble than they're worth. Half the time one or both companions would do absolutely nothing, effectively stunning both of them until I gave a different order. This happened on a near constant-basis. Every other combat was interrupted by a bug such as this, requiring me to order a character to do the same thing AGAIN. Even with these bugs, the gameplay feels like a straight downgrade from PoE. There's no classes, only weapon types. There's not much personalization on a character gen level. Only magic has a notable degree of customization, standard "fighters" (again only weapon types) have a talent tree. PoE had a similar talent system, but that was in addition to the depth class selection gave you. I could go on about it, but at this point my review is getting bloated. Tyranny is a pretty good game. There are just several decisions that hamper my enjoyment of the game, and likely any potential buyers. It just feels like a farcry from what Obsidian has proven they can do.Show moreShow less
11.8 hours at review404 people found this helpful
Source: original Steam user reviews. Helpful votes are an archived snapshot, not live data. Last collected: 08/15/2026.