cks you designed to be ~exotic~ or whatever, and those rabid jerks at Disney can only grit their teeth now!
Tyranny — First Impressions · 3:36pm Nov 20th, 2016
Notice the first impressions part, since I'm currently 'only' 25 hours in.
Yeah, that type of RPG. Probebly tells you quite a bit if this game is for you or not, right there, but more below the cut.
(No spoilers.)
The bad first.
Combat is (with one exception) rather dull, with little sense of impact and poor sound design. You never really get the sense that somebody just had their armor caved in by a critical hit, or that some poor sap just got disemboweled.
This is exacerbated by rather poor AI, that's also rather unsatisfying to fight. There's no sense of the meat and metal walls you had to construct in Baldur's Gate, for instance, or have your more powerful but squishy casters safe. Your own companions seem completely unfazed by disengaging, for instance, something that gives your enemies free, massive attacks at them.
Loot is boring, and under-powered. Does getting a copper dagger that does 10-12 damage as an upgrade of your old copper dagger that did 9-11 sound exciting? To me, it has so far been a constant, milquetoast style annoyance.
Armor bypass is the one stat to rule them all. Especially early on. As a unarmed/lighting mage I nearly gave up at the start, for instance, since every other fight was me wailing at armor I couldn't do diddly-squat to. This does get better as the game goes on and you get more skills slash tools, but I nearly gave up a few times in Act One because of it.
Sound is very buggy. In areas with many overlaid sounds, music and voices, the engine can't quite handle it all, and stops playing some of them. It's very noticeable and distracting, and since the music is really darn good, it's a real shame.
The good.
Interesting, and rather original setting. Again, no spoilers, but think the Roman Empire if the gods and magic were real. Steel is a newly invented and jealously guarded super-weapon, for instance, and there is a law set in stone that anybody that put down their weapons and join the empire are now 'Romans.'
(It does undermine the tagline of 'an RPG, in a world where evil won,' though. You never really feel like the iron boot of oppression stomping out the last embers of light, but more like the head-general of a conquering army bringing civilization to the barbarians. Something that, for the equivalent time-period, was about as morally grey as taking home the groceries.)
The idea of a 'Fatebinder,' think Judge Dredd style Judge, is a very neat way of explaining why you as the player character is sticking their nose in everything, and why people are listening to the stranger that just drifted into town. Something the game frequently reinforces with these tiny, dialogue only quests where you are asked to lay judgement on a dispute, I personally find really neat so far.
You actually feel like a conqueror. With the side/s you've backed and yourself setting up bases in places of strategic importance after you've cleared them. Something that's mostly visual with the the same 'Soldier Type X' in patterns in the new empty court-yards, I'll admit, but a neat touche nonetheless I've only really seen in the Far Cry series otherwise.
The faction system makes New Vegas look like the fumbling of an amateur. With dozens and dozens of different organizations, people of influence and companions you can make love and fear you. Both loyalty and dread being independent of each other, and bringing in-game perks.
Great dialogue system. All in-world terms and character-background traits are highlighted in different colors, and for a quick reminder you only need to click or hover your mouse over them, making it a breeze to actually understand what is going on. There is also a option (fully possible to turn off) to see just how what you're about to say will impact your 'rep.' Making it just as easy to manipulate people into spreading your power, glory and influence.
Fantastic, and extremely customizable magic system. Mix the right runes, and you can do quite a lot of different stuff. A quick jolt that causes bleed? Done. A bolt of lightning that pierces, and causes explosions where it impacts people? Done. Makes playing a mage very rewarding, and interesting. All the magic effects so far are gorgeous as well. The highlight of the combat animations.
Awesome base system I sadly can't say more about without spoilers. Makes the keep in NWN2 look bland and boring, though, I'll say that much. Again, makes you really feel like somebody that's an actual commander with agency instead of a 'chosen one' figure head.
Neat art-style. This highly detailed shell-shading that makes the whole game look like a moving fantasy picture. Haven't seen anything quite like it, and I think it's going to make the game age very well.
Quite decent system requirements. My own rig is near retirement now, below the recommended system recommendations even, and I've still had a really smooth and pretty looking (if 30 FPS) experience so far.
A minimum of bugs. I had this one nasty one where the unarmed specialist of my party's AI couldn't deal with that she, gasp, didn't have a weapon to attack with, but that actually got patched just a day or so. Given Obsidian's infamy on the subject and just how complex this RPG is, I'm frankly very impressed so far on the technical front.
Adaptable story. Not quite as good as Alpha Protocol, but still very impressive. You really feel like your choices and skills have an impact on how events play out, and that's a rarity for the fantasy genera. I formed an alliance with The Disfavored, for example, and at least once an area I've had the chance to betray them all, and carve my own path forward.
Oh, and voice acting is of the Baldur's Gate school of 'most important dialogue only,' but holds very high quality through out. Check out the intro above if you want a small taste, because so far it's held that level of quality.
In conclusion.
I think this might be a true classic one day, a few dozen patches and an expansions or two away from now. Right now Tyranny isn't quite~ there yet, but still well worth playing for anybody that has fond memories of the old Infinity engine games.
Considering that Pillars of Eternity got that post release (haven't played that one yet), I'd as of writing this happily recommend Tyranny to any RPG fans. 
It's not Obsidian's best title so far (except in the stability and tech department), but it's a really solid title I think any fan of the genera will have lots of fun with, and well worth the asking price of 41,99€. 
Oh, and for the follow up question? I'd rank Obsidian's game about here as of writing this:
1,) Alpha Protocol.
2,) Knights of the Old Republic 2.
3,) Neverwinter Nights 2. (With expansions.)
4,) Fallout: New Vegas.
5,) Tyranny.
6,) South Park: Stick of Truth.
7,) Dungeon Siege 3.
(Haven't played Wasteland 2, or Pillars of Eternity. Thus no comment.)
Still, I hope that gets across that Tyranny isn't a bad game at all. It's just one of the shortest giants at the titans convention.
The mask of the betrayer was one of the best rpg I have played and I played lot.
Also
baldur's gate.
What you said about the combat system is interesting because pillars of eternity have really complex system and very high difficulty, they have probably tonned it for casual gamers.
The Torment: Tides of Numenera is coming soon, you should also try it, it is based on planescape torment.
Did you finished game by now after 25 hours of game play?
Fixed. Thanks.
Same here. Real pity the original NWN2 campaign was so half-baked, and that the planned third, final part of The Knight Captain's story never got made. Would have really loved to see what sort of crazy level 40-50, epic campaign Obsidian could have made with the help of all the overland map stuff prototyped in Storm of Zehir.
I've heard good things about Pillars, but haven't played it yet, so can't really comment. I've heard that it actually had zero party AI at launch, so in that regards at least Tyranny is a step forward.
Been meaning to check it out, actually, but only so much hours in the day, and so on.
Planescape was my first ever video-game ever, so I must admit I'm curious.
I have to confess, though, I'm not in the slightest excited about the 'Numeria' setting so far. From what little I've heard and seen, it seems like a very generic 'post-apocolypse that thinks the old world relics are magic' sci-fi/fantasy hybrid setting, and those always feel like the worst of both worlds for my tastes.
Still, I'm cautiously optimistic.
No, not yet. Thus the 'first impression.'
Think I'm about... half-way through the game? Thereabout, at least?
Going to write a short review when I'm done with my final thoughts, but I thought I'd do this as well since the game is so new.
I usually don't use party AI, they really make stupid decisions, that is where the pause option becomes really important
Well, thanks for that, that was interesting to hear. I've been interested in this game since the moment I saw it, but I never really saw enough of it to get any idea of how it works. This really sounds more like one of those "setting first" type of games, like Inquisitor, which isn't really all that bad of a thing to me. I never really played Baldur's Gate for the combat either, which was really not that great. It is a bit disappointing to hear that the loot and sense of reward is so bad, since that seems to be a common RPG disease these days - Pillars of Eternity very much suffered from the same thing, with the added problem that the combat seemed to be the only thing that game was actually about. I never managed to actually find the main plot before I gave up on it and I played for hours.
Honestly, if you have ever played Pillars and could tell me "this is better/worse than that," I think it would tell me everything I need to know.
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I don't actually mind the concept of 'realistic' loot, since it does make sense to find far more mundane, say, knives, then Vorpal Spoons of Gutting +12 in most situations.
Still, I think Tyranny goes quite a bit too far in the concept. It's not easy to get excited for lore-less Iron Sword #12312412, just because the little box is now orange instead of purple, and it does 22-25 damage instead of 19-21.
And, well, one bit of loot of thirty-forty something has any backstory in this game. Kinda boring.
Haven't played that one, sorry.
I've heard through the rumor mill that Tyranny is far better at actually letting you get to the plot without faffing about for forty plus hours doing unrelated crap, and that I can confirm since you start shaping the story right there in character creation in Tyranny.
Don't want to spoil that mechanic, though. Thought it was really cool, and would have really liked to see it blind.
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Well, that's still more than you'd be getting in Pillars, at least. Loot doesn't have backstories there at all, it basically runs on Diablo rules.
You aren't missing much, believe me. It's this thing that has been played up as "PC gaming's next big RPG!" for years, but in practice it feels worse than Icewind Dale. The gameplay, the characters, the setting, it's all ridiculously huge while feeling completely stripped down at the same time. I really don't like it.
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Hmm...
I have noticed a trend lately with Obsidian.
New Vegas --> Half the stats and perks of Fallout 3, and if the Sawyer mod is any indication, only Bethseda made them keep the player that powerful.
Dungueon Seige III --> From a classless system where you level up skills as you use them, to a more classic and limited XP system.
Stick of Truth --> Rather infamous for letting you ding max level when the game is half-way done.
And now Tyranny's less then impressive damage scaling.
...Frankly, I wouldn't mind a bit less power so much if their stories didn't keep telling me I'm the Special, and the only person that can Do The Thing, to stop The Really Great, Big Evil.