Tyranny is a party-based role-playing game presented in a classic isometric view, created largely with the technology used for development of Pillars of Eternity, set in an entirely new universe.
The story begins as Kyros the Overlord prepares to conquer the last part of the known world that yet remains free of his rule. The player assumes the role of a Fatebinder, one of many representatives of Kyros’ law who serve both as a judges and executioners. His initial role is to settle a dispute between the leaders of two of the Overlord’s armies who share the honor of conquering The Tiers.
One of the unique features in Tyranny is the Conquest which is an extension of character creation process. The Conquest is a series of events that take place over 3 years prior to the beginning of the story. Every such an event allows player to make a decision which will affect the world player will find himself into during actual gameplay. Conquest decisions affect a great number of things, including player’s relations with faction and most notable characters, which NPCs are alive and which are dead, and even what a major region in the game is called. Player can never visit all the regions within a single Conquest, and it is impossible to take part in every event in a visited region.
Gameplay is presented with nearly classical isometric view, even though the camera is placed significantly lower than in titles such as Baldur’s Gate or Pillars of Eternity. The game may be played almost entirely with a mouse, however keyboard shortcuts are available as well. The story is quest-driven as player always has an active goal to pursue. Tyranny offers a total of four main branches of the story, however these branches deeply intertwine with each other, and the player may even make different decisions in the course of the same path. As player roams The Tiers he may recruit up to six preset party members, each of them offering their own personality, story and ability trees. From these six characters, the player may have up to three travelling with him in a party.
Progression in Tyranny is similar to that of The Elder Scrolls game series, which means that player enhances his skills as he used them (e.g. landing successful strikes and dealing damage with one handed sword increases the one handed weapons skill and picking locks builds up subterfuge skill). Increasing a skill grants skill experience. Once character gains enough skill experience (or regular experience gained from quests and exploration as well), he gains a new level. Each level grants an attribute point (attributes are base character statistics, which contribute to overall effectiveness, such as bonus to damage, bonus to duration of effects or ability cooldown) and a talent point. talents form a total of six talents trees, and each tree offers a different specialization, such as melee combat, ranged combat or defence. Tyranny is not class-based so the player is not restricted anyhow and may develop his character freely.
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