Tyranny begins where most fantasy epics end. Kyros the Overlord has already conquered the known world, the armies of the Tiers lie broken, and you are not the farmhand destined to rise against the darkness. You are a Fatebinder, an officer of the Overlord's court with the authority to judge, sentence and execute in Kyros' name. Obsidian Entertainment's classic-styled RPG asks what you do with that power: enforce the new order, bend it toward something better, or quietly build an ambition of your own. Tyranny: Commander Edition, the 2016 launch special edition, delivers the complete base game.
The Tiers Under Kyros' Law
The Tiers are the last corner of the world to fall, and the occupation is anything but settled. Two of Kyros' Archons share the campaign and despise each other: Graven Ashe commands the disciplined, xenophobic Disfavored legion, while the Voices of Nerat leads the Scarlet Chorus, a horde that grows by absorbing everyone it defeats. Above both sits Tunon the Adjudicator, the Archon of Justice you answer to. Between the rebels holding out at Vendrien's Well and the rival armies sent to crush them, your first task is simply to survive the politics long enough to deliver a verdict.
Judgment That Shapes the World
Tyranny is built around consequence. Before the main story starts, Conquest mode lets you decide how the war against the Tiers actually played out, region by region, and those decisions are already written into the world when you first set foot in it. From there the reactivity only deepens.
- Edicts of Kyros
- The Overlord's proclamations are magic on a national scale, capable of storming a valley or condemning every soul in a fortress. As Fatebinder you read them aloud, and where and how you choose to resolve them permanently alters the map.
- Reputation with Every Faction
- The Disfavored, the Scarlet Chorus, the Tiersmen rebels and Tunon's court each track how they see you along separate scales of Loyalty and Fear, or Favor and Wrath. Both ends of a scale unlock abilities, so being hated is a strategy of its own.
- Verdicts With Teeth
- Villages you spare or burn, prisoners you free or condemn, and Archons you side with or defy all feed back into later chapters. The story branches hard enough that two players can finish with entirely different allies and a different world.
Companions and Combat
Battles play out in tactical real-time with pause from an isometric camera, in the tradition Obsidian refined on Pillars of Eternity. Your party draws from a memorable cast: Verse, a Scarlet Chorus killer who fights with two blades; Barik, a Disfavored soldier welded into his armor by an Edict; Lantry, an aging Sage who is far more dangerous than he looks; and others whose loyalty or fear of you unlocks powerful combo abilities. Tyranny's spell system is its own highlight. Rather than picking from a fixed list, you assemble spells from Core sigils, Expression and Accent sigils discovered across the Tiers, tuning range, shape and cost to suit the Fatebinder you want to play.
An Obsidian RPG With a Villain's Perspective
- Written by the studio behind Fallout: New Vegas, Pillars of Eternity and South Park: The Stick of Truth, with the branching dialogue and moral grey areas that have become Obsidian's signature.
- A bronze-age dark fantasy setting where magic answers to law, Archons are living forces of nature, and the "good" ending is genuinely up for debate.
- English audio alongside French, German, Spanish, Polish and Russian text, so the Tiers read and sound the same wherever you play.
If you have ever finished an RPG wishing the villain's side had been the interesting one, Tyranny was written for you. Take up the Fatebinder's seal, walk into the ruins of the Tiers, and decide what justice means when the tyrant is the one asking.
