One of my favorite things to discuss is how great certain development teams are! I hype up Larian every time I see the chance! Double Fine, too. But, you know what other dev squad receives my undying loyalty and excitement? Obsidian Entertainment. Few groups in the gaming industry manage to dance between genres, settings, and playstyles, hitting the mark over and over and over again as Obsidian does. This time, I want to talk about Obsidian’s Tyranny — an isometric RPG everyone should play.
I’ll try my best to avoid a lot of “Proper Noun Salad” while I set the table for y’all. So, Tyranny takes place in the high-fantasy land of Terratus. By the time the player enters this world, Kyros, the most evil of tyrants, has fully taken over. His campaign of terror has lasted 400+ years, to great success. Anyone who hasn’t joined him? Slain without remorse.
You, the player, are one of Kyros’ Fatebinders — a “peacekeeper” in the loosest sense of the word. After a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure-style series of choices and prompts to properly set up your character’s backstory and the general lore, you have a job to do. As Tyranny drops you into your first real conflict, you have to go to Vendrien’s Well. Kyros’ armies just can’t fully squash this last area of resistance. So, Fatebinder, you arrive with an Edict. Either the resistance gets extinguished for good, or everyone at Vendrien’s Well — yourself included — perishes!
‘tyranny’ shows off the many different layers of evil and how it struggles to sustain itself
Tyranny continues from there! That’s all simple setup, by the way. The first hour or so of what you’re thrown into. Without spoiling anything else, here’s what I’m getting at. In Tyranny, “good” exists in minuscule amounts. With terrible, despicable people in charge and with very few opposing forces left, you know where all that vitriol goes? Inward. Major conflicts start to emerge within Kyros’ own ranks, which is another prominent theme throughout Tyranny.
Even in the absence of “good,” evil always fumbles. There are too many ambitions and egos — too much inherent selfishness — for the bad guys to stay in power. Tyranny, in showing you this vast, broken, conquered world, tells you something important. Sometimes, the bad guys win — and wreak a whole lot of havoc in their wake. But, true evil is always destined to be an ouroboros that somehow manages to eat itself in the end. And, you know what? There’s something very inspiring about that! Can’t imagine why, though…
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