An isometric RPG, set in a world where good and evil fought and evil won.
Sometimes, evil wins
You are a Fatebinder
You are the judge and executioner of Kyros’ law, acting under the watchful eye of the Overlords Archon of Justice, Tunon the Adjudicator Your words shape the lives of thousands. Will you use that power to bring justice and inspire loyalty? Or will you bring fear and cruelty to the beaten people of the Tiers?
The choice is yours
A Fatebinder’s word is law, and you decide the fate of the Tiers. Even the smallest of choices shape the land and its people. Tasked with making decisions that truly matter to theTiers and to the factions of Kyros’ army, you will develop a reputation based upon your deeds – and you will find the world a drastically changed place each time you play Tyranny.
The world of the tiers
The armies of Kyros the Overlord subjugated the Tiers. Now, the survivors of the war must adapt to a new rule, and keep the land productive for Kyros’ empire. Freely explore and experience a world where the war between good and evil has forever changed society. How will you shape it further?
In an interview with Game Informer last year, Feargus Urquhart mentioned Obsidian would be announcing a reincarnation of Stormlands, which he describes as “very different from what it was,” within the next few months, so I’m guessing Tyranny is that.
Haha, for a second I was worried I had permanently derailed the thread. Tyranny’s on Steam.
In Tyranny, the grand war between good and evil is over – and the forces of evil, led by Kyros the Overlord, have won. The Overlord’s merciless armies dominate the face of the world, and its denizens must find their new roles within the war-torn realm. Players interact with the population of the populace to inspire loyalty, disgust, or fear as they roam the world as an officer in Kyros’ forces, empowered to act as both judge and executioner.
Features:
A branching narrative with a unique story in an original setting: The Battle between good and evil has already taken place, and evil stands victorious.
Choices matter - a different player experience every time you play it - As an Officer in the Overlord’s army you wield a vast amount of power in the occupied lands of the Tiers. Will you use that power to inspire stability and loyalty, or will you be a feared oppressor?
Challenging, classic RPG combat with modern mechanics and presentation
A rich original setting - a completely new and original fantasy world with rich lore and many paths to follow
GR: Do you see another sequel, licensed game, or an original title coming out of Obsidian after DS3?
FU: There’s nothing that’s been moved forward, but we’d love to develop Dungeon Siege 4. On the flip side I think as a studio we have some original ideas and stories to tell. We have a great idea for a new world we’ve just started pitching to publishers and we have an older pitch that we really like called “Defiance” which is about a fantasy world where, basically, Sauron won. Everything isn’t happy in The Shire, they didn’t get the ring in the fire and the hobbits are all dead. We think that’s a cool pitch and we hope to have a publisher pick that up at some point.
Tyranny has been in development since February 2014. It’s mostly the South Park team and a few new people, around 40-50 total, with Brian Heins stepping up from system designer on South Park to project director. It is a a reworked version of the concept behind Project North Carolina/Stormlands, the Xbox One launch title that got cancelled by Microsoft and almost led to Obsidian’s bankruptcy before the Pillars Kickstarter campaign.
Yeah, Avadon was my immediate association with this pitch as well, although their overlord sounds like a much less benevolent despot than Avadon’s Redbeard.
Excited as hell for this, I’m just hoping they won’t try to reinvent AD&D again. I’d also prefer turn based over rtwp but looks like that won’t happen.
Doesn’t replace the feel of solid turn-based combat systems, though. But clearly that ship has sailed. If you want turn-based, you’re going to have to go with indies I think. I mean, small, Underrail-sized indies.
Or you know, inXile games, which aren’t exactly small. Wasteland 2 and Torment are both turn-based. There’s enough cross-pollination there with Obsidian that I wouldn’t be completely surprised to see Obsidian go with turn based combat in at least some games. Pillars was explicitly pitched as a spiritual successor to the old Infinity Engine games, particularly Baldur’s Gate, so pausable real time was kind of mandatory for that. (yes, Planescape: Torment was also infinity engine, but who gave a shit about the combat in that?)
Or Divinity: OS for turn based. They aren’t considered indie are they? We have had some great turn based RPGs lately, but judging by the Divinity 2 poll where at least half said they wanted real time, it does seem like it isn’t what the masses prefer. Anyway, do we know this game is real time, or are we assuming? (Applogize if I missed it.)
I haven’t seen anything saying one way or the other. I am definitely in the turn based is a million and twelve times better camp, myself. Although I think a lot of what Pillars is doing in its mechanics is really cool. I just can’t track what’s happening well enough to make the most of my options because it’s real time.
Turn-based is more tactical combat, certainly. Otherwise it takes a crap-ton of micromanagement so I usually rely on the AI. Thing is, much like Ultima7 and BG2 before it, PoE isn’t really about the combat for me-- it’s about exploration, and story. I don’t mind the giant blob melee gangbang, because I just don’t care about the combat that much.
I’m not sure that PoE would actually be improved by X-com quality tactical turn-based combat. It would certainly be different, that’s for sure. But I don’t want to take that much time killing each group of giant rats; I want to blast them to the floor and move on to the next room.
Yeah, I guess I mean “from now on,” as beyond what you get from the Shadowrun stuff, if Harebrained is doing any more of them, and if there are more from inXile down the road, the stuff that is on the horizon doesn’t seem to be turn-based, at least, not in the upper levels of indie-dom.
Me, I can live with pausable real-time, most of the time, if only to avoid some of the micromanagement, but I also do sort of like the micromanagement of turn-based stuff too.
