What can OE learn from Tyranny to better PoE 2

[Fenixp]

Lol at all the combat complaints.  It is no worse than Eternity.

Worse is subjective, but the combat is quite objectively massively simplified on just about all fronts. It's... Trivial. There's nothing interesting to do. The character combos are cool... And that's about it, really.

[SkySlam]

+

PoE2 can learn narrative and storytelling from Tyranny: my protagonist feels much more tied to the events and has a reason to act.

The choices in the beginning are cool, especially for a "serial restarter" like myself. I have new things to try every time!

Also, companions' interactions, comments, and dialogues with NPCs are all good: the more, the better.

Companions' combos are interesting and I'd love to see them in PoE. Can you imagine Edèr and Iselmyr comboing together? 

 

+/-

I feel neutral about the reputation system, especially when tied to skills. It does feel a bit too game-y indeed.

I'm also neutral about skill crafting, which is fun, don't get me wrong. However, I think the spells, the chants and many other skills in PoE had their own charm. Sometimes they were even poetic, while crafted spells may easily fall into the "generic" category.

 

-

Combat is a lot different from PoE. I dislike abilities with cooldowns and the lack of resources to manage during the fights. It really takes away from the fun and makes encounters pretty boring and repetitive. Click click click... wait... click click click. No frendly fire doesn't make much sense either.

I also dislike the absence of classes, which were especially well made in Pillars and didn't feel limiting at all.

Needless to say, the reduced party size is a huge no-no for PoE2, but I don't think we are risking that.

Edited November 13, 2016 by SkySlam

[evilcat]

Has one run done, but i cant say i beat the game.

 

In many ways game feels like Obsidian took the feedback from PoE and just implement it in the game.

 

Some nice things:

+ I feel like running second one, this time with another faction, and that promises to be different.It is fun that there are ways of which i havent even thought, but they are also viable and developed (no ally path).

+ World shaping was very cool.

+ Spires are center of the plot, and the benefits are strong.

+ Letters are convinient way to explore the lore

+ Faction feel significant

+ Companions skill set seems to be more unique, since everyone has own tree. There could be second heavy armour user, but that is not big deal.

+ Overall skill trees are very easy to fallow, which is good on first run. This could be problem in multiple runs if there is less tools for fancy builds.

+ The fact that i could start with no idea what i am doing (2h guy) and then pick some magic on the way, ended with earth paladin.

+ Miniatures during dialogue with gear visible. Poses are sometimes hilarious but ok.

+ Spell accents (metamagic) are very good, since i can take low level spell i already familiar with, and pimp it up  with damage, area, tohit, duration... so it still be important late game.

 

About classes: Why we pick classes at the character creation? At start it is more about getting basic feats for our combat style, and class features are insignificant anyway. So maybe... pick class mid game after meeting requirments. More like like prestige capstone twisting our character in some way.

 

Cooldowns: They have benefit on first run. Since with per rest i had habit to save powerful spells for last hour, and it never happen. Balance with cld or mana is less stressfull on blind run.

 

Sometimes game is different and lacks certain things, like dragons, but that is acceptable if team want to focus on core plot.

 

Very interesting.

Edited November 16, 2016 by evilcat

[mishkoff]

Things that could be taken from Tyranny to POE2:

- Story telling and story itself, I love also black company and all that nasty things you can legally pull off. This is Sparta stuff rules!

- World reacting to your choices and loyalty/fear system adds a lot to the game play. It could be improved so you could not get fear and loyalty abilities at the same time for the same faction.

- NPC's are brilliant IMHO, combine that with more POE banter and now we are talking

- Spellcrafting, it could be improved but it is huge step in right direction

- Combos, more of them please, especially ones that are unlocked through talking to NPC.

- Personal motives of characters you encounter - gain enough loyalty with a powerful being and you can make them kneel with the right choice of words that get along with their motives, that is brilliant!

- Combat on the contrary to most of the previous comments. Cooldown is not that bad if you consider that some abilities in POE were very limited in usage and very often I found myself not using them even once, because the right time was never now(plus interrupted attempt was a real pain; I'd prefer ). This also reflected on harder combats, let's call them unique encounters, in POE in my experience they often needed a cheesy opening trick from party which then set the tone(or not if it failed). Also in those combats, enemies usually made an opening statement which was devastating, and you have to recover from the beginning. In Tyranny those encounters start slowly and bosses pull their hard hitting tricks when the heat of battle is high. I think that POE2 could use a nice blend of both worlds, with some basic, mid powered things on cooldown, and then per rest/encounter exclusive skills that are blowing stuff around. This way early level fights could be much more interesting and manageable. I also like final battles from Tyranny, general concept and length  of them is very nice

 

I think that we are now in a very nice stretch of interesting RPG's, that could lead to creation of perfect isometric RPG

[WorstUsernameEver]

Most people in this thread are going to discuss combat minutiae, progression and writing, which is understandable, but I just wanted to point out that the implementation of traps in Tyranny feels a lot better than PoE's and is a further step in the right direction when compared to the IE trap mechanics, which never felt like they captured the joys of dungeon crawling and added a lot of busywork that matched the source material mechanically but not in spirit.

[KDubya]

I like the plot, and especially the  effects of choices made. It feels like things you do matter.

 

I like the fact that you are important to the whole world and plot and not some obscure Watcher.

 

I like the way skills work like subterfuge. It is way better than the useless, but oh so necessary, mechanics from PoE. Really all of the skills feel useful.

 

I like the way I can mouseover words in dialogues and get extra information.

 

I like the world and how it feels real, never really got that from PoE.

 

So far liking the game, but their forums leave a lot to be desired. Really wish they had some here where we could go to and have adult conversations rather than the multitude of zero reply posts to questions.

[Karkarov]

 

Lol at all the combat complaints.  It is no worse than Eternity.

Worse is subjective, but the combat is quite objectively massively simplified on just about all fronts. It's... Trivial. There's nothing interesting to do. The character combos are cool... And that's about it, really.

 

I see you're back to being your old dickish self

 

Yeah but eternity combat isn't that interesting either.  I could beat the whole game using one character repeating the same tactics in every fight.  You see my point?  Maybe on the surface it is simpler and dumbed down, but having 50 skills versus 5 doesn't matter if you only ever use 5 skills either way.

 

The "mechanics" behind the curtain are different, but the execution is very similar in gameplay.  What is the difference between an energy meter that regens from you attacking and a simple cooldown?  If they both take 10 seconds to "fill" the answer is absolutely nothing, it is just flavor.  I would also point out despite my opening comment, other than combo's, and spell creation, I didn't suggest anything else combat related be brought over.

 

Also Bill, nice to hear from you too.

 

I also want to throw credit where it is due, KDubya is right.  The word highlights you can mouse over and right click are really nice and should definitely make it into Eternity 2 if at all possible.  Whoever came up with that deserves a pat on the back.

 

 

Edited November 14, 2016 by Karkarov

[Fenixp]

Yeah but eternity combat isn't that interesting either.  I could beat the whole game using one character repeating the same tactics in every fight.  You see my point?  Maybe on the surface it is simpler and dumbed down, but having 50 skills versus 5 doesn't matter if you only ever use 5 skills either way.

Using 5 skills all the way is not interesting and you're right, you could do that in Pillars. That's incredibly boring tho. So I didn't. Tyranny doesn't leave me with much of a choice. I'd also argue that instead of trying to solve the problems, entirely gutting the system is quite simply not the way to go - that's how Bioware got from Baldur's Gate to Mass Effect.

 

The "mechanics" behind the curtain are different, but the execution is very similar in gameplay.  What is the difference between an energy meter that regens from you attacking and a simple cooldown?  If they both take 10 seconds to "fill" the answer is absolutely nothing, it is just flavor.  I would also point out despite my opening comment, other than combo's, and spell creation, I didn't suggest anything else combat related be brought over.

Quite a lot, actually. Even a class like Cipher, Monk or Chanter who generate resource for using their abilities are by far more interesting than a bunch of cooldowns, purely because their skills make use of a shared pool and using one skill prevents you from using another - choosing what is it you wish to use matters, as opposed to cooldown-based system which encourages you to use all the skills, all the time. That's made even worse in Tyranny by far slower pace of combat, usually I could comfortably use all per-encounter and cooldown-based skills in sequence in most fights - time spent on casting and recovery no longer seems to be that big of a deal.

 

And what I just talked about were merely 3 classes in the game, each generating their resources differently, with different mechanics you had to consider while designing these characters.

Edited November 14, 2016 by Fenixp

[theBalthazar]

Personnally, I prefer 50 skills, even if I use 10 of 5. Beside, in Tyranny, there is very bad talent also...

 

But with pillars, I CHOSE my 5 skills for optimisations. I make a choice.

 

In Tyranny, I think in 1 years, the builds will be limited : 2H, 1 weapon 2H, 1H+shield... bow and magic. (javelin is bad no ? : p)

 

In Pillars, there are more choices because in Tyranny, its your handling which manage everything.

 

And for various build in pillars, I chose others skills or/and other classes, more exotic for test. Its an important difference. For this kind of game, optimisation = choice.

 

No optimisation = casual gaming = clic-clic no brain.

 

Similary, the approach in pillars is better. Team-play is better. Its ironical (in tyranny we have combo skills...) but its true : in pillars the roles are more readable and varied.

Edited November 14, 2016 by theBalthazar

[Phyriel]

Oh man... I'm so puzzled about this game tbh... Animations and combat feels great thats a given (talking about graphics, sounds, impact its all very satisfying) but... yea there are buts... while I can appreciate cooldown system its terribly easy to exploit (Once u get enough quickness, ways to buff your recovery) you're just walking death machine with your team... unending burst dmg skills, unending heals, unending ressurects... Its very easy to exploit taunt mechanics (if u taunt a melee combatants and block their way so they can't get to taunter character they will glitch out and just run back and forth). 

 

In general I feel like PoE was more tactical game where positioning mattered, timing mattered, sequencing of buffs mattered ( u had to know if you got a time to cast a stat boosting buff or its required to cast a anti charm/dominate protections first etc ). Tyranny is more diablo-esque in that regard... you get very powerful very fast and steam roll... I'm at the point after like 18 hours (been reading all **** and spent lot of time in abilities windows) that I rarely use any combo ability... or artifact power... using 2 pre fight buffs and like 2-3 regular skills JUST DESTROYS EVERYTHING INTO OBLIVION (talking about verse) https://gyazo.com/1241a36b38acaeb9855621dad533a967 Can't say its not satisfying but I feel I won't replay that game, especially that I started it on path of the damned difficulty and it's hardly any challenge. I'm glad tho I realized quite quickly that no matter what I choose progression wise its all gonna be steam roll so I transitioned into enjoying dialogs more and consider combat a casual eye-candy experience. 

 

P.S I think that game would be way better once there are mods / its officially made harder... aka you get more enemies, they are harder etc cause this would actually make team building / theorycrafting more relevant, atm this game offers a LOT of options but they are all not relevant because stuff is just easy to take down with whatever you choose. This is huge design flaw. 

 

P.P.S so to avoid off topic issues - I think PoE 2 should remain a seperate game with its mechanics catered around theorycrafting and tactics, maybe lend from graphic and animations of Tyranny... but a biggest lesson... make content overly hard... make it that hardest difficulty feels even unfair the first time you face it so you feel compelled to be creative, just to get thru. 

Edited November 14, 2016 by Phyriel

[theBalthazar]

I played Tyranny actually...

 

There is always a problem of pathfinding. Please Obsidian fix that horrible problem.

 

= Heal 2meters = Sirin go left and right, left, right, behind my 3 warriors...

 

After that I have to micro and I discover Sirin can pass elsewhere.

 

Its a little thing but, its annoying, especially on a critical operation (= heal before death)

 

For fix that : an alarm sound + a textual warning in red, during the pause.

 

If not, the player lose time to note that afer pause.

 

I am agree to tell there is the solution of reinforce the spell range, but its not a total excuse.

 

Often it seems that the characters collide.

Edited November 14, 2016 by theBalthazar

[böfrist]

Sent those together with the survey I hadn't the time to fill out until now:

 

Good things about Tyranny I wouldn't mind in Pillars 2:
- the initial "setting the stage" process at the end of character creation
- a time limit here and there (to give some sense of urgency to solve something a.s.a.p. or something bad happens or ur plain ded)
- the hyperlinking/highlighting of lore in dialogue (optional, this should not replace the ingame encyclopedia/bestiary)
- spell customizability (not to the level of creating completely new ones, but with possible adjustments to range, affected area, things like that)
- reputation system
- that glorious explosion of blood and guts if your character critically/fatally hits an opponent

Bad or not-so-good things about Tyranny I definitely would mind if carried over into Pillars 2:
- too short (50-60 hours should be the minimum)
- rather small maps (I know maps the size of those making up Athkatla or Defiance Bay eat up a lot of time and resources but you kinda expect those sizes from a proper isometric cRPG)
- complete absence of companion quests
- regenerating health (out of combat)
- no stamina/health mechanic
- leveling up automatically clearing all afflictions, wounds and restoring health, not to forget granting temporary bonuses(!!!)
- no friendly fire (not even as an option!)
- combo abilities (way too OP while not really fitting for something like Pillars 2, imo)
- combat built around cooldown abilities
- leveling-by-doing progression system (which, in Tyranny as well btw, can be too easily exploited)
- UI/HUD-related issues (just keep the one from Pillars, it's pretty much perfect, imo)
- the even more linear story progression than in Pillars
- being gifted items as an incentive for playing daily (WTF???)

Edited November 14, 2016 by böfrist

[jsaving]

I think PoE's combination of 6-member parties and friendly fire encourages strategic thinking and I hope PoE2 doesn't change these factors to be more similar to Tyranny.  I also dislike classless systems because they inevitably drive players to find broken subsystems and max out those specific skills/traits/etc, which ironically pushes everyone toward the same builds instead of promoting the diversity that classless systems are said to foster.  Other Tyranny innovations like combo abilities work great in roleplay-light eastern games but in my mind just highlight the reduction in strategic thinking from PoE to Tyranny.  I also strongly, strongly dislike time limits in RPGs and have ever since Fallout 1's (in)famous water-chip timer as they prevent me from fully exploring the world I paid to experience.  

 

Positives for Tyranny include the reputation system, the ability to build spells from scratch, and the novel idea that evil has won.  But the devs were only intermittently successful in carrying out their theme, with players blocked from taking most of the good-aligned actions they might wish to try while most permissible actions have illogically graphic consequences whose sole apparent intent is to shock the player.  Couple that with a shamelessly incomplete endgame -- another area where I thought PoE did remarkably well -- and I don't find a lot that I want the PoE2 devs to incorporate.

Edited November 14, 2016 by jsaving

[Phyriel]

I actually liked UI and Hud more than PoE tbh. Checking active status effects, buffs, debuffs, suppressed status is so easy for me in Tyranny... in Poe those small icons near portrait gave me headache from time to time

[Quillon]

While conquest is a neat feature, I feel like its unnecessary. Almost all rpg sequels doesn't even handle save-import well and you're basically importing some pre-state in conquest. Let's say there'll be Tyranny 2; there'll be ZERO chance for a "good" save import there with all the conquest choices and the choices you made in actual game. I'd have rather directed that effort into making "origins" or better; being able to start the game in different hubs since acts are basically the content around one hub(CDPR tried to do this in Witcher 3; after white orchard/prologue there could have been choices to continue the game in Skellige or Novigrad besides Velen, they had to cut it duo to time constraints) which provides a lot better replayability and do the "conquest" in the possible sequel(like PoE 2) instead of a save import.

 

And one critism for conquest itself that getting locked out of choices; why lock the player out of those choices(cos he didn't go there) while you already implemented the effects in the game? If you open them up there'll still be variety(cos you're choosing between disfavoured&scarlet in each camp), a lot more so in fact.

 

Not wanna see in PoE 2:

 

- Combos: they look cool but they are unnecessary and would be more so on top of all the abilities/spells in PoE.

- 1 to 0 action bar: I want to see all the abilities one character have, together.

- Classless system: I can't make a PoE-Barbarian-like character in Tyranny with the ability trees in it, I'd rather have classes and choose barbarian. I wouldn't care if I can make different "classes" in a classless system tho.

 

I am neutral about spell creation since I don't care.

 

I agree with better story, characters, involved companions etc : p

[Karkarov]

Quite a lot, actually. Even a class like Cipher, Monk or Chanter who generate resource for using their abilities are by far more interesting than a bunch of cooldowns, purely because their skills make use of a shared pool and using one skill prevents you from using another - choosing what is it you wish to use matters, as opposed to cooldown-based system which encourages you to use all the skills, all the time. That's made even worse in Tyranny by far slower pace of combat, usually I could comfortably use all per-encounter and cooldown-based skills in sequence in most fights - time spent on casting and recovery no longer seems to be that big of a deal.

 

And what I just talked about were merely 3 classes in the game, each generating their resources differently, with different mechanics you had to consider while designing these characters.

Eternity only had deep complex combat if you forced yourself to make it that way.  That was your choice as a player, it is not actually how the combat worked for the vast majority of people.  Most players given the choice between one powerful move that always works, and three situational moves that work sometimes, will take the one move. 

 

What I also find even more interesting is that it is probably easier to solo the "highly complex" Eternity than it is to solo the "dumbed down" Tyranny.

[Fenixp]

Eternity only had deep complex combat if you forced yourself to make it that way.  That was your choice as a player, it is not actually how the combat worked for the vast majority of people.  Most players given the choice between one powerful move that always works, and three situational moves that work sometimes, will take the one move.

Good thing monster immunities were added then. At any rate, my argument stands - if Obsidian's solution is to hand me the most boring way of playing on a golden platter straight away and not giving me any options of playing the game outside of them, I'm not going to be exactly thrilled considering how much fun I could have had with Pillars, hm?

 

What I also find even more interesting is that it is probably easier to solo the "highly complex" Eternity than it is to solo the "dumbed down" Tyranny.

First of all, Pillars of Eternity was designed to be soloable, Tyranny wasn't. Another option we have in Pillars that we don't in Tyranny.

Secondly, with increasing complexity, chances of finding overpowered combinations increase exponentially. So yes, making a dumbed down system that's more difficult to exploit is a lot easier than making a highly complex one.

[Phyriel]

 What I also find even more interesting is that it is probably easier to solo the "highly complex" Eternity than it is to solo the "dumbed down" Tyranny.

 

I honestly wouldn't consider that design victory. Honestly I really enjoy Tyranny, despite that whole "RP value" of it doesn't really strike me as anything brilliant (I was much more interested in PoE plot as it uncovered). But the biggest flaw of Tyranny thus far is that it doesn't seem like it was properly playtested O_o ... there are so many obviously OP synergies between chars that are game breaking with how strong they are (pre buff verse, make her invisible, move in with 1 char so all melee surround it, use verse spinning move... all dead). In general high tier abilities (the ones I tested) are really crazy op (Lantry -100% recovery buff for 12 sec), (leadership flag that could also read "gives u immortality for 30 seconds") etc etc. Game need serious difficulty rework or it ain't worth replaying for me. 

 

P.S the fact that I'm already uber OP with just basic abilities that are on cd is one thing... add per rest combos, add artifact abilities... game gives u too much ****ing power tools and you don't even need to use them. Sorry for my language but I'm getting annoyed atm because I'm used to PoE approach where I would hoard on my per rest abilities until I really was sure its dire time of need and I need to use them to survive... so with that approach I never get to use kewl Tyranny artifact stuff because its never hard enough for me to justify using them... thats terrible terrible design ****up. 

Edited November 15, 2016 by Phyriel

[JO'Geran]

One thing I hope they get right in future is introducing you to the world. Pillars handled this right, Tyranny not so much.

 

The very first part of Pillars of Eternity was incredible, with all the dialogue, and the character of Calisca. It introduced us to scripted events, and gave you an opportunity to say what your motive in this was. When the combat first started, it felt very natural, and the Glanfathan attack felt like it made sense in the context of the story.

 

Tyranny by contrast felt like it started rather poorly. You didn't get a chance to have a proper conversation, or learn anything about the universe, before the Oathbreaker Runners showed up. It all felt very shoehorned, and too fast paced.

[demeisen]

 

where I would hoard on my per rest abilities until I really was sure its dire time of need and I need to use them to survive...

 

 

That's an aspect of CRPGs that has been fading for decades now.  It used to be common, and I'm with you in enjoying it a lot, but I think there are a few reasons why it isn't common, and is only found in watered down forms:

1. It's hard for game designers to balance well without alienating the player base.  You risk backing players into a corner by requiring resources to complete a dungeon that they no longer have.  If you give an alternate mechanism such as limitless rest, then players rest-spam every fight, so games like Pillars tried to walk a line of "limited rest resources" - but still, you have to balance it so you can always get more, or people will moan about getting stuck, so it's not really limited, which defeats the point of needing to carefully consider when to use your abilities to survive, which means you never have your back to the wall.

    

2. Players despise it.  Not everybody: I'm talking generalities, not absolutes.  But gaming culture has changed: many people want to waltz into a room and obliterate everything in a godlike manner, then insta-regen back to 100% strength, and repeat.  There's also the opposite camp who wants to be be pushed to the edge: to barely survive a dungeon by the skin of their teeth using every last resource remaining in creative ways, managing their party over a series of encounters rather than one encounter at a time.  I believe the former camp is much larger than the latter camp, so there's market pressure away from needing to plan a whole "dungeon dive", and towards meeting each encounter at 100% strength.

I've played older games that were brutal: you could spend 3 hours diving into a dungeon, your party being mercilessly ground down by every fight, with no ability to regen spells/abilities or save your game until you got back out.  Sometimes you made it... and sometimes you didn't, and your 3 hours were for naught as you watched your last remaining fighter take one hit too many.  You had a lot on the line, it could be tense: I'm down to these 4 spells, this weird-ass combat ability I've never used before, and three ham sandwiches.  Everybody's torn up, nobody with more than 25% health left.  I can't get back without two more fights.  Am I going to make it?

 

I'm not sure a game could succeed in the market balanced strongly around longer term resource consideration.  There'd be howls of protest and terrible reviews.  PoE was very weakly balanced around that, and I suspect that's about as far as a modern game can go (which is about 5% of the way to some classic CRPGs), and even at that, there was pushback.

 

I do hope to see PoE2 move more towards per-dungeon consideration than per-encounter (which is were Tyranny went), but I'm not holding my breath .

Edited November 15, 2016 by demeisen

[Karkarov]

Well Demeisen I think that was what Obsidian observed too and why they started mucking with difficulty so much.  With "story time" they can cater to the people who just want to experience the game, and they can make "balls hard you die I kill you" difficulty for the other group.

Many modern RPG's aren't balanced for crap though, you got that right.  Eternity turns into a cake walk about 50% through.  Witcher 3 is hard at first especially on high settings, then by the 20% point if you aren't playing on the highest settings you could sleep through combat.  Dragon Age Inquisition to feel like "normal" difficulty had to be set to the second highest difficulty.  Shadowrun Returns and Hong Kong never really feel hard unless you end up in a blatantly unbalanced fight where you are outnumbered 3 or 4 to one.  The list goes on.

[ManifestedISO]

Tyranny by contrast felt like it started rather poorly. You didn't get a chance to have a proper conversation, or learn anything about the universe, before the Oathbreaker Runners showed up. It all felt very shoehorned, and too fast paced.

 

Hit the Conquest button after making a character and you get the introduction to the universe.

[Sedrefilos]

 

Tyranny by contrast felt like it started rather poorly. You didn't get a chance to have a proper conversation, or learn anything about the universe, before the Oathbreaker Runners showed up. It all felt very shoehorned, and too fast paced.

 

Hit the Conquest button after making a character and you get the introduction to the universe.

 

Nah you don't. You get a series of choices to make in a conquest campaign of a place you know nothing of at the moment. And you care not for the moment.

[Sedrefilos]

So, here's my 2 cents of what Pillars can learn from Tyranny to improve:

- Reputation system.

- Stronghold mechanics (IF they want to use a stonghold in the sequel - I can live without it, tbh, but it is welcome).

- More involved companions.
- Portrait/pose of EACH character speaking at the moment.

- An indicator showing the path you travel on world map.

And that's pretty much it.

 

Don't get me wrong, I believe Tyranny is a very good game with very cool ideas, but I don't believe just because they work well in it, they'll work well in Pillars too. And although I like its mechanics, I don't believe they are the top mechanics ever. They are just how they cose to go. It's the team's take on their game, not the next big thing all rpgs should follow. What do I mean:

> Spellcrafting is very cool, but it might be cumbersome for a game with 6 party members and a pool of 10 companions in total.

> Classless VS classed. Again, it's a matter of opinion. I don't mind classes and I usually prefer them in a party-based game. Thankfully, in Tyranny they went for main character being classless only, since each companion has his/her own tree.

> Companions have their own talent trees. The Japanese way. I don't know. It's fine but it's not objectively better that a calss system applied to all. I prefer the latter, tbh.

 

Tyranny utilises better the stats and the background into its roleplay and choices-and-concequenses, but that is a matter of execution. Pillars has the foundation and the potential, it's that the devs never utilised them as much as they should.

It also has better graphics, but I believe Pillars 2 will have even better 'cause graphics is a matter of technical progress; the more recent the game, the better the graphics, no?

 

What Pillars should NOT take from Tyranny, though, is the scope. Tyranny shows you a huge world map, but you don't feel you're into one as such. There are just a few small areas in each place - you don't feel you're travelling/exploring a sub-continent. I feel like i'm a dust pit with a bunch of a-holes! Pillars had a smaller land to explore, but it felt much larger and alive. And more interesting, tbh, 'cause it was more real - not everyone was a jerk. I won't elaborate more here 'cause I'm lazy, but you get the idea

 

All that said, there are other stuff that prevent me to enjoy Tyranny as much as I enjoyed Pillars, although I believe it's a very very good game with many thing to show to future devs, but I won't write about them here, 'cause this isn't the place to do so.

 

Let's hope we'll have an announcement soon for Pillars 2 and all luck to the Tyranny team and hope they get a sequel too!

 

EDIT: And, oh, something both games should do next time: USE SOME DRAWN IMAGES ALONG WITH YOUR TEXT WALL "CUT SCENES"!!! You describe stuff like what I deram of and images I have etc and what I see on the background is the close-up of the ground textures or some random npc frozen in an awkward position or something completely unconnected to what I'm reading! Seriously, they're like 10 in the entire game. Not that many. I'm pretty sure you can squeeze 10-15 more drawings in. You already did it once with the player's dreams about the hanged Watcher in the 1st settlement in Pillars. Do it for every similar situtation.

Ok, now I'm finished

Edited November 16, 2016 by Sedrefilos

[ShadySands]

 

 

Tyranny by contrast felt like it started rather poorly. You didn't get a chance to have a proper conversation, or learn anything about the universe, before the Oathbreaker Runners showed up. It all felt very shoehorned, and too fast paced.

 

Hit the Conquest button after making a character and you get the introduction to the universe.

 

Nah you don't. You get a series of choices to make in a conquest campaign of a place you know nothing of at the moment. And you care not for the moment.

Couldn't disagree more

 

I thought it was a great intro to the game world