Tyranny - The Evil has won...or has it?

In recent times we have seen attempts many gaming genres to be revived. Some successful, some not so much, but few of those attempts stand off as much as Obsidian's last year success Pillars of Eternity. Luckily for us, the fans, seeing their success Obsidian did not stop, but instead they pushed further and this year we have the pleasure to enjoy second isometric RPG from them - Tyranny. What new it brings to the table, is it as good as the Pillars, is it just another game with the same mechanics? Read on.

Tyranny. The word probably give you bad vibes. It should, it is usually related to bad things and people. In this game you are one of those bad people. That is right, you are with the bad guys this time. And as such you will be able to kill, judge, mass murder, execute and assassinate on your own discretion. The tools does not matter, only the final result. Kyros shall rule them all, you will do what is necessary for this to happen. You are, after all, a Fatebinder.

If you have played Pillars in Tyranny you will feel at home here. Obsidian has changed few mechanics, has polished a few others and have changed few general ways the game works, but as a whole it has the same feeling as Pillars of Eternity. Therefore if you did not like PoE you can stop reading here. What follows will not change your opinion or make you try these games.

So let us begin, shall we?

You are a Fatebinder, servant of the Archon of Justice, one of the several Archons under the Warlord Kyros who has taken over most of the continent except for one small Gallic...I mean one small region where the stubborn defenders still resist. You are sent to help the two Archons there to finish their conquest faster. I can delve quite deep in the story without spoiling much, but I will stop here and leave you to discover the rest. The story is deep, complicated with a lot of characters, twists, backstory, intrigue, betrayal and everything else you can want into a good game story. My advice is to follow it closely and get invested into it, this will increase your enjoyment from the game a lot more. This is an RPG you are supposed to roleplay!
Speaking about story bring us to the character creation. In Tyranny it is separated in two parts. The first is your standard pick your stats, race, how you look thing. The second one is the interesting part. After you built your character you will have to in a choose-your-own-adventure style to bring down few defiant cities. The decisions you make at that time will have a rather big impact on how pretty much all factions in the game will treat you. What you do here will lock some choices permanently until you do not redo it, but it will also give you some unique choices for your future dialogues.
I liked this idea a lot, it is kind of similar to the Q&A some RPGs make when you build your character, but here you have more freedom and at the same time it is more impactful throughout the game.

When you are done with the character creation it is time for the real deal. That's right! You will have to beat some people personally while trying to reach the Archons and bring them the news that everyone in the valley including them, you and their soldiers, will die if they do not take a certain castle in the next several days. The battle system is pretty much the same as in Pillars (or Dragon Age if you need another comparison). You engage the enemy, pause, issue orders, resume and repeat until you win or fall. I always thought that this kind of battles really combine the best of both worlds. At one hand you have the tactic elements of a turn based game. On other you have the dynamic, flashy and action packed battles of action RPGs. The new here is that now you have combo skills with other characters. They are quite powerful and differ from character to character, also as I have found out their correct usage can be more than helpful in the tougher engagements.

Speaking about other characters, here is probably the place to say more about the companions you meet and can recruit. In Pillars of Eternity you had a good rooster of characters to choose from and even few secret companions. In Tyranny you can recruit only six, each with two skill threes and unique combo abilities. It is not necessary to recruit all of them and you can even kill some of them instead. If you recruit them, much like with the the factions you will gather loyalty and fear with your companions. Reaching certain levels in those two will unlock combo skills for you and the companion. Being liked or disliked from a Faction has a similar effect, but also locks or unlocks different dialogue options and affect how factions will act towards you.

Before going to the conclusion which is probably obvious for most of you, but I know some people read only those so...but anyway before that I need to say something very important about the game which explains many design decisions. Unlike Pillars of Eternity which is rather lengthy game, around 40 to 60 hours, Tyranny is made to be replayed. With its 20-25 hours you can easily finish it in a week which cannot be said for many RPGs from this class. There are so many different approaches I want to test, builds, characters, companions and here I can try those, because the game is short enough. At the same time it has the depth and polish of a finished product and it is satisfying even after a single playthrough.

Conclusions

Tyranny is a game about the bad guys and you are one of them. As such you will be able to do rather evil things, but at the same time you can also act as reasonable and good in nature character. As always it depends on you and what you want to be. The game is a continuation of Obsidian's attempt to revive the isometric RPGs which so far goes rather well for them.

Mechanically the game borrows a lot from Pillars of Eternity, but at the same time it improves a good amount of mechanics while also adding new ones. The two biggest changes are may be the length of the game and that it is not open world. The first cures one of the biggest problems of Pillars - it was impossible to try all the things the game offered you. I mean not only different builds for your characters but also altitude toward factions, story branches etc. From the second I have seen no harm but I am unsure why they have made such design decision. Speaking about decisions this is something you will have to be careful with as you never know when something you have done in the past will come back to bite you. Obsidian have done great job again in making a game which values your choices, but it also makes it hard for you to make them.

To summarize - Tyranny is a great addition to the genre and worthy successor of Pillars. Therefore if you have enjoyed Pillars of Eternity there is no reason for you not to play Tyranny.

Where to find:

Official site

Steam

Owlboy - Nine years of passion

Nine years ago a small team of people decide to show the advantage of 2D over 3D so they decide to make this game which is about a boy which is an owl and he is mute... Have they succeeded is a topic for a long and slightly meaningless discussion so I will not delve into this, but I will tell you that they have succeeded in crafting a stunningly beautiful game.

In the game you take the role of Otus mute owlboy(shocking I know) who is a student of a very strict teacher with low opinion for his student. As an owl your task is to scout the area and keep an eye out for pirates. At the time of the story though there is a troublemaker in town and with your best friend, who is something between raging monster and a coward, Geddy you go after the troublemaker. This leads to pirates managing to descend(Did I not tell you? You live in sky cities! The pirates have airships.) upon your home for which you are blamed. The story continue how you try to stop the pirates, find new friends, solve ancient mysteries and travel to different beautiful places ridden with nasty enemies. The story has at least one decent plot twist if not even two, so it is not there only to fill space, the guys from D-Pad Studio has put genuine effort in it. It has mystery, it has great characters it has twists, it has feelings. What more you need in a story?

The game itself is a metroidvania platformer, but you will rarely touch the ground and most of the time will fly around(at least I did it this way, it is possible in many places to run and jump around). The other core mechanic is your ability to grab and throw things. Most of the time you will carry one of your friends and use their abilities to fend off nasty critters, but you will also pull out of the ground or pluck from threes fruits to heal yourself. Often you will also carry different objects in order to solve puzzles. You are a "bird" of prey after all.
Here is probably the place to say a bit more about the levels of the game. Owlboy is a short game, around 8 hours, but despite that the levels are original, different and each with its own charm and atmosphere. And while its beautiful the rose has thorns. With each level the game will throw at you nastier and nastier things. From almost immortal enemies to birds which will track every movement you make and charge you, to giant earth worms and horrific bosses. Not to mention the environmental obstacles varying from simple things like spikes on the floor and walls trying to smash you and get to things like pitch black tunnels ridden with spikes, traps, enemies and hidden treasures.

Before going to the conclusion I want to mention few highly subjective problems I had with the game which made my experience not so enjoyable at times.
First thing  OwlBoy starts very dynamically, quickly kicking you out of the starting area and giving you a chance to show what you have learned. This sadly changes and soon the game becomes a lot slower with a lot more wandering in tunnels and looking for treasures and the right way than shooting at enemies. Its true that when you meet any bad guys they will give you a lot of action but they come in groups and rarely.
Second - I hate those dark tunnels. They are horrible and there is way too many of them. Someone has been too proud of his evil invention.
And third I have died in this game because of  "stupidity" way too many times. By stupidity I mean that it seems I and the designers of the game have too different ways of thinking and many things in the game were counter intuitive to me... I will give you two examples. MILD SPOILERS: There is a level in the game where you will have to mainly sneak around which is ok, nice break from the fighting and endless wandering. The problem was that the boxes which you should have used to hide looked like part of the background image and not something which you can use...
The second example is a bolder which was held by some spiderwebs which you need to shoot, releasing the boulder and opening your way. Again the webs did not really looked like something which you can affect. END OF SPOILERS. I understand that they have made this to make the game more challenging, but dying or wasting time, because of these things, was not pleasant for me.

And now onward to the Conclusions!

Conclusion

OwlBoy is beautiful, charming game about the little owl Otus and his adventure in the outer world. There he will meet many interesting characters and will have to stop pirates, solve ancient mystery and in the end save the day, despite the mistrust of his tutor. Owlboy is gorgeous and many people compare it to Shovel Knight in matter of graphics and I find this comparison accurate. Both games are excellent examples how pixel art should be done. I had few problems with the game like counter intuitive puzzles and sudden drops in the tempo, but despite those issues I am not hesitant to recommend it to you. It is beautiful, it has good story, interesting mechanics, charming characters and a mute main character with ridiculously expressive face. It is a platformer which allows you to fly, but because this will make it easy for you it throws at you challenge after challenge in the form of both puzzles, enemies and bosses.  

But whatever I say it will not prepare you for the twists and feelings the game will put you through...

Where to find:

Official site

GoG Store

Humble Bundle Store

Indiebox

Steam

Gwent Beta Preview - Lose today to win tommorow

THIS ARTICLE IS OUT OF DATE! AND WHILE IT CAN STILL SERVE AS INTRODUCTION MATERIAL FOR GWENT, MANY THINGS IN THE GAME HAVE CHANGED!

In 2015 under the skillful hands of the guys from CD Projekt RED came out the third installment of The Witcher. Among the many interesting things the game added both as mechanics and story, it also added a new mini-game - Gwent. The game became so popular among the fans that they demanded it to be made into standalone game. Strange enough CD Projekt listened and now you can enjoy Gwent on its own. 

Before I start this preview I must say that Gwent is in closed beta test and the only way to play it is to sign up for the beta and receive a key. There are a lot of things which are work in progress, but the base of the game is set and the main mechanics are there so I think I have a pretty clear opinion on Gwent as it is now. 

The base idea of Gwent is really simple. You have a deck of cards, in it there is a leading mechanic depending on the faction to which your deck belongs. There is no mana or any other resource necessary to play cards. Each card you play affect your or your opponents score. To win you must win two out of three rounds. You win a round when both players pass and you have more points. You will be surprised how many ways are there to achieve that. 
At the start of the next round you draw cards, the board is cleared, all cards from it discarded and you start from zero points again. 

Does not sound that hard, right? It does not, BUT in Gwent you draw cards only at the start of each round. Two at the start of second round and one at the start of the third. There are characters and other cards which let you draw too but they are not that many. 
In other words you need to know your deck perfectly and carefully plan how and when you will try to overcome your opponent. You can try to push the first two rounds or you can let him win one and take the other two etc. Often in the middle of the second round you will know can you make it or not. Sometimes even in the middle of the first you will realize that you have over committed and you do not have the cards to take second round. But most of the times you will be in situation where both players will try to trick each other in over committing so they then can trigger their decks and safely push to the victory.

  

May be here is the place to say that although taken from The Witcher there is no need for you to have played the RPGs if you want to enjoy the card game(I recommend you to do it though, the games are one of the best in the genre). If you have not played The Witcher you will miss the "A-ha" moments when you see familiar monsters or favorite characters, but that does not affect your gameplay or your enjoyment from the game in any way.

Of course as original as Gwent is, it cannot go without some things which all digital CCG games have. Here also you will find boosters to buy, PvP and friendly matches. There is no ladder mode for now, but I expect this soon also. Interesting mechanic which you do not see that often is essentially tipping the opponent at the end of the match. If you say GG ( Good Game) to him/her(or he/she to you) he(you) will receive small amount of bonus materials for crafting cards. I am still not positive is this a good mechanic as right now everyone are saying to everyone GG thinking that this increase their chance they themselves to get a GG. But this lead to very deep and dangerous waters so let us just say that it is an interesting mechanic.

Conclusion

Gwent for sure offers a fresh breeze to the genre. CD Projekt has come up with simple at first look, but actually original and highly strategic card game which despite its habit to throw you into thinking rounds ahead, does not continue for hours, it is actually no more than 20-30 minutes per game. I try to limit myself and not recommend every game which I like, but this one I am positive have something to offer to everyone who are fans but a bit tired of the genre.

For now the only way to play is to sign up for the closed beta test. CD Projekt are fairly generous and there will be few give away waves so you have a good chance to get into the game.

Where to find:

 Official site

Aragami - Lurking in the shadows is fun

Aragami is a stealth-action game by Lince Works which came out this year and quickly gained considerable fame and acceptance by the gaming community.  

The game takes place in feudal Japan-like world. The game starts misteriously with strange visions, flashes of the past, voice calling you...you awake only to find out that you are a vengeful spirit with no memory of his past. Now summoned by a mysterious, but beautiful girl you agree to avenge her slaughtered clan. You are an Aragami, spirit of shadows.

What attracted me to Aragami was that it reminded me of the old Thief games, where stealth was everything and you stood no chance in open fight. Things are not exactly like that, still the game has a lot to offer. But I am getting ahead of myself.

The game is separated in distinctive levels and on each you have an objective. The tutorial is clear and the first missions are no sweat with more than one way to complete them and rewards if you do not kill anyone or if you kill everyone, if you are not detected, do not rise an alarm etc. The real game starts when you have to rescue a magical bird which will help you in your mission to avenge the victims of the Light clan. As I mentioned Aragami is not like old Thief, but you are not a killing machine like in Assassin's Creed neither. You will be able to easily take out two or even three enemies if you are quick enough, use your skills correctly and manage to stay hidden between the kills. But you will be quickly slaughtered if the guards are alarmed and find you. Nice touch is that if you alarm the Guards once, even if they do not find you they will be more observant from now on. But let me explain how the game works so its clearer to you what I am talking about.

"Hello darkness, my old friend..."

You are an aragami, a vengeful spirit. As such you have low tolerance to light and quickly lose your powers when exposed to it for long. Not to mention the obvious - it is dead easy for the Guards to see you. Because of this you will need to dart from shadow to shadow, teleporting when distances are longer or ridden with guards. While in shadows, crouched and not moving the chance for the Guards to see you is smaller but still possible(This is one of the issues I had with the game. The range of the Guards is unclear, sometimes they see you and sometimes they do not while you are at the same place.). When seen you have around a second to jump at the Guard and eliminate him. A lone Guard will not rise the alarm when sees you but will alarm the others if he finds a dead body. When you jump at an enemy if you have been too slow or jump directly at him from the front he will probably block you and you will not have a second chance to attack for he will have drawn his sword and stricken you with ray of light which will dissolve you immediately. Yes, you die from only one hit in Aragami. If you do not want to get turned into shadow dust you will have to choose carefully your path and sneak behind Guards. The sneaking system if I even can called it that, is really simple. When you run you make a lot of noise, when you walk you make less and when you sneak you are absolutely silent, but you move slowly. Get behind a Guard and stab him and he is dead. You are not the only one who dies from a single strike.  

Your main power is the ability to manipulate shadows and interact with them. After the tutorial you will be able to teleport from shadow to shadow and create temporary shadow. Further in the game you will find skill scrolls which will give you skill point which you will be able then to invest in skills. Speaking about skills...

Fancy cape, what does it do?

The skill you will be able to learn include all kinds of powers over the shadows. From trowing shurikens to conjuring shadow serpent to eat your enemies. With time you will become strong enough to be able, as I mentioned in the beginning, to take out few Guards one after another. There is catch though..two actually. First you do not have unlimited amount of shadow essence(mana) and it decrease when you use your skills. The mana you have is shown by the lines on your cape(which is really cool idea), it also shows you how many times you can use certain skills. Yes, this is the second catch - for one level you can use your more powerful skill only certain amount of times. This is clean and elegant way to balance your otherwise quite powerful skills which gives the sense of progress, but at the same time does not turn you into killing machine. In other words your skills will lead to more than one badass moment for you, but only when used correctly. 

Something which I need to mention and which partially fits in the talk about skills and partially does not fit anywhere is that Aragami offers co-op mode where you together with a friend can sneak and kill Guards together. For me this was the first time I see a stealth game to offer co-op and after I tried it I can say that it is a lot of fun, but the game does not adapt adequately to the fact that there are two deadly shadows now and we were able to run around and kill Guards rather easily when together. Good coordination and teamwork led to more than few cool moments where we in perfect sync jumped at groups of Guards dispatching them before they manage to react. 

Conclusion

Aragami can not be compared to only one game. In it you can be both aggressive and stealthy and both bring you benefit. But it is not as aggressive as Dishonored at the same time you do not need to be as stealthy as in Thief from old times. Its a pretty good mix from both worlds. The biggest problem the game has is that in co-op it does not scale at all and can be too easy at times. Despite that it is great addition to the genre and its creators work hard to polish it even further. Give it a go.

Where to find:

Official site

Steam

"Hello Darkness, my old friend..." is a quote from Simon and Garfunkel's song "Sound of Silence"