Граф Орлов
struggling to come up with the right words, like squeezing the last bit of mayonnaise or ketchup out of a packet
I think Nebka and Alex would have liked this part
PC: cracks his fingers, when the NPC refuses to answer
NPC:
-Ouch, ouch, damn! Do you enjoy tormenting those who are weaker? Did you go to war for that?
Companion 1.
-Well, yes.
Companion 2.
-Not just for that, you dirty southern whore, but it's also enjoyable.
It's not the essence itself, but the fact that I got tired of reading them
It's immediately clear that you didn't go through the "Pillars" training. The "Pillars" of endless text. Compared to them, Tyranny is ultra-concise, and - a brilliant solution - provides links directly in the dialogues to key NPCs and events if you forget something. Given that the world itself is much more interesting and meaningful, it's impossible to lose the thread of the story.
The skill trees are mostly classic and generally normal, although almost all of them are combat-oriented
The non-combat skills are even more fun. When they are leveled up, they are leveled up for the entire party at once, and as a result, the entire party quickly becomes identical in terms of non-combat functionality.
3. The world. It's boring.
I found it to be one of the best in the history of RPGs. The only thing that comes to mind that is equally unusual and interesting is Age of Decadence, and everything else in my memory merges into a uniform mess. This is where I can't find any complaints, and it's presented very well: they concisely outline the general picture - they provide detailed information about the current area of action - if desired, the player can dig up additional information about the "external" world, which organically complements the initial information and through which the perception of events and locations of the current game moment will proceed. And all this is very skillfully stretched out throughout the game - because it often happens that either they throw you into an unknown world, and in the finale they generously shower you with revelations, or vice versa - from the very beginning it is obvious that the killer is the gardener, and the protagonist in the finale will save the world and kill the bad guy.
But the battles are terrible. The game has about five areas. All combat encounters in each of them will be absolutely identical in terms of enemy types and tactics, only at first there will be small groups of mobs, of which there are also about five, with three or four varieties each, and at the end there will be a "boss" - one of the already seen mobs, but on steroids and surrounded by twice the number of lackeys. Fortunately, the locations are at least relatively short, and they change faster than they become boring.
5. Combat.
The system is quite bad, slightly vague characteristics from "Pillars" have been transferred (at least you don't have to max out strength for mages anymore), as well as clumsy controls and the complete inability to sometimes recognize what is happening behind the special effects, but it has still become better, it is much easier to assemble builds, microsecond timings, abuse of rest, mechanics of double health and other wonderful features of the hastily made mechanics have gone into the past. They really messed up with the balance, the first act is difficult, the "boss" required ten reloads on the highest difficulty, and you can go through the rest of the game even without reloads. I even know why - because the auto-leveling system apparently takes into account stats, but not equipment.
I would rate Tyranny at around seven and a half. It's all good, but it's a very short game (I finished it in a week, playing for a few hours in the evening, and I did everything possible (within one playthrough, of course)), in which a lot of time is spent on boring battles. But with RPGs now, everything is so sad that this can claim to be the best in the last decade in the genre