If you’re a fan of morally gray choices and unrepentant villainy in RPGs, you know that even expansive games like Baldur’s Gate 3 sometimes nudge you toward merciful options. But what if you crave a game where evil is not just an option, but the default setting? Then it’s time to revisit Tyranny, a hidden gem from Obsidian Entertainment that lets you embrace your inner monster without apology.
Embrace Your Inner Tyrant
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Tyranny, a 2016 dark fantasy CRPG from Obsidian Entertainment, casts you as a Fatebinder, a judge and law enforcer for Kyros, a god-emperor whose armies have conquered most of the known world. Instead of siding with the last remaining band of heroes, you’re there to finish the job as Kyros’s stooge. The game starts by making you set the scene: You click through an interactive war-map storybook, blithely selecting the factions you’re going to crush and the alliances you’ll nurture, then betray. As in later Obsidian titles like The Outer Worlds and Pentiment, the game builds a history around your answers.
Once you’ve made it abundantly clear that every character in this game will be horrified by your choices, it’s time to begin. Time, too, to avoid flinching as you step into your role as the petty tyrant you’ve always dreamt of being. You can wipe out life in entire inconvenient sections of your map, you can decide to burn down libraries containing knowledge you don’t want anyone else knowing, you can plunge territories into famine and leave regions in ruin; with brutal strategy, or on a careless whim. Early on, you can order a water supply poisoned to break a rebellious town’s will. Townsfolk will bring this up, directly to your face, citing your preferred poisoning method, for the rest of your run — as they should! As they would, if you’d done such a thing in real life! You don’t need to apologize (you’re a tyrant, of course you won’t) but they won’t stop bringing it up, or discussing your other misdeeds. Will you be able to tune them out and ignore any guilt you may be experiencing? Or will you find other ways to make those characters stop talking?
The game doesn’t try to get you to be merciful, but it also doesn’t assist in your malevolence. Betraying an ally you’ve spent hours building trust with doesn’t come with a helpful “this character disapproves” warning light. It just happens, the game informs you of the mess you’ve made, and you’re left with no path forward but to remove your headphones, take your hand off the mouse, and stare at the wall for several minutes, thinking about the enormity of what you’ve just done.
Relationships and Consequences
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The way Tyranny tracks your relationships adds to the game’s vicious, calculating vibe. Instead of giving you a good-evil morality slider, Tyranny will track the Favor and Wrath each faction feels for you — and the Loyalty and Fear you inspire in your companions. These aren’t simple binary switches or universal sentiments, either. You can simultaneously frighten and inspire unwavering loyalty in the same companion; you can be loved by one faction and make another want your head on a pike. Lantry, a scholar-turned informant, might despise you; Sirin, a teenager whose absurdly intense powers have left her unstable and friendless, could follow you to the ends of the earth. Your companions will assist you through the game’s real-time-with-pause combat and courtroom-style confrontations. You can then exploit those feelings to your ends, as you see fit.
By the end of the game, you’ll need to look at the territories you’ve conquered and decide whether to keep serving Kyros or to turn your armies against the empire that made you. Every move in this game is an ugly power grab, the finale will likely feel odd and unsatisfying — in part because the game was shortened due to budget issues at Obsidian — and since you might not like what you’ve learned about yourself while playing. But you won’t forget the experience anytime soon, either.
Playing this game is an interesting way to check in on your own conscience: Many of us think we’re some version of morally complicated, but are we this bad? These and other philosophical questions Tyranny raises are, perhaps, one reason why many people consider Tyranny a spiritual sibling of Planescape Torment, a similar game about consequences and power. If playing as the Durge or letting Astarion ascend in Baldur’s Gate 3 gave you a taste for evil playthroughs, perhaps it’s time to try a game built with that premise from the ground up.
Tyranny has been waiting for you since 2016. Your next sinister choice awaits.
Tyranny is available to play on Windows PC via Steam.
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