14 DAY TRIAL // Obsidian manages to bring back the classic party-based role-playing game with its Pillars of Eternity, but the company is not using its new fantasy world for its next project, which is called Tyranny and aims to explore a more complex situation: a world in which evil has won and players will have to work under its supervision.
PC Gamer quotes Matthew Singh, lead producer at Obsidian, as saying that the main character is a Fatebinder, feared by his enemies and known to both the winners and the losers of the big war between good and evil.
The game creator explains, "You can think of that kind of as like Judge Dredd, where you get to come in and bring your own brand of justice to the land. We're a Fatebinder, and with that are certain responsibilities. We need to be resolving disputes between the armies and people within this world, that's a responsibility of ours."
The character creation process for Tyranny will allow players to specify exactly how evil has won, and that changes the challenges he needs to face.
Obsidian seems to be interested in making the title as replayable as possible, with different situations for the big locations and changes to the way factions interact with the main character.
Tyranny uses a classless RPG system
As gamers move through the world and deal with quests, they will gain experience points, but all magical and weapon skill are boosted via actual use and solving problems via talking, or social manipulation also develops a separate set of abilities.
Companions will be featured in Tyranny, with the combat system moving in real time, with the player able to pause the action at any time to direct his party, and it seems that relationships will be more important than in Pillars of Eternity because they open up complex combos.
Gamers will apparently be able to create their own spells in the game, and they will also have access to a stronghold although its exact nature has not yet been revealed.
It seems that Tyranny will be more focused on social interactions and their results than Obsidian's previous title, and Kyros, the leader of the winning evil faction, will have a special role to play in the narrative.
Neither Obsidian nor publisher Paradox Interactive is saying when they are planning to launch the new title, which will probably only arrive on the PC.