Tyranny: the game you play when you are tired of everyone’s bullshit. Patience goes from zero to corpse-ified in exactly on mouse click. I once sent a message from the top of a spire to the bottom by throwing a person off with a note strapped to them. Email. I told the people below I was tired of their bullshit. In Tyranny, you don’t have to deal with anyone’s bullshit and in its first DLC, The Bastard’s Wound, this remains unchanged and all for the better. In fact, one of the early options is to kill everyone. But doing so wouldn’t have led to much of a review so I restrained myself. This is our Tyranny: The Bastard’s Wound review.
Bastard’s Wound really shines for those who haven’t played Tyranny before, or for those who’ve only played very few times. Nestled squarely in Act II, the location of the DLC makes for a fun reprieve from an already content laden portion of the game. If you’ve already completed the game, you’ll find it equally easy to access, but do not expect it to elaborate further on the main narrative. It is an isolated drop of content which explores a very small part of the very deep lore of Tyranny.
Bastard’s Wound is full of wonderfully rounded NPCs. They are less wonderful to you, and you will quickly understand why the option to wipe out the town is presented so early on. But their annoyance lends impact to their character. There were more memorable supporting cast NPCs in Bastard’s Wound than most other areas of Tyranny. Their stories and the entire plot line of the DLC enrich the world of Terratus. However, it does little to unravel Tyranny’s many mysteries.
Much of what makes Tyranny great is also what makes The Bastard’s Wound lackluster. It adds a number of companion quests and what is essentially an additional dungeon.
The new companion quests will delight any player familiar with Knights of the Old Republic. They follow the same recipe of character development through exploring backstory and resolving past conflicts. Or not resolving depending on the level of bullshit at which you snap and kill everyone. Barik’s quest is particularly rewarding, making him an even more interesting character than he already was.
While fun, the dungeon makes little innovation to the precedent set in the main game. Kill things. Activate torchlights. Repeat. Most disappointing of all is that no new enemies are introduced, not even new variations on already existing types. You simply fight more of the same enemies from the primary game. No new combat scenarios present themselves even with as large of an area that is added. Without innovation, Bastard’s Wound is relegated to being a DLC of side quests without anything more substantial than that.
There were several glaring issues with Bastard’s Wound from a technical standpoint. With it comes several glitches, including the return of the bug where some players cannot complete the game. Several of the smaller quests from the DLC glitched for me and remained un-completable. Yes, I tried killing everyone but to no avail. This, however, may have given me the power to walk on air as seen above. Or it could have been a bug.
Bastard’s wound makes no profound changes to Tyranny. It provides a small amount of content with just as many paths to choose as you’d expect from Tyranny. Players shouldn’t expect to be blown away by plot twists or profound discoveries, except maybe by some of the companion stories which are the best part of the expansion. Bastard’s Wound is a great addition for players who are thinking about picking up the game with the DLC. Player’s who have played Tyranny may find Bastard’s Wound disappointing as it does nothing to expand the primary plot beyond where they’ve already been. This was an unfortunate missed opportunity for new enemies to be introduced and elevate Bastard’s Wound beyond being simply a solid dose of sidequests. Nonetheless, it is still a rich experience, and it is hard to go wrong with adding more Tyranny to Tyranny.