Greedfall – Review

Written by: Sunniva Stalsberg

Name: Greedfall
Developer: Spiders
Publisher: Focus Home Interactive
Released: 10.09.2019
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One
Reviewed on:  PlayStation 4
Acquired: A copy of this game was provided by a publisher for review purpose

Are you one of those players that long for another Dragon Age or Fable, then Greedfall might satisfy your longing. Enter the dark world of Greedfall, a grand action RPG. 

Story

When I first started the game it was easy to draw comparisons to The Witcher series and Dragon Age series, somehow the story felt like a mash-up between the two where you have the realistic and grim from the Witcher and the very fantasy-based from Dragon Age.  Spiders have always been great at worldbuilding, and the Age of Discovery-inspired fantasy setting GreedFall throws you into doesn’t disappoint. Starting out in the muddy streets of the city of Serene that makes me think of  Paris or London in the 1700s, you set sai as De Sardet a noble from the merchant’s congregation for the mysterious, volcanic island of Teer Fradee. These places serve as the backdrop for a many-layered, morally complex tale about colonization, religion, politics, and worlds colliding that had me fighting all manner of foes, human and mythical while uncovering a compelling mystery with plenty of surprises in store.

The story has a strong settling in how personal the fractions were, they all had clear voices in how the future of Teer Fradee was going to be shapen. Here Spiders really did an outstanding job, making the fractions have something in common but also drag it to another tip of the scale at the same time. The Island itself gives you a big hunger for exploration as a lot of hints dropped in dialogues about the mystical of the island, but here I never felt I got an answer.
7/10

Graphics 

Spiders really amazed me with this stunning universe that builds Greedfall and that is one of the reasons I really enjoyed this game. The world looks realistic and really gives you this 17th hundred European feeling, the city’s and forest also feel free and untamed. The only problem I could find was that it had reused a lot of the buildings in the cities. Kind of boring that the only difference between the vastly different fractions was displayed by maybe a bunch of pillows on the floor or a candlestick with a scarf on it. This really ruined a lot of the mood for me since the story really plays on how different fractions are and gives them a whole personality through its dialogue. but when it comes to the looks of their city’s that does not shine through at all. 

Though as I mentioned before the land is stunning, I can not say the same for a lot of the characters. A lot of the character’s hair looked like it had been made in paint and glued on, and the teeth looked weird as the faces looked realistic but they looked kinda hand-drawn. Other than that some clipping and glitches had me a few times but not that much that it dragged the feel of the game down. I really enjoyed walking through the city’s and forest finding loot and killing monsters. And speaking of the monsters they are so gorgeous and breathtaking I loved finding new ones and look at them.
7/10

Gameplay

Greedfall has all the normal gameplay you need for making an RPG and has given its own flare too at as well making it stand out a bit from the crowd. The first is the setting of the world that I have mentioned before, it really gives the game a uniqueness to how you move and explore this world. The cities have a lot of back allies that can be used for sneaking and shortcuts exploring all of them and finding your own way to use them is interesting and gives you chances to make the game your own. Greedfall uses the normal approach to RPG game mechanics you travel around opening zones and doing quests to level up your character. 

The skill tree Greedfall uses feels free and fun to upgrade. You are given a free choice of which skill or attribute you want to give your character, but it takes some time to get the experience to level them up so prepare for a lot of grinding. All of the skills have a use in the game and getting most of them unlocked really gives you a feeling of accomplishment.

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You also get to make a character though then only things you can decide is gender, between some preset faces, hair, and eye color. But this game makes up by the vast variety you get to choose from in armor and cosmetics here you can have a lot of fun, but be aware of which armor you wear around certain fractions. Many of the fractions will like you less deciding on what armor you wear or companions you bring.  When talking about companions in the game a lot of them have an interesting background and you can freely choose who you want to bring along on your quests, you can also in good RPG style romance some of them but don’t get your hopes up very high.

The romance quests can be a bit superficial and only gives you a kissing scene and an awkward makeout and bed scene, after doing hours of questing I had hoped for some more in this. You can freely give your companions armor but can not change their attack patterns, and here you lose a lot of techniques in how you want to approach quests since your companions will attack random the only choice you get here is a window where you get some time to choose your next attack. The fighting style is fluid and has nice and even animations make it not just feel good but also look pretty good, as you start you can choose between three classes (Mage, Warrior, and Technician) but you can choose freely among all the skills so it really only affects your starting weapon and skills.

Greedfall has okay gameplay and not much to point out in this, the only thing I missed in the game was better sneaking options as all you really can do I crouch behind thing and move in accordance with an eye indicator that shows you where your enemy looks, I had to have some reset of the game to get the desired outcome sometimes.
7/10

Controls

Greedfall uses an action RPG style controls where you can dodge, attack or use magic spells. You have a stamina bar and a magic bar this shows how much more you can attack or use spells, you also have an ultimate attack you restack it while fighting, this then releases a more powerful attack. you can also kick and stun enemies, this is a bit hard to get right in the start but as you learn more it gets better. Greedfall also has a tactic window where you can assign spells to be done or potions to take, but only for your character not for your companions. The controls are pretty well proportioned, the buttons gave sense to what attack they had been assigned. there were no glitches in my game and I felt there was a nice flow in the battles as I did them, every attack felt right and as I progressed in the story and leveled my character up there was no problem switching form. Other than that there is not much to complain about, the controls give sense and are easy to learn.
7/10

Replay Value

Greedfall gives you a lot of choices and multiple endings so you might want to take a reboot and start over again after you played it the first time. Other than that the game has a final ending, ending all of what you have done so if you don’t make a lot of save files it can be a lot of work. This game is a nice relaxation as it not that fast-paced and you can really enjoy just walking around Teer Fradee exploring new places and quests.
7/10

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