GreedFall Review

Coming from developer Spiders, GreedFall is not what I would call a breath of fresh air, and I mean that in a good way; it's more a revival of something the gaming community has been lacking lately. The game hearkens back to the glory days of BioWare's Dragon Age: Origins — a time when the RPG genre was putting out some of its best work.

The writing in GreedFall is among the most refined you can get, although not all of the voice actors deliver their lines with the same quality of skill. As I played I found myself carefully considering my dialogue choices, as by this time it had become clear to me that this game was going to hold me accountable to my actions. Early on, I managed to alienate myself from two of the major factions all because I made a moral choice over what might have been the smart choice. I knew then this game was not going to let me please everyone. Hard choices were going to be asked of my character, and apart from reloading an older save I was going to have to accept the outcome and move on. With each new quest, I began to wonder what might have happened had I picked a different option. What if I had instead chosen not to help those in need because of the political fallout it could cause? These choices helped me become far more immersed within the game, as it made me feel like I was making a difference wherever I went.

Location: Cwenvar "The Tall Trees"

On the graphical side of things, GreedFall does fall a bit short, but I can honestly say it is still very appealing to look at. There may be a few low textures in some places, and if you were to zoom in (such as during cinematics), it is noticeable, but the game has it where it counts. I will mention that I used an NVMe, 32 GB of DDR4, and an RTX 2060 (6GB VRAM) graphics card. With this, the game had massive stutter issues, but only when I turned on the ultra texture setting; turning textures to “high” resolved the problem. Everything else could be on ultra with no problem, which leads me to believe this is an optimisation issue. Despite the graphics, I was not bothered at all as the story and gameplay were more than enough to justify my spending time in the world Spiders had created.

Speaking of gameplay, let's talk a bit about what you can expect. As you would hope, GreedFall allows the player to acquire all kinds of gear and weapons throughout their travels. Items can be upgraded and customised as well as equipped to companions. The game also has an engaging third-person combat system not unlike Dark Souls or The Witcher III, though less complex. One thing the combat could use is a bump in difficulty, as even on the hardest mode, I was ripping through enemies later in the game. Combat offers you three different styles: magic, ranged, and melee. These styles can be altered and enhanced by use of a talent tree you place points in as you level; I found a good combo of swordplay and pistols to be very satisfying. You also receive talent points for non-combat perks, such as persuasion or science. These perks enhance your options in dialogue and your ability to explore the world.

GreedFall, while set on the large island of Tir Fradi (aka Teer Fradee) is not a full open world; rather, it is several dozen smaller zones you will be visiting. These vary from large cities to murky swamps and vibrant forests. Each zone has a good deal to explore with some secrets hidden away behind perk checks. For example, while out exploring, I came across a broken bridge with a prompt to jump over. However, because I had not invested any perk points into my “vigor” I was unable to leap across and claim the treasure on the other side. These kinds of restrictions are fantastic as they limit you early on and make you decide what your priorities are going to be. You can't just have everything you want right away. Do you want to be able to open locked chests? Invest in lock-picking. Do you like to craft and modify your own armour? Craftsmanship is for you! You can even get these skills boosted if you have the right companions with you for the job, though only if you have formed a strong enough friendship with them.

Yes the game does offer companions, five in total, and while I may not have found all of them to be interesting, I did enjoy having my decisions challenged by different views and beliefs. This helped create a well-rounded decision-making process, as I had to consider not just how I felt about things but how my allies did as well. All of your companions have different faction allegiances; they are not just there to support you for no good reason. In fact, they have complete agendas of their own. Companions can and will betray you if you treat them badly and cause too much trouble for their allied faction. Then again, if they like you enough they can help things play to your favour when dealing with people from their own guild or nation.

When it comes to sound design, the game provides exactly what it needs to and then some. While walking around the world you will hear ambient noises, ranging from muffled conversations in cities to the clanking of your heavy armour as you move. During cinematic moments, background music plays that matches the tone of events. The game has an impressive musical score, though it is not always at the forefront of the players attention — most notably when engaging in combat.

Now let's talk about where GreedFall tends to fall short. The roster of available companions is extremely small for a game in this genre. This can be troublesome, especially when not all your available allies are interesting to begin with. Graphics and textures are lacklustre in places and need optimisation, including animations, such as lip syncing being off in conversations. Oftentimes the cities you visit feel empty, devoid of a large living population. This is most likely due to the limitations of Spiders' in-house Silk Engine.

 Story DLC for GreedFall arrived back in June of 2021 in the form of “The De Vespe Conspiracy”. Developer Spiders has also announced a prequel, GreedFall 2, which takes place three years prior to the events of the first game, and is slated for a 2024 release.