One of my favorite games of last year was Greedfall, which came out on September 10, 2019 and was created by the French developing company Spiders. This relatively small, but ambitious company released an RPG with an engrossing world, beautiful scenery, and great combat. There are a few recommendations that I would prompt the developers to improve on, but Greedfall has been an absolute joy to play thus far. I have clocked around 21 hours in the game and have also watched my friends experience it as well.
Greedfall Summary
Greedfall takes place in an fantastical alternate reality of the late 1700s. In a world of magic paired with swordplay, you play as De Sardet–a noble on a quest to cure their home country of a ravaging disease. The hope is that this newly found island, rumored to be an island of legend, may have the cure. However, this journey is not as easy as it may seem. Waring nations and ancient monsters stand in your way. With your wits, you much gain friendships and potential enemies to uncover the mystery of this ancient island.
Mind-Blowing Qualities ⚔️
Beautiful Graphics and Color
The first thing I noticed about this game is the surprisingly superb graphics and color. You can see the delicate shadows across the buildings as the sun goes down and the light as it passes through leaves. While other games can boast more, considering its AA grade, Greedfall has a breathtaking environment.
Intriguing Plot and World
After watching a couple of reviews on this game, I had high hopes for a rich plotline and world. During the first few minutes of the game, you are introduced to a unique world full of magic and combat. So far I love the fantastical backstory and the colorful supporting characters. I love games which challenge you to take risks in dialogue, while you juggle relationships with your companions and political groups. Also, I LOVE that you can play as either a male or female!
Great Combat
The combat in this game is relatively easy and straightforward, but as the player you can make it more advanced or strategic. It is built around an adrenaline system which builds up during your basic attacks. There are various ways in which you can attack, including stealth attacks, traps, ranged, heavy attacks, and regular melee.
Good Skill Trees
Personally, I get overwhelmed when games make skill trees too large and complicated. Due to this, I appreciated Greedfall’s detailed, but straightforward skill-building. For each level achieved you get a certain number of points to go towards (3) categories: Skills, Attributes, and Talents.
Skills involve methods of combat. Attributes will help you in combat and interact with your environmental challenges. Meanwhile, talents are more about abilities that will help you create items or talk to NPCs. This is just enough for you to create a personalized character, but does not perpetuate choice paralysis.
Things to Improve ?
Minor Camera/Mechanical Issues
There are a few minor mechanical issues, but nothing game-breaking. The first problem which I came across was the occasionally awkward camera angle during dialogue or equipping. For example, my character may be in conversation and the camera would switch from the NPC to me–but the camera would be pointing at the NPC’s back.
Another issue I found was the inability to voluntarily sheath your weapon to loot enemies. This would result in my character backstepping from the body instead of looting. In order to loot, I have to stand still long enough for my character to sheath their weapon on their own.
Invisible Walls
A very sad but somewhat understanding downfall would be the invisible walls. I do not think that this quality is necessarily bad, but is something that can be worked on for future games. We as gamers have been so spoiled by open-world RPGs such as Breath of the Wild and Red Dead Redemption that invisible walls have 10x the restrictive feeling. However, again, this is more something that can be improved on and not necessarily a con.
Speech Animations
One thing that might bother some people is the facial animations while the characters speak. They do not bother me very much at all, especially after playing the game for a while and becoming involved in the dialogue. However, some gamers may find this a bit off-putting. This is another facet of the game that is a minuscule problem and is greatly shadowed by the superb voice acting.
Copy-Paste Interiors/Pedestrians
The last quality which could use improvement in the next game would be the copy-paste pedestrians and building interiors. While this did not phase me too much, I am left wishing for a bit more variety in the people that I rush past in the streets. Oftentimes warehouses and residence interiors are reused with a few alterations. This may break the story illusion, but considering that Spiders is a small developing company–I would say that they made small sacrifices to create an overall great game.
Verdict
Overall, I have found Greedfall to be an enjoyable RPG game. Spiders has truly done great work, considering they have a little over 20 employees according to their About Us page. The improvements which I have pointed out are simply suggestions for refining an already wonderful game. If you enjoy Elder Scrolls Online, Final Fantasy, or Assassin’s Creed, this may be your next low-key favorite RPG.
