Greedfall – Review

Teasing us with trailers for years, the French development studio Spiders made us curious about the adventures that awaited us. After being in development for what seemed an eternity, Greedfall is finally here. It takes us to a world full of magic, lore, disease and so much more. The game surprises with an in-depth storyline and intense quests that can decide the fate of you and your companions, resulting in some serious decision making on the players’ part. This is pretty much because of the universal role of what’s done cannot be undone!

Storyline

Greedfall starts off with an artistic way to bring you to your character customization. You are getting painted by an artist in the city of Serene which is resemblant to London or Paris in the 17th century. You can choose your gender and play the part of Lord or Lady De Sardet. Getting a little bit annoyed by posing for the painting you are grateful for the interruption of Mr. De Courcillon who reminds you that you may not forget that you and some companions are setting sail today to the Island of Teer Fradee.

But before you leave on your voyage you need to visit your mother who is greatly ill. She suffers from the disease that plagues the city of Serene, the Malichor. Sadly, in your conversation with her, the player discovers that maybe the Island of Teer Fradee holds the cure but you won’t get back in time to save her. Before you head to the docks you will brush up your fighting skills with your master of arms Kurt, who after joins you on your way through the city.

In the city are a few other people who need your help before you set sail among which the captain who is worried about one of his cabin boys who went missing a few days ago. You start your voyage with your nephew, the prince, who is supposed to handle a high-ranking position over there. Sadly, he has gone missing. Some of the quests are optional but are highly recommended to finish for the sake of the people around you.

The flow of the storyline is pretty complicated at some points. The game has a lot of side-quests and side-stories you can engage with. Because of that, it sometimes feels like ages before you can proceed with your main story. Most of the storyline portions you get in voice-acted ‘cutscenes’ and there are a lot of them!

Graphics

The graphics of this game are beyond this world. Sometimes we just took a minute to admire the beautiful landscapes in the city of Serene or on Teer Fradee and we can tell you that we were not disappointed. Sadly, besides the surroundings, there were a few hiccups in terms of graphics. The faces of the people are a bit basic in contrast to the rest of the game. When they speak you barely see facial expressions and their mouths just move in a weird way. But in terms of clothing, they did look pretty good. We can conclude the characters could use a little more polish.

Sound

Soundwise Greedfall is a gem. All the main characters in the game bring their part so realistically it’s almost like you are watching a movie instead of playing a game at some points. The background music, chatter, and the fighting grunts make every part of the game so lively and fun to play.

Gameplay

Greedfall is an action-RPG that allows you the freedom to forge your own path in many different ways. The game takes you back to a fantasy world set in the 17th century, that is afflicted by a deadly disease named the Malichor. You start off your journey by choosing your gender, customizing your appearance and selecting a few starting attributes.

The questlines in Greedfall are phenomenal, the stories they tell made the game for us. A lot of games make you detest playing side-quests, but this game makes you want to play them and maybe sometimes even want to have more of them. The quests are a combination of cutscenes, stories, combat, skills, and choices. Also deciding if you take a side-quest or not is completely up to you and can change the storyline of one of your companions drastically.

The developers at Spider made sure that the game has a classless progression system so the players are able to fully customize their gameplay to create their own unique experience. You are able to access a skill tree with more than a hundred options to choose from, making the possibilities nearly endless and this lets the player look for their most desirable skill synergies. You are also fully able to choose which weapons you like to equip and use in combat.

Although the combat system in Greedfall is a huge step up, if we look at the previous games of Spider, some parts still lack a bit in our opinion. When fighting bosses it is easy to evade their attacks and wait for the right moment to strike and slowly lower its health after you broke through the boss its armor.

Exploring in Greedfall is amazing in all honesty, the game lets you roam freely and asks multiple times if you want to advance or still want to look around a bit more. If you choose to roam a little more you can talk with a lot of different NPCs, who also add more value to the rich lore of the world of Greedfall.

Conclusion

Spider did a pretty great job with Greedfall. It has been a long time since we have seen such an innovative and rich lore filled RPG. We reckon this is because most of the RPGs these days completely miss their mark or fall in the same old pattern of their predecessors. Although there are a few flaws in the game like the facial expressions and some parts of the combat, the game is still a joy to play. Greedfall is a must-have if you want to expand your RPG library.

Spyro

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