Greedfall: The Dying World has finally been released into the world. It has spent some time in Early Access, and gamers now get to enjoy or hate the fruits of the developer’s labours. After the success of the original, I was thoroughly looking forward to this prequel. Sadly, not everything hit the mark, as there are some performance issues, and the world isn’t as immersive as I hoped. Yet, there is a large world to explore, factions to befriend or betray, and plenty of side missions to undertake. In short, it retains many classic RPG elements.
This open-world RPG was developed by Spiders and published by Nacon. It is a single-player game where 3 unique approaches dominate the way you play. I decided to throw myself in at the deep end while attempting to be in charge of everything. However, if this doesn’t sound like your thing, you can adjust your involvement and the difficulty of the world around you.
Greedfall: The Dying World transports you to another world.
Living in peace and harmony is a dream of many people. Yet, making this dream a reality will rarely happen. Unfortunately, too many outside influences control your life. Additionally, when death and destruction are added to the mix, things go south extremely quickly.
This is what happens to the heroes of Greedfall: The Dying World. These tribal people have completed their initiation and are tasked with discovering why their world is failing. Sick people, dying animals, and an influx of foreigners are ruining their way of life. Unbeknownst to them, this journey will lead them far away from their home and across many perilous paths.
The opening layers of the story were truly fascinating. The use of tribal languages and the incredible setting were captivating. However, once the game expands and things become more open, it loses its edge. You become focused on quests, resource gathering, and seamlessly never-ending fights. In short, it feels a little diluted at times.
Reputation is everything.
Greedfall: The Dying World utilises a relationship and reputation system that guides and pushes the heroes down different routes. Moreover, the bond between the team impacts choices and the way things flow. This was nice, and I guess it’ll add to replay value and longevity. Yet, some of the choices felt forced, and this removes that sense of freedom and open decision-making.
The reputation system impacts your ability to walk among each faction. If you are friendly with a certain tribe, they will welcome you with open arms. Alternatively, if you’ve somehow managed to piss off a group of indigenous tribespeople, you kind of deserve what’s coming to you. This pigeon-holed mechanic drives you into uncomfortable corners that may annoy some gamers. After all, making bad decisions that impact your overall experience isn’t always a pleasant idea.
Fighting, fighting, and more fighting.
Deciding to control my whole team was an interesting layer of Greedfall: The Dying World. I enjoyed the tactical nuance and the opportunities this created. This won’t be the thought process of most gamers as things slow down to an almost impossible crawl as you stop the action and plan your approach.
Furthermore, unlocking or empowering each character’s main skills requires action points. AP can only be obtained through basic combat moves. Therefore, if you want to be an all-powerful hero, you have to hack and slash your way through every opponent. Moreover, many of your foes are bullet sponges, and you can hack and slash for hours before they fall or you die.
This element of the game definitely needs some work. I’m not sure if it would be more balanced with the NPC heroes controlling their attacks, but I wasn’t entirely satisfied. This level of dissatisfaction continued with the almost rinse-and-repeat roster of enemies. Except for bosses, the low-level animals and people were extremely repetitive. Consequently, when you are spending ages attacking the same beings, it gets a little tiresome.
Greedfall: The Dying World has performance issues.
I’m hoping that many of the performance issues have been highlighted through Early Access, and my review build was somewhere short of the release version. If this is the case, there should be plenty of patches to iron out the frame rate drops, glitches, bugs, screen tears, and crashes to the dashboard. Moreover, there are moments when NPCs are missing, and the cinematic doesn’t match up to the dialogue. This was a little jarring and something that needs resolving. On top of this, the camera angle can make things somewhat tricky when your character appears and disappears without reason.
The audio has the potential to be absolutely incredible. The ambient sounds are some of the best I’ve heard, and the impressive tribal theme forms the backbone of this game. Greedfall: The Dying World has some brilliant acting, and the energy and tone help you to understand every encounter without reading the subtitles. Subsequently, it is a joy to listen to.
Heavy opening lessons.
I found the opening few hours to be quite intimidating. There is so much to learn, and it all happens within the first handful of quests. Understanding tactics, fighting, team management, quest management, exploration, and so forth is often overwhelming. However, once you throw yourself into it and get to grips with what’s on offer, you rarely get it wrong.
I can see this improving as the developer irons out the problems. When that happens, this will be a game that you can play for hours. Sadly, its current state makes it quite an uncomfortable, rough, and testing experience. Therefore, it will put people off wanting to play it repeatedly.
Greedfall: The Dying World doesn’t quite hit the mark.
I desperately wanted Greedfall: The Dying World to be the game I could rave about. It never claims to be AAA, but it has the potential to be a very high-end AA game. Despite the interesting story, excellent setting, and oodles of potential, the problems were frustrating. Yet, this shouldn’t put you off, as the shortcomings will be ironed out. Accordingly, it will be great, and I recommend buying it here! Can you understand the new world you live in? Explore your surroundings, work together, and bring peace to your home.