I've played every game from Spiders since trying a demo of a quirky role playing game on PS3 Faery Legends of Avalon. I feel like I could start every review for every game they've ever made as "Great but rough around the edges" And this applies equally to Greedfall though in many ways it's easily their best title and seeing their tiny team make old fashioned Bioware type RPGs with a team of only 30-50 people and a budget made of buttons and old chewing gum wrappers pulled out the depths of an old pair of trousers never fails to impress me to be honest.
Greedfall is set in a fantasy world inspired by 17th and 18th century history in both art style as well as story premise about three different large countries each colonizing areas of a large island which already has a native population more in tune with nature than it's newcomers. You play a character called De Sadet, a diplomat and official legate of one faction known as the Merchant Congregation. Some of the story beats and characters are pretty interesting with different factions and lore for the island. However there is a big elephant in the room that this is quite a sensitive idea to be taking, as a British citizen I am especially aware of this and I'm not sure Spiders quite have the nuance to pull off what they were going for here. One group is basically the Spanish Inquisition and the other feel like an Persian Empire based on science. Both of which often are pure evil in their actions to the natives and I found many of the quest outcomes just a little unsatisfying as the game makes you play the shades of grey diplomat. Though your choices can shape out comes it's often not enough from what I experienced though it didn't stop me enjoying it, it was a feeling I couldn't shape for the 50 hours I put into it. It made me feel uncomfortable at times but maybe that's what they were going for?
The combat is Spiders best yet. You can build your character how you want choosing a range of skills from melee, magic or technical. I went full in on technical at first and was just blasting muskets, pistoles, laying traps, throwing bombs and enjoying it a lot. I changed halfway through re-specking for a dash of magic half way though for a quick dodge but then I found it just became one note of firing overpowered guns and wiping enemies out with my 900 plus bullets. The same issue occurred with equipment where I equipped and upgraded a unique set I liked the look of and never found anything better for the next 20 hours playing so I just had gold and crafting supplies coming out of my ears. All in all it's a little unbalanced, doesn't have huge variety but is fun enough when you are fighting.
When you're not fighting then you are exploring the world Spiders created. Cities and wilderness beyond. The cities look fantastic, full of life, buildings still being built and the art design is really a perfect representation of the era they are aiming for with npcs walking around in long dresses or tricorn hats etc. The wilderness outside the cities are similar in scope with very autumnal colours of leaves and trees as you explore I appreciated. The game is easily Spiders most technically impressive to boot. I played on PS5 and set it to performance mode and it sticks a pretty consistent 60fps most of the time. There are occasional judders and a bit of screen tearing at the bottom of the screen but to say this is a step up from their previous game would be an understatement.
Some of Spiders budget restrictions do show through though. Each house you can enter is identical, every palace layout is the same despite the factions being so different, each barracks is exactly the same etc. If gets a bit annoying considering the effort that has gone into the external view of the city. There are other design choices that also don't really work. While I enjoy exploring, running back and forth is just soul destroying as you can only fast travel from certain places and even just going back to report a side quest gets old really fast. On the flipside I really enjoyed all of your parties personal side quests. They were decently varied and helped flesh out each character and the faction they represented.
Reading back through this makes it seem like I'm negative about this game but I actually did really enjoy my time with it. Spiders have improved a lot as a developer and I appreciate they make really unique settings for their games that so few developers do. I mean their next title SteelRising is about a French Revolution styled soulslike fantasy world with clockwork soldiers. How nuts is that?
+ Great art design.
+ Spiders most technically impressive title to date.
+ Some cool side quests for the part characters.
+ Really cool premise...
-...Not always handled well.
- Combat gets a bit dull as it's unbalanced at the end and lacks depth.
- Some frame rate judders here and there.
- The lack of a fast travel from anywhere just makes moving around sometimes a chore.
Greedfall is set in a fantasy world inspired by 17th and 18th century history in both art style as well as story premise about three different large countries each colonizing areas of a large island which already has a native population more in tune with nature than it's newcomers. You play a character called De Sadet, a diplomat and official legate of one faction known as the Merchant Congregation. Some of the story beats and characters are pretty interesting with different factions and lore for the island. However there is a big elephant in the room that this is quite a sensitive idea to be taking, as a British citizen I am especially aware of this and I'm not sure Spiders quite have the nuance to pull off what they were going for here. One group is basically the Spanish Inquisition and the other feel like an Persian Empire based on science. Both of which often are pure evil in their actions to the natives and I found many of the quest outcomes just a little unsatisfying as the game makes you play the shades of grey diplomat. Though your choices can shape out comes it's often not enough from what I experienced though it didn't stop me enjoying it, it was a feeling I couldn't shape for the 50 hours I put into it. It made me feel uncomfortable at times but maybe that's what they were going for?
The combat is Spiders best yet. You can build your character how you want choosing a range of skills from melee, magic or technical. I went full in on technical at first and was just blasting muskets, pistoles, laying traps, throwing bombs and enjoying it a lot. I changed halfway through re-specking for a dash of magic half way though for a quick dodge but then I found it just became one note of firing overpowered guns and wiping enemies out with my 900 plus bullets. The same issue occurred with equipment where I equipped and upgraded a unique set I liked the look of and never found anything better for the next 20 hours playing so I just had gold and crafting supplies coming out of my ears. All in all it's a little unbalanced, doesn't have huge variety but is fun enough when you are fighting.
When you're not fighting then you are exploring the world Spiders created. Cities and wilderness beyond. The cities look fantastic, full of life, buildings still being built and the art design is really a perfect representation of the era they are aiming for with npcs walking around in long dresses or tricorn hats etc. The wilderness outside the cities are similar in scope with very autumnal colours of leaves and trees as you explore I appreciated. The game is easily Spiders most technically impressive to boot. I played on PS5 and set it to performance mode and it sticks a pretty consistent 60fps most of the time. There are occasional judders and a bit of screen tearing at the bottom of the screen but to say this is a step up from their previous game would be an understatement.
Some of Spiders budget restrictions do show through though. Each house you can enter is identical, every palace layout is the same despite the factions being so different, each barracks is exactly the same etc. If gets a bit annoying considering the effort that has gone into the external view of the city. There are other design choices that also don't really work. While I enjoy exploring, running back and forth is just soul destroying as you can only fast travel from certain places and even just going back to report a side quest gets old really fast. On the flipside I really enjoyed all of your parties personal side quests. They were decently varied and helped flesh out each character and the faction they represented.
Reading back through this makes it seem like I'm negative about this game but I actually did really enjoy my time with it. Spiders have improved a lot as a developer and I appreciate they make really unique settings for their games that so few developers do. I mean their next title SteelRising is about a French Revolution styled soulslike fantasy world with clockwork soldiers. How nuts is that?
+ Great art design.
+ Spiders most technically impressive title to date.
+ Some cool side quests for the part characters.
+ Really cool premise...
-...Not always handled well.
- Combat gets a bit dull as it's unbalanced at the end and lacks depth.
- Some frame rate judders here and there.
- The lack of a fast travel from anywhere just makes moving around sometimes a chore.