My first impressions of Greedfall naturally gave me The Witcher 3 vibes. The world and gameplay are somewhat similar, even though Greedfall was a much smaller budget. How does it stack up? I enjoyed Greedfall more than The Witcher 3.
Now, before the Witcher fanboys flay me alive, take some time to hear me out. I’m not the type of gamer who plays many RPGs, but I really enjoyed this title. I think Greedfall is absolutely worth it, and I’ll tell you all the reasons why that is.
Dialog
The first thing you’ll notice about the game is that a lot of it is spent talking to other characters, and I mean a LOT of it. You’d think that would be a bad thing, but it’s surprisingly satisfying listening to these well-spoken characters carry on in a conversation.
It provides a nice break in the action, and give you more of a roleplay feel to it. To me, the dialog of The Witcher 3 never interested me much. I once read an article by a game journalist saying how much he loved a mission in the Witcher 3 in which you had to locate an old woman’s frying pan. When I actually played that mission, I was bored to tears and couldn’t wait to get back to slaying monsters.
Just know that much of Greedfall, if not most of it, is spent having conversations with NPCs. I normally hate that, but somehow Greedfall interests me enough to keep coming back.
Companions
You get a companion that follows you around from the very beginning of the game, and they help to make your gameplay less lonely. Not only that, but they can complement your skills by using abilities that your build doesn’t have.
I love having companions around, but they just don’t as much impact on the story as many players would have liked. You can largely ignore them for the entire game, and nothing bad will come of it. Granted, it’s interesting speaking with them and learning about them, but they just aren’t essential for much.
Each companion has their own personality and skills, which can sometimes change the outcome of conversations or battles. Sadly, is really the extent of how much they relate to the story. Many players like myself wish that they had a bigger part in the game, but this just isn’t the case.
Story and lore
I’m not one to pay attention to much game lore unless it’s really interesting. Greedfall is intriguing enough for me to pay attention, so I like learning everything I can about the world.
The story revolves around an island inhabited by natives and giant beasts, as well as many cities that have been built on the island. There’s a mysterious disease known as the Malichor, and no one in the game really knows much about its origins.
There are tons of sidequests to complete, as well as six different factions to interact with. These factions all have their own uniforms and motives, so the choices you make in-game will affect your reputation with them. You also have a reputation with each of your companions, so you can befriend or annoy them depending on your choices.
I love the way choices are handled in this game, as everything is not always black and white. In my guide to Greedfall (which I highly recommend checking out if you want some beginner tips and tricks), I told a story about how I ended up killing a group of natives that could very well have turned friendly, and how I regretted my decision afterward.
Many people’s lives are in your hands in Greedfall, and it’s up to you to decide what choice you think is right. Or, you can play the villain and slay all those who stand before you. I’m not sure how much bad reputation affects the story, but you can play however you’d like.
Builds
This is where things get complicated. I haven’t played many similar RPGs besides The Witcher 3 and Greedfall, but there are a lot of things to think about when you’re making your build.
The first thing is your starting class, which largely doesn’t matter in the long run. You can reset all your attributes and change your character completely, so don’t worry about being stuck to one playstyle. You can be whatever you want to be, which is a necessity for an RPG to be great.
Combat
I was a little iffy on the combat at first, but quickly got used to it. One thing I realized is that you don’t even spend much time in combat anyway, so it didn’t matter as much.
You get your melee weapons, a gun, and magic depending on your class. The gun is just a secondary, albeit it does a lot of damage. You find lots of bullets in your travels to relead, and there are plenty of weapons to get and upgrade.
There are also a ton of different enemies out in the world to fight too. It seems like I’m always finding a large group of bandits or a pack of wolf-like creatures ready to attack me. The island is home to native islanders who will sometimes attack you or settlements around you, forcing you to fight back.
One really cool feature I like is called the tactical pause, which lets you pause and assess your next move. While paused, you can drink potions and see the status of your enemies’ health and armor. It reminds me a lot of Knights of the Old Republic (except the combat isn’t turn-based), one of my favorite games of all time.
You’re able to block and kick enemies to knock them to the ground or stun them, which I really like. Enemies also have an armor level, which you need to break using heavier weapons before using lighter weapons on them.
There’s an arena you can fight in, which is actually very difficult until you rank up a bit. The arena lets you practice your combat skills, as well as get some extra loot. Overall, I really enjoy the combat of Greedfall, even though it’s not as smooth as other games.
Exploration
Greedfall is a semi-open world game, meaning you can’t explore every section of the map, but you still can go wherever you’d like. There are preset paths that prevent you from blazing your own trails through the world, but I get why they’re there.
I think it was a nice break from playing these massive open-world games like the Witcher 3 or Red Dead Redemption 2, and to just enjoy a good, old fashioned video game for once. I’d rather not run around for hundreds of hours, hoping to come across collectibles or something. Don’t get me wrong, I love open worlds, but Greedfall felt like a nice break from all of these huge games.
The areas I went to were fun to explore and still felt quite large. I love the environments and a lot of the detail of the cities, such as the harbor with the giant ships and working sailors. There’s something special about the world of Greedfall that I can’t quite describe. It reminds me of the games that I used to play as a kid, and how much I loved exploring the worlds.
There’s a lot of loot to collect and there are many enemies to fight, but every second of it is enjoyable. For a game with such a small budget compared to AAA games, I was very surprised at how well the world was crafted.
Conclusion
This was a very short review of the game, but I’d say this is a game worth buying at full price. I haven’t had this much fun in a game in a long time, and I plan to spend many more hours in the awesome world of Greedfall. In my opinion, it’s a game every RPG fan should try out, and you might enjoy it even if you’re not an RPG fan.