GreedFall Review (PS4)

very good
key review info
  • Game: GreedFall
  • Platform: Playstation 4
  • Show system requirements
  • Reviewed on:
GreedFall cover art

GreedFall is the most recent title created by French developer Spiders, a small studio supported by the mid-tier publisher Focus Home Interactive. It's the most ambitious project that the studio handled and without a doubt, one of the best games it has ever launched.

Despite its shortcomings, GreedFall makes itself enjoyable by offering players all the tools they need for a true RPG experience. An epic world filled with terrifying monsters that you can slash, shoot or blast with magic, memorable companions that you can romance, and a mildly interesting story are GreedFall's “selling points.”

The setting of the game heavily draws inspiration from the colonialism era. The similarities are obvious in the clothing and weapons the protagonist and NPCs are using in the game, as well as the architecture of many buildings. Even the plot is somewhat inspired from the colonization race in the 16th and 17th centuries, as two factions fight for land while a third is trying to maintain its neutrality.

Each faction in GreedFall is reminiscent of a nation or organization that we've learned from our history books. Theleme is a religious group that strongly resembles Spain's Inquisition, but with a twist. The religious group firmly believes in magic, whereas the Inquisition was totally against it.

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Their ultimate goal is to conquer the island of Teer Fradee by converting the Native factions to their side. Unfortunately, this is mostly done by force since the Natives' are deeply rooted in their nature-related beliefs.

The Bridge Alliance is based on the powerful Muslim empires, but unlike the latter, they don't believe in religion or magic. It's a group of scholars who came to the island of Teer Fradee to make scientific discoveries. They aren't a conquering nation, but they will clash with the natives if their expeditions are attacked.

You play as a human in the Congregation of Merchant, an organization that has amassed a fortune from trading with the other two factions that are warring each other – The Bridge Alliance and Theleme. Unfortunately, your capital city has been hit by a mysterious and deadly plague that no doctor can cure. That's why you're entrusted with a difficult, yet vital task: travel to the legendary island of Teer Fradee and discover a miraculous remedy for the plague.

Although I didn't feel that GreedFall is serving me filler/fetch quests, there's much running back and forth to complete them. Most of the quests in the game start quite trivial, like helping a merchant obtain a spot to sell its products in a city, but they branch out to involve many sub-quests.

More importantly, many of GreedFall's quests offer multiple routes to complete them. Most times, using blunt force will punish players with negative points in diplomacy towards the factions in the game. That's why it's important to have some points in skills and attributes like science, charisma, and craftmanship. Still, regardless of your character's build, there will also be a way to complete a quest, so don't worry too much about having points in all these social or crafting skills.

Much like other RPGs, GreedFall involves choices, but unlike many of them, the choices you make are meaningful and, many times, with immediate outcomes. I was quite surprised to see how well the game handles player choices, even though the options presented are quite straightforward. There's no turning back once you made your choice, so prepare to deal with the consequences of your actions, which sometimes can be brutal. Above all else, GreedFall is a game of diplomacy where you'll have to keep the peace on the island while finding the cure to the malichor.

Combat is simple but rather unpolished. Even so, it's the best combat system Spiders managed to implement in its games. When you create your character, you get to choose between three classes: warrior, technician, and mage. The later is the easiest, at least in the first several hours of the game, since it doesn't require you to engage the enemy in melee and the only resource you'll spend is mana.

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Playing technician will allow you to use firearms that require ammo, whereas warriors tackle fight directly and brutally. However, each class can equip any weapons (melee, ranged, magic) if they meet the stats requirements. Two companions will fight alongside you and some time will give you quests that you'll want to check out whenever possible.

GreedFall is a semi-open world game, which means that you'll be able to visit large maps, but you won't be able to just wander about as you'd do in games like Witcher 3. Thanks to a great fast travel system, you'll have less “dead” moments. Although I did get a fair share a running while questing, the fact that there's no stamina in the game makes it quite bearable.


The Good

  • Compelling story
  • Stunning landscapes, beautiful graphics
  • Interesting world to explore
  • Meaningful player choice, character progression
  • Some amazing quest lines

The Bad

  • Janky combat
  • Lack of polish
  • Subpar facial animations and lip-syncing
  • Not enough enemy variation

Conclusion

GreedFall is one of those RPGs that's both great and terrible at the same time. I feel that with a much higher budget, Spiders could have achieved much more with GreedFall and now we would be talking about a masterpiece. The game has all the ingredients to be an above-average RPG: stunning graphics, solid writing, meaningful player choice, and good character progress.

The combat system is one of the game's weakest points, even though it works admirably for GreedFall. Facial animations and lip-syncing are also quite off, a bit of a letdown since we're talking about an RPG. Some enemy variation would have been great as well, and, not to be nitpicky, but the enemies have a very short aggro range. It's very easy to step out of this invisible, programmed range and you'll lose aggro on enemies, they will return to their original spots and replenish their life fully.

GreedFall fails to achieve greatness, but it's the start of something great. With enough time and money, a sequel would be much better since all the downsides of the original are easy to address.

story 8
gameplay 7
concept 8
graphics 8
audio 8
multiplayer 0
final rating 8
Editor's review
very good
 
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GreedFall screenshots (31 Images)

GreedFall cover art
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