Greedfall: The Dying World Review – Interesting Systems, Familiar Story

Greedfall: The Dying World Review

Back in September of 2024 I had the chance to preview Greedfall 2: The Dying World, Spiders’ follow-up to the action RPG Greedfall. Now that the game has left its early access period, the “2” is gone, which makes sense. Because while it’s the second game in the franchise, Greedfall: The Dying World is actually a prequel.

Mirror Image

The first game’s narrative is set in a fantasy historical 17th century. The Old Continent has been ravaged by a disease called the Malichor. As a noble diplomat named De Sardet, you and your fellow colonials travel to an island paradise in search of a cure. It’s all a not-too-subtle allegory about our exploitative and diseased relationship with nature and indigenous people.

Greedfall: The Dying World takes place three years earlier than the first game. This time, you essentially play many of the story beats from the viewpoint of a native. On one hand, it’s kind of a clever switch. On the other, there’s a bit of narrative repetition and maybe the dashed hope that the sequel would stake out new territory, as it were.

You play as a native of Teer Fradee named Vriden Gerr, about to become a Doneigad, a sort of shaman. The game’s tutorial prologue does some heavy lifting in terms of both mechanics and lore. When I played the preview I was — and remain — impressed by the game’s deep dive into invented native culture and language. Of course, it borrows elements from many indigenous traditions.

Complications

The original Greedfall was a “stranger in a strange land” story. Greedfall: The Dying World parallels the structure by having the colonial Bridge Alliance faction kidnap Vriden Gerr and bring them to the mainland to use as a native guinea pig. Like the first game, the player meets and allies with characters from different factions. A large amount of narrative real estate is taken up by Vriden Gerr attempting (and reattempting) to escape back to the island.

Greedfall: The Dying World has a generally interesting cast of characters.  There’s your childhood friend and fellow mystic, Nilan, and Sybille, who comes from one of the continent’s oldest families. They all have a role to play in combat and a great many missions cement your relationships with various characters and factions. Greedfall: The Dying World doesn’t entirely escape the twin narrative dangers of too much exposition and not enough depth. By and large, though, the game includes a number of engaging characters to adventure and fight with.

Prepare for Battle

One of Greedfall: The Dying World strengths is in its character building mechanics. While you choose from a few basic starting classes, later you can pick-and-choose from any skill tree, making unique hybrid characters. Starting classes like Protector, Hunter, Doneigad, and Wild Fighter don’t stray far from melee, ranged, or magic archetypes but they’re only a foundation. It’s also easy to respec later. All new characters run through the basic tutorial.

When it released into early access, Greedfall: The Dying World had fairy rudimentary character design tools. The full version now includes a much more flexible creation tool, though the slightly stylized art still generates some pretty deep treks through the uncanny valley. The PC version offers quite a range of graphical options. Unfortunately, the PS5 version is essentially limited to toggling HDR off or on, and choosing between quality and performance modes.

Thick of the Fight

The original Greedfall was an action RPG, and it received a fair amount of criticism for its combat mechanics. Movement was clunky and options and moves were simplistic compared to other action-oriented games. Greedfall: The Dying World goes in a new direction. In the sequel, combat is based on a real-time with pause system.

One of Greedfall: The Dying World’s strengths is the provides three combat flavors: Tactical Mode, Focus Mode, and Hybrid Mode. In Tactical mode, players control all the actions of all three party members, essentially turning the game into a CRPG. At the other end of the complexity scale, Focus mode lets the player only control the main character. This would be a disaster if the AI didn’t do a good job, but generally, the companions manage themselves well outside player control. Players can switch between modes at any time.  Hybrid Mode is probably the least enjoyable, a neither here-nor-there mashup that feels confusing.

Overall, Greedfall: The Dying Light feels like an AA-game experience, a little rough at the margins. In particular, there is a bit of choppiness in character animations both in and out of combat. While the voice work is very competent, the writing tends to lean into exposition. Long dialogue sections tend to slow the momentum in any game unless they’re particularly well executed.

Next Time, Maybe Something New

I really enjoyed the original Greedfall’s blend of magic and 1600’s technology. While the combat is a little more flexible this time around, the narrative plays too many of the same beats, and its pacing fails to find a groove. Greedfall was a cult favorite of sorts. Greedfall: The Dying World does some interesting things with classes and combat, but lacks some of the charm and inventive spirit of the original game.

***Reviewed on PS5, provided by the publisher***