I would like to start off my review for GreedFall: The Dying World by stating that I loved its predecessor, released back in 2019, even though not many other people shared the same opinion. Between its Bioware-esque character development, incredible world building, and surprisingly decent combat, GreedFall make me fall for its developer, Spiders, making me want to venture through its first few games, as well as look forward to its future releases. I really wanted to showcase that I was salivating for the 1.0 release of the sequel (or in this case, prequel), ever since it was first announced, and ever since it was initially released in Early Access, in a pathway akin to Baldur’s Gate 3…

… only for me to end up feeling massively disappointed by the end result. Whilst I don’t think GreedFall: The Dying World is a bad game (far from it, in fact), this is one of the most disappointing titles I’ve played in years. Spiders tried to “fix” way too many elements that weren’t broken to begin with, changing a lot of what made GreedFall, well, GreedFall. I am heartbroken to state that this game is just… largely “meh”. Or however you say “meh” in French.

Occasionally pretty, until someone opens their mouth.

I was somewhat surprised to find out that Spiders decided on making a prequel to GreedFall instead of something taking place after the events of the original game. Then again, it may have been a deliberate choice in order to leave all ending possibilities canonical, somewhat open to interpretation. Instead, GreedFall: The Dying World takes place three years before the events of the original, and completely reverses the setting and role of the protagonist. Instead of being a game about a colonizer exploring the wonders of a new world, you now play as a native exploring the “old continent”, the place where all nations hinted in the original game are located.

You play as Vriden Gerr (which means “Rootless” in the game’s native speech), a completely customizable young warrior from a native village in Teer Fradee. After completing a few initial quests for your village’s elders alongside your childhood friends, you become the newest sage of your tribe, “the first one in many cycles”. As you can imagine from a game set in medieval times, your happiness barely lasts a few minutes; shenanigans ensue, and you see yourself being transported to the continent of Gacane. This is when the story truly begins: you assemble a team of powerful allies, you acquire an actual ship to explore neighboring seas and islands, and you venture into a journey full of disjointed dialogue, occasionally interesting characters, and poor pacing.

I dunno, open a charity or set up a fundraiser gala or something.

GreedFall: The Dying World‘s first few hours or so felt like a slog. Initially, the game felt painfully linear, lacking in stakes or interesting events. I was wondering if ANYTHING of interest would eventually happen. The first important cutscenes, as well as the first few plot twists, would only show up after a few hours, and the game would only truly open up for me to explore after six of them. Spiders wanted for the game to feel more open and “adventurous” than the first GreedFall, which resulted in a story that simply wasn’t as interesting as the one from said game. The pacing is a bit poor, and your new companions just aren’t as interesting or well-written as, say, Vasco or Siora.

I guess that one of the reasons for the (admittedly occasionally pretty) setting to not feel as interesting as the island of Teer Fradee is the fact that you start off in a land full of magic and wonder, only to venture back to a dirtier, less magical, more cynical continent. You’re the magical native venturing through Europe, but you’re also cultured in the ways of the colonizers, making the overall sensation of discovery and wonder to feel somewhat vapid and shallow. You are also, understandably, incredibly skeptical of foreigners and their intentions, making you distrust everyone around you, including your companions, at least at first.

This is closest to a KOTOR combat system I’ve seen since KOTOR itself.

I would say that this flipside setting was a bold approach, and one that not always sticks the landing, but I wouldn’t call it a point of controversy. If there is one thing that might make you either love GreedFall: The Dying World or call it the Judas of gaming as we know it, that thing is its combat system. Did you like the action RPG system from the original game? Oh, you did? Well then, tough lucky, buddy. It is completely gone.

GreedFall: The Dying World took an approach I’d like to coin as “the reverse Final Fantasy VII”. It was originally an action RPG, only for it to now feature a combat system that is more similar to Dragon Age: Origins or Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. We are now in “real time with pause” territory, one that blends real-time “action” with the ability to freeze time to issue commands, allowing for tactical, turn-based-like decision-making. Fights are longer and a lot more punishing, as you usually have to deal with an entire mob of foes at once. You need to carefully plan your attacks, set instructions to your allies, plan your positioning, action point usage, their class and range, and so on.

It’s not a bad combat system, but boy oh boy, does it feel unnecessary, and even worse, is this poorly explained. GreedFall: The Dying World tries to teach you the basics through some tutorials, but they are as helpful as asking for the directions of the nearest Burger King in Pyongyang. The game only teaches you a few basics, leaving you to figure out how to deal with its more complex features, as well as its poor UI, plethora of skill trees, crafting, talent management, attributes, and so on…

Just some casual xenophobia to lighten things up. I have another screenshot of the colonizers saying the same about the natives.

I don’t like how some of these features were implemented. You barely gain any experience points after a lengthy and punishing battle, yet I managed to level up three times in a row during a specific narrative-heavy sequence, one without any combat at all, at once. It’s almost like GreedFall: The Dying World was trying to discourage me from engaging in fights. In all fairness, being sneaky or diplomatic is an option, with the latter being somewhat fun, but the overall “talent” section felt poorly thought out.

In order to improve a talent such as diplomacy, crafting, or mechanics, you need to spend talent points, which are only acquire once every few levels. You don’t improve these skills naturally through constant use, such as in the fantastic attribute system from Kingdom Come: Deliverance II. You’ve got to wait until a point drops into your account, or until you acquire a cape that, somehow, momentarily increases some of your skills when worn. It feels somewhat rushed, and completely inorganic. For example, I wanted to become better at lockpicking, but that would require me to just wait until I had gained enough levels to be worthy of a skill point, instead of the logical decision of simply improving my skills through practice.

An issue this game shares with most open world RPGs: the fact boss battles are usually easier than some of the mobs you eventually meet throughout your journey.

I wouldn’t have minded these setbacks if it wasn’t by how Spiders hyped GreedFall: The Dying World up as a “play it your way”, “open ended” adventure. It lacked the overall amount of polish seen in other CRPGs in order to become something worthy of the moniker. The amount of bugs was off the charts as well. The game crashed a handful of times during combat sections, and I’ve even witnessed an episode in which I wasn’t allowed to proceed through a quest because the game simply wasn’t loading the button prompt that allowed me to open a door in front of me. Thankfully, reloading a save mitigated the issue in an instant, and autosaves are generous, meaning that I’d never actually lose that much progress. It doesn’t make the experience any less frustrating, though.

I wouldn’t even call GreedFall: The Dying World a massive improvement in terms of presentation. Sure, there’s the obvious improvement in textures and lighting, but once you look past stills, you’ll notice that character animations, be them body or facial, are exactly the same as the ones seen in the original GreedFall. In some instances, characters felt even less lifelike, mostly due to how janky facial expressions on more realistic models made them feel like robots. Though I will admit that there is the occasional jaw-dropping environment, with the game maintaining a decent framerate despite the size of its maps.

You get to visit the countries you’ve only heard of in the original GreedFall.

And there we have it. GreedFall: The Dying World is not a bad RPG, but it’s a gigantic disappointment. It’s too much of a deviation from what made the first GreedFall feel like a breath of fresh air, with a ton of questionable design decisions, often feeling unnecessary or pointless. The new (and overly punitive) combat system won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, and the story takes ages to become tolerable. Not to mention an irritating amount of bugs constantly annoying you and breaking your immersion. There is still enjoyment to be had playing it, especially once the game becomes somewhat open for you to explore, but I expected a LOT more from the latest iteration of one of the most underrated RPGs released in years. I just wish it had been more similar to its predecessor.

GreedFall: The Dying World is available now on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.

Reviewed on Intel i7-12700H, 16GB RAM, RTX 3060 6GB.

A copy of GreedFall: The Dying World was provided by the publisher.