GreedFall II: The Dying World early access impressions — A whole new world

GreedFall is a hidden gem. It’s one of my favorite action-RPGs, not necessarily because of the action. This colonial-themed world is fascinating, alongside an intriguing narrative the team at Spiders has built. They clearly understand engrossing players with an interesting world, and with GreedFall II arriving in early access, the question is, can they do it again while shoring up the gameplay?

While the original was about going to the new world as a diplomat and discovering the secrets of Teer Fradee, GreedFall II has you embodying a new sage of the natives. It also takes place before the first Greedfall and on the main continent of Gacane, where these natives have been taken. The short introduction on how you get to the Old Continent is a great start, dead ending into an emotional farewell to your homeland… and more.

I’m somewhat taken aback by the premise as a whole. Being ripped from your country is a traumatic event that plays out in front of your character’s eyes, and the way they portray your journey along with certain experiments being performed on you is horrifying. Thankfully you make it out, but you’re immediately on the run with a new set of characters who come along for the ride.

These characters are going to be the backbone of GreedFall II, and a strong backbone they are. I’ve already become attached to several of them, like Ludwig and Sybille. One of the reasons I enjoyed GreedFall was its companions, and the sequel looks like it’ll be just as wonderful in that area. Given the early access nature, I didn’t get nearly the amount of time or dialogue with them, and I assume we’ll get fleshed out companion missions in the future. The current roster is a great start, and I’m curious what cases of intrigue, love, or betrayal might occur once the full release is here.

Compelling characters are even better mixed with a great world, and while I’m not yet convinced on moving away from Teer Fradee being the best move, I’m willing to give Spiders the benefit of the doubt. The locations you visit in this build are limited to the initial Teer Fradee village, a prison you quickly escape, the mountainous ruins of the Eskiara region, and the port town of Uxantis and a surrounding grassland. I appreciate the dedication to making more biomes, and from the way this chapter ends, we’ll most certainly be seeing plenty of new ones along the way. My biggest curiosity is if we’ll get much bigger open-world sections, as while it feels a bit larger, they don’t seem much more substantial of maps than the original GreedFall.

Even so, the visual upgrade is quite evident. The detail in the environments and characters takes a huge jump. My favorite one has been looking at the tattoos on the Nauts; the elaborate markings look fantastic on their faces. There’s still a bit of the jank we tend to see from these games. The facial animations are still rough and between framerate stutters and pop-in the technical issues are covered. That said, we’re in early access, so there’s time to smooth things out. An awesome improvement I’ve noticed has been the load times. Fast travel is near instantaneous, with the only loading screen I get coming from moving into a new region. Walking into buildings doesn’t require any loading either, a big upgrade from the original.

Even in early access, I’m seeing a lot of the GreedFall I love. The missions you’ll embark upon are incredibly modular, with several different ways to complete them. These are often denoted in your journal as well, which is appreciated. Doing any sneaking around for these tasks has been a bit tougher. Tiptoeing through tall grass has its limits and there isn’t a dodge roll or ways to distract guards and dogs, but it’s a possible way to clear these undertakings.

The best way is always dialogue, and this is an area where GreedFall II excels. In the final quest I undertook, I was looking for evidence to clear myself of a crime. This took all of my skills, as in one space I snuck in and took papers that described a plot framing me, and at another I had to convince a business owner to speak as a witness on my behalf. What’s interesting about this is that I could undergo the trial almost immediately without taking the time to procure all of the extra evidence; it was my choice as to how much hot water I wanted to get into. Some games offer the illusion of choice, GreedFall presses you to actually make some.

A choice I’m still not sold on is the change in combat style, but it’s growing on me. I enjoyed it when we played in a session during Summer Game Fest, but at the start of early access I initially wanted more action. I believe a lot of my issue was in how I was approaching the combat however. It will remind many of you of the first Dragon Age, tactical in design. When I started hitting the tactical view to pause the game and plan my and my companion’s attacks before resuming, then swapping between characters to mix up my cooldown abilities, it began to click again. I still wonder if it’s the right move, and if it will hold up over the course of the game, but if the team manages to mix in plenty of different companions and skills, it should give the variety that’s necessary.

Speaking of variety, I’m a little concerned with enemy variety. The first GreedFall had some outstanding boss fights, but the lower-level foes got old after a while. If you don’t get creative here, it might drag down the new combat systems. So far, there’s been some different kinds of baddies, but the encounters have been familiar. I hope they’ll invest in giving some unique creatures and bandits to engage with, or we’ll be back at square one again.

After playing through this initial offering of GreedFall II: The Dying World, I’m glad it’s in early access for now. Even though I personally like the direction for the story and characters already, this avenue gives Spiders the chance to iron out the issues that can plague them. Introducing this new combat will take time, especially in polishing up some of its clunkiness. Technical issues are going to exist, so this is a good way to get the right kind of feedback. Obviously, Baldur’s Gate 3 is going to be pointed at for not only the comparison of genre, but in its early access release. If GreedFall II were to see a fraction of that success, it would be very successful. Time will tell, but I think they’re on the right track, sticking to what makes them special while making calculated changes to the formula.

You can grab GreedFall II: The Dying World now in Early Access through Steam.

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