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0 Spider Studios brings us their new pre-sequel GreedFall II: The Dying World. The events of this game take place 3 years prior to the events of the first game. In this game, however, we play as a native rather than the colonist. If you enjoyed the first and are looking to dive back into this beautiful world once again like me. Then you can find it out in early access today on Steam here.
A new land with newer foes
GreedFall II begins with a man named Furkan sitting in front of an easel painting someone, asking them to stay still. This leads you to the character creation screen, after which your mother comes to scold you about hanging around Furkan, as you have other things to do. After this, you and two other people from your village embark on trials to become sages.
Gameplay
After customising your character’s appearance, you must choose a Character Profile. This determines what starting weapon you get and what skills you specialise in. One example is Character Profile Protector, specialising in defence and controlling the battle. Or another is Doneigad, specialising in versatile Teer Fraeden magic. However, there is also the Free Creation option where you can choose what you see fit instead.
I selected Free Creation, and with this option, I had a choice of 6 trees. Three of them were for “Stance”, which provides moves/benefits to my character. Such as dealing more damage while losing defence. The other three are for the players’ preference of fighting. You have magic (aka Teer Fraeden), melee weapons (axes and swords, etc), and finally bows. The roadmap put out says more skill trees are on the way so there will be more variety.
Combat
GreedFall II’s combat seems to have chosen a more tactical approach compared to the previous entry. Instead of going around blocking and dodging, you will now select an enemy and attack. It looks to aim for more of a tactical approach similar to Baldur’s Gate 1/2 and Dragon Age. You’ll be able to pause combat to better use your spells or skills. I found the companions useless when turning on autonomy as well. So it’s better to do thing manually.
As I mentioned at the start of this preview, the game is in early access. I did have some issues with the combat. For example, the enemies would clip through the floor and when killed models would fly off. The combat can feel slow when you’re just watching them, so I’m hoping we can speed it up a little in future updates.
Graphics & Audio
The lighting and shadow designs look great and really compliment the woodland areas. The colours really stand out, and I particularly like the way the trees and foliage look. I also like the design of the forest and the village. Unfortunately, the facial animations are dead. On top of this, they also don’t match the tone of voice. Which is a pity as the voice acting isn’t perfect but is surprisingly good.
I found the textures also kept glitching out frequently, namely on character models. They take a few moments to load in, which is awkward when switching between POVs during a talking scene. The main menu music is fantastic. Booting up the game and hearing the music for the first time was amazing. It really added a great sense of grandeur to the adventure before it even began. Honestly it caught me off guard, but in the best way.
Longevity
Since the game is in early access, I thought it would be best to stop after the prologue. And so at the time of writing, I have spent around 7 plus hours on my current play through. When a game is in early access it is easy to judge it too much. However, having played the prologue I can honestly say I will be playing a lot more of GreedFall II.
Final Thoughts
I’m honestly looking forward to when GreedFall II releases as a full game. The combat plays just like the Dragon Age Franchise (which, funnily enough, I recently replayed). Which I love. As mentioned above, I stopped after the prologue as personally I prefer to play full games. But since I enjoyed the previous entry, I couldn’t resist putting my hand up to preview this title. The combat can feel slow and the animations are simplistic. But, after looking at the roadmap for the game, it looks to be getting a lot of meaty updates. I did also notice enemies had their asset names instead of Guard or Bandit. But this is still fresh out the door into early access, so there is much to arrive and change.
If you haven’t played the first GreedFall, I’d highly recommend it. It will scratch that tactical combat itch. Meanwhile I’ll be watching the GreedFall II updates keenly.
Disclaimer: A code was received in order to write this preview.
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