Greedfall: The Dying World [REVIEW] – An Ambitious but Mixed RPG Experience 

The original GreedFall managed to carve out its own little space in the RPG landscape with its undeniable B-tier charm, punching slightly above its weight with a genuinely intriguing setting and some decent action-based combat. And now, developer Spiders have returned with GreedFall: The Dying World, a prequel set three years before the original game. But instead of taking a massive leap forward as hoped, this second outing ends up feeling like a bit of a stumble, delivering an experience that makes some ambitious changes, but unfortunately falls short of the mark. 

Check out some screenshots down below: 

The narrative of GreedFall: The Dying World takes a different approach when compared to the original, because rather than playing as a coloniser who sets themselves up on the land with a sense of prestige, you step into the shoes of Vriden Gerr – a native islander who is currently training to become a sage. Before long, you and your friends are snatched up by foreign settlers and shipped off to the mainland continent of Gacane as prisoners, and of course, that’s where your true adventure begins. It is a solid premise that effectively flips the script, allowing the game to tackle heavier subjects that ensure it feels different to the original game from the word go. 

However, the execution of this story can be a bit all over the place. Whilst the narrative depth is undoubtedly there, the themes it explores can be pushed a little too hard, lessening their impact and making some aspects of the storytelling feel a bit forced. Plus, because this is a prequel, it falls into the classic trap of having relatively low stakes… we already know the broader fate of this world from the first game, so the grand political conspiracies and villainy struggle to generate any genuine tension when you know things in the world are going to be ok in the end. It’s a complaint that newcomers to the series might not face, but as a returning player, it was a little harder to invest myself in Vriden Gerr’s plight. 

Thankfully, the story is saved somewhat by some of the lower stake storytelling found with your allies. As you try to find your way home, you end up gathering a surprisingly diverse crew of allies, and whilst their motivations for sticking around can feel a bit flimsy at times, their individual storylines are genuinely enjoyable. They help flesh out the deep lore in a more personal and meaningful way, all whilst making the world feel more alive and believable. 

“GreedFall: The Dying World offers a large and fascinating world to explore and some fantastic roleplaying flexibility, but it constantly trips over itself.” 

But let us talk about the biggest (and perhaps most controversial) change in GreedFall: The Dying World… the combat. Spiders have completely binned the fast-paced action-RPG style of the first game in favour of a Real-Time with Pause system, heavily inspired by older tactical greats of the genre. Instead of dodging and slashing in real time, you now build up action points with basic attacks to unleash abilities via a hotbar, pausing the action whenever you need to issue orders to your squad. 

It was a bit of a risk to make such a change – especially with a reliance on pulling in returning fans of the base game – and in honesty, I’m still a little torn on it now. On the plus side, combat feels more strategic than before, the controller mapping for consoles is surprisingly slick, and the AI is smart enough to ensure that you’re not constantly having to babysit your allies. The moment-to-moment sequences of battles feel good, and when you face off against a formidable foe, it feels great to pull through and survive. If you’re into this style of combat, from a gameplay perspective, everything works really well. But when you actually try to get stuck in and complete technical tasks? The whole thing just feels a bit clunky, with the camera often feeling like it has a mind of its own, the animations looking a little rigid and jarring, and the punchy satisfaction of the original game’s action-based approach completely gone. It gets the basics right, but it lacks the finesse seen in similar titles in the genre. 

To make matters worse, the game is plagued by baffling difficulty spikes, and because enemy levels are hidden, you can effortlessly breeze through a mob of bad guys only to walk around the corner and get absolutely obliterated by a seemingly identical group. It forces you into frustrating situations where your only options are to grind for hours, rely on luck, or drop the difficulty down to the easiest mode, which can completely drain the tension from the gameplay. It’s just a series of little niggles that work against it, and whilst they’re forgivable individually, when coming together, it’s hard not to feel a little bit frustrated. 

Check out some screenshots down below: 

Fortunately, the game shines a lot more when you’re not in battle. GreedFall: The Dying World leans heavily into its roleplaying roots with a brilliant Talents system, and depending on how you allocate your points, you can approach missions in entirely different ways. It is properly rewarding RPG design that encourages multiple playthroughs, because the variety in how you can approach just about every situation really is impressive. It complements the storytelling and shows that there are areas where GreedFall: The Dying World really excels when compared to its predecessor. 

Presentation-wise, the game is a bit of a mixed bag. The character models are great and some of the visual effects really shine through, but the world itself lacks that same sense of detail and character. The audio is similarly inconsistent, and whilst the soundtrack is decent, the voice acting is made up of a weird mish-mash of accents. There’s nothing bad in either department at all, but at the same time, there’s nothing that’ll overly impress you either. 

It’s the performance that lets it down, and playing on console, you are going to run into some noticeable technical turbulence. Panning the camera results in heavy motion blur and stuttering, and the loading sequences can be noticeably long at times. I even had a couple of crashes in my playtime, whilst the occasional frame drop could halt the action. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think there’s anything so problematic that it makes GreedFall: The Dying World unplayable in any way, but it could do with a patch or two just to fix some little quirks. 

Developer: Spiders 
Publisher: Nacon 
Platform(s): PlayStation 5 (Reviewed), Xbox Series X|S, PC 
Website: https://greedfall2.com/