The original Greedfall was released back in 2019 and became quite a hit for fans of open-world RPGs that have a heavy emphasis on lore and companion involvement. For fans of the original Dragon Age games, Elder Scrolls, and similar RPGs, Greedfall became a favorite within those communities. In 2024, Spiders is back with Greedfall 2: The Dying World, this time launching in Early Access, meaning only a PC launch for now, with console releases coming once the game has hit 1.0 on PC.
Releasing on September 24th, 2024, Greedfall 2 aims to take those fans along for the ride as they reach their 1.0 release. Working with the community to fully flesh out the ambitious systems it intends to create for its sequel. The wonderfully weird island of Teer Fradee is where we will return to in the sequel, which looks even better than it ever did and of course just as aesthetically unique as in the original game.
Major Combat Overhaul and More
The biggest change you will find in Greedfall 2 compared to the original is the entirely new combat system. The original game used a fairly basic hack-and-slash system, which has been entirely removed and overhauled for the sequel. My time with Greedfall 2 found me in combat encounters that I could now partially pause, analyzing the enemies, assigning actions, and letting them play out after. If this sounds a lot like Dragon Age Origins, well it very much plays out in the same way, while the UI, timing, and more are unique to Greedfall 2, the flow very much feels like the combat so many of us enjoyed in the very first Dragon Age.
The combat provides a lot of options for your entire party and the people in your party play a large role in the story and the choices you will make. Even within the limited content in the Early Access launch, the story and characters were engaging and I had become attached to my party and their own desires, attitudes, and storylines. The systems at work here are very involved as pausing the game in combat also helps you better understand how these characters think and what they are best at. Some characters are good at tracking animals, some at picking locks, sneaking, disarming traps, and much more. This makes characters feel alive in combat and throughout their time with you during your travels.
Be Ready to Immerse Yourself
The most unique part of the first Greedfall was the lore, cultures you met, languages spoken, and many other ways the game immersed you in the game’s world. That means a commitment from the player as most of the dialogue is subtitled with the languages from the various groups in the game. Along with a lot of dialogue, decisions to make between multiple characters, and much more. This is a very involved game that requires you to read, listen, and be part of this world just like everyone else in Teer Fradee. Also, the sequel is actually a prequel, taking place 3 years before the events of the first game, providing a lot of new context to the original game, all while continuing to build this amazingly realized world.
If you are a gamer who likes to immersive yourself in a world like this, then you will have one of the most immersive RPG experiences out there. This was the original game’s biggest strength and it continues to be for this entry. The music is beautiful, sometimes with lyrics in various languages, and ranges
Early Access Look
While there have been no game-breaking issues for me, there have been a multitude of small problems that have added up. There are severe traversal stutter issues with my framerate going from 120+ down to the low 60s for seconds at a time, it is very disruptive. The performance seems on par with the first game, with no amazing visuals and fairly low performance. I have an i7, 32GB RAM, and an RTX 4080, so the visuals and the performance for the system is just…low. Hopefully, we see optimization but this seems on par with the first game. Loading times can also be quite long for games in this day and age, and I have extremely fast SSDs. My Steam Deck OLED died and had to be sent to Valve so I wasn’t able to test this on Deck yet, but once I can I will update the article.
The menus can sometimes have a mind of their own and will show every selection being highlighted quickly, despite this the menus will still work fine so it seems to be just a visual glitch. Also, the main menu uses an extremely low-quality video as the background, hopefully, this is a placeholder and will be replaced as it is an extreme eyesore. Also texture pop-in, on characters more than anything, happens very often. There have been more things along these lines, again nothing major and they all seem like things that will be fixed with updates.
Also, a big caveat here is that saves will likely be wiped as the game gets major updates, the early access launch only has 30% of the final game and even then most of that content won’t even be at launch on September 24th with most of it coming over the next few months. I was able to get in 13 hours into the Early Access content available on day one so far, so it is at least a decent amount of content and I have not completed it yet. See below for the current roadmap for the launch period and what future updates will hold for autumn, winter, and beyond.
Conclusion
I came away from the Early Access period for Greedfall II: The Dying World very impressed. The game has seen a lot of major overhauls and changes that update a lot of the less robust systems in the first game. I have avoided comparing the game to Baldur’s Gate 3 which has similar combat, but there just isn’t as much flexibility in the combat and character interactions so the comparison to Dragon Age: Origins is much more suitable. Spiders wants to try and expand the combat as much as they can during the Early Access period, so I am sure we will see a lot more options and combinations as the game evolves.
Greedfall II: The Dying World has been a very promising Early Access launch, Spiders is taking large strides to overhaul what didn’t work in the first game and work with the community to improve the game moving forward. There is a wonderful foundation here that is as robust as games as Dragon Age: Origins already and the Early Access period could push this to the same unlimited flexibility in combat and story that Baldur’s Gate 3 was able to reach. While that may be a tall order, there is already so much here that reminds me of both games in an extremely positive way.
Check it out on September 24th!
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