Well, finally finished it. And I have to say, a very good RPG from Spiders, but falls short of Bioware's and CD Projekt Red's best efforts. Despite that, I enjoyed every minute playing Greedfall and unlike say Dragon Age: Inquisition.
If I'm going to get into detail about my likes and dislikes:
LIKE
- Combat is fun. Went with the Technician tree and had a blast using guns and bombs to wreck fools.
- Companions are an interesting bunch and I liked the fact they each had a sidequest dedicated to them. My favorite being Kurt's.
- Smart decision by the developers to divide the island into small zones. Makes exploration much easier.
- I like that the game design allows you multiple solutions to resolve quests. I put points in Charisma which allowed me to sweet talk my way out of some hairy situations. It also made the most sense storywise, as De Sardet is supposed to be a diplomat.
- The world Spiders has created is interesting and original. It borrows heavily from colonial stories such as The Last of the Mohicans and Assassin's Creed 3. A good change from aping JRR Tolkien again.
DISLIKE
- The story feels... half baked I should say? It's not bad, but I think the game needed maybe 30 more hours of content to fully flesh out storylines and other plot threads. Even your companions don't even get much development after their companion quest is done. I think the best example I can come up with regarding this is the ending. The game just ends like that after you kill the final boss, and we're treated to a slideshow of the outcomes of your companions and the island's faction. I would have liked an epilogue much like in The Witcher 3 to see how my choices affected the land.
- This is obviously not a AAA budgeted game, and it shows. Lip synching for the characters isn't perfect and during conversations characters would be looking at another character and not the one who is speaking. Hopefully in their next title Spiders will have a bigger budget to solve issues like this.
- Why can't I control my companions in combat? This was a major misstep on Spider's part as I would have preferred this be a full on tactical party based mechanic. It would have made fights in the game more interesting.
- Constantin as the game's main antagonist is disappointing. Going back to my complaint above about the story feeling half baked, we don't get much of Constantin's backstory other than he's the son of the Prince of the Merchant Congregation and he and De Sardet have a close familial bond as cousins. It would have been nice to see the two of them interact more, but alas you don't get much opportunity to talk with him. It would have built up the stakes emotionally when you're forced to fight him, and the fact that you have to kill him to get the good ending should have been devastating.
- I wish the natives of Teer Fradee didn't fall into the stereotype of being Magical Natives in touch with nature. It makes most of them seem dull as characters and they could have stood to have a bunch of outright bastards among them. The closest would be Ulan, one of the clan chiefs you can elect High King. But he's more of a opportunist rather than a outright villain. Also, I wished their god had more character than just being a benevolent nature spirit. It would have added complexity to the decision on whether you should side with the natives against the other factions.
So there it is. I still enjoyed the game and am happy with the time I spent on it. But if Spiders makes a sequel I hope they address all the criticisms I've stated. It's a solid 7/10 from me.
