I really, really like GreedFall: The Dying World. This is an unusual way to open a review, but I felt it necessary to begin by making that statement outright. The game hits all the notes that I always hoped a sequel to GreedFall would hit in the RPG department: great characters, quality writing, lots of dialogue options, deep gameplay systems, and a beautiful, fascinating world to explore. That said, it saddens me greatly to say that GreedFall: The Dying World is the definition of a game released out of early access too soon. So, how can I make both my initial declaration and qualify it in such a fashion? Allow me to explain.
GreedFall: The Dying World, developed by Spiders and published by Nacon, is a prequel to 2019’s GreedFall, also developed by Spiders but published by Focus Home Interactive. The original game was fairly well received, with compliments on its voice acting, world building, storytelling, and RPG elements, but criticism about its gameplay, some repetition, and generally buggy nature held it back from greatness in the critics’ eyes. Enter GreedFall: The Dying World.
Transformation Over Iteration
Spiders released the game into early access in September 2024 and, in a shocking move to fans of the first game, overhauled the combat. Rather than attempt to refine and fine-tune the action-RPG gameplay of its predecessor, Spiders turned GreedFall: The Dying World’s combat into a real-time with pause tactical RPG, along the lines of Dragon Age: Origins or Pillars of Eternity. This change immediately proved controversial among the community; a shift from action-RPG to real-time with paused turned a lot of people off from ever playing the game, and that decision was, in my opinion, detrimental.
GreedFall sold very well, and had a solid foundation for a future entry in the series in its gameplay, despite the issues. Spiders’ decision to change combat entirely was a drain on the already small studio’s resources for the ambition of GreedFall: The Dying World. It’s a shame, too, because the combat system they made works very well, but it needed more time to flesh it out and balance it better. You have a party of four with the ability to control each of them in combat, issuing commands like using spells or taking actions. Each party member has a single class of weapons available to them, except your player character, who can use any weapons (some after being taught by your companions). The combat begins very engaging and even somewhat challenging on their recommended difficulty mode. However, it eventually got to the point where the party trounced over enemies, even bosses, without much fuss. If you don’t want to give commands, the AI can take over and intelligently manage your companions skills and action points, the latter of which are required for skill usage.
Aside from eventually being easy, combat’s main issue is its repetitive nature. Enemies respawn in specific locations with a high rate of return, so you end up fighting the same groups repeatedly. Some of them look really cool, too, but there are a lot of simple human enemies or crab-like creatures, so some more designs would have been nice for different parts of the map.
See the World, Meet Interesting People, and…?
Speaking of the map, there is a world map where you choose which open zone you want to explore, similar to the first game, except now you are primarily on the continent of Gacane, instead of the island of Teer Fradee. You also have a home-base ship that you use to travel around; you don’t control it, but you fast travel to it when changing nations. On the ship, you can buy and sell items, craft new gear or gear upgrades, and rest to heal. You can also talk to your companions, who let you ask questions about them, their people, and give quests.
Companions is one of the areas that GreedFall: The Dying World shines the most. The companions all have so much charm and character to them. They are unique individuals with their own personalities and motivations. They react different to dialogue choices, where Nílan likes when you help Teer Fradee refugees and stick it to the continent’s nations, but Sybille prefers diplomacy and the opportunity to speak for herself. Except for Till, each of the companions has a question associated with them; it appears that Till’s entire chunk of content was cut before release; if you don’t bring him on main quests, he has nothing to say after your first conversation. This is, sadly, just another area where it’s clear the game was not finished. Along those same lines, four companions have romance, but in early access, more of them were supposed to have romance arcs, but they were also cut for time.
Dialogue choices are amongst the most fun of GreedFall: The Dying World, because you can be a total jerk if you so choose. Unlike, say, Dragon Age: The Veilguard, where they were all flavors of niceness, Vriden Gerr, the player character, can do bad things. You can let your people work as slaves, you can bribe people, you can attack people you don’t necessarily have to. It’s very cool, and very in-depth, but would have benefited from even more reactivity in the world.
One awesome thing is companions you bring with you will chime in on what’s happening. Till will ask you not to fight the Coin Guard soldiers, or Sybille will offer to handle a situation with her words and hemp you skip a fight. It’s not always a practical comment, sometimes its just flavor, but they all have it, and they all speak at moments you would expect them to. Ludwig isn’t acting like he’s not there when talking to a Duchess from his homeland.
A World Worth Saving
Additionally, each companion has a homeland or a faction they represent, offering various perspectives. The GreedFall universe is so incredibly detailed that each nation and faction within have their own unique culture. While embodied by companions, it’s equally true in the cities and environments you explore. From the science district of Olima to the docks of Uxantis, there are wonderful environmental touches that make the world feel alive. People milling about, chatter going on as you pass by, the occasional side quest just popping up, all of it immerses you in this world. It’s a world you quickly grow interested in and attached to, a world you want to save.
And save it you must! The main quests embroils Vriden Gerr in a continent wide conspiracy to conquer Gacane and kill all the natives of Teer Fradee. The antagonist is an interesting character, attempting to replicate the complex nature of a Teyrn Loghain Mac Tir from Dragon Age: Origins, but he’s off screen far more than he’s on, so he doesn’t quite get there. It’s a pity, considering they hired the likes of Neil Newbon (of Baldur’s Gate 3‘s Astarion fame) to voice him. That said, the characters who do feature are very good, with quality voice acting and writing, and while some have more involvement than others, they never lack for personality.
Greedfall The Dying World is surprisingly long. There are only a handful of side quests that are not also companion quests, but the game itself, doing everything I could, took me around 55 hours (probably more because I save scum constantly; I’ve never met a chest I was unwilling to reload until I unlocked it!). I had a blast the whole time I was playing, always looking forward to my next play session. I enjoyed it despite the bugs, numerous technical issues, and unfinished state of the game.
The Unfinished, Probably Dead, World
Yes, there are a lot of bugs and technical issues in GreedFall: The Dying World. I experienced a handful of crashes to the home screen of the PS5 Pro; this became more frequent and was most common towards the end of the game, particularly as I loaded into a new nation on my ship. The game would hitch and stutter, usually making it through, but sometimes not. I also came across a peculiar problem where a character would go down in combat and not be revivable during, and would stay down after. Fast travel, resting, loading the ship, restarting the game, nothing would bring the character back. I ended up having to reload to just before the fight. I was cautious after the first time, so I’m not sure if it would have happened again. Once, a companion quest just had no voices for a scene, and then resumed them at the next one. I personally never hit any progression blocking bugs, but I saw reports online about them.
GreedFall: The Dying World is simply unfinished. I truly believe that the decision to shift combat took resources away from polishing this game’s incredible RPG systems, and, in the end, dooms the game and probably the franchise. I opened up saying how much I really liked this game, and I stand by that. I was happy to put up with the problems because of how much I love this world and how good the quality aspects truly are. But an entire companion’s content cut, only a handful of side quests, crashes and bugs, and a general lack of polish all add up to a game that’s just okay for the average person. It’s a game that had the potential to be superb, a future classic or all-time great, but sadly crumbles into just a decent game.
Thank you to Spiders and our PR partners for review access to Greedfall : The Dying World. You can find Seasoned Gaming’s review policy here.
