GreedFall
- September 10, 2019
- Spiders
- 27h median play time
A compelling action-RPG adventure with a unique narrative, impressive artstyle and strong writing that shines brightest in its quests.
Greedfall: Gold Edition is the most complete way to experience the critically-acclaimed RPG, including the base game and the De Vespe conspiracy story expansion. Explore uncharted new lands as you set foot on a remote island seeping with magic, and filled with riches, lost secrets, and fantastic creatures. Forge this new world's destiny, as you befriend or betray companions and entire factions. Wi…
Reviews
- Engaging story with rich world-building and interesting characters.
- Multiple ways to approach quests, allowing for meaningful choices and consequences.
- Beautiful graphics and a unique colonial fantasy setting.
- Repetitive quests often involve excessive backtracking and running from point A to B.
- Combat can feel clunky and lacks depth, leading to a monotonous experience.
- Many NPCs and environments are reused, making the world feel less immersive.
- story9,900 mentions
- 36 % positive mentions
- 58 % neutral mentions
- 5 % negative mentions
The story of "Greedfall" is generally praised for its engaging narrative, rich lore, and well-developed characters, with many players appreciating the political intrigue and moral complexity woven throughout the quests. However, the quest design often suffers from repetitive fetch mechanics, requiring players to travel back and forth between locations, which can detract from the overall experience. While the main storyline is compelling, some players find it predictable and feel that the pacing slows significantly in the latter parts of the game, leading to a sense of tedium despite the intriguing premise.
“The story is engaging, the voice acting is good, I actually enjoy the dialogue and the menial side missions which pay off with more lore or relations with the factions.”
“The story itself and the constantly grey morals of everyone involved, including De Sardet!”
“The story is quite rich; I spent hours on a quest that I didn't even realize was a side quest!”
“The quests are very much organized in the courier pattern: go there, do that, come back and then... go there and come back and so on... quite obsolete after games that offer a real sensation of free traveling and exploration.”
“The story is linear, predictable, and filled with fetch quests that require excessive backtracking, making the gameplay tedious and unengaging.”
“The story is mediocre and requires lots of back and forth walking just to trigger the next poorly lip-synced dialogue sequence.”
- gameplay1,861 mentions
- 30 % positive mentions
- 59 % neutral mentions
- 11 % negative mentions
The gameplay of Greedfall has received mixed reviews, with many players noting its janky mechanics and repetitive quest structure, often likening it to older RPGs like Dragon Age and The Witcher. While some appreciate the engaging story and character interactions, others criticize the combat for being simplistic and the overall gameplay for lacking depth and polish. Despite its flaws, the game offers a decent experience for those who prioritize narrative and exploration over refined mechanics.
“The gameplay and dynamics are good, the map is vast enough, exploration is fun and the story is also very good.”
“Gameplay-wise this feels like a combination somewhere between Gothic and Dragon Age, which is good to see, as it is an actual, traditionally hardcore game.”
“The gameplay is fun, combat is engaging, character drops are immaculate, enemies have great designs and companions are full of life.”
“However, there are a lot of annoying flaws in the game, like repeating objects, places, and the overall gameplay.”
“The gameplay is repetitive and boring; I can’t even call it mediocre.”
“The gameplay is absolutely terrible, but the story and world-building are unreal, so good.”
- graphics1,643 mentions
- 51 % positive mentions
- 43 % neutral mentions
- 6 % negative mentions
The graphics of "Greedfall" receive mixed reviews, with many players praising the beautiful environments and artistic design that evoke a colonial aesthetic. However, some criticize the dated character models and animations, particularly facial expressions, which detract from the overall experience. While the visuals are generally considered good for a mid-tier game, they fall short of AAA standards, leading to a consensus that the graphics are decent but could benefit from further polish and optimization.
“The graphics are beautiful, even though the game is old now.”
“The graphics even hold up very well to this day.”
“The graphics are stunning, and I find the characters to be generally interesting, and the storyline engaging.”
“This game has extraordinary story dialog details, but the graphics and animations look like 'in-game' assets due to a lack of budget.”
“As a game from 2019, it has dated graphics, graphical glitches out the wazoo, a barren, boring environment, stilted writing and dialogue, and drags on for way past its welcome.”
“The graphics are pretty bad for a current-generation game.”
- music357 mentions
- 49 % positive mentions
- 46 % neutral mentions
- 5 % negative mentions
The music in the game receives mixed reviews, with some praising its ability to enhance the atmosphere and fit the setting, while others find it repetitive and forgettable. Many players appreciate the soundtrack's quality during combat and exploration, but note that it often lacks variety and can fade into the background. Overall, while the music contributes positively to the game's ambiance, it could benefit from more memorable and diverse compositions.
“The music is phenomenal.”
“The game's soundtrack is equally impressive, with expertly composed music that creates the perfect atmosphere for each scene.”
“The music is great overall, fitting to the setting.”
“Music could, however, do with much improvement. In most beautiful areas, the music was either just extremely shallow or absolutely absent - with some stunning soundtrack, this game could have been much more enjoyable, in my humble opinion.”
“The music is there, it's alright but not memorable at all, and the environment looks decent.”
“The soundtrack is where the atmosphere really shines, and though quite a few songs get recycled way too often, the quality more than makes up for it.”
- grinding338 mentions
- 1 % positive mentions
- 4 % neutral mentions
- 95 % negative mentions
The reviews highlight that the grinding aspect of the game is often tedious and repetitive, with many quests requiring excessive back-and-forth travel between NPCs, leading to a sense of monotony. Players frequently express frustration with the lack of meaningful upgrades and the repetitive nature of combat, which can detract from the overall enjoyment of the game. While some appreciate the story and character interactions, the overwhelming sentiment is that the gameplay becomes a grind, making it feel more like a chore than an engaging experience.
“Greedfall requires no grinding and I have to say the time it takes for leveling is very well balanced and happens always at the right time.”
“The best part is that there is no grinding or 'fetch' quest; every quest you do is linked to an overarching story.”
“Not too grindy; I was able to hit about level 32 by the end of the game, probably could have hit level 35 if I had finished up the last two companion storylines and a couple side missions I had left before finishing, but the main storyline caught my attention and I ended up powering through the last leg of the story just to see how it all ended.”
“You'll be doing a ton of back-and-forth travel in quests, which gets old quick and tedious, but you'll spend more time admiring the environments; I think that's on purpose.”
“The quests get tedious very quickly -- almost all quests have you run all over the map (often using fast-travel), running from person to person to exchange a few words with them, repeating this a considerable number of times, until you have finished the quest.”
“The fetch quests are tedious and comprise about 80% of all quests.”
- stability250 mentions
- 8 % positive mentions
- 1 % neutral mentions
- 90 % negative mentions
Overall, the game's stability is a mixed bag, with many players reporting a range of bugs and glitches, particularly in animations, quests, and dialogue. While some users experienced minimal issues and found the game enjoyable despite its imperfections, others noted significant problems that could disrupt gameplay, such as crashes and quest-breaking bugs. Despite these concerns, many players still recommend the game for its engaging story and gameplay, suggesting that the glitches, while present, do not entirely detract from the overall experience.
“For an older game, it runs great and the graphics are well done for the time.”
“The performance has been good; I have a good PC but nothing amazing (Intel i9 with 980 GTX) and the game runs great on high/ultra settings.”
“Almost bug free, and in 40+ hours of play, I have had no crashes.”
“Every game from the developer ends up being buggy and janky as all hell and holds the story back; hopefully one day they get it right.”
“The game is still buggy; it crashes or final dialogs from quests repeat indefinitely, so some quests just never end.”
“This game is a buggy mess at times.”
- optimization238 mentions
- 22 % positive mentions
- 46 % neutral mentions
- 32 % negative mentions
The game's optimization has received mixed reviews, with many players experiencing significant performance issues such as frame rate drops, stuttering, and memory leaks, even on high-end systems. While some users report smooth gameplay on lower settings, others find that the game struggles to maintain consistent performance, particularly in demanding areas like cities. Overall, it appears that the game requires further optimization and polishing to enhance the gaming experience.
“The game performs reasonably well, with good optimization.”
“Performance: excellent.”
“The graphics are really good and the performance feels good too, except I couldn't use clothes physics on ultra due to some weird stuttering (playing on ultra 4k) but the rest was fine.”
“The game's graphics are demanding, and even with top-of-the-line hardware, the game's performance is subpar.”
“Game is horribly optimized to this day.”
“The performance just degrades slowly as you play.”
- atmosphere175 mentions
- 64 % positive mentions
- 34 % neutral mentions
- 2 % negative mentions
The atmosphere in "Greedfall" is widely praised for its immersive and beautifully crafted environments, which evoke a strong sense of exploration and intrigue reminiscent of classic RPGs like "Dragon Age" and "The Witcher." Players appreciate the game's rich visuals, detailed settings, and effective soundtrack that enhance the storytelling and character development, despite some criticisms regarding repetitive elements and a lack of ambient sounds in certain areas. Overall, the game's atmosphere is considered one of its standout features, drawing players into its unique colonial world filled with political intrigue and vibrant landscapes.
“The atmosphere created was excellent.”
“The atmosphere is top notch, it's my favorite thing about the game and I loved the aesthetic.”
“The game absolutely nails it when it comes to atmosphere and a very focused story-driven experience.”
“The atmosphere feels very much like a poor attempt to mimic Dishonored.”
“No atmosphere whatsoever, the sidequests are unmotivated (one on the sidequest givers even says 'yeah you do not have to do this') so I have no inspiration, no spirit to follow it.”
“Lore of the world is scarce and therefore you can't properly feel the atmosphere.”
- character development143 mentions
- 38 % positive mentions
- 52 % neutral mentions
- 10 % negative mentions
Character development in the game is a mixed bag, with some players praising the depth and impact of companion quests and side missions, while others criticize it for being linear and lacking meaningful choices. Many appreciate the unique relationships and moral nuances, but some feel that character design and animations are outdated and detract from the overall experience. Overall, while there are strong elements of character development, particularly in storytelling and companion interactions, there are also significant shortcomings that prevent it from reaching its full potential.
“Greedfall offers a compelling narrative experience with rich storytelling, strong character development, and a captivating environment.”
“The characters and factions of this game inspire real love and hatred, and the character development is some of the best in any game.”
“A game that becomes more than the sum of its whole as you continue to play, Greedfall pulls you into the world and the unique colonial setting while immersing you in impactful character development choices.”
“The story is non appealing and there is absolutely no character development.”
“Character development is as linear as it gets, so you can also forget all about builds.”
“Character development, a core element of RPGs, is very limited and does not give the opportunity to create a character that is interesting to play.”
- replayability123 mentions
- 24 % positive mentions
- 59 % neutral mentions
- 17 % negative mentions
The reviews on replayability are mixed, with some players praising the game for its multiple choices and endings that encourage exploration of different character builds and quest outcomes, while others criticize it for a lack of engaging content and repetitive gameplay that diminishes the incentive to replay. Many noted that while there are options for different playstyles and story paths, the overall experience can feel tedious, leading to a perception of limited replay value. Overall, the game offers some replayability, but it may not be compelling enough for all players to return after their initial playthrough.
“I can tell that there is a good level of replayability here to try out different skills and make different choices which impact the game as I go along.”
“The game lets you heavily impact the story, and there are so many different variables to discover that may change simply depending on which order you complete quests in, or who you bring with you, and thus replayability is very high.”
“Great replay value if you want to go for the other endings and romance all the different characters.”
“It's a great concept but it's incredibly boring with very little replay value.”
“The repetitiveness, lack of replay value, and bland execution of what otherwise could have been a great game severely hamper its worth.”
“Overall, my main reason for being upset with the game is that it felt like a chore and has no replayability value for me - I'm not interested in trying out the different outcomes for quests that aren't memorable nor exploring other builds as combat is also a chore mid game onwards.”
- humor112 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The humor in the game is often described as unintentional, stemming from awkward dialogue, poor facial animations, and various glitches that lead to amusing moments. While some players appreciate the occasional funny interactions and character quirks, many feel that the overall humor is lacking, with a mix of comedic potential overshadowed by a generally serious tone and repetitive gameplay. Despite its flaws, the game manages to elicit laughter through its absurdities and unexpected moments, making it a source of both frustration and amusement for players.
“There was one memorable (and unintentionally hilarious moment) where De Sardet ripped someone a new one, only to end the conversation very sweetly with 'and I look forward to seeing you again, your excellency.'”
“It's funny to see identical faces on different NPCs, but it's not funny when you realize that 60-70% of your time in the game is just walking... walking... walking.”
“The way the NPCs move from one point to another in their supposed daily lives or try to guide you can be rather hilarious, as sometimes they would get stuck behind objects and walk on the same spot for a bit until you give them a nudge.”
- emotional85 mentions
- 91 % positive mentions
- 1 % neutral mentions
- 8 % negative mentions
The emotional aspect of the game received mixed reviews, with some players finding the story and character interactions deeply moving, particularly towards the end, while others criticized the lack of emotional investment due to poor character development and clunky mechanics. Many noted that while certain moments were touching, the overall narrative often felt predictable or unengaging, leading to a disconnect from the characters and their struggles. Ultimately, the game succeeded in evoking strong feelings for some, but left others feeling detached and unimpressed.
“By the time I got to the ending and saw my beloved characters depart, and Vasco as well as my character have an intimate moment, I cried a little, and then sought out to save the island for good!”
“The ending emotionally destroyed me, and I do not think I will be recovering from that anytime soon.”
“The story draws you in; I was super emotionally invested in it.”
“And if you remove that, it is basically a walk-and-talk simulator, with a fairly boring story and uninteresting characters, that you never really get involved in.”
“Awful camera, clunky movement, clunky combat and most importantly bland and boring story and characters.”
“Boring story, boring dialogs, boring setting.”
- monetization39 mentions
- 15 % positive mentions
- 46 % neutral mentions
- 38 % negative mentions
The monetization aspect of the game is largely praised for its absence of microtransactions and predatory practices, which many players find refreshing in a market saturated with such tactics. While there is some criticism regarding the DLC being perceived as a cash grab, the overall sentiment is that the game offers a complete experience without the usual monetization pitfalls, allowing players to enjoy the story and gameplay without additional costs.
“It doesn't have microtransactions or other predatory policies.”
“This game contains no microtransactions, which is a relief.”
“No microtransactions that is the best part.”
“Btw the DLC is a cash grab and offers nothing to the player but a little bit of side story that is just plain boring.”
“The developer and publisher originally stated that there was to be no DLC nor microtransactions, but now it turns out there is DLC after all.”
“While DLC is okay if it matches the quality of the base game, gives value for money and isn't simply content cut from the base game, one of the DLCs is pretty much a cash grab and should have been a free DLC or something.”
Critic Reviews
Greedfall PS4 Review – Brave New World
A compelling action-RPG adventure with a unique narrative, impressive artstyle and strong writing that shines brightest in its quests.
86%GreedFall Review – Scratch That BioWare Itch
GreedFall is a welcome arrival in the fantasy RPG space, a space that has been bafflingly uncrowded of late. But it doesn't just impress because of a lack of alternatives. It successfully delivers nearly everything that one would want to see in a game of this genre, and does so in convincing fashion. Fans of western role playing games who have lamented the absence of many true contenders in the genre this generation, prepare yourselves: a new heir to the legacy of BioWare is here at last.
80%GreedFall
GreedFall Review – Empowering Choice
73%