Full disclosure: This is my first-ever written game review. My opinion, at least according to you, is probably worth not a whole lot. But I will provide you what I find so often lacking from major game review sites; a short version and a longer version. In the next paragraph, you will read my honest opinion on whether or not you should buy and subsequently play this game. Everything after that is the reasoning for the decision. Hopefully, you are just looking for a push in one direction or the other and I am here to provide that. There is also a pros and cons list.  And just as a side note, the real reason I am writing this because I too had trepidation about purchasing this game. I spent most of my morning trying to find honest, and thoughtful reviews but I had no luck. I understand that a review embargo exists, and through the countless YouTube play-through videos I sifted through, I was left wanting.

The Short

Having sunk about 10 hours (8 according to Steam) into new action role-playing game GreedFall, I can honestly say it is worth playing. If you are having second thoughts or unsure about picking it up, I fully recommend that you do. At a price tag of $50 USD, I believe fans of semi-open world RPGs will thoroughly enjoy spending time exploring GreedFall and all it has to offer. If you twisted my arm and spent a full ten minutes persuading me to give you an X out of 10 score, I’d sit softly at 7 for now. 7/10. I will probably come back and amend this, for better or worse, once I finish exploring the multiple endings.

The Long

I will do my best to avoid major story spoilers but please note there may be some minor spoilers in an attempt to bring you an honest review.

GreedFall, from the developer Spiders, is an enchanting and immersive experience. Right from the start, you are thrust into a living and breathing world, where you can do as you please when you please with only a few restrictions. This game tries it’s damnedest to be an open-world experience but you’ll soon find that the areas to explore do have some boundaries and that some foliage/architecture are either untraversable or blocked with invisible walls. As with every game you will probably want to test the limits (does fire hurt you, is there fall damage, etc.) and there were only a few times that I was disappointed by an invisible blockade. The world is where this game truly shines. From sound design to subtle musical queues you truly feel transported into another world. I often found myself wandering not just to explore but to revel in the immersion that GreedFall has to offer.

Another core strength of this game is the questing. Quests in RPGs are so often go here and kill this, go here and collect this, commonly referred to as fetch quests. GreedFall, whilst having some of these, boasts tons of quests that not only require the player to do more than the common fetching but give the player multiple options to achieve their goal. Even in the early stages, I had a strong desire to replay quests I had just finished. You can approach obstacles and enemies from multiple directions and with multiple skill sets. Want to sneak by the guards and burn your way through a wall? You can do it. You got a two-handed axe that needs swinging? Go ahead. Maybe you’d like to use your silver-tongue to convince or bribe your way out? GreedFall has it. Just something to note about the starting area, you will encounter a use for pretty much every talent you can start with; alchemy, intuition, all of them. Some quests are even time-gated as the game features a day and night system. 

As for the combat, I found it to be a little lacking. Granted I am only in my first playthrough going as a pure mage, I often find combat to be unwieldy while also being not so difficult. While exploring you can happen upon enemies and seamlessly transition into combat, it often surprised me. Fighting multiple enemies, with multiple companions, makes battles seem cluttered and a pain to manage. The enemies aren’t hard to defeat, just hard to target specifically. Plus with no way to directly order your companions, they will often kill enemies before you even get a chance to engage with them. The game does make you feel powerful, however. Throwing spells feels good, and teleport dodges are insanely fun to use. Your heavy and light attacks feel different and in turn inflict different statuses on your enemies. The combat can be very deep, in terms of the information you are offered. Tactical Pauses make breaks in combat feel like you can make split-second decisions in split seconds. I will say that once you figure out how to effectively dodge and parry that combat becomes trivial. Some damage numbers need tweaking I believe and even on extreme difficulty, I can walk through encounters. The combat is fun, I will say that.   

A huge sell for me in this game is that the choices and dialogue options you choose have weight. You’ll find yourself exploring moral conundrums where both sides are right (or wrong) and making difficult choices based on what factions and companions you want to appease. What I had thought was a seemingly harmless interaction ended up hurting my relationship with one of my companions, and it felt devastating. I care about this person and my words have consequences. I haven’t found a particular favorite faction though I suspect I will as I progress. Also, something to note is that the character you play as doesn’t feel as dumb as other games. Your dialogue comes across as a character who actually lives in the world and has more than just a basic knowledge of it’s happenings. Many times I was choosing dialogue options expecting my character to be rigid and unrelenting yet most times he would come across as understanding and open-minded. Extremely refreshing.

Pros:

• Sound Design. Music and Voice Acting is superb throughout.
• Environments are engrossing and enchanting. The world feels lived in.
• Multiple approaches to quests, some day or night gated.
• Some quests allow for a fast travel after completion, feels like a courtesy.

Cons:

• Animations are wonky. Faces, walking, some cut scene character stutters.
• Character feels too light. Turns and camera movement feel incredibly fast and touchy.
• Combat takes some getting used to, lack of lock on system makes multiple enemies annoying.

A Final Word

The game feels good, it does. It scratches my immersive RPG itch insanely well and I’ve only put ten hours into it. I feel like I still have so much to explore and can’t wait to experience everything GreedFall has to offer. This game is not without its flaws though. Animations can be wonky, and the combat will not be enjoyed by everyone. The game is immersive and the world is incredible, but it seems to lack some polish in some places. However, it is absolutely worth the purchase price and I believe that most RPG fans will enjoy their time spent here. If you have any questions feel free to post them below, I’ll do my best to answer them. Until then I’m going to keep exploring and keep trying to appease every faction. See you in the multiple endings.