Greedfall is one of the hardest reviews I have ever had to write for a video game. I have played up until the 10 hour mark at this point and I simply cannot make up my mind on the game. At times Greedfall showcases quest and world design that could rival even peak Bioware, at other times it’s hampered by terrible combat and weird bugs.
I really, really want to love Greedfall. In fact it even made it into my Top 5 game releases that I am hyped for in September, and sometimes I absolutely do love the game – So lets start with the positives here:
As I mentioned in the intro; Greedfall’s world design, branching questlines and character building can often rival the likes of Mass Effect and Dragon Age. Being presented with Quests that have multiple ways to complete them for different desired outcomes is something that will always keep me entertained as I try to push through each quest by pissing off the least amount of people before throwing caution to the wind and just aggressively pushing my way through. Up to this point as I push through varying quest lines I have found myself unable to stop playing the game, finding out more and more about the games characters in order to get to the bottom of each quest.
For long periods of time, I will walk around a town and enjoy myself taking in the best of what Spiders World development has to offer… Listening to every characters story, reading every quest item I pick up and just learning more about this “Age of Exploration” inspired setting.
Then I get into a fight…
And it lets the whole thing down, the combat is just one of the clunkiest, poorly designed battle systems I have ever played. Mashing square until I kill something with no skill involved just hasn’t really peaked my interest all that much at this stage.
The game has presented me with options of using sharp or blunt weapons (Sword and a hammer for example) with the sharp weapons dealing direct damage to health with blunt weaponry dealing armour damage which allows me to deal more damage with the sword. I get that this is supposed to deepen the combat and perhaps further down the line it will, but 10 hours in I find that a simple parry and “stick em with the pointy end” works for every enemy thus far.
I understand that later in the game I come up against monsters and unlock some magic to take down the games plethora of enemies and I am HOPING this opens up the combat and makes everything feel a little smoother, but at this stage I just feel a little underwhelmed.
I haven’t yet made my mind up on Greedfall, I hope the game gets a little smoother and my investment in these early hours pays off and I can recommend it to all my friends and family but at this stage I’m loving the world, quests and characters… But every time I get into a fight. It makes me turn my PS4 off. Not just the game, my entire console.
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