Spiders’ GreedFall is out on September 10th for Xbox One, PS4, and PC. To say it’s a massive undertaking would be an understatement. What makes it so interesting though? Let’s take a look at 15 things you should know before making a purchase.
The Story
GreedFall displays its 17th century European influences quite prominently. The story starts with the Old World, ravaged by a disease called Malichor that’s seemingly incurable. When the island of Teer Fradee is discovered, colonists, mercenaries and other explorers make a beeline for it. As De Sardet, a diplomat, you travel to Teer Fradee looking for a cure. However, the conflict with the natives and various factions quickly takes center stage.
Setting of Teer Fradee
Teer Fradee is a lot more open than previous Spiders games and divided into three regions. You’ll find a city and outposts in each region with various factions having control over them (though you can influence which faction is in charge). Dungeons, native settlements, wildlife and side missions are all waiting to be discovered.
Over 80 Quests
In a recent preview by WCCF Tech, it was confirmed that GreedFall would have over 80 quests. Much of these involves dealing with the factions, as you earn reputation (or lose it, depending on the approach). Interestingly, the game’s day/night cycle has an impact along with your skills and how you choose to tackle the quests. The kind of impact has yet to be revealed but it could be that certain quests are only available or require completion at certain times, like The Witcher 3.
200 Armor Pieces
Whatever approach you end up taking, there’s plenty of customization for you and your companions. Over 200 armor pieces are available and it’s possible to craft items and consumables at work benches spread throughout different campsites. Armor can be customized, such as changing the Strap for one that increases your Lockpicking skill and Fury generation. Want more Armor and Balance? Change out the default Shoulders on that same piece for something sturdier.
Skills, Attributes and Talents
The starting class options are Warrior, Technical and Wizard, each with their own unique skills unlocked and recommended attributes. Skills are standard abilities like attacks and techniques but for some classes, investing a point to use certain equipment, like Divine Magic Rings for magic attacks like Shadow Burst and Lightning Dash or Firearms for pistols, is necessary. Attributes include your standard Strength for armor damage and stunning or Agility, which increases Fury generation and physical damage. Talents like Vigor can increase ammo capacity, HP and magic recovery outside of combat and balance for passing through difficult passages. Of course, there’s also Charisma for increased dialogue choice success, reduced merchant prices and improved companion combat abilities.
Diplomacy, Stealth and Deception
With a multitude of different skills in-game, it’s possible to resolve quests in a variety of ways. For example, if you need to enter a restricted building, you could fight past all the guards and potentially ruin your relationship with the associated faction. Invest a bit into Lockpicking, however, and you can stealthily infiltrate the building. Alternatively, invest a bit into Intuition and use diplomacy to talk your way through or straight up bribe the guards. And this is just one part of a quest.
Combat Options
Combat can also be fairly complex. Allies and enemies have armor, represented as icons that must be whittled away to deal more damage to health. Magic can be employed to move about the battlefield, halt enemies in place and so on. Dodge rolling, parrying, heavy weapons for knockdowns, bombs, traps and much more can also be used to turn the tide. If combat gets too hairy, use the Tactical Pause to select spells and attacks while time stands still. Finally, there’s Fury which is generated by dealing damage and then use it to unleash devastating attacks.
Factions
There are six Factions in GreedFall – the Congregation of Merchants is composed of wealthy merchants. The Bridge Alliance is all about science and knowledge. The Coin Guard are a mercenary company and consist of all manner of combatants from assassins to bodyguards. The Nauts are navigators and essentially help other factions traverse the seas. The Thélème employ magic and look to convert the island natives to their way. Finally, there are the natives of Teer Fradee, the Yecht Fradí who have a harmonious relationship with Nature and receive protection from the powerful Guardians.
Companions
Each Faction offers their own unique companion, making for five different party members to utilize in combat. They’re also useful when negotiating with the Factions since they have unique information that could help. Some examples include Petrus, a close range fighter of the Thélème; Aphra of the Bridge Alliance, who’s skilled at ranged combat; and Siora of the natives who can use elemental magic and light blades. Who you have in your party, the decisions made and who you side with can have large consequences. Some may have conflicting interests or cause unrest when visiting a Faction opposed to their own. If left unsatisfied for too long, they’ll depart from your company and perhaps even oppose you later.
Custom Language for Natives
Another interesting twist in the companion dynamic is the ability to speak with the natives. Some may know English but the vast majority speak their own language. If you want to interact with them, having a native companion like Siora is important. Naturally, this can conflict with the goals of different companions, especially if you get closer to the natives.
Romance Options
As you grow closer to your companions, different romance options will pop up. The real question is how it will affect one’s dynamic with different factions – like, say, becoming the savior of the Teer Fradee. Given that marriage on ships was possible at the time, could that possibly factor into the overall options as well? We’ll have to wait and see.
Endings
It wouldn’t be a choice-driven RPG without different types of endings but GreedFall isn’t going for straight good and bad. Spiders CEO Jehanne Rousseau told the Escapist that “Some endings can be seen as bad by some people or good by some others, and I’m OK with that. We really want these different endings to not just be moralistic imposed choices made by us.” So while you may free the natives of Teer Fradee from oppression, this might possibly lead to your own people being killed. As always, time will tell just how certain choices shake out.
Gameplay Length
In terms of content, the main quest will take around 30 hours or so to complete. If you try to complete all the quests, then that will add to your playtime. However, as Rosseau noted to the Escapist, “Some playtesters said they were playing about 40 hours doing some sidequests but not all of them” and that “it really depends on how far you go into the crafting system, into exploration, and into the sidequests because there are plenty of them.” So 35 to 45 hours for RPG veterans seems like a good estimate overall.
Install Size
Though a seemingly massive game, GreedFall is surprisingly not that heavy in terms of hard disk space. On the Xbox One, it requires 10.31 GB of free storage while the PS4 version version needs 11 GB. While the PC version will likely require more space, there’s unlikely to be a massive jump in requirements.
4K/HDR on Xbox One X and PS4 Pro
Along with HDR, there’s support for 4K resolution on the Xbox One X and PS4 Pro. The Xbox One X version also featured Xbox One X Enhanced support for improved visuals and support for HDR10. While framerate performance and whether the 4K is native or not still need to be determined, the world of Teer Fradee will look sharper for those with the right hardware.
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