Among the games we were able to play at Nacon Connect last May, there was TieBreak and the upcoming Test Drive Unlimited that I presented to you last month. But that wasn’t all, there was also a certain Greedfall 2 that was playable on site, despite the numerous power outages it suffered throughout our session. What you need to know is that fans of the first Greedfall have been waiting for this sequel for 5 years already, since the first episode allowed the French studio Spiders to offer us their most ambitious project. Not everything was perfect, mainly because of its somewhat limited AA budget, but there were some great ideas and above all a desire to do as well as the big names in the genre such as Dragon Age and The Witcher, in terms of RPGs. For this new episode, the designers at Spider decided to start almost from scratch, both in terms of the story and the gameplay mechanics, even if it meant destabilizing fans of the first episode, and I’m going to give you all the details.
Spiders Games studio, you must know. Before its acquisition by Nacon in 2019, the French studio worked jointly with Focus Entertainment, with whom they released titles such as Of Orcs and Men, Mars War Log, Bound by Flame or Technomancer. All are RPGs with varying degrees of success, but one thing is certain, the studio decided to specialize in the genre. In 2022, however, they extended their know-how to Souls-like with Steelrising, which again, was full of good intentions, but lacked the finishing touches to establish itself as a must-have in the genre, or at least an alternative. It was nice, but not striking enough, also due to limited financial and technical resources. No sequel to Steelrising for the moment, but a return to the Greedfall universe.
REVERSED ROLES
In the first episode, we discovered Teer Fradee and this rather unique European-post-Renaissance-fantasy universe where in an uchronic 17th century, we find ourselves with quite a few supernatural elements, such as magic and monsters, which is a nice change from the eternal medieval-fantasy, or the dystopian futures that have been very fashionable lately. This universe allowed the player to explore both urban environments and wild expanses. In the first Greedfall, we played a colonist who came to enjoy the riches of an island untouched by any invasion, “uncharted” as the Anglo-Saxons say. In Greedfall 2, the roles are reversed and this time we play the role of a Doneigad, who is in reality a wise man for the natives. He is someone we can count on to protect his people, but also to be an exemplary leader. The change of perspective is interesting, especially since Greedfall 2 is neither a sequel nor a prequel, but an alternative version of the first episode, since the story takes place in parallel to the events of the first episode. Obviously, it’s impossible to see the consequences in our 2 hours of play, but we can already imagine crossovers between the two games during the adventure.
In fact, these 2 hours of play were there to learn about the changes made by the developers, particularly concerning the combat system, which was one of the main flaws of the first Greedfall and which was widely booed by players in forums and other social networks. As a result, the developers of Spiders decided to bring nuance to the clashes. Of course, they will still be in real time, but this time, it will be possible to pause the game, in order to integrate a tactical component. In the same way as in Dragon Age Inquisition, which was undoubtedly a source of inspiration for this Greedfall 2, it is possible to freeze the game at any time in order to study the best possibilities to emerge victorious from a confrontation. You can really act on almost everything, from the direction to give to your companions, the fact of attacking, protecting yourself, supporting, healing yourself, or even fleeing, the idea is to inject a part of strategy into the fights. Obviously, this has an impact on the unfolding of actions, which is slowed down and offers a much slower pace. On the other hand, we gain in gameplay possibilities, with a better understanding of the situation, the strengths and weaknesses of the enemies, etc. I don’t really know how players will react to this rather drastic change of direction, but we can feel that the Spiders studio wants to appeal to a very specific audience in the role-playing game. It’s all or nothing, but at least we can’t blame the developers for not trying things. That said, I want to point out that it is entirely possible to keep the classic approach, without a tactical break, but we still feel that the game was built around this mechanic.
Of course, like any self-respecting RPG, Greedfall 2 will allow the player to customize their player as they wish, whether physically or in terms of their skills and the classes offered. If the fights are part of the core gameplay, we must not forget that there are several ways to complete your missions, including using speaking skills to inception people, or using infiltration to avoid head-on confrontation. We’re not going to kid you, but as it stands, infiltration remains as poor and rudimentary as in the first episode, giving the impression of a mechanic that hasn’t evolved since 2005. Let’s hope that we can disguise ourselves to deceive the vigilance of the enemies like in the first episode, hoping that this time the outfit of our companions is taken into account by the game, in order to bring real immersion into the game.
BUDGET STILL LIMITED
In 2 hours, we couldn’t do much, let’s be honest, but one thing is for sure, there is still this feeling of a game developed with a limited budget. Technically, the game is far from shameful, especially since the artistic direction manages to hit the mark, but it is at the level of the animations that this Greedfall 2 has difficulty convincing. Everything seems jerky, a little clumsy also in the movements, with NPCs often frozen, with robotic animations and the universe clearly lacks life. While 2025 is just around the corner, we still find ourselves with inert environments that prevent us from investing ourselves emotionally anymore. Of course, the game will try to convince via its RPG system and we hope that the developers will manage to realize all their ideas. For the moment, the game does not have a release date, but Early Access is open and therefore it is possible to participate in this full-scale test with the Spiders studio. So, you understand, for the moment, I remain mixed, but you never know, we are not safe from a good surprise.