GreedFall 2: The Dying World Early Access Hands-on - “Look How They Massacred My Boy”

I remember the first GreedFall from 2019 perfectly. I didn't expect much, but instead I got a quite addictive game that took a lot of inspiration from The Witcher 3 and some Bioware games. After the quite successful Technomancer, the developers from Spiders studio created an even better action RPG with beautiful locations, great boss designs and a satisfying combat system. Sure, you could feel that it was a bit of a budget title, lacking in quality compared to the leading games, but this didn't affect its overall reception.

So it seemed that after such an uphill march, the second GreedFall could only be better. But the truth was quite surprising. GreedFall 2: The Dying World doesn't feel like a sequel, but rather a completely new game, made by a new team that focused on completely different mechanics. Moreover, only a very small portion of the game has been made available in early access so far, which does not help the overall reception. On the contrary – the poorly outlined plot and the terrible combat system are topped off by the poor technical condition of GreedFall 2. It's clear that this time the developers have changed their inspirations from The Witcher 3 to Dragon Age and Baldur's Gate 3 - and they might have slipped up a bit on this.

Is it early access, or a leaked alpha build?

We have become accustomed to the fact that releasing games in early access brings more or less successful results, but it usually is a specific foundation for adding further mechanics according to the suggestions of the community. Meanwhile, in GreedFall 2, I had the impression that someone stole the early alpha code from the developers and put it online. The icons in the inventory make a bad impression, as they are currently just placeholders, and yet the developers could have spent a moment to not give them temporary inscriptions.

The game world still can be nice, as in the first part.GreedFall 2: The Dying World, Nacon / Bigben Interactive, 2024

There are still progress messages about quests, in which sometimes we get fragments of code with variable markings instead of proper names, and in one location the animation fluidity decreases drastically. In addition, there are a large number of random bugs, problems with characters getting stuck, and various other glitches. Troubles with optimization in early access can be expected, but finding a moment to prepare a few icons shouldn't be that much of a problem.

The world of GreedFall from a different perspective

Putting aside the technical aspects, fans of GreedFall also have to come to terms with the enormous changes that have occurred in the second game. In The Dying World, instead of a legate from the Merchant Congregation or another faction, we take on the role of one of the indigenous inhabitants of the New World, and the game's action begins several years before the events of the first installment. I admit that at first I didn't feel at all that this was another game from this series. Only the proper names, like Teer Fradee, sound familiar and suggest that this is the GreedFall universe after all.

The combat system changed completely, and it isn't a change for the better.GreedFall 2: The Dying World, Nacon / Bigben Interactive, 2024

The plot seems a bit chaotic at the beginning, cobbled together from a few randomly selected quests. We are going through some kind of initiation in our village, only to be kidnapped and taken to the colonists' lands the next moment. Fortunately, friendly people appear and the adventure somehow continues. We are thrown around different locations without a word of warning that we will soon be somewhere else, and without information as to whether we will be able to return to them. It gave me this uncomfortable feeling of being forcibly teleported to a new place, even though I hadn't yet discovered everything I wanted in the previous location. Only the last map and the task associated with it seem to be the one that opens the way to the proper adventures in the New World – unfortunately, at this point we get a window thanking us for playing. We will get the rest someday, in the future. This is just a demo of an RPG game...

And on top of all these changes, the game has a combat system that hinders the exploration of the islands. Everything comes down to the always available cursor and the need to hold down the right mouse button when we want to control the character. I haven't found a workaround for this in the options, and in the long run, such a solution is uncomfortable, spoils the fun of exploring the locations, especially since our character can't jump and we constantly have to navigate between terrain obstacles.

They already did a better combat system...

The biggest change in GreedFall 2 is the combat. The dynamic, arcade-style fights similar to Geralt's have been replaced with tactical real-time battles straight from Dragon Age. The camera glides upwards, and our role is reduced to clicking through the sequence of various attacks or changing positions for all party members and passively observing the results. We have a tactical pause and automatic attacks.

New locations greet us with surprising details.GreedFall 2: The Dying World, Nacon / Bigben Interactive, 2024

Generally, I'm not a fan of this style of combat and I definitely prefer the one from the first game. I would probably complain about the fights in the "sequel", even if they were done correctly, but they are not. The animations are very poor, the screen interface is not very functional, the cursor often gets lost, as does the AI of our companions. There is no connection felt between our clicks and what is seen on the screen. Special attacks do not have spectacular animations or effects. As a result, we are merely observers of characters moving around in circles, making anemic movements, often with their bare hands, because the weapon models were bugged during battle.

Exploration is hampered by the fact that our character can only move along marked paths.GreedFall 2: The Dying World, Nacon / Bigben Interactive, 2024

A consolation is the fact that fights happen relatively rarely, and in the options you can enable party immortality so you don't have to repeat this torment in case of defeat. I also had the impression that the party system and our companions are in the game mainly to support us with numbers in battles. New characters appear rather quickly, don't give us much reason to form an opinion of them, and don't speak much during game unless we start questioning them in dialogue sequences - and those are filled with the same questions over and over again. The party is another element of GreedFall 2 that suffers through early access and the relatively small amount of content made available to begin with.

Investigation, diplomacy or combat - the choice is yours

So what did GreedFall 2: The Dying World do well for a change? Definitely the freedom of solving the quite extensive quests. In most cases, we can solve the problem through diplomacy, using dialogues instead of violence, there is also a simple stealth mechanic. What's even better is that quests don't lead us by the hand from marker to marker. They only suggest a huge area to search for clues, it's also worth listening to NPCs, because often their words suggest what to do or what to look for.

The court trial quest painfully exposes the fact that in-game choices have no meaning.GreedFall 2: The Dying World, Nacon / Bigben Interactive, 2024

The developers have created a quite balanced system here, which encourages experimenting, looking for solutions, and at the same time does not cause moments of total blockage, in which we would most likely had to check a walkthrough. It's just a pity that there were no important choices and their actual impact on the development of the plot. This is especially evident in the last quest leading to the court hearing. Regardless of what we do beforehand, how much evidence we gather, what behaviors we suggest to the NPCs, the end will always be the same. Perhaps it's the nature of this particular quest, which is crucial for the story - I hope that this will be different later in the game, because there really is a lot of room for improvement here.

I must also praise the design of the locations, which, despite slightly more saturated colors than in the first game, can still impress with the autumn atmosphere or ingenious details in the cities.

I think it's too early for early access

I have the impression that the creators of GreedFall 2: The Dying World were inspired too much by Baldur's Gate 3, which showed that an RPG debuting in early access could be a success. It's just that it's not the same level of franchise, not the same legend, and above all, not the same level of execution and freedom. While BG3 encourages experimenting with ways to complete a quest, GreedFall 2, at best, allows you to avoid a fight. Of course, this may change, perhaps the developers will make even better and more complex stories. For now, however, the game seems like a not fully thought-out project, in which the authors got so lost that they decided to show it prematurely and make it according to the community's guidelines. However, I have a feeling that when the time comes for the proper premiere of the game, there will be few people still waiting for it. GreedFall 2 is simply not material for a series released in episodes per a season.