REVIEW: ‘GreedFall: The Dying World’ Struggles Through Technical Shortcomings

GreedFall: The Dying World is a story-rich, squad-based RPG developed by Spiders and published by Nacon, in which players take on the role of a member of the Teer Fredee people, Vriden Gerr (Bryony Corrigan, Dragon Age: The Veilguard). Indigenous to a small island that foreign colonizers have recently discovered, you are stolen from your home shortly after you complete a ritual, making you a shaman. Once you escape from your prison, you must find allies, stop a plot to wipe out your people, and eventually return home before there is no home to return to. 

The narrative of Greedfall: The Dying World delivers all the key ingredients for a memorable gaming experience. The varied tales it tells all connect to approachable and relatable themes, which set the stage for a grand adventure in classic RPG fashion. Built around several core concepts, the narrative explores the corruption of the Old Continent while also creating glimmers of hope.

These stories of struggle and hope in a world with far more of the former than the latter hit well. The situations bring a fair amount of nuance, and the player is often challenged by difficult decisions obscured by varied shades of grey. Many situations force the player to minimize their losses and determine how many will be hurt, as no available path offers an unblemished outcome. 

GreedFall: The Dying World breathes life into its narrative thanks to a memorable cast.

GreedFall: The Dying World breathes further life into its narrative thanks to a memorable cast, starting with the protagonist, Gerr. Despite allowing the player some wiggle room in how their Gerr behaves, there is a strong core character that exists here. They are headstrong and determined, unwilling to accept what would be an insurmountable situation to many. When a choice feels compromising, the game frames the main character in a state of frustrated resignation. They don’t want to do anything harmful, but sometimes there is no option. 

Gerr gets plenty of opportunities to explore the world and how they come to interact with it, thanks to a varied cast that leaves a strong impression. From the corrupt to the heroic, each personality brings something meaningful to the story. From the rogish Sybille (Camilla Aiko, Kraven the Hunter), who hides danger behind her confident playfulness, to a knowledge-seeking cartographer, everyone brings something memorable to the tale, whether they are in it for a couple of hours or the whole journey.

The ability to get to know the cast is doubly true for the player’s party members. As one expects from this type of squad-based RPG, learning about your companions has both narrative and gameplay impacts. Dialogue choices and completing companion quests can bring rewards. Romance options are available for those who enjoy that sort of thing, while strengthening bonds also unlock stat buffs, giving those more mechanics-focused a reason to interact with their allies as well. 

While the story delivers solid beats and memorable characters, things start to come apart beyond these elements.

The implementation of these systems in Greedfall: The Dying World is good, if not innovative. There is no gift-giving to make someone fall in love with you, and the narrative provides some strong beats that, when done properly, feel like good reasons for a companion to grow affectionate towards you. This is particularly true for a small but impactful element of the game’s dialogue options. 

During certain discussions, GreedFall: The Dying World gives the player the option to step back from center stage and allow one of their companions to take over the conversation. These moments greatly enhance the immersion and flow of key dialogues in the game. It also shows consideration and awareness for Gerr. Since we are dealing with X character’s problem, they’d probably like to be the one to have the final word, right? You can even leave some key decisions up to companions, letting them know how much you value their input and feelings. 

While the story delivers solid beats and memorable characters, things start to come apart fast beyond these elements. The gameplay of the game offers a plethora of options for character builds and team makeups, but these options can be difficult to implement, especially depending on how you plan to interact with the game.

The strongest element of the gameplay in Greedfall: The Dying World is character customization.

The strongest element of the gameplay is character customization. Players have a broad range of roles they can pursue, combining with up to three party members to fill out the rest of the elements that combat requires. On top of leveling up combat skills and attributes, players can also upgrade talents that allow them to do things like pick locks, craft items, and unlock dialogue options. 

The only part of this system that feels underwhelming is the attributes. In the early and mid-game, there is little reason to stray from what are clearly supposed to be each character’s preferred stats. Each attribute governs such a narrow field of elements and returns so little per point invested that there is barely any reason to devote too much to experimenting for most of the game. Only in the late game, when characters are close to maxing out their core stats, does diviation feel like a good idea. 

Combat plays out at a measured pace. Basic attacks go off automatically, filling action bars that enable players to activate abilities. Players can pause the game to give orders to allies, or, for a more action-oriented approach, put their allies in autonomous mode and let them play themselves. 

Issues ranging from lost visual cues to corrupted save files plagued my journey across the Old Continent.

The ally AI is spotty at best. There are times when they seem to be on top of things. They’d cast heal spells or deliver powerful AOE attacks when needed. Other times, I’d glance at action bars during combat and find that one of my characters was sitting on eight action points, when those could be put to good use. This lack of effectiveness all but necessitates a player to use the more turn-based approach if they wish to overcome the more challenging encounters at full difficulty. 

However, if you do wish to tackle GreedFall: The Dying World while only controlling Gerr, the game does accommodate the need to adjust difficulty easily. The options menu offers a few sliders that can adjust things like damage dealt/taken, allowing players to fine-tune if they are running into issues. If you find the game’s story compelling but don’t want to deal with the deeper end of combat, you can just adjust the game difficulty and see the best parts of the game without the combat interfering. 

The combat may have adjusters to aid its implementation, but no such option exists for the myriad technical hiccups and bugs that also plague the game experience. Issues ranging from losing visual cues for what can be interacted with to corrupted save files plagued my journey across the Old Continent as much as any ravenous beast or greedy noble. The unending hurdles that were unintentionally set up made many moments in the game far more frustrating than they should’ve been.

GreedFall: The Dying World leaves much to be desired.

Making things even more aggravating than they need to be is GreedFall: The Dying World’s lack of polish. There are lots of small elements that clearly got overlooked during game development. Things like the tutorial box for attribute selection, referring to some options by names different from the ones on your screen, feel surreal. Even if the context is easily decipherable most of the time, these little annoyances and editing oversights further weigh down the experience.

Adding to some of the game’s struggles is the world design. While the aesthetic is well-implemented, largely crafting a late, pre-industrial look that fits the setting and story well, it is often difficult to spot narrow pathways amid the wash of dark colors and dreary, cluttered environmental elements that all kind of blend together in the more urban areas.

Offering no relief from these struggles is GreedFall: The Dying World’s mini-map. A top-down image of the world is used as the traversal aid, with no augmentation. This leaves one unsure whether paths are blocked or whether there is simply an overpass or other obscuring element covering the walkway. There is enough consistency in the design that you will eventually learn what is what, but it is far too frustrating until then. 

GreedFall: The Dying World leaves much to be desired. Despite offering an engaging story and a strong cast of characters, technical problems abound, making the experience far more frustrating than it’s worth. Leaving the player often feeling like GreedFall’s world isn’t the only thing dying. 

GreedFall: The Dying World is available now on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S.