Windows Greedfall (RPG)

[Huntn]

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I’m really liking the open world RPG Greedfall (purchased on sale at Steam), the atmosphere, the landscape, the countryside, the characters, and the quests are interesting. There is magic, crafting, and potion making. And you get to craft not for just yourself, but for 5 companions. It’s not terribly complicated, one tip, don’t sell your gear, recycle it for upgrade components.

Your position in this games is an emissary with the ear of your cousin, the Governor. You are a person of authority who often finds themselves in a position where force is necessary, because it is forced on you. You are more or less responsible for faction relations, one of those factions are religious zealots, so there are opportunities to run into religious persecution. You get to choose how honest you want to be with notible people you interact with.

And there are the natives that you are trying to forge a peace with between the various factions that have invaded their lands. One of your companions is a native. And several of these companions are romance-able. My understanding at this point is to see to their quests, engage them, and you might end up in bed with them.

When you go to the new island, you’ll find corruption in the City Guard on multiple levels. I’m finding the premise and dynamics of these stories to be more engaging than in Horizon Zero Dawn which has an intriguing concept, but the quests are relatively mundane in comparison.

One thing about this game, when you are in combat, in over your head, it lets you know usually with a quick death. Combat is not perfect, not even good at first, with a learning curve, at least it feels that way to me. Getting used to the controls takes more work than I’d like. But as you progress, combat will feel more manageable. Much depends on how fast you are watching your health drain away.

The first real test is the first boss fight, at a low level of development, you may feel like a gimped, cripple. Until you get used to it, it feels awkward in the mobility department, half assed dodging, you can’t roll to avoid sweeping attacks from a large tree critter that bursts out of a ship. I’ll admit that I came close to killing it on normal difficulty, but fatigued, ended up switching normal to easy to get through it, and almost quit the game at this point. This is also where you’ll notice how you like the class you started. Of note, if you did not choose wisely, at the end of the first boss fight, you’ll receive a memory crystal that allows you to respec.

For this game, I’ve found that building your character to your liking requires some research. The Magic class is described as weak at first, but strong at the end, and how dependent do you want to be on potions? Note, magic disregards armor and always damages the target, but I was constantly running out of mana. You can back that up with a pistol. I started over, switched to swords and was unhappy with that, and ended up, going for a Battle Mage build, using primarily hammers which really put dents in armor, with magic backup, using Stasis which both freezes and damages targets.

So now I’m acclimated and vested in the story, let’s see how the second boss fight goes.

 

[Huntn]

The fighting gets better as you progress, although the game having a roll ability separate from a dodge ability is stupid, because to get both, you have to invest in divergent skills. So I just do my lame dodge and can avoid most monster attacks.

I’m enjoying the quest story lines, one element is there is a theme of colonists abusing and belittling the natives, who have some skills such that the colonists should want to live and let live and benefit from good relations.

Romancing a character requires attention at the proper time or you may miss it. Mostly it’s a perk I think, ? with some nice words added, like hopefully we’ll sail together in the future… There is a very low level of any kind of a personal relationship…hello my friend. Why did they bother? Fallout 4 relationships are better than this.

 

[Huntn]

Game Review as posted on Steam. Some of the reviews of this game call it boring, too much walking
Greedfall is a good game, with interesting quests, wrapped around an intriguing story line and overall, decent combat, with the caveat that early on, you might feel frustrated with your first boss. It’s an immersive setting, the graphics and environment, along with the music (of limited variety) is very atmospheric and I became vested in the story.

The Story- It’s a colonials vs the natives story, plus magic. Your character is a representative of the Merchant Congregation (one of 4 factions), who travels to the Island of Teer Fradee to represent your congregation in it's settlement. There you discover all sorts of intrigues, corruption, abusing the natives, and besides the fact that magic is part of your way of life, there is at least one island deity, that you have to contend with.

More game details follow.
Choices- I’ve only played through once, but choices seem to matter throughout the game, as far as who you side with, because there is constant conflict between the colonialists, the different factions, and the natives.

Companions- You’ll have 5 companions, you can romance one of them, but don’t expect too much. It’s best to research that online; The game is structured so that it is easy to fill and change the members of your 3 person questing party, no matter where you are. Note, companions get stronger as the game progresses,their gear can be upgraded. but skill tree skills can’t be upgraded.

Crafting- Via a table, the game makes crafting very assessable thought player residences, crafting tables scattered around, camp sites that you build, and the fast travel mechanism, that always places you in a temporary camp that allows you to craft, change up your party, upgrade both you and your party, and sell and buy gear. Tip: For crafting upgrades, recycle a large portion of your old gear instead of selling it.

Combat- When critiquing this game, combat comes to the front. I’ll start out by saying this, when you are in over your head, you’ll know it in short order, signaled by your death. IMO, combat is manageable early in the game, until you meet your first boss, before you get on the ship to head to the island.

There is a good chance you will be frustrated. Melee in this first fight is harder than ranged (weapons or magic). I’m not going to say I’m the best fighter, but in 6 tries I came close but failed. I ended up changing the game’s difficulty to easy to get through this first fight. It’s the only time in the game, I felt compelled to do this. Once you learn how to move and anticipate opponent fighting patterns, plus with added skills it gets relatively easier.

Magic- You need magic no matter what. However, it’s up to you to decide how you are going to use it. Pick a weapon or pick the magic ring. I chose not to go up the Divine Magic Ring skill tree, because I did not want to be totally dependent on mana and potions. I also shied away from Firearms early on, but ended up with some points in them later.

The Skill Tree is a circle, I filled out the right half of it starting with 1 Handed Heavy Weapons and Stasis adding in Magic Healing, and expanding it to Two Handed Heavy Weapons, Shield of Enlightenment, Fury, and Storm. I was happy with these choices.

Managing Combat- Ok, you have a hand held weapon, easy enough to use, but you may find this game a challenge when you add in magic spells and potions. There is a “space” button pause mechanism that allows you to access different skills, while fighting, but I don’t care for this method because it makes the fighting seem much less natural. There are 12 slots to which you can assign to use a spell or potion. I have a 16 button gaming mouse and most of those buttons were programmed for this purpose. That worked for me. But If you don’t have such a mouse, you’ll have to rely on the space bar method.