Greedfall 2: The Dying World Preview - A Compelling Beginning

Greedfall 2: The Dying World is the follow-up to the successful release of Greedfall, though this is actually a prequel to the original. Set five years before the events of Greedfall, it's set to expand on the world and lore. Launching into Early Access, I was unsure if the game was going to feature the full story or merely a fragment of it due to the size of the game Spiders is aiming for. 

I only briefly played the original game, so I came into the preview with no specific expectations or mechanics from Greedfall. After exploring as many nooks and crannies as I could for 11 hours, here's what I noted about Greedfall 2: The Dying World at the beginning of Early Access.

The Story Begins

Greedfall 2 contains the first three areas of the story: the Prologue takes place in Teer Fradee, while the next locations are on the main continent. You play as a prospective doneigad, or sage, for your tribe. The Prologue brings you around your area of the island, visiting the Bridge Alliance's fort and mine as part of your initiation. You're accompanied by two others, Nilan who's also being initiated, and Sheda who acts as your escort. The story develops the lore of Teer Fradee in contrast to that of the foreigners, and how the differences in perspective affect the very land itself. 

This can be seen as a commentary on capitalism, colonialism, and the destruction of the environment for the sake of wealth. Not only do the Natives have to deal with new sicknesses, poisoned land and water, and lack of food, but they also have to deal with being kidnapped, called savages or animals, and even killed by the foreigners invading their homes. The way one culture can denigrate another is shown throughout the playable story, scaling in travesty until the end of the available content. 

On the other side of the coin, there are characters encountered that stand against those injustices. Those in power that protect others who've been targeted unfairly, friends working to aid their found family regardless of race or nation of origin. Strangers attempting to stop plans to plunder Teer Fradee until there's nothing left.

Outside of the themes present in the main story, Greedfall 2 is a game where your choices make a difference to outcomes down the line. Kill a lewolan during your initiation and it's remarked upon. Fail to gather enough evidence to clear your name and you may end up in jail. Taking the time to fully explore an area and complete multiple quest objectives gives you as many possibilities to level up and experience the world as you can. 

Strategic Combat... if You Want It

The way combat works allows you to play how you want. Your character and up to three NPC companions can engage in battle with various enemies. If you want a more strategic experience, you can enter into a paused tactical mode. This allows you to assign up to three actions per character that they'll execute when the game unpauses. You can make all the combat decisions, including what skills are used and who gets healed.

If that's not your style, there's an autonomous mode that controls the NPCs, allowing you to focus on your character's abilities. This is what I ended up going with after experimenting with both methods. I found that I would forget to switch to another character to set up an attack and often tunneled on keeping my main girl from dying. I also felt that implementing three attacks at a time slowed down combat, where I was looking for a faster battle experience. 

This ability to choose what works for you extends to how you build your character and level up your companions. While there are suggested routes and skill trees, you can still pick whichever skill you want to add to your kit. Companions are a bit more pigeon-holed, but still have two or three skill trees to build from. Then you have the different attributes you can level up, which increase your damage, health, and other stats. 

On top of that, Rootless gets access to Talents. These increase your ability to persuade people, make potions, or pick locks. Even if you build your character exactly the same on a second playthrough, picking different Talents to level up will impact some aspects of the story. This could mean not having to find a key to get into a locked room, potentially running into enemies in the process, or being able to convince someone to take a different action. 

Downfall of Early Access

With Greedfall 2: The Dying World being an Early Access game, it's expected that there will be some bugs occurring. Throughout my playtime, I experienced a number of issues, including game crashes, companions fighting invisible enemies or disappearing entirely, or a companion glitching into the ground and being unable to fight in a boss battle. Those are the most impactful bugs I encountered, and in total, I only had issues a handful of times.

Other bugs include Rootless' hair going missing, the environment blurring, getting stuck on ledges that you should be able to jump off of, as well as missing item or alliance names.

As Early Access proceeds, these are sure to be addressed and remedied, but those who find experiencing bugs completely ruins their game experience may want to wait until some of the bigger problems are handled. 

Greedfall 2: The Dying World Preview | Final Thoughts

Greedfall 2 sets up an interesting story, draws you in, and leaves you on a cliffhanger. The world is gorgeous and well detailed, with NPCs of varying personalities bringing locations to life. Those most interested in the world of Greedfall may want to continue playing as new content is added in early access, while those who hate to wait on an ending or deal with bugs would be better served experiencing the complete game at full release.

I'm personally looking forward to the next chapters in the game becoming available. According to the road map released by Spiders, the next update will feature companion quests, a new companion, another segment of the main story, and more. This update is set to come this autumn, with another following in the winter. There's no set timeframe for Greedfall 2: The Dying World to exit early access, but according to the early access Steam information, Spiders is planning for about 70% more content to come with the full release. 

TechRaptor previewed Greedfall 2: The Dying World on PC over 11 hours with a copy provided by the developer/publisher.