Greedfall - who needs Bioware? RPG out now.

[Thor]

Yeah, the accent of the natives is actually one of the more interesting aspects of the game. And it appears to be reasonably consistent across the voice actors used. 

[Thor]

Theleme Reputation -1

 

[Cosmic_Guru]

On 17/09/2019 at 16:37, Takizawa said:

I'm not sure how far you are through now @Cosmic_Guru, but it is pretty late on you can become best buds with Siora. Certainly was for me.

 

It looks as though companion / loyalty missions unlock after certain story events.

 

Yes, all good now.  Which means all those vigor 3 climbing walls are accessible.

 

I think I really am on the home stretch now, with just a couple of areas to visit en route to the presumed show-down, climax and / or decision.

 

Another tip - always buy any "quest items" which pop up from time to time in vendor inventory - they save a little to-ing and fro-ing in places.

[Thor]

Personally I've found vigor to be a waste of skill points. They only afford you the ability to make use of a handful of shortcuts throughout the game. 

 

Lockicking also has been largely irrelevant, there's always a key close by, with a lovely glowing red marker if you have points in intuition. 

 

All my party are now friendly, and I believe I am on the home stretch. The quality has dropped off in these latter parts. This feels like it was rushed out now. I'll be glad when it's over. 

[Cosmic_Guru]

1 hour ago, Thor said:

Personally I've found vigor to be a waste of skill points. They only afford you the ability to make use of a handful of shortcuts throughout the game. 

 

Lockicking also has been largely irrelevant, there's always a key close by, with a lovely glowing red marker if you have points in intuition. 

 

All my party are now friendly, and I believe I am on the home stretch. The quality has dropped off in these latter parts. This feels like it was rushed out now. I'll be glad when it's over. 

 

I agree.  You don't find better quality loot in higher lock chests either - that depends more on your loot %.  I only got vigour out of curiosity to see what was what in a few places.  

 

I'm beginning to think things only really change if you deliberately delay certain quests - maybe if you go full on main quest and don't select charm / intuition you see different world circumstances (there is a huge spoiler in the Kotaku review which identifies one such instance).  If like me you are hard wired to do side quests first and also are reasonable, rational, charming and hard working, you seem to end up in a particular place (everyone on board except the Bridge Alliance and the Coin Guard).  Still, more might be revealed by inspecting the hidden achievements after completion.

[Thor]

Hmm, this is getting shitter now. The quality really has dropped off a cliff. I just watched a conversation with Siora - that's right, watched. De Sardet was saying things that I, as the player, would never choose to say. I'm close to giving up on the game now. 

[Takizawa]

...and finished.

 

I find it hard to disagree with most of the negatives but I still found it very special, and as with when I finished the Technomancer, I look forward to seeing what they do next.

 

My main problems with it were:

 

• Length - SkillUp described it as a 10 hour game stretched over 30 hours, while I think the ratio is off, I see what he is saying. I had 46 hours on the clock at the end, albeit with a lot of slow-paced exploration and gathering of materials and stuff, but I think 30 would have been great.
• Quest logic seemed to fall apart a bit the further you got in, reactions not making sense based on previous conversations and events. This is probably one of the toughest things to get right in a game with dialogue choices and consequences.
• Romance - seems you can't get this unless you say exactly the right thing, on three occasions.
• Too much travelling. I think they've had been better off having fewer, denser areas to help keep quests flowing. I also think this helps with familiarity, I can't remember half the names of the native locations and characters.

Overall though I think it's a tremendous achievement for a small studio still learning their craft. The game looks stunning at times, the atmosphere brilliant, the music was great (it always is with Deriviere) and I think it told an interesting story.

 

Well done Spiders, I hope it is a success.

[Gorf King]

35 minutes ago, Takizawa said:

Romance - seems you can't get this unless you say exactly the right thing, on three occasions.

 

I don't know about the rest of the game - or even, perhaps, about games in general - but this seems entirely realistic. 

 

Come to think of it, logic seeming to fall apart the longer the experience goes on, and there being too much travelling and an awful lot of padding... well, you can see where I'm going with this, I'm sure.

[Cosmic_Guru]

Still not finished!  

 

 

[Opinionated Ham Scarecrow]

I finished this yesterday afternoon with 40 hours clocked.

 

It is a bit janky and the game does have serious pacing issues. There can be long periods of time when you are just traveling between groups being well, a diplomat which doesn't make for the most exciting gameplay.

 

As the game drew toward its conclusions though, I found that I was getting more and more invested in the characters and events and by the end became almost obsessed with trying to tie things up in the best possible way. Thankfully I managed to do and say and negotiate the right things to get a pretty satisfactory conclusion, and I came away from the game feeling a real sense of accomplishment. I also think the game gives the player a fantastic amount of control over unfolding events which makes the story feel somewhat personal.

 

I will play through this again in a few months to see just how much of that perceived freedom over the story is real and take some very different paths, but I have to say, this is a huge achievement for the small team at Spiders to pull together such a competent, at times beautiful, engaging and intricate RPG.

 

Very glad I took a punt on this. It went way and above the functional fantasy RPG I was expecting.

 

[Trumpets]

I haven't reached the island yet but I think I'm going to like this game. Feels like a proper RPG without the sort of dumbing down we've seen from Bioware and Bethesda lately, and the world fiction is dense and interesting. The only downside so far is the crappy lip syncing, but I guess the AA budget has to show somewhere.

[Trumpets]

Now on Teer Fradee. Pretty! I played a bit of Technomancer a while back and this feels like a big step up in ambition and quality.

[Thor]

Wow, Technomancer must have been sub-dogshit.

[Trumpets]

Oim still enjoying the goim, but the more oi ploi the more obvious the limitations become. It could also do with a few narrative or goimplay peaks as it does sort of burble along at the soim pace all the toim. The natives' accents are addictive though.

[Hexx]

Just got to Taer Freede.

 

Not sure what to make. It's obviously not an AAA game, but it feels a little bit more janky that other AA that coalesce into hidden gems.

 

I can not get used to L3 being stealth rather than run though.

[Hexx]

So is there a moment this changes (eg sky hold in DA3)

 

Im running around at level 12 and I’m not sure I’m having a good time.

 

Everything feels a little bit more cumbersome than it should snd in X hours combat hasn’t really changed/improved/deepened. 
 

It’s not bad but I’m not sure it’s clicking 
 

 

[Thor]

For me it got worse rather than better. This game isn't fit to lick Dragon Age Inquisition's boots. 

[df0]

So this is rather rubbish isn't it? Bought it for 10 euro and can’t suppress the feeling I'm being ripped off. Worst offender for feeling like this is the clumsy and unresponsive combat, it is somehow worse than The Witcher 3 with Geralt unable to decide whether to swim or swing a sword when ankle deep in water. Half of the time the dodge does not register so 90% of the battles is Benny Hill-style running around casting the L2 spell when the meter is recharged.

 

My character (on Hard) genuinely feels unpowered and underlevelled for almost everything. Most side quest related enemies have skulls above their heads, my buddies can barely take two hits, beasties out in the world bite chunks out of me.

 

This is close to being deleted and forgotten about. Last Spiders game I'll buy probably.

[JoeK]

2 hours ago, df0 said:

 

 

This is close to being deleted and forgotten about. Last Spiders game I'll buy probably.

 

Spiders always feel like a dev team just waiting for some big publisher to give them a huge amount of cash to let them make the AAA they really want. All their games have some really great ideas going on, and generally decent artwork and design, but the sheer amount of jank in their output always disappoints.

 

I really want to love something like Greedfall, but in the end life's too short to muck about with something like this when there's far better stuff out there  

 

Sony should buy them out and give them lots of dosh. 

[Timmo]

Like most games of its type, it's too long. If they'd spent the time they did making this a 35 hour game tightening up the gameplay of a 20 hour game it'd be way better. Then if it's successful you've got a better platform to add DLC.

[df0]

23 minutes ago, JoeK said:

 

Spiders always feel like a dev team just waiting for some big publisher to give them a huge amount of cash to let them make the AAA they really want.

I honestly I do not think it’s just money, but I admit money can buy polish. I’m about 10 hours in and nothing is well done. I can forgive the awkward lip sync, the weird character faces, the disconnected conversations, the numerous typos in the subtitles. That adds to that low budget charm truth be told. But the combat, that’s just broken (on Hard).

[Opinionated Ham Scarecrow]

Maybe it's just too hard for you (on Hard).

[El Spatula]

Yeah if you know it's gonna be a little janky and Spidersesque why play on hard? Especially when you're surprised when it's hard.

[df0]

My first Spider game this is. I heard romanticized stories about their games, generally acknowledging how weird it is but in a good way. I expected jank, not a broken mess.

 

And this is their best output? Technomancer is worse than this?

[Mr. Gerbik]

Answer the question! If it's no fun on hard why keep playing on hard?

[df0]

I quit (on Hard).

 

Gonna finish Call of Cthulhu first - another jank fest - before I restart as a warrior on Easy.

[Takizawa]

Broken mess is incredibly harsh.

 

I agree with @Timmo, they should have focused on a more polished, shorter game.

 

The game feels very bloated during the last 10 hours or so, despite the story remaining quite interesting.

[Thor]

I disagree on it remaining interesting, I stopped caring about the story and it remains unfinished. One of the very few games I'll put loads of hours into and never finish.

[moosegrinder]

12 quid on Xbox this week.

[Xipe Totec]

I found it dull & a bit fiddly. Played through the first areas and a bit of the first settlement after the

Spoiler

boss fight on the quay with the silly tree-monster.

 

Hoped it would open up & get a bit more engaging once you got to Teer Fradee but it all felt very samey. Didn't strike me as broken, just didn't grab me as I'd hoped from the premise & from a lot of the comments on here. Might give it another go at some point.