The golden age of the BioWare RPG could also be previous, however there are nonetheless builders prepared to go the gap with a style that begs for good fantasy worldbuilding, good sport mechanics, and attention-grabbing well-written tales multi function. Spiders is certainly one of them, and Greedfall 2: The Dying World is their sequel to the colonial fantasy RPG that was a really welcome and nice shock again in 2022. That stated, there are just a few huge modifications to the way it performs that may put some individuals off the path—however after just a few hours with superior parts of the sport’s storyline I noticed the makings of one other success.
Kicking it Outdated Faculty
Greedfall 2 takes cues from the early-2000s period of roleplaying video games. It is extra like Dragon Age: Origins or Knights of the Outdated Republic than something launched just lately, for higher and for worse. I distinctly obtained the sensation that Greedfall 2 is particularly harkening again to this period of video games for a cause: It is a fashion of sport that the builders at Spiders need to emulate and preserve alive as a result of they like it—at the very least for their very own video games.
Whether or not or not you get pleasure from that fashion of real-time-with-pause fight and emphasis on character arcs, dialogues, and analyzing the environments for plot choices will in all probability decide whether or not or not Greedfall 2 is attention-grabbing to you. A minimum of based mostly on what I performed.
Fantasy Island
As with the primary Greedfall sport, the fantasy world is the true promoting level right here. Based mostly on the concepts of the European Age of Discovery, or the Spanish golden age, with a touch of the 18th century, and delving into the fascinating conflict between cultures in a world that’s approaching what we would take into account trendy. Besides, you realize, with the backdrop of magic, monsters, gods, and different fantastical issues. Technically a prequel to the primary sport, I actually obtained the sensation it is narratively designed so that you could decide it up and play solely figuring out essentially the most primary premise—which is helped alongside by the half the place you are a native of far-flung island Teer Fradee with little data of the continent on the different fringe of the ocean.
What’s cool is that whereas the primary sport befell totally on the island, in Greedfall 2 you get to journey to the continental cities solely loosely described in Greedfall. They’re pleasant tradition shock and a welcome change of tempo: Winding streets of crowded buildings, large port complexes of tall ships, together with your individual ship as a base of operations, and sprawling palatial estates for the wealthiest.
It additionally continues Greedfall’s custom of together with some absurd, fantastic, and downright dapper riffs on early trendy clothes. Together with an array of some completely fantastic hats. Significantly, somebody’s going to play this only for the foolish hats and helmets. Like I am prepared to do a second preview, proper now, simply speaking to the Spiders artwork division about a few of these hats.
On the Nostril
Your character is Vridan Gerr, which suggests “Quick Roots” in your individual language, an up-and-coming provoke of your tribe’s mixed magical custom and faith. The character creation was fairly strong, launched within the first scene with a cute little dialogue involving a overseas artist making depictions of the natives to ship dwelling. It had all of the options you’d anticipate, and extra apart from—seven totally different sliders for the nostril alone, for instance. I am certain some individuals might be in a position to make artwork with it, whereas others will make monsters.
There have been a great quantity of lessons to play with. Throughout the three segments I explored I attempted out a tank-focused Protector, a greatsword-and-magic-wielding Residing Blade, and a classy swashbuckling rapier-and-pistol-wielding class with a sideline in social gathering buffing expertise. As a result of, to be clear, when a sport gives you an alternative to arm your self and behave like certainly one of The Three Musketeers, properly, you are taking it.
KOTOR Fight
Fight is much-changed from the primary sport, specializing in a real-time-with-pause fight the place you management or automate your complete social gathering quite than simply your primary character. It is a fairly large tonal shift if what you liked from the primary sport was the motion fashion, but it surely’s a well-recognized kind in case you grew up on Knights of the Outdated Republic or Dragon Age Origins.
I will admit that I wasn’t utterly bought on the fight. Actual-time-with-pause does generally really feel like a dated approach to play video games, a midway compromise between simultaneous decision and turn-based fight. You are typically simply utilizing your greatest talents within the order that it appears good to use them, or establishing and executing the identical combo on enemies content material to stand there and take it quite than react in sudden methods or use stunning talents. That stated, it is fight that is playable in three types.
There’s Tactical Mode that has a free-moving digital camera, has you management your complete staff, and do a lot of pausing to queue up strikes. There is a Hybrid mode that has extra automated choices in your companion staff and fewer pauses. There’s additionally Centered mode, which defaults to your character’s viewpoint and has you actually solely controlling their strikes intimately, with very restricted pausing. I attempted all three modes and discovered myself solely actually loving the Tactical mode, however despite the fact that I am a ways junkie I noticed the real attraction of the Centered mode if what you actually look after is the story and need to flip the issue down so the fight is there as flavorful pleasure for the narrative.
Story Time
Greedfall 2’s story appears to be like prefer it’s shaping up to be simply as a lot epic fantasy as the primary sport’s. The stakes are excessive, the heroes are heroic, and the villains are correctly terrible. That stated, I obtained the impression that extra characters in Greedfall 2 have been simply caught within the center—morally gray, caught between two worlds, powerless, or simply enjoying politics. That actually performs out within the opening, which sees your character and their pals kidnapped because the introduction to a rollicking journey… the aim of which looks as if to get again dwelling. However the stuff you uncover alongside the best way imply that you will want to return to the mainland and play hero to guarantee your peoples’ survival—whether or not you prefer it or not.
Alongside for the journey in your journey are some actually alternative companions throughout an array of cool archetypes—at the very least from what I noticed. Every of the companions has their very own most well-liked combating fashion and distinctive talent tree, as does the principle character, which actually helped to promote me on these being totally different individuals and not only a doable participant character class palette-swapped to a brand new physique.
In true RPG fashion, these companions can even inject themselves into conversations you could have throughout your travels. The veteran warrior Until, for instance, busted out his sergeant’s bluster and pulled rank on some harbor guards after they confronted the social gathering about permits for journey. The greatest instance I noticed, nonetheless, was older explorer Safia, whose years of knowledge and maternal character confirmed as she’d typically admonish others for behaving in dishonorable methods, or ways in which mirrored poorly on their shared nationality.
I additionally fairly preferred Fausta, an exiled non secular wizard from a theocratic state whose loyalties to the hero’s social gathering have been conflicted at greatest. Not solely was her light-based magic attention-grabbing in fight, however her stance as one more fish out of water alongside the participant character made for attention-grabbing conversations.
Last Ideas
It is good that the companions are at the very least attention-grabbing from the about three hours of preview I performed, but it surely’s higher that these slices of storyline from totally different components of the sport all appeared fairly instantly compelling. There’s clear stakes, plots, and attention-grabbing issues to do at each level I performed, and all of it was written properly sufficient that I stayed even after I was tossed right into a scenario and hadn’t absolutely performed the few dozen hours of story that got here earlier than it—one thing that is simply not at all times true for RPG previews.
That stated, there was a way that the story was huge and epic only for the sake of it, as a result of the extra compelling components of the plot have been the locations the place characters have been interacting with one another amid the bigger historic forces they’d no energy over. Upon lastly returning to your private home island, for instance, you may discover your village destroyed and your individuals lacking. What of your family members? Your mom? These tales have been actually compelling and may have carried the sport on their very own, to be trustworthy—however I feel that epic fantasy followers need one thing huge and magical to occur and they’re going to be fairly taken with what Greedfall 2 has cooking. It is a twist on the thrilling huge reveals from the doable endings of Greedfall, and an apparent outgrowth of setting this sport on the continent quite than totally within the new lands.
Both approach, that is positively trying to be Spiders on the high of their sport. I hope that bears out when it releases in 2026.