Greedfall
SPIDERS ENTERS UNCHARTED TERRITORY WITH THIS RPG AARON POTTER
PUBLISHER FOCUS HOME INTERACTIVE / DEVELOPER SPIDERS / RELEASE DATE OUT NOW / COST £44.99/$49.99
in certain Tolkien fantasy tropes, it
seems like the studio may have finally
found its groove. Both period and
setting are inherently unique, which
makes venturing out into it as your
character De Sardet – playable as man
or woman – never boring.Plague tale
As legate to one of three factions
new to the island of Teer Fradee you
swiftly become the resident problem-
solver, running errands on behalf
of your cousin Constantine who’s
been promoted to governor and is
attempting to promote peace with the
many indigenous tribes. Your main
purpose here is to find a cure for the
Malichor virus currently plaguing your
homeland. And if there’s one crime
Greedfall’s overall story commits, it’s
leaving this main plight unresolved
until the very late hours of the game.
Until you reach that 30-hour mark,
however, Greedfall does an excellent
job at distracting you, showering you
with a litany of side-quests that have
clearly learned a thing or two fromThe remit for most
modern open-world
RPGs these days
is to go bigger in
the hopes of being
considered better.
And to this Greedfall shakes its fist,
cutting through a lot of the noise
found in much higher budgeted games
of its ilk to instead focus on what
makes the genre great. This means
placing an emphasis on player choice,
interesting party members and,
rather unexpectedly, spiralling quest
design. All three of which mightn’t be
anything new, per se, yet they still
nicely combine to make this underdog
feel all the more charming – even
if its presentation is a little rough
around the edges.
Coming off the back of previous
mediocre releases like The
Technomancer and Bound By Flame,
we’ll admit that we didn’t have too
much hope for Greedfall as the latest
game from French developer Spiders.
However, by rewinding the clock way
back to the colonial era and mixing
The Witcher 3. One quest early on, for
example, begins by having you settle a
permit dispute between a market stall
and the state, only for you to end up in
a fighting pit battling it out to secure
a tribesman’s innocence by its end.
Almost all of Greedfall’s side-ventures
have a tendency to twist and turn
in this way, coloured even further by
letting you choose how to approach
them. Different skills like charisma
and agility let you solve problems in a
variety of ways.
Helping you on this journey in true
RPG fashion is a suite of romanceable
party members, each boasting their
own combat skills that come in handy
when battling beasties in any of the
several world hubs that make up
Teer Fradee. There are five of these
available to swap in and out of your
group at any time, and much like De
Sardet, all can be upgraded with new
weapons and gear. Native princess
Siora and war captain Kurt were
our mainstays, though, the former
supporting us well with her useful
ranged attacks and heal ability. Kurt’sshort
cutWHAT IS IT?
The first attempt at
an open-world(ish)
RPG from French
developer Spiders.
WHAT’S IT LIKE?
Like if Mass Effect
had a baby with
The Witcher, just a
little rougher around
the edges.
WHO’S IT FOR?
People who like
getting lost in a time
period but could do
without 30-plus
hours of grind.088 THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE