Greedfall 2: The Dying World Review

Greedfall 2: The Dying World is a prequel set three years before the events of the first game, giving us a fresh perspective on Teer Fradee before the full weight of colonial exploitation crushed it. Greedfall 2 spent a long time in early access, launching in September 2024, which allowed players who jumped in early to actively shape its development.

I'll have to be honest and admit that I didn't spend much time with the first game. I remember trying it and dropping it after a few hours. Can't recall why exactly, but I assume it was missing that love-at-first-sight moment. Interestingly, I had a friend who played it and actually liked it better than The Witcher 3, which tells you how much the first game resonated with certain players.

Greedfall 2 has come a long way from those first days of early access. Visuals have been polished, mechanics refined, and systems tightened based on community feedback. The game you can play now is a far cry from what launched into early access, with Spiders clearly listening to player concerns and iterating accordingly.

So after all that time in early access, it's time to ask: was it all worth it? Is Greedfall 2 actually a good game?

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Asmir KovacevicFEBRUARY 27

In Greedfall 2, you play as a native of Teer Fradee, a remote island rich with unique flora, fauna, gold and other valuable minerals. Your homeland's discovery by the Bridge Alliance is inevitable, and what follows is equally predictable: colonists arrive in droves, bringing miners, trappers, and exploitation in their wake.

The tension between natives and colonists arises naturally. The island's original inhabitants are trying to protect lands they hold sacred, but they're technically inferior and outnumbered. The Alliance takes their gold, hunts their animals to near-extinction, and pollutes their rivers, leaving the natives with scraps. Survival itself becomes a problem when your home is being stripped bare.

Interestingly, Greedfall 2 doesn't paint the Alliance as some cartoonishly evil empire. Technically, yes, they're bad, but some colonists will help you, genuinely trying to do the right thing amidst the chaos. It's nuanced in a way that feels refreshing, even if the broader strokes remain grim.

Then there's the darker reality beneath it all. Native people are being forcibly taken from Teer Fradee and shipped to the continent of Gacane. Some colonists conduct experiments on them. Others push the idea that natives are nothing but vermin to be exterminated, gathering political support for a full purge of the island. This is the kind of narrative Greedfall 2 dances with right from the start: different factions battling for power, political plots, corruption, and cruelty wrapped up in a disease-stricken world. It's a harsh setting to find yourself trapped in, and that's exactly what happens when your character gets kidnapped and dragged to this continent.

With only one goal in mind - to get home - you'll embark on a quest to gather enough resources for the journey back, aided by the companions you meet along the way.

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The Bridge Alliance's exploitation of Teer Fradee's resources provides the backdrop for Greedfall 2's colonial narrative.

Layered, But Not Gripping

The strength of Greedfall 2's story lies in its intricate layers. It's not the kind of gritty blockbuster that'll keep you on the edge of your seat like The Witcher 3 or Expedition 33, nor does it have characters that'll stick with you long after the credits roll. Story delivery isn't helped by fairly old-gen cinematic presentation either, and it all feels a bit rough around the edges.

I'll be honest: the story had just enough fuel to keep me invested. The hook was there, and I was committed to seeing it through, even though it wasn't the most engaging narrative I've come across. That said, the way it's told makes it fairly easy to follow, which is always a plus, especially when the game throws so many characters, world details, and relationship dynamics at you in the first three to four hours. Don't quote me on this, but I reckon you'll meet 20+ characters during that time frame.

Greedfall 2 Review screenshots

Combat: A Divisive Shift

I'd argue that Greedfall 2 won't set the world on fire, mainly due to its questionable decisions with combat. The first game had real-time action combat, but Greedfall 2 ditches that for real-time-with-pause, which is a system found in one of my favourite RPGs of all time, Dragon Age: Origins.

You've got the option to control only your character, leaving party members on auto to make their own decisions about which spells to cast, or you can take full control by pausing the game and dictating every move. It's a great combat system for games where you control large parties, as you do here, with a party of four, but even after spending over a week with Greedfall 2, I'm not entirely sure the combat ever clicked with me.

Sometimes I'd think it had finally settled, that I was actually enjoying it, appreciating the control it provides. But then I'd lose that feeling when encountering spongy enemies that feel artificially difficult for no good reason.

I tried to build my party in a traditional way having tank, healer, and DPS and apart from a few instances where I used pause, I was comfortable playing it out in real time, mostly caring for my own character. Generally, the combat's a bit slow, and I'm sure it won't be to everyone's liking, especially people who enjoyed the combat in the first game. That said, don't write it off immediately. I gave it a chance, and it grew on me the more I played. It's just a case of not doing anything new for the genre. It won't blow you away, but it's more than serviceable, and if you invest yourself enough, it's even enjoyable.

The game also has stealth, akin to Baldur's Gate 3, but I doubt you'll use it much. It's simply not fun going around knocking enemies out, only for them to suddenly wake up and join combat as soon as you're spotted. I do have to mention that this was inconsistent; some enemies would stay knocked out, whilst in other instances, all of them would get up and join the fight. Could be a bug.

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Real-time-with-pause combat offers tactical control, but it's a divisive shift from the first game's action-focused approach.

Companions and Conversations

Gameplay in Greedfall 2 revolves largely around talking. You'll meet a staggering number of characters, every few minutes in some sections, but it never feels overwhelming. It's hard to explain, but the game does a solid job of introducing everyone. The flow is really good, even if no particular character stands out or forms a deep connection. I didn't dislike any of them either, they're fine, they're good enough.

You'll also get a substantial number of people who can join you as companions within the first 8 hours. I think I had eight by that point, which is a lot for an action RPG. I don't recall ever seeing anything quite like it - the game throws companions at you from the start, and most of them have their own companion quests. These are personal side missions, like one companion wanting to uncover the truth about her mother's death. It feels good to help your fellows out, and that's the case here as well.

Personally, I really enjoy companion quests in party-based RPGs. The last similar game I played was Avowed, which also has a party system where each companion has their own quest. I'd say the companions in Avowed are stronger than Greedfall 2's, but that's probably down to size - Avowed has four companions, which gives developers time to tighten those arcs when they don't have a bunch of others to juggle.

There's one thing in the game I really didn't like - in fact, it's something I actively disliked. When you start a companion quest, the game locks that companion to your party. You can't remove them until you complete the quest, which is bloody annoying. So, for example, if I want to start a companion quest but then want to do something else whilst working on it, or if a combat situation requires someone else in my party, someone better suited for the encounter, the game won't let me swap them out. That was a proper annoyance.

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Your party of four can grow to eight companions in the first 8 hours - a generous roster, even if none truly stand out.

Reputation, Choice, and a Static World

The game has a reputation system, and as you complete quests, your standing with various factions will either rise or drop depending on whether they like or dislike your actions. Low reputation makes your life harder with a faction, and combined with low diplomacy skill, it makes it almost impossible to complete a quest by simply talking to people. Luckily, the game provides numerous other ways to tackle objectives - backdoors, stealth, stealing, and so on. It makes your life a bit more complicated when sweet-talking doesn't get you where you want, but I'd say it's also more fun than convincing people through dialogue alone.

When it comes to choice, consequence, and your actions in general, though, I feel the world is a bit stale, bland, and desperately needs some reactivity. Stealing in front of people has no consequence at all, which is immersion-breaking. Fighting on the streets has almost no effect on the regular townsfolk surrounding you - they'll act like nothing happened.

It's the kind of thing that, for me, elevates an RPG above others: actually getting what you deserve when playing as an arsehole or a straight-up murderer.

I'll give you an example. In one of the early-game quests, I had to find a character who wanted to wrongfully testify against one of my companions for something we hadn't done. Of course, being a good friend, I wanted to make this right, so I tracked down where this witness worked, got to him, and convinced him to run and never come back. Obviously, I'd left a bloody trail behind me whilst looking for him, killing over a dozen soldiers who worked for the same people who set my team up. Come the trial, there's no mention of my deeds. No one thought to question how suddenly a witness disappears along with 10+ men.

In that moment, I was really hoping the accuser would tell the judges, "My witness is gone, and in the place of his work, I've found over a dozen bodies", directly accusing me of the deed, which would be fairly suspicious and wouldn't help me at all, right? Unfortunately, that never happens. The world just doesn't react.

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A good old campfire where you can rest and share a word with your companions

Visuals and Performance

Visually, Greedfall 2 looks like a fairly last-gen game. Lack of detail in character models is the biggest pain in the eye, whilst environments look solid, especially in the wild, where the game throws lush flora at you. In some instances, it can even look gorgeous when the lighting comes together nicely, and god rays shine through trees.

Graphics probably won't be the reason people pick up Greedfall 2, since the first game wasn't a looker either. It's certainly not an ugly game by any means - just like the rest of Greedfall 2, it's serviceable, solid, and if you accept it for what it is, it's totally fine. It certainly won't be a make-or-break moment for anyone on the fence about buying it.

Unfortunately, in the build I played, bugs were a standard occurrence. From sound effect bugs where every sound apart from voices was completely missing, to visual bugs making interior objects like chairs and tables disappear or flicker, to more annoying ones like getting locked in combat even though you'd cleared the area of enemies.

The game also had a fair amount of stuttering, especially in large cities. Generally, the performance wasn't great. I played on a PC with a Ryzen 7800X3D and RTX 4080. With maxed settings and DLSS set to Balanced, I was managing 60-90fps depending on the location.

It's hard to justify such performance when the game doesn't look quite like a proper next-gen title.

I'm sure Spiders have already polished some of this stuff, and the version you'll get to play at launch will be more optimised and have fewer bugs, but this was my experience with the game, and I have to mention it.

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Greedfall 2 looks like a last-gen games but that doesn't mean it can deliver some pretty enviroments like this one here

Verdict

Overall, I think Greedfall 2 is a very good RPG that I can recommend to fans of the genre. The game won't set the world on fire, doesn't do anything new for the genre, and doesn't push it in new directions - instead, it builds on elements we've seen and experienced in other games. This isn't a bad thing, of course, but I feel like Spiders could've really made something truly special here if they risked it a bit. The setting is there, the plot is there, but the game's RPG mechanics play is a bit too safe for my liking. Still, I'm glad I've spent time with Greedfall 2 and do recommend this for fans of these kinds of games. I think they'll get their fun from Greedfall 2, for certain.