Greedfall: How to stop worrying and love Spiders studio?

From French developers from the studio Spiders, creators of ARPG The Technomancer, Bound by Flame, Mars: War Logs, etc.d, the reputation, if not of losers, then of the guys as if they were “second tier”. After the announcement of each of their projects, the gaming community looks closely with restrained skepticism, and upon release they pat them on the shoulder encouragingly: “It’s okay, my friend, you tried. Next time it will be better". Despite the moderately laudatory assessments Greedfall both ordinary players and the specialized press, until recently I was such a skeptic. Haven’t seen the game in person yet.

The game takes place in Serina, the largest port city of the Gakan mainland, which is affected by an outbreak of the plague – Malichora. Distinctive signs of the disease are black marks all over the body, nausea, weakness in the legs, in the later stages – blindness, and the end is always the same – death.

In search of a cure for a terrible disease, we have to go to the mysterious island of Tir Fradi, inhabited by local savages. We will be accompanied by our cousin, Constantine Orsay, and also the new governor: a broken, good-natured bachelor, whose life is spent in idle aristocratic amusements.

Having set foot on the lands of New Serin, just recently a tiny colony of the Council of Merchants, and now a rapidly developing port city, we find ourselves in a whirlpool of local political, religious and national fermentation.

Historical references in Greedfall quite transparent: by continent we mean the old world, t.e. Europe, under the island of Tir Fradi – a new world, t.e. America, under the savages – Indian tribes, and under the "common ones" – the European colonizers of the era of the Great Geographical Discoveries, primarily the Spaniards and Portuguese.

Several modern discourses immediately come to mind – environmental, anti-colonial, diversity, and everything like that. Gangs of vile “capitalists” together with “holy men” decided to kill the “children of the earth” who are sitting quietly on the island and not bothering anyone. But hold your ironic smile, everything is a little more complicated. The aborigines are not so harmless, the capitalists are not so scary, and even the religious fanatics, one of whom strangles an innocent islander at our first meeting with them, turn out to be not so crazy after all.

The game presents six sides, six points of view on existing contradictions:

Union of Merchants, a powerful merchant alliance pursuing one goal – earnings. To successfully conduct his business, he tries to maintain neutral relations with everyone else.

Bridge Union worships knowledge. Their approach may seem cynical to some, rational to others. Political and ideological opponent of Thelema.

Telem – religious organization. The purpose of staying on the island is to convert everything that moves to one’s faith. The missionaries’ arsenal includes ardent preaching and skillful use of the magic of light. Political and ideological opponent of the Bridge Union.

Coin Guard – local mercenaries. For the sake of ringing gold, they do not hesitate to take on any work, but they mainly trade in security, training in martial arts and murders.

Navts are a group of brave and skilled sailors who manage all maritime transport. Luxurious cocked hats and full face tattoos included.

Locals (natives) – a union of several tribes of islanders. They worship Mother Nature and have their own language and culture. Are a subject of keen interest to both Thelema and the Bridge Union.

The faction system works quite simply: we carry out side tasks – our reputation increases, we attack, or, for example, threaten one of its members – our reputation decreases.

You shouldn’t expect any special practical benefits – good or bad relationships have little effect. Personally, I perceived this only as an element of the role-playing system – at the call of my heart I helped the aborigines and nauts, I was indifferent to everyone else. But that’s just my choice; It’s up to you to decide which factions to help and which to quarrel with.

50/50

When starting a conversation about the role-playing system, we need to clarify that this is still an ARPG, and this imposes its own limitations. We cannot wander wherever we want, kill anyone, and generally do whatever we want: places that are inaccessible ahead of time are closed, and attacking people in cities is possible only with the special permission of the game designer.

There is no open world as such (considering the obviously low budget of the game, this is for the better), but the locations are vast enough for exploration – you just need to turn off the beaten path to the side and small adventures will not keep you waiting. You can’t count on Dwemer ruins, but it’s quite possible to stumble upon a cave or ancient ruins.

Also, local history is not subject to us: the helpful hand of the screenwriter will guide us from the first to the last quest, giving us the opportunity only to take sides, manage the nuances and place accents: there is no need to look for freedom of action at the level of classic role-playing games.

Assignments are the best thing in Greedfall, and it’s not just about the plot company. Almost any assignment is a mini story with its own plot.

Surrender the charlatan alchemist https://blightybingo-casino.co.uk or let him escape? Kill the traitor or leave him alive? Everything is not as obvious as it seems at first glance. During the passage you will have to solve several difficult moral dilemmas, most of which are really gripping. Sometimes you just want to shout out: “I believe!»

You shouldn’t expect any script revelations, but the tasks accomplish their most important goal – they breathe life into this world. We will meet scum too. and the righteous, and the superstitious, and the arrogant and many others, but we will always understand why they are like this: not soulless dummies, but living people with complex and understandable (sic!) motivations.

However, for special gourmets, you can take purely grind quests on the notice board (bring/collect/kill).

To arms!

The combat system is in perfect order. At first it seems like a two-button primitive, but with the growth of skills, both ours and our character’s, we gradually understand its, albeit relative, but still complexity: blocks, dodges, rolls (with the skill taken), parrying, stunning, etc.d. If you attack first, then do not disdain stealth. A kick is an excellent weapon against humanoids, but it hardly works against large wild creatures. The enemy is outnumbered? Step back while reducing the angle of attack. There are many nuances, and some of them are really important.

All physical weapons (cutting, crushing and firearms) have two meanings; the first is actually damage to an unprotected body, the second is damage to armor.

The fact is that most mobs, just like you, have not only a health bar, but also an armor indicator, which is also a resource. If it is not destroyed (and blunt weapons are best suited for this), then physical damage to the target will be reduced by the value of the remaining armor.

Occasionally such armadillos appear on the battlefield that it is problematic to pick them with a sword, and you have to take a hammer out of your wide trousers. Firearms were clearly intended as auxiliary weapons; it copes well with all types of enemies, but requires resources for shots, so simply “shooting in the faces” is not the most economical solution.

You shouldn’t expect the dynamics of slashers or the hardcore nature of soulslicks, but at a difficult level of difficulty the game keeps you on your toes when fighting even with ordinary opponents, and on bosses it’s completely invigorating: a hero who hesitates for a second with 50% health, especially large creatures can send to the nearest save with one blow. Unfortunately, in the end, on the contrary, it becomes quite simple, and we literally “rush” the last segment of the game with two buttons. Even the final boss doesn’t evoke strong emotions, but this is a common problem with ARPGs as a genre.

It’s more difficult to fight at night: you need to constantly monitor both the enemy and the entire battlefield: while you’re fighting an evil animal 1 on 1, its vile relative can attack you from behind, or, what’s more, spit some nasty stuff from afar.

Both combat and peaceful mechanics rest on three pillars:

Skills determine the fundamental direction of your character’s development: mage, robber, warrior, or something in between.

Characteristics are responsible for the ability to wear this or that equipment. For example, without high stamina values, you will not be able to wear heavy armor.

Talents these are the same skills, but not combat ones. Crafting, social interaction, using the environment – it’s all here.

The core of all role-playing game mechanics.

There are no hard classes, but from the above it is clear that we cannot create a super killer in heavy armor, deftly wielding a two-handed sword and deadly magic. It’s better to decide on the vision of your character’s future as early as possible and follow the chosen path. There are memory crystals to reset all skills, but don’t delude yourself. Your class is also equipment. Crystals will help you correct developmental defects when, at early levels, you don’t really understand where to distribute the points you receive for the level. “Reroll” from a conventional warrior to a conventional magician is a dubious idea.

There is safety in numbers

The main character in the game is one, the envoy of De Sardet, a high-ranking member of the Merchant Council faction, but Greedfall after all, it’s a party ARPG, and the partners are not a bunch of dummies who, at best, help in battle, but full-fledged people with their own worldview and culture. Each potential party member has 3 tasks. Simple, but they help to better understand them as characters: Vasco wants to know more about his family, Kurt wants to figure out the mystery of the ghost regiment, and Siora’s mother in general [spoiler alert!], etc.d.

You need to choose party members not only taking into account their combat archetypes (warrior, magician, etc.d), but also factional affiliation.

If in one place the presence of a certain companion in the group will greatly simplify the quest (he will just need to put in a good word for you), then in another they will not even let you in, although I personally went with someone I liked, and solved questions as needed.

An experienced eye has long noticed that I am describing some other Dragon age, and there is some truth in this. Indeed, the ears of famous Canadian developers stick out from under every bush here: interface design, location structure, cutscene directing, camera! However, there is no need to go to extremes: Greedfall exactly what I was inspired by and learned from Bioware, you still can’t call it copy-paste or even plagiarism. Before us is a completely independent project.

There is absolutely no humor in the game; to such an extent that sometimes it seems as if the game writers were simply forbidden to joke. Not any subtle, Monty Python-esque, or stupid “over two hundred” jokes, nothing at all. And this is doubly strange, considering the place sarcasm, irony, meta-irony, post-irony occupy in modern pop culture. Jokes and witticisms pour out from almost every second work as if from a cornucopia, and every third hero strives to wink at us and break the fourth wall. And that’s not to mention more traditional forms of humor.

No, we don’t have much to be happy about here – a terrible plague is raging, people are dying in the thousands, there are squabbles, hostility and violence everywhere, and in general it’s an epic in all fields, but it’s still strange. Especially when compared with the same DA, where Varric alone is worth so much.

Another pleasant bonus is the absence of those annoying rough edges that are often characteristic of category B studios: bad camera angles, party members getting stuck in passages, oddities with controls, “drifting” sticks on working gamepads, etc.d. Well, you know, all these little troubles that do not affect the gameplay, but at the same time have a big impact on the overall experience. Greedfall made in this regard very, so to speak, ergonomically – everything is clear, understandable and in its place.

Fly in the ointment

It’s rare, but the music is probably the weakest part of the game.

If in calm moments the soundtrack, in general, does not raise questions (especially in nature), then in moments of battle sometimes you are simply perplexed. Bongs that go nowhere sound especially ridiculous during stealth. I would like to believe that situational triggers simply do not work and the wrong music is played for you.

Another problem is budget – Greedfall looks petite and skinny. At best – “clean, but poor”. It painfully lacks the “meat”, scale, epicness of the best representatives of the genre. Endless arid deserts, frozen peaks of inaccessible mountains, abyssal depths with hordes of all kinds of creatures that are about to destroy humanity – where is it all??

In fact, there are only two locations in the game: the city and the countryside, with variations. It’s clear that the level designers tried (they’ll change the color here, attach a knob here, hang a picture there), especially along the path of the main quest, and some unique locations still look great. However, the general monotony cannot be hidden – port cities, for example, are not much different from each other. The apotheosis is the palaces of the three central factions of the island – their internal structure is almost exactly identical. Although you don’t need to remember routes when turning in and receiving quests, that’s good.

Sometimes you come across picturesque places

There are three types of enemy. The first are people about whom there is nothing to say at all. Someone waves a sword, someone shoots a pistol, someone throws magic: be it a bandit, an islander or a mercenary, they all look the same. The second are animals, of which there are at most 5-7 species. Here, too, there are no revelations: bats, some bear-wolves, lizards; in a word, local forest life. The third are minibosses; there are only a few of them, which are also repeated! Already killed this boss according to the script? It’s okay, we’ll come up with a new explanation, and in five hours you’ll have to kill him again. At the twentieth hour it begins to seem that you have already been in this battle and seen it all more than once.

In fairness, it should be noted that although there are few enemies, those that exist are well-designed: the animations are smooth, and the sets of movements are varied. In addition, depending on the level, enemies differ slightly in appearance, which smoothes out the overall monotony of the bestiary. A conditional lizard of level 1 is small and smooth, lizard 15 is already larger and spikier.

If precision is the politeness of kings, then the politeness of good computer games is the ability to finish on time, which Greefall and does it without having time to get bored. And it doesn’t fill up another ten hours with meaningless grinding, when all the interesting quests are done, all the significant progressions are completed, but we still continue to be stuffed with “content” to our ears. Thanks for that.

Conclusion

Hand on heart, Spiders It’s not a studio of great talent, and it’s not the most numerous, but perhaps this is precisely what makes their last year’s project even more valuable. That somehow Bioware was given at one time easily, almost playfully (in the creative sense, of course), French developers extract it with sweat and blood. “Work and labor will grind everything down,” as the tireless spiders seem to tell us, scrupulously putting into the pot of their creation everything that came to hand: a fat piece of Dragon Age, a little Dark Souls, a pinch of all ARPGs combined, and thickly seasoned with their signature sauce.

It turned out very well; high-quality, neat, deep (as far as financial and genre restrictions allowed), and most importantly – still an original game – after the fifth time the damn thing turned out to be not lumpy. Maybe I was daydreaming, but who knows, and on some VGA-2024 we will see a new creation Spiders in the category “best RPG of the year” next to mastodons like Bethesda Softworks and Larian Studios. What the hell is not joking?

– New level for the studio Spiders

– Rare setting for an RPG

– Entertaining side quests.

– Good balance of the combat system – it doesn’t let you relax, but it doesn’t make you angry either

Call Us On:

M&D Flyscreens