TheRetroArcade
Veteran
Posts: 2,117
Joined: Feb 2026
Joined: Feb 2026
Spiders' prequel has some things to admire, but it's both overly buggy and frustratingly conservative.
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Having spent the last week playing the final version of Greedfall: The Dying World I'm faced with a conundrum. I admire its quiet ambition and some elements of its world, but it's a humdrum slog to play. It's the latest from Spiders, French purveyors of eurojank. The term is shorthand for an RPG that's big on ambition but low on budget, relative to the big blockbuster studios. Think Piranha Bytes, early Larian and CD Projekt, and the Stalker series.
The Dying World has been in early access for two years and this week gets its 1.0 release. It's an approach to RPG development that worked wonders for Baldur's Gate 3, but I'm afraid the results here are nowhere near as favorable.
The Dying World is a prequel to the modestly successful 2019 outing set in a fantasy-daubed approximation of 17th century Europe. Controversially, it ditches the live third-person combat of its predecessor in favour of a rugged real-time with pause system that seems to answer to a new public relaxedness with ageworn approaches to combat. For those who love a rough around the edges western RPG it may sate that hunger, but this prequel doesn't seem designed to bring Greedfall to a wider audience, which is weird because Greedfall seemed like a rare minor hit for a AA studio.
The Dying World flips the script on its predecessor: in the first you're a colonising noble, but in this one you're the colonised. I play as the fully customisable Vriden Gerr, who belongs to a relentlessly exploited island nation where the colonising Renaigse are mining and poisoning, as is a brutal coloniser's wont. Vriden Gerr is eventually kidnapped by shadowy figures belonging to the Alliance who—we gradually learn—are using the native inhabitants of Teer Fradee for chemical warfare experiments.
Vriden Gerr escapes the Alliance's clutches alive, but not without determination to foil whatever plot is brewing. She gradually builds an eight-strong crew cherrypicked from all the various races and factions of Gacane, none of whom I managed to take a liking to across this 35-40 hour adventure. She eventually gets her own sailing ship in the form of the Constanzia to help on her quest, which serves as a base from which you can cross oceans and romance companions.
The most obvious and major change is the...Read more: Full article on www.pcgamer.com
What do you think about this?
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Every Thursday
GTA 6 O'clock
Our special GTA 6 newsletter, with breaking news, insider info, and rumor analysis from the award-winning GTA 6 O'clock experts.
Every Friday
Knowledge
From the creators of Edge: A weekly videogame industry newsletter with analysis from expert writers, guidance from professionals, and insight into what's on the horizon.
Every Thursday
The Setup
Hardware nerds unite, sign up to our free tech newsletter for a weekly digest of the hottest new tech, the latest gadgets on the test bench, and much more.
Every Wednesday
Switch 2 Spotlight
Sign up to our new Switch 2 newsletter, where we bring you the latest talking points on Nintendo's new console each week, bring you up to date on the news, and recommend what games to play.
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SFX
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Having spent the last week playing the final version of Greedfall: The Dying World I'm faced with a conundrum. I admire its quiet ambition and some elements of its world, but it's a humdrum slog to play. It's the latest from Spiders, French purveyors of eurojank. The term is shorthand for an RPG that's big on ambition but low on budget, relative to the big blockbuster studios. Think Piranha Bytes, early Larian and CD Projekt, and the Stalker series.
The Dying World has been in early access for two years and this week gets its 1.0 release. It's an approach to RPG development that worked wonders for Baldur's Gate 3, but I'm afraid the results here are nowhere near as favorable.
The Dying World is a prequel to the modestly successful 2019 outing set in a fantasy-daubed approximation of 17th century Europe. Controversially, it ditches the live third-person combat of its predecessor in favour of a rugged real-time with pause system that seems to answer to a new public relaxedness with ageworn approaches to combat. For those who love a rough around the edges western RPG it may sate that hunger, but this prequel doesn't seem designed to bring Greedfall to a wider audience, which is weird because Greedfall seemed like a rare minor hit for a AA studio.
The Dying World flips the script on its predecessor: in the first you're a colonising noble, but in this one you're the colonised. I play as the fully customisable Vriden Gerr, who belongs to a relentlessly exploited island nation where the colonising Renaigse are mining and poisoning, as is a brutal coloniser's wont. Vriden Gerr is eventually kidnapped by shadowy figures belonging to the Alliance who—we gradually learn—are using the native inhabitants of Teer Fradee for chemical warfare experiments.
Vriden Gerr escapes the Alliance's clutches alive, but not without determination to foil whatever plot is brewing. She gradually builds an eight-strong crew cherrypicked from all the various races and factions of Gacane, none of whom I managed to take a liking to across this 35-40 hour adventure. She eventually gets her own sailing ship in the form of the Constanzia to help on her quest, which serves as a base from which you can cross oceans and romance companions.
The most obvious and major change is the...Read more: Full article on www.pcgamer.com
What do you think about this?