Greedfall: Release Date, Gameplay, Trailers, Story, News
If there was any game that was turning heads at this year’s E3, it was definitely French developer Spiders’ fantasy RPG Greedfall. Set in a fictional 17th century inspired world, Greedfall looks like what would happen if you took Witcher 3, Bloodborne, and Fable, mixed them all in a bowl, and tossed in a sprinkle of colonial era France for good measure; a massive RPG complete with an open world, intricate narrative and story, character customization, and quests, lots and lots of quests. Greedfall has been gaining a ton of hype and people are eager to get their hands on as much information about the title as possible. That being said, lets take an in depth look at what we know so far:
Greedfall Story
Greedfall takes place on the mysterious newly discovered land Teer Fradee. It is the player's job to explore this New World and deal with its various inhabitants.
Greedfall is set in a fictional world modeled after 17th century France. Developing team Spiders says “The world of Greedfall and its visual identity draw heavily from 17th century Europe: its architecture, costumes, weaponry, ambiance-each and every element of the game-take root in this period of history dominated by exploration, scientific discoveries, and booming culture in general.” In particular, the game designers took their visual inspiration from Baroque art and Flemish paintings, as is reflected by the dark undertones and muted colors of the game world. Players take on the role of an explorer, tasked with finding a cure for the deadly plague devastating their home country. You are sent across the sea to the newly discovered land of Teer Fradee, a mysterious island surrounded by rumors of treasures, ancient secrets and magic. This New World is hardly uninhabited though. Various factions are vying for control and dominance, including other colonizing powers, religious sects, terrifying monsters, and the mysterious natives that populate the island. The player must explore the island and engage in a risky game of diplomacy with the other factions on the island.
Fierce monsters roam the wilderness of the New World.
According to the developers, the game will place a heavy emphasis on story and narrative. Side quests will each have a unique story and fit into the lore of the gameworld. Said Jehanne Rousseau, CEO of Spiders, “We really wanted each quest to bring some lore elements, to really be intricate with the rest of the story...” To the collective relief of gamers worldwide, this means absolutely ZERO fetch quests. “No one will ask you to, you know, ‘kill me three birds’ or anything.” Given the developer’s insistence on intricate narrative, it is likely that the player’s in game choices will greatly affect how the story plays out.
Greedfall Gameplay
Illustration 4: A still from in game combat.
Gameplay in Greedfall is still something of a mystery. While we know a bit about how gameplay is designed, we still have yet to see how the game actually plays. Despite the presence of an official E3 trailer at this year’s convention, no official gameplay footage video has been released. This video features an interview, where one can make out gameplay scenes playing in the background. We do know some things though. Greedfall will be an action role-playing game, like Spiders’ other titles, and it will feature a character customization system. Players will begin by picking their character’s gender and a few skills. From there, it is up to the player to invest in skills and stats however they see fit. The classless character system allows for unique skill combinations, and with over 100 different skills to choose from, every player will be able to mix and match skills to find a style that suits them. From the bits of gameplay that we have seen, the character skill progression system looks to be similar to that of the Witcher series, in particular Witcher 2. At this point in the video, one can make out the character’s skill tree and its resemblance to Witcher 2’s skill tree.
Story and quest progression is multi faceted. From the game’s official website, “You can progress through the game and achieve quests in a multitude of different ways – through combat, diplomacy, deception… the way you reach your objective depends solely on your choices and how you choose to develop you character.” Certain choices will build either good or bad reputations with the factions on the island, and companions react to your decisions accordingly. So it appears that player choice will have a large role in gameplay and story.
Like most action RPGs, combat will take place in real time, with an emphasis on giving different approaches to handling enemies. According to the developers, there are over 200 different kinds of equipment for your character to wear, each providing benefits in combat. There will be multiple style of combat, including melee combat, ranged combat, magic, and even traps and grenades to catch your enemies off guard. Combat is not the only solution to every encounter though. Sometimes your best bet will be to engage in diplomacy or use deception.
All of this sounds amazing, but until we have an actual gameplay video we can’t make any solid judgments. Gamers have been promised the world only to have companies not live up to those promises. To be sure, the game sounds very ambitious, so hopefully Spiders can make due on such a magnificent vision.
Greedfall Trailers
Greedfall burst onto the scene in 2017 with this tense reveal trailer:
We see the what seems to be the protagonist aiming his gun at a running figure, one of the islands native inhabitants. Before he can deliver the final blow, a fearsome beast leaps from the woods; a creaturethat looks suspiciously like a fiend from the Witcher series (Seriously, the game looks like it draws on a lot from the Witcher , and that’s not a bad thing).
This past year’s E3 saw a more in depth trailer, in which some of the narrative of the world is fleshed out. We learn a bit about the player character’s motivations, and we also see more about the scale of conflict between the new colonizers and the native population, who seem to have an affinity for magic. The ending scene of the trailer is totally badass too.
Greedfall Release Date
Greedfall is slated for a 2019 release, but no specific date has been announced yet. The game was originally announced in 2017 and set for a 2018 release date but apparently needed to be delayed. Delays in release dates can be both bad and good. On the one hand, delays signify that development is not going as planned. On the other hand, delays mean that more time is being put into the title, and ideally, more time spent equals a better final product. We will see if the wait will be worth it come 2019.
Greedfall Developer
Founded in 2009, French game developer Spiders is composed largely of members who previously worked together on the hack-and-slash RPG Silverfall, released for Windows in 2008. Since the company’s founding, they have released a number of titles, such as Mars: War Logs, Bound by Flame, The Technomancer. Their games are noted for intricate world-building and orchestrated soundtracks.
Personally, I have never played any games by Spiders, but if Greedfall ends up being as good as it looks, then Spiders could find themselves a rising player in the industry. It’s a friendly market for indie developers and these devs look like they are taking on an extremely ambitious triple A project. Here’s hoping for all of us that the devs nail this one.
What’s Next?
Still no solid release date for the title, but gamers are hoping for an early to mid 2019 release. In a market that kind of has an over-saturation with open world RPGs, Greedfall looks like a breath of fresh air in a genre that some may say has overstayed its welcome. Simply the unique setting an aesthetic were enough to make it stand out from other E3 titles, and we are extremely excited to be able to play this game come next year.
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