A couple of years ago, French developer Spiders announced GreedFall 2: The Dying World, the sequel to its solid 2019 roleplaying game. Back then, the studio was aiming for a 2024 launch window. Following a recent media presentation, we learned that the game will indeed debut this Summer, but only in early access. The full version will launch at some point in 205.
Contrary to that announcement, the studio has dropped the idea of making it a prequel. The game’s events will instead run in parallel with the plot of the first title. What has not changed is that GreedFall 2: The Dying World will essentially keep the premise of the original by flipping the viewpoint: instead of journeying from Gacane to the island of Teer Fradee, you’ll be doing the exact opposite (albeit not of your own volition) to explore the old continent. This still allows the studio to maintain the perspective of an outsider venturing into an unknown land.
The main character is a so-called Doneigad, a Sage, albeit a newly appointed one. While the build I’ve played did not allow for character customization, it will eventually be available later during the early access. The Doneigad’s ultimate personal goal is, of course, to regain freedom, but a larger objective for the full game was teased by Spiders: stopping one man’s crazed mission to bring destruction to the whole continent of Gacane.
In GreedFall 2: The Dying World, the protagonist will explore a variety of regions from Gacane, which is inspired by the European Baroque era. Players will encounter some of the factions from the first game, as well as a few new ones that weren’t part of the Bridge Alliance expedition to Teer Fradee.
This is the first Spiders game to launch in early access. The studio provided several reasons for this choice, starting with the need to gather feedback from its fairly large community (the first game sold over two million copies). This ties in with the realization that the sequel is much bigger and, thus, will require more time to be fully polished. Furthermore, the studio is still working on improving the onboarding and combat system.
Players can expect around 30% of the full game to eventually make its way in the early access version, with more regions, companions, features, builds, and talents being released slowly through updates. Overall, the team aims for around 60 hours of playthrough for the full release.
GreedFall 2: The Dying World begins on Teer Fradee, with the main character still considered a ‘Vriden Gerr’ (Rootless) about to go through the initiation ritual to become a Doneigad. Members of the Bridge Alliance have already arrived on the island and some natives are already blaming them for poisoning the land. Among the most hostile toward the ‘invaders’ is Nilan, one of the companions, while the other companion, Sheda, appears to be a potential romantic interest for the main character.
It’s important to note that the version I played was still incomplete compared to the one that’s going to be released on early access. Some conversations had the voice-over entirely missing, while in other cases, it was ‘just’ the facial animations that had placeholders. With those caveats, it’s hard to fully judge the game’s presentation. Having said that, GreedFall 2: The Dying World certainly looks pretty good. It’s still powered by the studio’s own Silk Engine, but it is clear there have been significant improvements, especially for the lighting component. The game didn’t run perfectly, but that was to be expected, given the early build. NVIDIA DLSS is already integrated on PC, though.
The biggest change I noticed while playing this sequel is undoubtedly its new combat system. Spiders has always made action RPGs, ever since the days of Bound by Flame, The Technomancer, and GreedFall itself. You could move in real time, parry, dodge out of the way, et cetera.
This time around, they’re switching to a far more tactics-based system. Everything still plays out in real time, but you can pause at any moment to take control of a companion (also new in GreedFall 2: The Dying World) and set them to do whatever you wish. There’s even a combat log that keeps track of everything that takes place on the battlefield. On one hand, this is nice for those who’d like to play strategically. However, this also means the action element is completely gone. In fact, the characters will auto-attack now unless you give them orders to do specific skills, essentially requiring players to micro-manage at all times, at least on high difficulty settings. You can queue up to three skills for each character in a single order.
Needless to say, the feeling is completely different and may not be to everyone’s taste. It is interesting that the developers would change the combat this much despite the success of the first installment. It’s equally worth noting that BioWare’s Dragon Age (which is obviously a huge inspiration for Spiders) is pretty much going in the other direction. Whereas the first game in that series, Origins, had tab-target-like tactical combat, following entries have moved increasingly toward action combat, and The Veilguard even removed the ability to directly control companions (though, to be fair, you will still be able to pause combat and issue specific orders to your companions via the new ability wheel, making it still more tactical than the first GreedFall).
GreedFall 2: The Dying World, on the other hand, is transitioning from pure action to a slow tactics-based system. Needless to say, those Dragon Age fans who were yearning for a return to Origins will find respite here. As for me, I can’t say I’m too excited about that particular change. However, I am very much looking forward to the new story in what I previously described as one of the most unique fantasy settings created in recent games. There are also other additions, such as a new tracking vision mode that highlights environmental clues when scouring an area for information, and no doubt many more that I couldn’t glean in the short two-hour hands-on.
I’ll keep following the progress of GreedFall 2: The Dying World throughout early access and reporting back any significant content and feature updates. Stay tuned.
