10 Things You Didn’t Know about Greedfall

Greedfall is a new action RPG from Spiders. Currently, it has been released for the PC as well as both the PS4 and the Xbox One, which should come as welcome news for the people with those particular platforms. Here are 10 things that you may or may not have known about Greedfall:

1. Developed By Spiders

For those who are curious, Greedfall was developed by a French video game developer called Spiders. In short, Spiders can trace its origins to the team responsible for making Silverfall as well as its add-on Silverfall: Earth Awakening because it was started up by some of the team members who were interested in continuing to work with one another. Ever since then, Spiders has specialized in making action RPGs, with Greedfall being no exception to this rule.

2. Published By Focus Home Interactive

It is interesting to note that Spiders has been bought out by a French publisher called Bigben Interactive. However, Greedfall is being published by Focus Home Interactive, which is another French video game developer that doubles as another French video game publisher. Since the announcement of the acquisition came out in July of 2019, it seems reasonable to speculate that the choice of publisher can be explained by it being contractual in nature.

3. The Setting Is Based on the 17th Century

The setting of Greedfall is based on the Europe as well as the Americas of the 17th century. For those who could use a refresher, the 17th century saw the Baroque movement as well as the Scientific Revolution, thus making it a pivotal time in the early modern era. Since Greedfall comes from a French video game developer, it seems appropriate to point out that the 17th century was also associated with the Grand Siècle, which was a period of French history defined by the reigns of both Louis XIII and Louis XIV.

4. Your Character Is Searching for a Cure

Players take on the role of De Sardet, a representative of a merchant’s guild who has sailed to the land of Teer Fradee for the purpose of finding a cure for a plague that is ravaging their homeland. Nowadays, a combination of effective healthcare and strong institutions protect the people of developed countries from the worst of what infectious diseases can do to human populations, but it wasn’t that long ago when the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918 killed between 20 million and 100 million people from the January of 1918 to the December of 1920. As for the search for a cure, it is interesting to note that this kind of thing still happens in the present time, which is one of the reasons that the devastation of the Amazon and other under-explored regions is so detrimental for human interests in the long run.

5. Your Character Can Side with a Wide Range of Factions

Naturally, players have the option of siding with their player-character’s home country. However, Greedfall puts a huge emphasis on choice. As a result, players can choose to side with other factions instead, which means the countries seeking to colonize Teer Fradee as well as the native inhabitants of Teer Fradee.

6. Not Good at Engaging with the Issues of Colonialism

Greedfall is based on a period of history that continues to have a huge impact on a wide range of people from a wide range of countries. Unfortunately, while it seems to be aware that colonialism had some serious issues, it fails to engage with them save in a very superficial way. For people who were hoping that Greedfall would offer them the chance to make a big impact on its setting, this could be a deal-breaker. In contrast, for people who are more interested in decent combat mechanics than other considerations, this might not be much of an issue at all.

7. Five Companions

In total, there are five companions. The various companions come from various factions. Due to this, while the companions are their own characters with their own stories, they serve as a way for Greedfall to tell players more about their respective factions as well.

8. Standard Companion System For Such RPGs

Otherwise, Greedfall’s companion system is pretty much most players would expect from such RPGs. For example, when players make choices, their companions can express both approval and disapproval based on their personalities. Over time, the accumulation of approval makes for stronger relationships with the companions, which in turn, is presumably critical for unlocking the potential romances. Likewise, it should be mentioned that the player isn’t permitted to field the full roster of companions at the same time. Instead, they are limited to their pick of two companions at any one time.

9. Some Reviewers Have Compared It to Dragon Age

Based on this, it is no wonder that some reviewers have compared Greedfall to the Dragon Age series in the sense that it might tide interested individuals over until Dragon Age 4 comes out. For those who are unfamiliar, the Dragon Age series started up as Bioware’s attempt to come up with a spiritual successor to both the Baldur’s Gate series and the Neverwinter Nights series in an original world that drew inspiration from both A Song of Ice and Fire and The Lord of the Rings. Currently, Bioware is working on Dragon Age 4. However, there are reasons to be skeptical about the series’s future, with an excellent example being how the project got scrapped because of its lack of a live-service component before being restarted with a live-service component.

10. Lots of Customization Choices

On the plus side, Greedfall seems to have plenty of customization choices for the player-character. For example, weapons can have their grips, their pommels, and their crossguards swapped out to create the right look for interested individuals. Likewise, clothing options have something similar for pouches, trinkets, and shoulder pieces. As such, while Greedfall might be lacking in some respects, it seems to be quite decent at enabling players to tweak their player-characters until they get the look that they want.