GreedFall 2: The Dying World Preview – A World of Lore to Explore

After the 2019 release of GreedFall , developer Spiders has been hard at work, first with the release of Steel Rising back in 2022 and now with GreedFall 2: The Dying World . Nacon is publishing this RPG sequel. At Summer Game Fest right before heading into early access this summer, I got to preview the game, and GreedFall 2 has some interesting ideas.

For those who have played the original game, GreedFall 2: The Dying World takes place three years before it. You are a native of Teer Fradee, taken to Gacane, The Old Continent. In the first GreedFall , you hear of a mysterious illness plaguing the content, but in GreedFall 2, you get to go back and explore “the dying world.”

GreedFall 2 very clearly takes notes from other RPGs. You are in a party during your playthrough, jumping in and out of Action or Tactical Mode, with seven companions available throughout the game. Action Mode allows you to swap characters on the fly and fight while everything is happening around you. Tactical Mode allows you to freeze and look at the battlefield more strategically,

Though many people will look at its tactical combat style and immediately compare it to Baldur’s Gate , I would argue that more inspiration comes from the Dragon Age series . They used what was referred to as a “tactical pause” rather than turn-based combat, sticking closer to Dragon Age Origins.

Game Director and co-founder of Spiders, Jehanne Rousseau, would agree, saying, “As you may have seen, there is a strong inspiration coming from BioWare games, especially Dragon Age Origins. ” She went on to explain, “ Baldur’s Gate 3 was an inspiration for the different types of things like the use of of the talents and the dialogues, for example, but not that much on the combat aspect because they went turn-based, which was making sense because of the Dungeon & Dragon license.”

Essentially, while playing GreedFall 2: The Dying World, you can swap to your Tactical Mode to pause the battle, scope everything out and plan your next moves. From here, you can swap between your character and companions to use their various skills, from taunts to heals to AOE attacks and more. This is just a pause, and once you leave the mode, the game will continue, and the moves you’ve chosen will play out.

You can jump in and play GreedFall 2 in Action Mode, but Rousseau recommends Tactical Mode, “Well, I think that here we really wanted to have something that is more tactical…As it was a little the case also in Dragon Age Origins, when you are just meeting a few monsters here and there, you can stay. You’re not obliged to switch to the tactical pose. You know, it’s something that will come because it’s just easier to crash mobs. But for more complex fights, the tactical experience will definitely be more interesting…So it’s more about thinking and evaluating the situation before and then going into the fight.”

During my playthrough, I found multiple ways to complete several of the quests and was able to forge my own path rather than stick to one path. I went East while many other players went North, finding various side quests and solutions to other quests along the way. I think that is part of the beauty of RPGs and Spiders made it clear that this was a core part of GreedFall 2’s development.

GreedFall 2 is launching into Early Access this summer, but it feels like it still needs a good coat of polish. As I felt with Steel Rising , something about the movement in this game still feels unrefined. There were moments when I would enter a cutscene on my way somewhere, and when I jumped back into the world, my body was positioned elsewhere, and I was turned around. It feels like some quality-of-life improvements would really benefit GreedFall 2, so who knows what Early Access will bring.

For fans of the original GreedFall, this prequel will fill in a huge part of the lore that people will love. For RPG fans, you may need to give Spiders a little bit of time to add some polish to GreedFall 2: The Dying World before you give it your all.