GreedFall at E3 2017

GreedFall, an upcoming action-RPG by Spiders, a French studio known for such games as The Technomancer and Mars: War Logs, has received some E3 coverage that we now relay to you. Mind you, there isn’t a lot of it since the game, at the moment, lacks any actual gameplay footage, but it’s something.

First, there’s a video interview by PlayStation Access with the Project Manager, Marie-Cécile Jacq, where we get some details on the game’s story and factions. There’s also a mention of the game’s combat and a promise of a story mode. Check it out:

And then, a preview by Dread Central, emphasizing the game’s branching nature that features multiple endings and no right or wrong choices. An excerpt:

I usually like to be more prepared going into an interview, but in this case the trailer and a few sparse articles were really all I had to go on. Luckily the people over at Focus Home Interactive were able to set me up with two of the devs, Sébastien Di Ruzza and Marie-Cécile Jacq, to fill in the holes in my knowledge. I had the sense that the game was colonialists vs. natives, but the game actually has five different factions to align yourself with. Ranging from merchants to mercenaries to natives, each of the teams has their own morals, motivations, goals, and special companion to join you on your quest.

What quest is that exactly? Well the world of GreedFall has a bit of a plague problem. All along the mainland people are dying in droves, while the native and wild inhabitants of this uncivilized island are seemingly immune. The dominant church, longtime healers and practitioners of light magic, are none too fond of this. With a promise of reward and the looming specter of painful plague death, the various factions head to the island in search of a cure. Starting as a neutral party, it’s up to you to decide how to go about working with everyone to reach that end.

So standard RPG fair, but the people at Spiders are striving to make that experience feel meaningful. They stressed that they don’t want there to just be a best ending where everyone works together. Get everyone to work together? Good for you! There’s an ending for that. Want to be a murderous colonialist? Glory to the empire, death to the savages, good for you! Want to become a radical native and push back civilization in favor of the spirits of nature? Burn their cities, smash the relics of their church, good for you! They don’t want choices to be just right or wrong, but reflections of how you want to build your story.

It’s a lofty promise, and those that remember The Technomancer will regard this with much scrutiny. The Technomancer‘s greatest shortcoming was how constrained and linear it felt. You spent so much time locked into the main hubs, you didn’t get enough time to learn about the various factions outside of brief snippets in some of the quests. How the heck am I supposed to make an informed decision about the resistance vs the army if I don’t get to talk to their leader until way after I decide whether or not to defuse the bomb?

GreedFall seeks to remedy that by opening up your options both in and out of combat. First off, equipment will no longer be locked to certain characters. According to the devs, the only combat avenue blocked off to you is the native magic, which will still be available through use of their companion. You’ll be able to swap between two different weapons, giving you a choice in how you want to approach a combat situation. Do you want to equip an armor rending two-handed hammer, then switch to a dagger for some bleed effects? Or do you want to use two different firearms, allowing you to dish out more damage before reloading? Coupled with more easily readable and consistent indicators for status effects, it promises to bring the combat a level of choice and complexity unattainable in previous titles.