GreedFall for PC Reviews — Metacritic
As folks Spiders studio continue to struggle towards Sisyphean goal of filling the void Bioware’s unfortunate demise left, they fell againAs folks Spiders studio continue to struggle towards Sisyphean goal of filling the void Bioware’s unfortunate demise left, they fell again just a little short of notable with their Greedfall.
A few things make plot-driven Bioware-style RPG stand out: style and setting, focused gameplay, and, unsurprisingly, plot. Lets get the easy one out of the way: the new world of Teer Fradee is undoubtedly the exciting highlight of the game. Outdated graphics and stiff animations are a given for an AA studio, of course,
As folks at Spiders studio continue to struggle towards Sisyphean goal of filling the void Bioware’s unfortunate demise left, they fall again just a little short of notable with their Greedfall.
A few things make plot-driven Bioware-style RPG stand out: style and setting, focused gameplay, and, unsurprisingly, the plot. Let’s get the easy one out of the way: the new world of Teer Fradee island is undoubtedly the exciting and stylish highlight of the game. Outdated graphics and stiff animations are a given for an AA studio, of course, but it’s the designs that count, and Greedfall has some memorable ones. Spiders deserve credit for always trying to come up with something original for their settings, no matter the results. The colonial aesthetic, consistent faction designs and well-realised geography of the island all do a great job of immersing you into the world. The music is nothing special or memorable, but it somehow fits the mood incredibly well. Some environments, especially indoors, are barren and downright repeated, but cutting these corners is understandable.
Now, onto the hard part. The gameplay is a wash. Combat is just adequate, in animations at least (and at last, Spiders!), but there’s no system worth exploring, mastering or even mentioning.
Exploration, crafting, progression system — all the same: sufficient, shallow, nothing you haven’t seen before. It’s wrong to decry the game for doing just decently, but Spiders need to step up their game if they want to get noticed, need to add some spice because this gameplay is the equivalent of oatmeal porridge at this point.
Now to the spicy part, then. The colonialism. The game is weird about it. It bashes you over the head with «colonialism bad» and «go green», which is the right message, but it struggles to get nuanced, apart from showing that there are indeed good and bad people on both sides. It’s not terribly boring or black-and-white, and as far as themes go this one is not bad at all, but you never feel invested or as you’ve been told something meaningful. Also, the whole story very much revolves around the magical negro (native in this case) shtick, once again. Good characters might’ve helped, but barring the player character, De Sardet, who’s surprisingly interesting to roleplay, and Siora, your companion and Vergil-type figure on your journey through the native lands, the game lacks any memorable faces.
Greedfall barely manages to make its mediocre gameplay and heavy-handed story not to feel like a slog, so if you’re into exploring a beautifully realised native island while feeling smug for doing it the right, environmentalist way and not like your colonialist peers, approach this game leniently.… Expand
GreedFall Review | GameGrin
GreedFall Review | GameGrin
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Coming from developer Spiders, GreedFall is not what I would call a breath of fresh air, and I mean that in a good way; it’s more a revival of something the gaming community has been lacking lately. The game hearkens back to the glory days of BioWare’s Dragon Age: Origins — a time when the RPG genre was putting out some of its best work.
The writing in GreedFall is among the most refined you can get, although not all of the voice actors deliver their lines with the same quality of skill. As I played I found myself carefully considering my dialogue choices, as by this time it had become clear to me that this game was going to hold me accountable to my actions. Early on, I managed to alienate myself from two of the major factions all because I made a moral choice over what might have been the smart choice. I knew then this game was not going to let me please everyone. Hard choices were going to be asked of my character, and apart from reloading an older save I was going to have to accept the outcome and move on. With each new quest, I began to wonder what might have happened had I picked a different option. What if I had instead chosen not to help those in need because of the political fallout it could cause? These choices helped me become far more immersed within the game, as it made me feel like I was making a difference wherever I went.
Location: Cwenvar «The Tall Trees»
On the graphical side of things, GreedFall does fall a bit short, but I can honestly say it is still very appealing to look at. There may be a few low textures in some places, and if you were to zoom in (such as during cinematics), it is noticeable, but the game has it where it counts. I will mention that I used an NVMe, 32 GB of DDR4, and an RTX 2060 (6GB VRAM) graphics card. With this, the game had massive stutter issues, but only when I turned on the ultra texture setting; turning textures to “high” resolved the problem. Everything else could be on ultra with no problem, which leads me to believe this is an optimisation issue. Despite the graphics, I was not bothered at all as the story and gameplay were more than enough to justify my spending time in the world Spiders had created.
Speaking of gameplay, let’s talk a bit about what you can expect. As you would hope, GreedFall allows the player to acquire all kinds of gear and weapons throughout their travels.
Items can be upgraded and customised as well as equipped to companions. The game also has an engaging third-person combat system not unlike Dark Souls or The Witcher III, though less complex. One thing the combat could use is a bump in difficulty, as even on the hardest mode, I was ripping through enemies later in the game. Combat offers you three different styles: magic, ranged, and melee. These styles can be altered and enhanced by use of a talent tree you place points in as you level; I found a good combo of swordplay and pistols to be very satisfying. You also receive talent points for non-combat perks, such as persuasion or science. These perks enhance your options in dialogue and your ability to explore the world.
GreedFall, while set on the large island of Tir Fradi (aka Teer Fradee) is not a full open world; rather, it is several dozen smaller zones you will be visiting. These vary from large cities to murky swamps and vibrant forests. Each zone has a good deal to explore with some secrets hidden away behind perk checks.
For example, while out exploring, I came across a broken bridge with a prompt to jump over. However, because I had not invested any perk points into my “vigor” I was unable to leap across and claim the treasure on the other side. These kinds of restrictions are fantastic as they limit you early on and make you decide what your priorities are going to be. You can’t just have everything you want right away. Do you want to be able to open locked chests? Invest in lock-picking. Do you like to craft and modify your own armour? Craftsmanship is for you! You can even get these skills boosted if you have the right companions with you for the job, though only if you have formed a strong enough friendship with them.
Yes the game does offer companions, five in total, and while I may not have found all of them to be interesting, I did enjoy having my decisions challenged by different views and beliefs. This helped create a well-rounded decision-making process, as I had to consider not just how I felt about things but how my allies did as well.
All of your companions have different faction allegiances; they are not just there to support you for no good reason. In fact, they have complete agendas of their own. Companions can and will betray you if you treat them badly and cause too much trouble for their allied faction. Then again, if they like you enough they can help things play to your favour when dealing with people from their own guild or nation.
When it comes to sound design, the game provides exactly what it needs to and then some. While walking around the world you will hear ambient noises, ranging from muffled conversations in cities to the clanking of your heavy armour as you move. During cinematic moments, background music plays that matches the tone of events. The game has an impressive musical score, though it is not always at the forefront of the players attention — most notably when engaging in combat.
Now let’s talk about where GreedFall tends to fall short. The roster of available companions is extremely small for a game in this genre.
This can be troublesome, especially when not all your available allies are interesting to begin with. Graphics and textures are lacklustre in places and need optimisation, including animations, such as lip syncing being off in conversations. Oftentimes the cities you visit feel empty, devoid of a large living population. This is most likely due to the limitations of Spiders’ in-house Silk Engine.
Story DLC for GreedFall arrived back in June of 2021 in the form of “The De Vespe Conspiracy”. Developer Spiders has also announced a prequel, GreedFall 2, which takes place three years prior to the events of the first game, and is slated for a 2024 release.
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Sir Richard McGready meets with the staff of his fashion company Monda.
He presents awards to distinguished employees, and concludes by saying that his ex-wife Samantha, in whose name the company is registered, receives dividends of 1.2 billion pounds. He says that this is a common award of the company team, in some way, of course.
McGready’s 60th birthday party flocks to the Aegean island where McGready’s mansion is located. One of the guests asks the writer Nick: why is the amphitheater being built here? Nick responds with a quote from Percy Bysshe Shelley’s sonnet: «My name is Ozymandias, I am the king of kings …». What? Yes, so…
Five days before. Richard is on the phone: there will be a party on Friday, Elton John will perform on Saturday, and on Sunday we will have gladiator fights.
Work is underway in the amphitheater. The foreman asks the foreman of the builders Janis why the workers do not comply with the requirements of the drawings. It turns out that the workers do not understand the foreman: he is Greek, and they are Bulgarians.
Richard discovers a group of Syrian refugees camping on the beach near his home. Richard demands from the assistants that the emigrants be removed. But it’s a public beach! I don’t care, drive them.
Richard reprimands his assistant, Melanie, for the slow progress of the amphitheater. Assistant Richard Demetrios: Maybe leave it as if it were ruins? Melanie: I imagine what the tabloids will write then. Cameraman Sam, standing in the arena of the amphitheater, shoots Richard sitting on the podium. He invites Sam to «die». No, it’s not, it’s better. Sam «dies» better.
Richard’s mother Margaret and his youngest son Finn come to the arena. They wonder why the lion is in the cage? Richard: There will be gladiator fights. Finn: But there were tigers in the movie. Lion trainer Frank says there are a lot of inaccuracies in the movie Gladiator. Richard: why don’t your lion cheer up? Maybe give him cocaine? Frank reveals that the lion’s name is Clarence.
Nick appears near the arena.
Richard: what are you doing here? I am your biographer. I know who you are. I ask what are you doing here? Richard’s wife Naomi tells Richard to get behind the writer.
Three months before. Meeting of the parliamentary committee. The chairman of the committee says that Richard bankrupted the company he owned, leaving 11,000 people on the street. Richard: Most of them worked part-time. You are a cruel capitalist, they call you Sir Zagrebala, Sir Schemer. The public demands that you be stripped of your knighthood. Richard: My doctor says envy and jealousy are incurable. I’m not to blame for anything. No, it’s my fault! A young woman runs up to Richard and slams a plastic plate of food into his face.
Margaret is talking to Nick. How old are you? 44. Look twice as young, skin like a baby. Will you write a good book? Can you do it? Yes or no? Richard only pretends to be insolent. In fact, he has always been and remains a sensitive boy. He’s just bluffing.
Private school, 1973.
Richard shows a classmate a trick that causes a 50 pence coin to disappear without a trace. There is a very thin line between magic and tragedy!
Lewis Watson, Richard’s childhood friend, tells Nick that everyone thought he was offended by fate, because he left school at 16. But it was a private school, and we all wanted to get out of there. And after the death of his father, the school turned into a prison for him.
Flashback. Richard is rude to the teacher, he is whipped by the director. Ay, ticklish!
Richard is talking to his mother. Margaret: You will have to sell the house so that you can graduate from Oxford and achieve everything you wanted to. Richard: For this you just need to earn a lot of money.
Watson: and he came up with the name Zagrebal himself, cards are his forte.
Flashback. Schoolchildren play cards, Richard wins. The teacher comes in and takes the money from him.
The director is talking to Margaret. She complains that corporal punishment is used against her son.
Yes, you hate everyone: Irish, blacks and even dogs. But I still have more money. Come on, Richard! Mother and son are walking along the school corridor. Margaret: Stinking English motherfuckers! We’ll show them!
Nick is talking to Nick Wax, Richard’s former colleague. Were you his mentor? He didn’t need him. These were the days of Reagan and Thatcher. The market was on a roll.
Flashback. Richard bargains furiously with clothing suppliers. He severely reduces the price, calling the product offered to him crap. Richard is talking to his buddies: how much do they pay in Leicester? About three pounds. And in Sri Lanka, a seamstress gets 50 pence. But there are also transportation costs. You did not understand: not in an hour, but in a day.
Sri Lanka. Richard bargains furiously with clothing manufacturers, knocking down the price to a minimum. He takes a tuk-tuk to the hotel. When settling, he starts haggling with the rickshaw. A crowd gathers around, Richard manages to enter the hotel only thanks to the efforts of the police.
Four days before the holiday. Richard on the pier meets guests. This is his daughter Lily with boyfriend Fabian and his ex-wife Samantha with her boyfriend Francois.
A film crew is filming a scene for the reality show Young, Rich and Beautiful. Against the backdrop of the surf, Lily and Fabian are talking. Despite all the efforts of the assistant, Fabian shamelessly distorts a simple text.
Lily is crying on her grandmother’s shoulder: Fabian and I are having a difficult time. So are you dating him? Yes… I don’t know.
Nick asks Melanie: How long have you known Richard? Since Samantha was 40 years old.
Flashback. Melanie discusses her birthday arrangements with Richard and Samantha. Melanie: How much do you plan to spend? Richard: A million. Melanie: Just music or everything? Which singer do you like? Elton John? He will take a million dollars plus additional expenses, for example, to order an airplane. Richard: And Robie Williams? Also a million.
Here’s an insolent man, breaking the same price as Elton John. Melanie: But Shakira will ask for three million. Wow! Melanie calls the agent: do you have anyone within 500k? What, Tom Jones? 350 thousand? Richard: I’m taking two Tom Jones!
Melanie tells Nick that he was beaten up badly at the parliamentary committee, he wants to restore his reputation.
Parliamentary committee meeting. The chairman addresses Richard: your businesses regularly fail. Richard: Business is a risky business.
Wax says to Nick: he always took stores in a terrible state. But he is the king of the mass market.
Flashback. Richard curses the manager of the store he opens: what are the colors? I want bright, aggressive colors. For example, fuchsia. This is the color of the vagina, so it pulls to look there.
After a while, Richard swears: no buyers! And this fuchsia color, who came up with it? You feel like you are buying a product while in your vagina.
Three days before the holiday.
Melanie informs Richard that all the stars have refused to come to the anniversary. Nick jokingly suggests using doubles. Richard approves of this idea.
Richard sees refugees on the beach again. Maybe we should organize a charity concert for them?
Richard, Margaret, Samantha and Francois are sitting at the table. Margaret stubbornly calls François Françoise. Richard asks how much Samantha’s new breasts cost. Ten thousand. And my teeth cost me twenty. Did you get those boobs on sale? Samantha: Great boobs, only you won’t see them again.
On the beach, a film crew shoots an episode: Fabian and Lily give food to refugee children in foil containers. Another double! Lily tries to take away the container from the little girl, a scandal begins. Melanie appears with a squad of police. Arguments intensify, children cry. Looking at them, Lily also sobs.
The foreman asks Janis: where are the workers? They are gone. Why? It’s all about double pay. But that’s good for them.
Janis: double payment — for the Greeks, and they are the Bulgarians. So return them and pay double. No, they’ve already found another job. The foreman yells at Janis, calls him an idiot.
The director of the party tells that there will be fireworks. Frank says it will unsettle the lion. Director: what if the cage is covered with a rag? It works with parrots. Frank: My lion is smarter than a parrot.
Samantha is talking to Finn: you look bad. Crack? Cocaine? I’m not a drug addict. But you have pubic hair on your face like sticks sticking out. Shave them before the holiday, do not disgrace yourself.
Two days before the holiday. Richard introduces Nick to Samantha. Nick says that they already know each other, met in Nice on board Samantha’s yacht.
Flashback. Nick asks Samantha: how did you meet? He likes easy money, so we met him at the casino. He devoted himself to fashion, but he himself does not understand clothes.
Parliamentary committee meeting.
Richard is accused of having his company owe 250 million while he and his family made a profit of 400 million.
Nick meets with a financial correspondent. He explains what schemes Richard uses to enrich himself. He buys out companies with their own money. And all this is absolutely legal. Then the money is transferred to Monaco, offshore. Richard pays no taxes and receives dividends.
Samantha tells Nick: nobody pays taxes in Nice. This is part of the trend. Why did you get divorced? He loves getting trophies. And I can smell a bitch a mile away.
One day before the holiday. Frank releases the lion into the arena, tries to stir it up. He doesn’t get anything.
Nick and Finn are talking about Sophocles’ tragedy Oedipus Rex. Finn says that Oedipus’ father was killed by him for terrible deeds.
One day before the holiday. Richard invites the leader of the refugees, Karim, to play cards with him, the game «Find the Lady». Karim loses. Richard obliges him to work with his people at the celebration and wear costumes at the same time, so as not to be different from other guests.
Nick is talking to Amanda, Melanie’s assistant. She says that she is from Sri Lanka. Her mother worked there in a garment factory under inhumane conditions. There was a fire in the factory, and Amanda’s mother died. When Amanda became an adult, she came to England.
Richard and Naomi in antique outfits retire to the bedroom. Finn knocks on the door. His father rudely drives him away.
The holiday begins. Stephen Fry gives a speech in honor of the birthday boy, the guests drink champagne. Refugee children steal cutlery from the tables. Demetrios demands to call the police. Children hide in a refugee camp. Demetrios starts a fight with Karim. Amanda defuses the situation. She persuades Karim, who tells the children to return the stolen goods.
Finn is dancing with Naomi. Samantha tells Richard that it’s good that they found a common language. He’s almost her age. Richard approaches the dancing couple and sends his son away: go to sleep.
Finn sneaks up to the lion’s cage and puts some kind of powder into the meat.
Richard approaches the cage. He says that he is also a lion, that they have something to talk about. Amanda is watching him. She presses the button, the cage gate opens. The lion enters the arena. Richard says he is not afraid of the beast. But he takes a step back and stumbles. The lion lunges at Richard and bites him to death.
TV announces that there has been an accident. The killer lion has already been euthanized.
Finn speaks at Richard’s wake. He says that he will continue the work of Richard even more effectively, the goods in the family firms will be sold at even lower prices.
End credits. 80 percent of garment workers are women. Nine out of ten billionaires are men. Working conditions in Sri Lanka are among the best in developing countries. The workers get four pounds a day. In 2018, the top 10 fashion brands generated more than $18 billion in revenue.
Why greed and incredulity are the best qualities of a manager
In my professional life, I have looked at thousands of employee profiles — this is usually called the description of the requirements for candidates when applying for a job.
But the best profile I’ve seen recently is two words that describe the ideal leader responsible for improving performance: greedy and distrustful. Why are these not the best human qualities so important?
Greed . A greedy manager is intolerant of any loss. Evasion of employees from the performance of duties (absenteeism), high staff costs, low labor productivity — he actively fights all this. Let me give you an example: an employee of a Siberian enterprise did not come to work for a whole year on legal grounds: regular and study holidays, military training, sick leave. And the whole year the company paid him a salary, until the director’s patience ran out — and the company said goodbye to the employee. A greedy manager would have solved the problem sooner.
Meetings and reports are also great excuses for greedy leaders to intervene. They will free employees from unnecessary work, and the freed up resources will be directed to productive work. In any, even a very successful company, there is at least 30% of reserves to increase labor productivity.
Not all measures are as obvious as the cancellation of useless meetings. But you can focus on recognized leaders in efficient production, such as Toyota.
Distrust . An incredulous manager will examine any operation in the office and in production under a magnifying glass. He does not take anyone’s word for it, he counts, clocks, rechecks, looks for reserves to improve quality and reduce costs.
True, greed and distrust alone are not enough to increase efficiency. Leaders must follow seven important rules.
1 . Record best practice on paper. Up to 80% of tasks in any organization are typical. They need to be studied, sorted out inefficient and write down the best practices. Labor standards are ready. Now it will be much more difficult to work carelessly. Introduce labor standards not only for workers, but also for managers. Their work can also be decomposed into simple operations and regulated.
2 .
Eliminate processes that do not add value. These are the already mentioned reports and meetings, participation in conferences and trainings on the development of personal effectiveness. At the same time, invite managers to study office systems and applications — this will significantly reduce the cost of secretaries.
3 . Use the possibilities of an employment contract. This is a powerful productivity tool, and (like employee job descriptions) can’t be carbon-copied. Write down in the employment contract that the most important tasks of the employee are to work all the prescribed working hours, improve skills and labor productivity. These goals need to be tied to the bonus system — then there will be results.
4 . Reduce infrastructure costs — premises, equipment, personnel. The infrastructure of one American cardiac center is an Internet site that contains profiles of four operating surgeons. Everything else — operating rooms, equipment, support staff, premises — is rented or hired for each specific operation.
