Recent reviews by BrennanLennon

Nut up and git gud or get lost

Draws you in and is well-paced early on; drumming up lots of mystique and tension. Unfortunately, the plot diverges into something that I would describe as a "passable" side quest in an open-world game. I found the conclusion to be very, very anticlimactic. It feels like the writer(s) came up with this arc in about two minutes and couldn't be bothered to brainstorm something more interesting.

Gameplay is pretty lacking. Mostly a walking simulator with some light navigation. The only real mechanic is hitting a button prompt to traverse obstacles and interact with objects. Sometimes I would bug out while going through said obstacles, which is kinda sad when you consider that they are scripted animations.

There is absolutely nothing to see or explore outside of what is placed in the game for the plot to advance. The environment is pretty minimalist, but nice to look at (although, half the time you are just walking back and forth through a canyon).

The highlight of the game is definitely the dialogue between the two main characters. Between the writing and voicing, the banter between two bored co-workers is very believable and entertaining. It's just a shame the story writing was not on the same level.

For $5, you should give it a shot. You may appreciate it more than I did. I don't feel like I wasted money at all. It was worth trying out at that price. For $20, I would have flipped my desk and retired from gaming.

The first five to ten hours or so of the game were enjoyable to me. I loved the colonial plague setting. The dialogue felt rich and very well-written. It was cool to play as a character that is respected and, for the most part, obeyed for once. I was very excited to embark on a journey that had me playing a vital role in the politics and development of various nations and factions, with a hearty serving of combat and occasional brute force to keep me engaged and ensure that I always get my way,

Unfortunately, most of my time was spent running back and forth through very linear forests and swamps, fighting the same creatures or bandits over and over, and listening to very uninteresting characters drone on and on and on and on. The natives had the most grating accent imaginable, which made it all the more difficult to withstand. Every other word featured a tongue roll or wonky vowel inflection. I understand this is a personal gripe and is quite nit-picky, but it was very off-putting for me.

Most of the sub-plots ended up being pretty cliche, but were also fairly brief and without much development. I didn't really get any satisfaction from completing them, and they often left me asking, "Wait, is that it?". The quest conclusions were often abrupt and unfulfilling. I never felt like I was doing anything all that momentous. It was more like I was completing a list of chores for a bunch of a-holes.

Almost every quest has you going from person to person to person. You will travel halfway across the continent to meet someone because you need their help, but they need your help with something else before that. They need you to fast travel to another location to talk to someone who needs you to go across town to talk to someone else. That person will be uncooperative, so now you have to talk to eight other people in town to figure out what they didn't want to tell you. Then you go confront them because you now know what they didn't want to tell you, and they say, "okay, cool dude". Then you go back and talk to the original guy to let him know thy bidding is done, now can you PLZ help me already. THEN you have to go talk to the person who originally pointed you in their direction to let them know that you talked to them and are now acquainted with half of the universe's population. UGH

Combat seemed pretty interesting at first, but it ended up being pretty simple and repetitive. You are pretty much hitting them with the same one-two punch every encounter. Once you have a gun and can roll (both of which you can potentially acquire within ten hours or so), you are virtually unbeatable. I went with a melee build, which felt pretty similar to a game like Assassin's Creed, but even more watered down. I did like the UI of the quick combat menu, but I didn't really end up needing it much. In my thirty hours, I fought people, two types of bats, and three or four different types of giant, four-legged lizards. There is a severe lack of enemy diversity, and as a result, combat strategy. The bosses were extremely easy and all had the exact same moveset and attack pattern. I beat all of the arena challenges very quickly and much to my chagrin, there weren't any more difficult ones in other cities.

The game is deceptively linear, and does not reward you much for exploring. Throughout the entire journey, I found exactly one bit of loot in a chest that was worth going out of my way for (an armor set). There are talents you can learn to help
you get into certain nooks and crannies that would otherwise be inaccessible, but it usually leads you to some crappy sword or pair of gloves. At most, you might be able to use an alternative path to advance quicker or avoid something. There was never a time where lacking a certain talent was an actual roadblock. Other than that, all of the locations in the game feel samey. When you've stepped foot in one city or forest, you've stepped in them all. They actually seem to become less detailed and accessible as the game goes on.

In conclusion, this is a very promising game that falls flat quickly. It is extremely tedious and boring in my opinion, and I am someone who very much enjoys story-driven games. Combat is average at best, and becomes monotonous early on. Exploration goes largely unrewarded, but there is little to see anyway. I am a huge fan of open-world RPGs, but Greedfall did not scratch a single itch for me (at least not for long).

SHOW NO MERCY