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Greedfall, RPG: a 17th century feast for the eyes


Fidcal

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As indicated in other threads, I keep looking for a decent game to play. Prey was OK and likely I'll replay it sometime, but explore more of the features. Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order was promising after struggling through puzzles then finding there was no quick way back to my spaceship, I gave up. Pity.  Plague Tale Innocence I enjoyed somewhat and almost finished but instead watched the ending on Utube. I just couldn't be bothered to do it myself. Vane has charm and has its own simple beauty but I struggled with the puzzles and then when I had to resort to utube again and saw how illogical and impossible (for me) to have solved, I gave up. A few days ago was the news of the imminence of Playstation 5 with Final Fantasy XVI as an exclusive. I've never really looked at those games so learning that XV royal version has a first person mode, I bought it. I'm truly astonished that such a huge franchise that has made hundreds of millions can be so badly presented and plays like an amateur B movie - no a C movie or less. Side quests were like: 'take this package from a to b' and you had to be careful not to get sucked in because mostly you can't refuse! First person is like moving on ice. Perhaps I can't complain too much as it appears to have been added in response to demand. But the story and characters themselves seem aimed at the teens market. I hope that's not an insult to the many intelligent teens out there? I gave up early. The download probably took longer than the time I spent playing it actually!

So, now I'm trying Greedfall. It's a visual joy to simply walk the streets of the start town as I love the detail - the grime, dirt, filth, of the winding streets. And the subplot stories promise to be much more interesting than just 'take this package from a to b'. But it's a crying shame there's no first person view. How I long to immerse myself more fully in the straw at my feet, the cobblestones, the stonework, the piles of broken wood and - well I could go on all day. The only climbing is at set points. There is a stealth mode but I am very doubtful about how it might be used. I had to smuggle someone out of a tavern so I crouched out the back way - only to find villains set up to attack us and no obvious way to avoid being seen. Still, I think this game might be worth a look if only for the visuals. Try googling for images - most particularly for street scenes. I'll maybe post if I discover anything more worth mentioning or if the game turns out to be hopeless.

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I started Greedfall some time ago (got it on a sale on Steam) and also enjoyed it, especially visually. The gameplay reminded me strongly of Bioware games (Dragon Age: Origins, Mass Effect 1/2), but it also has its flaws. I especially liked the customisation of gear. Stealth is not too big in this game, but can make some fights easier, if you succeed in sneaking up on unsuspecting enemies. I found this is easier outside towns (where you encounter bandits and animals). So far I have played 16 hours and still have the feeling I am not very far into the game. Maybe I should continue it myself... Too much to do (play), too little time. I hope you enjoy it!

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Maybe you or someone can help me. How do I travel to Vedrhais? It's an objective but when I follow the marker out of town and reach it then I get an option to sort of fast travel. But the only two places I can fast travel to are in the town I just left!!!! The marker won't let me walk further up the road. So how do I get to Vedrhais?

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Hm, this is strange. It has been some time since I last played, so I am not 100% sure, but when you reach the globe marker to travel, you are sent to the world map and there should be some arrows for destinations you can reach. You have to travel along those destinations until you can reach your goal. An alternative would be to use a caravan. There is one in the north of New Serene right after you leave town to the right. Apart from that, the only thing I could imagine is, that you have to further the main quest. There you also get the mission to travel to a couple of locations. I am not sure if I tried to travel outside town before that. Who gave you the mission to travel to Vedrhais?

Edit: Just checked some older save files, but unfotunately I only have one in Serene and one, where I already traveled to the Red Woods. One thing I just remembered, though: Have you used the correct exit from New Serene? There is one in the northwest and one straight north. The different exits offer different travel options, so if you have not yet unlocked some for the exit in the northwest, you might not see any if you exit there. If you exit to the north, you should see a marker directly north of New Serene called "The Red Woods".

Edited by Destined
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Thanks, Destined, though I'd virtually abandoned this game as bugged and unfinishable, I'll take another look. From memory, the objective marker is there in the road but when you select to fast travel, the only options are your own house in New Serene, or the Port quarter (I tried them both to be sure too.) If I go to the caravan person he has no objective marker and if I pay him 10G he offers to unknown destination names. I tried them both but they seem unrelated to anything I know. I tried setting other objectives instead with the same result.

I'll take a look at the northwest exit and I'll also check if I'm absolutely sure I set the main objective. I think I did. The only thing that might relate is I tried to help that native who was thrown in prison for trading without a licence. To rescue him I had to fight in the arena! This turned out to be so impossibly difficult I abandoned it and reloaded an earlier gamesave then set a different objective - effectively abandoning the native as unsavable (by me!) I don't see how that could affect it unless one is expected to do that mission. Fairly sure that was a side mission.

 

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It is a side mission. And I admit the fight is rather tough, but it is manageable (I used a lot of traps and gun shots; kiting the enemies until they very pretty low on health). Still, this should not relate to your problem. I have no idea, what could be the problem otherwise. And just to be sure: you have to take the northern exit, not the northwestern (but you can check out both, of course, just to be sure). This is indeed very strange. I cannot recall having any problem finding the Red Woods.

Edit: I just saw that there is also an exit to the east. Maybe you need to take this one? Just as another suggestion

Edited by Destined
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Ah, yes, you're right - there's an east gate too. I studied this a bit more and figured out what started my confusion. I wanted the Theleme governor to ask about the Malichor. The marker shows north and there I come across the fast travel portal in the road. Click and it shows my position on the portal and 'X to travel' and a panel with three quests listed included one to ask a governor about Malichor. I click it thinking this portal will take me where I want to go but it only shows links back to the city. By changing objectives I became even more confused. I now realise that's not just a 'sending' portal but a 'receiving' portal for locations in New Serene as well. So I guess if a player was elsewhere in the map and wanted to go to the Bridge Alliance governor they would click that marker, get to New Serene, then walk through Serene to the East Gate portal? Though couldn't they go direct? Anyway, what I need to do is ignore the objectives list that pops up by default at my position (and is an irrelevant distraction) and look elsewhere on the map and there I see what I want.

Thanks. I'll give this another try.

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I'll just copy-paste my steam-review... 😄

The Lore and character/fraction interaction in this game is simply awesome and entertaining enough to stand on its own. That is a good thing because the rest of the game is more or less just "fine". Ok, the quest design is pretty decent as there are no fetch-quests and most of the time there are multiple solutions to a quest, but the equipment and the RPG-system is lacking a bit of depth. There are also way too few enemy types!! There are maybe 6 or 8 basic enemies with different color variations and that's it. To make it even worse, these enemies don't require very diverse fighting techniques.



That being said, I still had a blast with this game to the last minute. I am hoping for a "definitive edition" of it where they fix the mentioned issues. :-)

So, Fidcal, this game is definitely worth sticking around for. 🙂 

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As I said before, it has its weaknesses, but being the first game in this world, I hope that if there is a continuation (not finished that game, so I am not sure if there is any potential there), it will get improved like the step up from Mass Effect to Mass Effect 2. I liked Mass Effect, but Bioware improved a lot of stuff that was annoying in the first part. I see the potential that this could get done here, as well.

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It's certainly got its strengths and weaknesses. I had more trouble with the fast travel. I had to get to Petrus which was marked on my map with the objective marker, but when I reached that point (through incredibly unbelievable narrow canyon corridors (towns much more open) and routine fixed encounters with beasts, the objective marker had moved. I found it elsewhere on the map and this time I placed my own way marker next to it. When I eventually reached that point the objective marker was gone again but my own marker was still there so I knew I hadn't made a mistake. I then came across a fast travel marker that seemed to go back where I came from. If the idea is to 'symbolise' or 'simulate' complicated travelling cross country to 'discover' a new location, then I'd rather they don't bother at all. I actually could not determine if I'd gone wrong or if it was meant to be confusing.

It was so frustrating that I shelved the game yesterday and downloaded Terminator: Resistance. Although I've not gone far, this seems more my style: first person stealth - though ironically there have been sections of incredibly confined 'corridors', but there are open more open areas. The game saves are not as bad as I'd feared because not only are there the usual dreaded checkpoints but there are 'chapter' saves plus 'save game points' where you can save as often as you want while scouting the area and gathering resources. I much prefer this to checkpoints because at least you have control.

Anyway, I'll check out Greedfall again when I've had a chance to 'cool off' and re-examine the map fast travel system. It's a huge step down from the true open worlds of Oblivion, Skyrim, Fallout 4, etc. And even Kingdom Come with its quirky pseudo-move cross country. If Greedfall was technically not able to provide an open world they should have simply had the country corridors leading out of towns, then the quirky trading camp areas, then one more country corridor to proceed. I could live with that, but that wasn't what I was experiencing.

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1 hour ago, Fidcal said:

Anyway, I'll check out Greedfall again when I've had a chance to 'cool off' and re-examine the map fast travel system. It's a huge step down from the true open worlds of Oblivion, Skyrim, Fallout 4, etc. And even Kingdom Come with its quirky pseudo-move cross country. If Greedfall was technically not able to provide an open world they should have simply had the country corridors leading out of towns, then the quirky trading camp areas, then one more country corridor to proceed. I could live with that, but that wasn't what I was experiencing.

Just explore the world, man. 🙂 I remember, the traveling system felt weird at first, but I'd say the story and character interaction makes up for it.

Regarding Terminator: Resistance, isn't that a shooter rather than stealth? :D I've read mixed reviews about this one.

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So far I'm finding TR far more stealth than shooter. I'm playing on very easy and the shooting has been easy but the stealth is just about right. You only need to poke your head round a corner and if you're in their line of sight they become suspicious and you have to duck back and let them cool off.  There is good tension. As with Thief, you need to scout and time your moves. It's future desolation like Fallout but with more enemies about. But there is balanced relief when you get into a relatively safe area. I definitely want to try it on a harder level later, but for now I'm enjoying it. Mind you, I've only met the lesser machines so far and no actual Terminators other than a cut scene where I crouched behind a car wreck. Pity the enemy are soulless unspeaking machines bit like Prey; I used to like the Fallout raiders taunting me and then I blow their effing brains out and pee on their cold dead headless corpse. :D

One gripe I have with TR is you can't see any way to holster your weapon. I hate walking round with a big gun aimed forward all the time; it's unnatural and I'm constantly itching to lower the weapon. Far Cry 5 was bad that way but at least they had fists you could choose from the weapon selector, so, although slow to switch, those fists were quite low and unobtrusive. TR has no fists - probably not much use against Terminators!

Another problem with the PS4 is the controller has a hair trigger and nowhere else to rest your finger. Now and again a shot is fired unintentionally - bloody annoying. I get that in other games but its worse in a game where you can't holster your weapon.

I've not figured out how to install chips yet. Anyone know? Maybe one has to have an advanced crafting perk?

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5 hours ago, STiFU said:

Just explore the world, man. 🙂 I remember, the traveling system felt weird at first, but I'd say the story and character interaction makes up for it.

I agree. I liked exploring the areas (not all are just narrow canyons, the larger areas usually have a couple of side tracks and/or bigger clearings). Regarding the disappearing quest markers: I think that these are meant for people who are not able to find their own way, if they are just given the final goal. So, they designed them for people to follow step by step. Would not have been my personal choice, but I can live with it.

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