Actually I've played them all.
And while you're technically correct (which of course is the best kind of correct) to me these games feel different. To me PB games it feels like having a follower like in the Bethesda games. In the ME/DA franchise and imho also in Spiders games having an party of deep companions is more emphasized.

I can understand that the possibility to control the characters in combat is important to most of the gamers. To me it's not that important.

Yes, and that's what they feel like in Spiders games as well. At least the ones they've released so far. You have no control over them, and they're basically just henchmen in combat. It remains to be seen if Greedfall is any different.

I don't think Spiders companions are any deeper than those from Bethesda or PB. In fact, I'd say they're much closer to the style of those developers than they are to Bioware. Each one has a dialogue tree to exhaust and a related quest. There is literally no difference.

I'm not exactly an expert in Bethesda games, but iirc Lydia from Skyrim was nothing but a puppet. That's a huge difference to all Spiders games where a lot of the companions even had significant roles in the plot.

Companions also have a significant role in the story in PB's games. Overall, I'd say Spiders is similar in how they handle the companions.

Lydia was an annoying puppet, with very bad AI…"yes, let me run through this swinging blade corridor to get to you…*ow* *Aieeee* *I'm dying!!!*".
Hopefully the henchmen/people in Greedfall are somewhat better at surviving ;-)

Extended gameplay vid appeared:



I have no idea what I did wrong so divine powers are punishing me thus I have to suffer without playing games for far too long time, but that soon be over. As my plan is to explore Ancestors in a day or two, hopefully I'll complete it till Greedfall release.

Because I can't think of any reason that'd stop me to play Greedfall the very moment it's out. I want to play it, desperately.