Greedfall - Filling the Bioware Void

I just finished Technomancer. Minus the respawns/running around (which you have to actually experience to understand - I can deal with some respawns and running around but this game has it bad) I would have given it a 9/10 score. It was really very, very good. I loved the companions, story, quests, interaction … all fantastic especially considering the budget of the game. Overall a 7.5 or 8 all things included.

I have that sad slightly empty/lost feeling you sometimes get when a really good game ends. That is how I can tell it made an impact and was really good. For me of course. Just speaking my own feelings.

So if Greedfall is this good or better I am certainly excited for it.

EDIT: It was 28 hours for me and I didn't do all the side quests. Probably would have been aruond 32-35 if I had done everything I could find.

Yep, that sums up my experience as well.

Originally Posted by wolfgrimdark
Overall a 7.5 or 8 all things included.

Was a 7.5 for me.

It was 28 hours for me and I didn't do all the side quests. Probably would have been aruond 32-35 if I had done everything I could find.

I did everything I could find and had 37 hours.

Awesome, I look forward to playing Greedfall then

EDIT: Just out of a curiosity, which Bioware game was Technomancer closest to?

Originally Posted by purpleblob
EDIT: Just out of a curiosity, which Bioware game was Technomancer closest to?

Difficult to tell. Certainly not Baldur's Gate.
I think it's quite similar to both the Dragon Age (excluding Origins) and the Mass Effect series. Main difference is the setting (feeling of generally hostility with limited resources). And there are some more differences. But as I've pointed out in my previous posting, the core features are of the same type.

Perhaps @wolfgrimdark can say more with the playthrough fresh in mind.

A few reviews started out by saying emphatically, this is NOT Mass Effect. It isn't but it is hard not to mentally compare parts of it to ME though. I think because it has that outer space theme even though you don't travel in outer space. You are stuck on Mars and there is no space travel - they are land bound. The colonies there got broken off from Earth after some catastrophic event. In some ways more like a world that once had ancient technology that is now living of the older remains and trying to get by.

But it is on Mars and they are space colonists so you still get that vibe to some degree. Then you have the main character with a bunch of companions you can get to know, and romance if desired, and that has that Bioware feel to it - just not as polished.

There isn't a Mako you can drive around in but there is a lady who has a land rover and while you can't drive it yourself - she drives the group from place to place on the map - a form of fast travel. You can skip the dialogue and talks among the companions, or the animated travel sequence, at any time and then it really is a fast travel - but only from city to city or landmark. You can't fast travel within a city unless its a scripted event. But its fun to listen to the companions chatter.

There is also a slightly similar feeling to combat, the somewhat linear feeling to doing things with all those carefully set-up places to run and explore and have fights in that felt very much like ME1. You can't jump freely but you can climb up things or jump down from places if the place has that coded in.

There are doors which act a little like zones but don't have any loading time. Loading times do occur, however, when moving from one large zone to another - but not within a zone.

ME1 also had like 6 core combat classes and Techno has three: Rogue (dagger and gun), soldier (staff), and guardian (mace and shield). Those are like stances you can change at any time in battle. You can also use technomancer (reminded me just a little of biotics in ME) while fighting but it isn't its own class - it enhances existing classes and adds other combat options.

Anyhow to me the closest Bioware game, even though you have to be careful not to compare them too much, would be ME1.

I wrote my first steam review for the game - simply because I liked the game so much I felt bad it hadn't gotten more positive reviews If curious I put it in the spoilers below. But it isn't a professional review of all the pros/cons, features, etc. Morse just my own subjective feelings and overall impression.

Yeah, it's definitely an underrated game.

As for which game it's closest to: ME1 is a good shout, though it's important to note it doesn't have the exploration. It's far more on rails than ME1 is. The structure is more similar to ME2, but the actual gameplay gives me KotOR and ME1 vibes.

Is The Technomancer really that different from Mars: War Logs? Because I didn't get a Bioware vibe at all there. It was more of a Piranha Bytes vibe. In fact, I called it "a poor man's Gothic" in my review.

I haven't played Mars War Logs as I am afraid its a bit dated for me … even then I considered but everything I read said difficult combat and I can't stress how much I dislike hard combat or dull combat where something has a health bar that goes across the screen (or worse like Dragon Dogma refills multiple times on top of being huge) and you have to patience it out. Technomancer had a few very high HP but on easy it wasn't bad - only the Praying Mantis and Leviathion took time to whittle down. I just don't enjoy that style of combat. One reason I love SM in FO4 is the combat is fast - you or your foe can both die quickly.

Anyhow so havne't played Mars War Logs at this point. And I never could get into the gothic games I am afraid. So maybe it is closer. I only had ME and, in thinking about it after Maylander brought it up, KOTOR.

I think I went more with ME simply because I kept getting that vibe while I played Technomancer. It came up in my mind more than a few times even if it lack space travel and … well Maylander said exploration but I didn't consider any of the ME games as having much exploration unless you count that planet mining stuff explortaion which I don't. I found ME pretty linear.

The companion trailer is out:

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sour…cElBIuvYnQuNPy

I'm definitely getting Bioware vibe from it

I can't say I get a Bioware vibe from that, but to each their own.

That's a good thing though, imo. I'll be disappointed if it does end up being more similar to something from Bioware.

Originally Posted by JDR13
I can't say I get a Bioware vibe from that, but to each their own.

That's a good thing though, imo. I'll be disappointed if it does end up being more similar to something from Bioware.

Which game does the trailer remind you of?

I haven't played Risen before so I can't tell whether its more of that or Bioware games (I'm getting DA:I vibe).

Personally, I don't have a huge expectation for this game (although it went up slightly after reading Wolf's Technomancer review) - I'm just looking for some casual fun, nothing GOTY worthy or something.

Risen 2/3 mostly, but that's going by the environments, manual combat, and monster design. I haven't seen much dialogue, so maybe that's where some people are getting the Bioware feel.

I can understand the DA:I vibe though. That's the only Bioware game that I think has a similar stye of combat, though I still think it has more in common with Risen 2/3 when it comes to the fighting.

I wouldn't say that it's close to the PB games as they're not party-based. You don't have actual companions. Also you have much more exploration in more open world. To me that's just a different feeling playing the game.

However I can of course see the similarities.

I think it's a compliment for Spiders if their games remind you of different other games but not a single one is really fitting.

Originally Posted by purpleblob
I'm just looking for some casual fun, nothing GOTY worthy or something.

I'm looking for GOTY worthy stuff as I don't have time for garbage and mediocrity.
Additionally I don't want another (part-time) job, I need some fun.

I expect Outer Worlds getting goty all over the place, however Greedfall seems to be very close.
Why you'll ask, what's the difference, what's lacking, why Greedfall can't be goty?
Humor. No humor in Greedfall = it's not Bioware, it's PB. And it can't be goty.

Originally Posted by joxer
I'm looking for GOTY worthy stuff as I don't have time for garbage and mediocrity.
Additionally I don't want another (part-time) job, I need some fun.

I expect Outer Worlds getting goty all over the place, however Greedfall seems to be very close.
Why you'll ask, what's the difference, what's lacking, why Greedfall can't be goty?
Humor. No humor in Greedfall = it's not Bioware, it's PB.

Erm, I don't think Obsidian handle humour well either but I guess each to their own.

Now that I think about it though, I haven't played any games that came out this year, so I guess Greedfall may actually be my GOTY 2019 as well…

Yep, my top 3 will be Greedfall, The Outer Worlds, and Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order.
Obviously I don't know yet in which order but most likely these will be the only 2019 games I'll play in 2019.

Originally Posted by Morrandir
I wouldn't say that it's close to the PB games as they're not party-based. You don't have actual companions. Also you have much more exploration in more open world. To me that's just a different feeling playing the game.

However I can of course see the similarities.

I think it's a compliment for Spiders if their games remind you of different other games but not a single one is really fitting.

You've never played Risen 2/3 or Elex? You most certainly have actual companions. You're just limited to bringing only 1 at a time. The difference between Greedfall and those games is just 1 more active companion.

More importantly though, you can't control the companions in Greedfall. They're AI companions like in PB's games. You can't even adjust their behavior in combat. To me, that's a very significant difference from Bioware's games.

Originally Posted by JDR13
They're AI companions like in PB's games. You can't even adjust their behavior in combat.

I think you can adjust their behavior. If I remember correctly, for example in Technomancer there was option to order your companions to "defend yourself" or "attack your target", "attack strongest target" etc.

Originally Posted by Farflame
I think you can adjust their behavior. If I remember correctly, for example in Technomancer there was option to order your companions to "defend yourself" or "attack your target", "attack strongest target" etc.

Hopefully we can. That doesn't appear to be the case though from what I've seen and heard so far.

A quote from an rpgsite writer who played the demo at E3…

When it comes to combat, the player controls De Sardet while up to two companions are AI-controlled. De Sardet can use a variety of weapons as well as some magical abilities, which seems to be related to the Malichor Plague. I was told that the companion characters cannot be directly controlled nor can their behaviors be adjusted. Instead, different companions are better suited for certain situations and can be swapped in&out of the party at campsites.

https://www.rpgsite.net/preview/7362…s-from-e3-2018

From the latest video it's obvious the first companion is a tank while the second is ranged. Others weren't specified.
What behavior would we need to adjust there? Set tank not to tank but stealth and ranged to pose as a bulletsponge?
This is not good-neutral-evil nor lawful-neutral-chaotic apply-on-partymembers game, they will only react on your choices. Apart from that, they'll use whatever you equip on them like in good old FO2.