Spiders is such an interesting studio, their games have soul and passion to them but they also always fall flat. They’re like a 5 year old that is super passionate about their picture that they made in art class. Objectively, the painting sucks, but you admire how excited the child gets about their creation. I hope these guys actually get it right, because the passion is there, the skill just isn’t yet.
Who knows, I heard they're making a Greedfall 2. Maybe they'll be able to salvage this world. Because I love it conceptually, and artistically it such a fucking awesome looking game: the monsters, armors, clothing's, buildings, etc. but the experience is just so hollow and generic. I really want them to pull it off and make something great, or even just good.
I agree with this sentiment as well. They're very obviously passionate about their work and always try to bring something new to the table, but they always seem to fall flat with their mechanics, level design or character progression. I watched a LPer do a runthrough of Steel Rising and had to drop it after a while because despite his attempts to praise it, the felt so lackluster in execution. But I agree with you. I also hope Spiders finds their groove, because that kind of passion is sorely needed in such a heavily corporate industry.
On the origin of the Malichor(spelling?), if they'd wanted to inject some actual indigenous storytelling into it that fit thematically with the history of their world, it could have gone like: The malichor had always existed and was a neutral force of decay that fed the cycle of life springing from death. It wasn't until the Congregation arrived and their prophet attempted to use it as a source of immortality that it manifested as a disease. As the disease spreads, it will give birth to a new God of decay/entropy on the continent and those inflicted with it will become it's people. There is no way to prevent this, only to adapt and change to the new world of nature that Man has wrought. Boom, sequels set up indefinitely. It would effectively be like playing through the story of how the darkspawn in Dragon Age came to be born, setting up what would effectively be the first blight for any potential sequels, but distinct enough to be it's own thing. But, you know, that would actually involve basing your Native magic lore in actual systems of animism instead of some shallow binary that further casts the island natives in the role of the noble savage.
One thing that I think is worth noting is that Spiders appears to have aesthetically based the islanders off of the ancient Celtics rather than a non-white indigenous group, so they clearly knew how sensitive this particular topic is and didn't want to draw any direct parallels to real-world indigenous groups subject to European colonization. They didn't really _succeed_ at this, given the narrative, but they were clearly aware of the problems of trying to tell a story in this way. I have a feeling they could have really benefited from a consultant who's actually familiar with Native American cultures
Spoilers: One aspect of this game that stood out to me was how it handled character-driven plot twists. While progressing through the main quest, I ended up ignoring most of Kurt’s side quests. Unexpectedly, this led to Kurt orchestrating a coup with the Coin Guard, which culminated in me having to confront and ultimately kill him. That moment genuinely caught me off guard. I wish the game had more scenes like that, where player choices significantly impact the narrative in surprising ways.
i do appreciate how dynamic the companion is to your edcision and mission you select, i do replay the game with mods just to get all companion at once, and when they start to react/interact with the choice ive made its quite compelling that they are seem like integrated but not too buggy, it feels like its intentional too to have them all in one go
I found you from the LARP with PatricianTV. You really should have more subscribers and views. Your commentary and editing show how much thought and work you put in these projects.
I really thought I'd like this game because a little jank doesn't really bother me, and I like when games at least try something different, even if they fail at it, but I made it to the island and quit. And I've never regretted it.
Great video! I tried to play the game years ago but it got quickly left behind in order to play another game instead. As you said I'm surprised by the more interesting events that happen such as the coup and ending, but I'm glad I didn't play through all of this in order to see them lol. It really feels like the devs had certain scenes in their heads that they wanted to enact and the rest was just the road to get to these scenes.
14:00 "Council of the Boys" is something I now demand of all RPGs going forward, no exceptions. Also, popped over from PatricianTV's podcast you were on recently when I heard you had a Greedfall video! This was a game i was really excited for when it came out because of the art style and setting, and was promptly disappointed by when I barely got two hours into the game. So im happy to hear some critique of what I missed.
For what it's worth, I actually really enjoyed this game's big twist as to the true source of the Malichor. I was very worried that this game would take an implicitly pro-colonialism stance, given its aesthetic, but having the colonists literally be responsible for their own destruction while showing all of the major factions to be assholes put that worry to rest. (Mostly. As someone else mentioned, the way the game handled the island natives was extremely clumsy even if it was well-intentioned.) And I don't think that it's unrealistic that nobody would have out the cause of the disease by this point - it's actually very true to life with regards to real world diseases that nobody would have taken the obvious steps to solve the issue. The cause of and cure for scurvy was technically discovered James Lind in the mid-1700s, but it still remained a problem for a good 150 years because nobody in any position to solve the problem listened to him. Hell, _right now_ we have people in positions of political power refusing to acknowledge the most likely cause of the actual, real-world global plague being biodiversity loss and meat production leading to cross-contamination between human and animal populations. The way I interpreted it, it's likely that nobody would have listened to anyone who discovered the cause of the disease, because taking steps to address the Malichor would necessarily interfere with the political and economic machinations of the powerful.
I think the biggest point of contention for me is that this is a setting with magic and alchemy, so you’d think they would have the understanding to isolate how the disease spreads first. This does also undercut my point a little by saying that the Malichor could be, by extension, equally as resistant to magic and alchemy. It felt to me like the people of that world are really smart in some areas but not so much in others. Granted, seeing as how we’re handling the plague......
@@saltyshrimppasta "Really smart in some areas but not so much in others" is a pretty succinct way of describing my view of modern civilization in general lmao
Hey I discovered you from seeing you hang out in the chat from Patrician's stream last week. Great video, thanks! I gave this game a download to try it out for myself before watching this video, but honestly just bounced off the controls and quit shortly after playing the tutorial. It just felt so clunky, like playing a dark souls character with the heaviest armour and 0 stamina. A shame, because I still think the game looks cool, but yeah if this review is accurate then the writing is really bad. Cheers!
Yeah you’re not the most nimble fighter in the early game, but things feel a tad more comfortable once you get the dodge roll (which I still think you really should have from the start). I’m glad you enjoyed it!
The Technomancer put Spiders on my radar, but Greedfall is what made me start paying attention to them. If The Technomancer laid the ground work for the type of game they want to make (it's not a good game, but you can tell what they want to make), then Greedfall's prologue shows, at least to me, the potential they have as a studio. I was impressed by Greedfall not for what it is (I thought the rest of the game following the prologue was painfully average, unfortunately), but by the future Spiders hopefully has as a studio. Although unfortunately, Souls games don't interest me so I skipped Steel Rising, but I am looking forward to the next Greedfall game in the hopes that Spiders has learned from Greedfall in the way they seemed to have learned from The Technomancer.
I'm glad you showed up on Pat's podcast, that's lead me to discover your channel. It's very much up my alley, and I look forward to seeing you cover more games. Greedfall is such a weird game to me... I remember finishing it, and doing pretty much all of the content it had to offer. Yet a few years later, as I'm watching your review -- I have managed to forget most of its plot, but not the fact that I was annoyed with it. None of my friends played it, so I didn't really have anyone to vent to regarding it lol It really came down to how the factions were characterized, the colonizers were pretty much irredeemable, while the natives could do no wrong. I really don't like the "noble savage" trope, nor the tired trope of how all we have to do to save the world is plant more trees. It's just not a very intelligent nor engaging way of telling a story. Clearly I liked something about the game to play it for that long, but its lack of depth annoyed me to no end.
Honestly, if I didn’t make a video on the game, I’m pretty sure I would’ve forgotten about it too (I’ve forgotten 90% of the plot for the De Vespe Conspiracy expansion despite playing it, and that’s probably because it’s not in the video). I’m really interested to see if the sequel is any better, or if it ends up being more of the same.
@@saltyshrimppasta The plot being so forgettable is quite sad, but also indicative of shallow storytelling I guess. I would hope that the sequel is an improvement, given that they've had plenty of time to learn from their previous work, and improve upon it. Then again, I've heard that Spiders like keeping things simple and shallow. Hope it's just a rumor, can't say I've followed the studio that much. Making the next game a prequel seems needlessly limiting though.
2:12:03 Typo in the dialogue attests to crunch condition. Even hacks can proofread & don't use the same word 3x in a sentence. The ideas are derivative but not bad, so evidence is mounting this needed more time + care. 2:14:22 you "renege" on a promise; you don't "renigg" were they thinking this relates to the slur? Gross. Considering I'm working & looking at the screen in glances, finding typos within dialogue minutes apart still underlines the thrown-together feel the game has. lol then SSP casually drops "execute" over Kurt bleeding out; just freewheeling on the writers.
It’s also worth pointing out that the studio is French and we don’t know the quality of their localizers. It can be difficult to catch things like that if you’re not a native English speaker
Also I blame you for getting me into playing metro 2033 again. Thanks, now I'm slipping into my bad habit of trying to kill as many human enemies in stealth even when I know the game wasn't designed that way. Sigh... Dry station haunts my nightmares.
2:34:37 I think I'd actually disagree on the reason why this is bad. It's bad because thematically, there was no lead up to that pay off. What parts of the game leaned heavily on the theme that over industrialization and destruction of nature would lead to humanity's downfall? What part of the game, other than the natives are a naturalist styled faction who REALLY likes harmony of nature, focused on this idea? Judging from the quests you brought up, it sounds like the game focused more on social and political angles of the relationships between the factions (as shallow as they were) rather than ANYTHING pertaining to being kind to nature and you're killing yourselves with industry. It's very much a last minute addition that the writers threw in because they didn't know what they wanted their ultimate message or theme to be. Maybe if you play the prologue and then skip RIGHT to the end it would sort of be a throughline. Because at least then you see how smoggy and bad the living conditions of the city is. But none of the colony cities have this same theme. Maybe if they did it would make sense. Maybe if there were quests where you actually got to focus on these hypothetical factories the colonists were setting up that were killing the trees or actively harming the colonists despite them insisting that they need them to survive it would have made sense as a thematic throughline. But they don't. Also, that just makes the thing of the "being bound to island keeping you safe from the Malichor" a huge plot contrivance because if it's just industrialization that's killing the Continentals then... Why are the natives safe?
There is only two things that I agree with you in this video. That the banter during combat gets on my nerves and your choice of eyebrows with the bushy ends.
Hey um it’s me (if you remember) my channel name is crazy long and I need a new one and your the only guy I thought I might have some advice on this. So um any ideas or advice for how to name it?
Well I can’t say for sure, but I’d find a theme (food and aquatic stuff in my case), then try to find something with a really good ring to it. Like Red Dead Corn Bread or something idfk
As a Nermernuh, it's funny that stories like this often set out to humanize Native peoples but end up telling imperialist narratives against their own made up versions. You mentioned how every tribe is treated mechanically as one, which ties into the idea that Native peoples were basically all the same and lost a historical conflict on the more or less equal terms of 1 group vs 1 group. Which is a handy imperialist narrative for saying things like "ah, we won fair and square" or "they just couldn't keep up with us" when in reality, the history is of tribes turning against each other, being used by other groups, undermined, sabotaged, etc. Like with the Crow siding with the fed of the US to help undermine the Lakota and other tribes. So it's funny when someone tells a story that is trying to have anti-imperialist themes, but adopts a narrative that is structured like imperialist historical perspectives. Also, it makes for less varied storytelling, since you're dealing with a monolith instead of disparate, half-related cultures. Anyway, just wanted to comment since I'm enjoying the video and it seemed relevant.
I have! I was about halfway finished with my recording when I saw it, and I only did a second playthrough because of it (that’s how I learned about the divergence in Act 1). I tried not to be too similar but I did agree on a lot of his points, so there was inevitably going to be some crossover
@@saltyshrimppasta I think he focused more on the flaws in storytelling, while you primarily covered how the lockout abilities (strength, magic, charisma, etc.) ruined gameplay flow - and you both agreed it took forever. Granted, I'm only a little past halfway through your video, but it seems to be going in that direction. It's just funny. I'll listen to yours for 30 minutes, then suddenly I'll go "That's a Tehsnakerer point!" Then I'll listen for another 30, then "Hey! Tehsnakerer said that!" Not saying it's happening constantly, just funny when it does happen. And they're such obvious points that I'm such you came up with at least some yourself. But even if you didn't, it was just funny to me. Like I said, I liked his video and I like your video :).
It didn’t feel like it shared much gameplay in common with Assassins creed games (the older ones at least; I haven’t played Origins or Valhalla), but I definitely didn’t enjoy it much.
Oh in that case, yes it does have a bit of an AC feel to it. I think the Ubisoft pretty much owns the AAA design right now so it wouldn’t surprise me if they borrowed heavily from the AC series when crafting the various cities and environments.
great video! if you have a bit of a problem with strukstering your videos. do you know tehsnakerer (another youtuber, 1:29:00 ok i see you know him :), he also has a video on greedfall and you two have very different styles, but maybe you can still get something out of watch his video on greedfall or so. in his videos i always have much more the feeling someone is talkling in a way to come to a point, but still you can get the whole thing even if you tune out for a bit and so on. sry for my bad english (im from germany)
No worries dude, your English is perfectly fine! TehSnakerer’s video is ultimately what made me replay the game to get some of the other endings, and I think it’s really high quality.
Spoilers: This was a pretty good game. If you main guns then you are very Over Powered. I stopped playing after I found out your nation went to the island in the past.
Yeah GreedFall didn't impress me. I like the idea of the game more than I did the actually liked the game. Sub and saved this video because I don't know how far I be able to watch this video in whole, but I like the process and commentary so far.
Greedfall 2 was just announced, and I’m simultaneously really excited to see where they take the game and dreading the fact that I will have to play it.
@@saltyshrimppasta Well maybe it will be better. Some companies can learn. It's rare, but it could happen. Let's hope they don't go down the BioWare path.
@@vincentmartin9667 I’d love to see them refine the formula into something great, but I think the “BioWare path” is their destination sadly. They’ve said publicly they want to fill the void BioWare has left. I like what TehSnakerer said about Greedfall: “I don’t want them to be the new BioWare, I want them to be the first and most interesting Spiders.”
It’s possible, although I did switch editing softwares at some point in 2021 due to audio issues (especially in the Metro video), so it’s possible that it was something with the settings.
Hey while i think your commentary is great and the video works just as is perfectly fine. I would like it way more if you put some sort of fitting not too distracting backround music on the backround while you speak. Cause right now as the video stands its a bit fatiguing to watch it in one sitting when its mainly just your voice and nothing else. Anywho keep up the good work
I agree! My main issue with music is just finding the right tracks to go in the background. I came to the decision to work on adding music in my Dead Space vid (you can tell in that part that the audio leveling is just slightly off) and I’ve been slowly building a folder of songs from various sound tracks to have at least something to play. I realized during Private Sessions Mass Effect videos that having the right song for the topic is basically a must.
@@saltyshrimppasta hey thanks for the response! And yeah it would help make your videos way more natural to watch cause even tho i think your humor lands well and your critique is well presidented it jusr feels abit hollow when there is nothing aside from the speaking
I’m trying to enjoy responding to comments while I can before the day that I inevitably have get too many of them and have to quit. I’m also glad you enjoyed it! I think the Greedfall vid is one of my favorites, even though (or probably because) it was a nightmare to bring together
@@saltyshrimppasta well honestly just calling it rn. I can deffo see you on the same level as some of the other top game analysts on youtube. You have the charisma for it and the way you present your arguments is very compelling
I don’t believe it stayed where it was, but it’s not very clear based on what little information we’re given about the greed in general. It definitely slipped though.
To be fair, you did click on a "critique and analysis" of the game. I'm not quite sure what you expected....but I'm glad that you like the game. There are some things about it that have stuck with me since making the video and I use as examples for "things done right" in other games, but overall I really didn't enjoy it.
I am exactly one month from the last video. This means that this is technically not late.
"De Sardet can't understand the legal terminology" Truly the most relatable protagonist.
Spiders is such an interesting studio, their games have soul and passion to them but they also always fall flat. They’re like a 5 year old that is super passionate about their picture that they made in art class. Objectively, the painting sucks, but you admire how excited the child gets about their creation. I hope these guys actually get it right, because the passion is there, the skill just isn’t yet.
I can tell this game had a lot of love put into it, it just didn’t have a lot of, dare I say, thought put into it.
Who knows, I heard they're making a Greedfall 2. Maybe they'll be able to salvage this world. Because I love it conceptually, and artistically it such a fucking awesome looking game: the monsters, armors, clothing's, buildings, etc. but the experience is just so hollow and generic.
I really want them to pull it off and make something great, or even just good.
I agree with this sentiment as well. They're very obviously passionate about their work and always try to bring something new to the table, but they always seem to fall flat with their mechanics, level design or character progression. I watched a LPer do a runthrough of Steel Rising and had to drop it after a while because despite his attempts to praise it, the felt so lackluster in execution.
But I agree with you. I also hope Spiders finds their groove, because that kind of passion is sorely needed in such a heavily corporate industry.
On the origin of the Malichor(spelling?), if they'd wanted to inject some actual indigenous storytelling into it that fit thematically with the history of their world, it could have gone like:
The malichor had always existed and was a neutral force of decay that fed the cycle of life springing from death. It wasn't until the Congregation arrived and their prophet attempted to use it as a source of immortality that it manifested as a disease. As the disease spreads, it will give birth to a new God of decay/entropy on the continent and those inflicted with it will become it's people. There is no way to prevent this, only to adapt and change to the new world of nature that Man has wrought.
Boom, sequels set up indefinitely. It would effectively be like playing through the story of how the darkspawn in Dragon Age came to be born, setting up what would effectively be the first blight for any potential sequels, but distinct enough to be it's own thing.
But, you know, that would actually involve basing your Native magic lore in actual systems of animism instead of some shallow binary that further casts the island natives in the role of the noble savage.
One thing that I think is worth noting is that Spiders appears to have aesthetically based the islanders off of the ancient Celtics rather than a non-white indigenous group, so they clearly knew how sensitive this particular topic is and didn't want to draw any direct parallels to real-world indigenous groups subject to European colonization.
They didn't really _succeed_ at this, given the narrative, but they were clearly aware of the problems of trying to tell a story in this way. I have a feeling they could have really benefited from a consultant who's actually familiar with Native American cultures
Best hat designers worked this game.
Spoilers:
One aspect of this game that stood out to me was how it handled character-driven plot twists. While progressing through the main quest, I ended up ignoring most of Kurt’s side quests. Unexpectedly, this led to Kurt orchestrating a coup with the Coin Guard, which culminated in me having to confront and ultimately kill him. That moment genuinely caught me off guard. I wish the game had more scenes like that, where player choices significantly impact the narrative in surprising ways.
I agree, more meaningful moments like that would have made the game a lot more replayable.
i do appreciate how dynamic the companion is to your edcision and mission you select, i do replay the game with mods just to get all companion at once, and when they start to react/interact with the choice ive made its quite compelling that they are seem like integrated but not too buggy, it feels like its intentional too to have them all in one go
Your one of my new favorite game commentary channels
I found you from the LARP with PatricianTV. You really should have more subscribers and views. Your commentary and editing show how much thought and work you put in these projects.
I really thought I'd like this game because a little jank doesn't really bother me, and I like when games at least try something different, even if they fail at it, but I made it to the island and quit. And I've never regretted it.
I agree. Linking with Constantine seem to be really the best ending. It has a lot of weight in it
Great video! I tried to play the game years ago but it got quickly left behind in order to play another game instead. As you said I'm surprised by the more interesting events that happen such as the coup and ending, but I'm glad I didn't play through all of this in order to see them lol. It really feels like the devs had certain scenes in their heads that they wanted to enact and the rest was just the road to get to these scenes.
14:00 "Council of the Boys" is something I now demand of all RPGs going forward, no exceptions.
Also, popped over from PatricianTV's podcast you were on recently when I heard you had a Greedfall video!
This was a game i was really excited for when it came out because of the art style and setting, and was promptly disappointed by when I barely got two hours into the game. So im happy to hear some critique of what I missed.
Great video. You are really coming I to your own and getting better at making and presenting your points
I’m glad you enjoyed it! I agree, I think I’m getting better at conveying my thoughts in an organized way and (mostly) avoiding useless tangents
Very good video, thank you for putting the work into this
For what it's worth, I actually really enjoyed this game's big twist as to the true source of the Malichor. I was very worried that this game would take an implicitly pro-colonialism stance, given its aesthetic, but having the colonists literally be responsible for their own destruction while showing all of the major factions to be assholes put that worry to rest. (Mostly. As someone else mentioned, the way the game handled the island natives was extremely clumsy even if it was well-intentioned.)
And I don't think that it's unrealistic that nobody would have out the cause of the disease by this point - it's actually very true to life with regards to real world diseases that nobody would have taken the obvious steps to solve the issue. The cause of and cure for scurvy was technically discovered James Lind in the mid-1700s, but it still remained a problem for a good 150 years because nobody in any position to solve the problem listened to him. Hell, _right now_ we have people in positions of political power refusing to acknowledge the most likely cause of the actual, real-world global plague being biodiversity loss and meat production leading to cross-contamination between human and animal populations. The way I interpreted it, it's likely that nobody would have listened to anyone who discovered the cause of the disease, because taking steps to address the Malichor would necessarily interfere with the political and economic machinations of the powerful.
I think the biggest point of contention for me is that this is a setting with magic and alchemy, so you’d think they would have the understanding to isolate how the disease spreads first. This does also undercut my point a little by saying that the Malichor could be, by extension, equally as resistant to magic and alchemy. It felt to me like the people of that world are really smart in some areas but not so much in others. Granted, seeing as how we’re handling the plague......
@@saltyshrimppasta "Really smart in some areas but not so much in others" is a pretty succinct way of describing my view of modern civilization in general lmao
Fair point
Great video, but I have one little clarification: a prince is not just a son of a monarch, but is also an independent title of nobility.
Dorlingus!
This is BULLSHIT! (RIP Thick, you crazy bastard)
This is a wonderfully done video! You earned a sub!
Thank you, I’m glad you enjoyed it!
Hey I discovered you from seeing you hang out in the chat from Patrician's stream last week. Great video, thanks! I gave this game a download to try it out for myself before watching this video, but honestly just bounced off the controls and quit shortly after playing the tutorial. It just felt so clunky, like playing a dark souls character with the heaviest armour and 0 stamina. A shame, because I still think the game looks cool, but yeah if this review is accurate then the writing is really bad. Cheers!
Yeah you’re not the most nimble fighter in the early game, but things feel a tad more comfortable once you get the dodge roll (which I still think you really should have from the start). I’m glad you enjoyed it!
The Technomancer put Spiders on my radar, but Greedfall is what made me start paying attention to them. If The Technomancer laid the ground work for the type of game they want to make (it's not a good game, but you can tell what they want to make), then Greedfall's prologue shows, at least to me, the potential they have as a studio. I was impressed by Greedfall not for what it is (I thought the rest of the game following the prologue was painfully average, unfortunately), but by the future Spiders hopefully has as a studio.
Although unfortunately, Souls games don't interest me so I skipped Steel Rising, but I am looking forward to the next Greedfall game in the hopes that Spiders has learned from Greedfall in the way they seemed to have learned from The Technomancer.
I loved the game.
*chefs kiss*
I'm glad you showed up on Pat's podcast, that's lead me to discover your channel. It's very much up my alley, and I look forward to seeing you cover more games.
Greedfall is such a weird game to me... I remember finishing it, and doing pretty much all of the content it had to offer. Yet a few years later, as I'm watching your review -- I have managed to forget most of its plot, but not the fact that I was annoyed with it. None of my friends played it, so I didn't really have anyone to vent to regarding it lol
It really came down to how the factions were characterized, the colonizers were pretty much irredeemable, while the natives could do no wrong. I really don't like the "noble savage" trope, nor the tired trope of how all we have to do to save the world is plant more trees. It's just not a very intelligent nor engaging way of telling a story. Clearly I liked something about the game to play it for that long, but its lack of depth annoyed me to no end.
Honestly, if I didn’t make a video on the game, I’m pretty sure I would’ve forgotten about it too (I’ve forgotten 90% of the plot for the De Vespe Conspiracy expansion despite playing it, and that’s probably because it’s not in the video). I’m really interested to see if the sequel is any better, or if it ends up being more of the same.
@@saltyshrimppasta The plot being so forgettable is quite sad, but also indicative of shallow storytelling I guess. I would hope that the sequel is an improvement, given that they've had plenty of time to learn from their previous work, and improve upon it. Then again, I've heard that Spiders like keeping things simple and shallow. Hope it's just a rumor, can't say I've followed the studio that much. Making the next game a prequel seems needlessly limiting though.
2:12:03 Typo in the dialogue attests to crunch condition. Even hacks can proofread & don't use the same word 3x in a sentence. The ideas are derivative but not bad, so evidence is mounting this needed more time + care.
2:14:22 you "renege" on a promise; you don't "renigg" were they thinking this relates to the slur? Gross. Considering I'm working & looking at the screen in glances, finding typos within dialogue minutes apart still underlines the thrown-together feel the game has.
lol then SSP casually drops "execute" over Kurt bleeding out; just freewheeling on the writers.
It’s also worth pointing out that the studio is French and we don’t know the quality of their localizers. It can be difficult to catch things like that if you’re not a native English speaker
Aw damn, you mean there is no ambiguous dialog choices like the infamous "glass him"
Unfortunately not, it’s pretty air tight. What game is the “glass him” one from?
@@saltyshrimppasta the wolf among us by tell tale, just search glass him it comes up as one of the first options.
Ew cuts to black and magically appearing weapons? What is this 2001? Jank is right
Also I blame you for getting me into playing metro 2033 again. Thanks, now I'm slipping into my bad habit of trying to kill as many human enemies in stealth even when I know the game wasn't designed that way. Sigh... Dry station haunts my nightmares.
@@dustinfritzfarr9529 Just keep honing your skills!
2:34:37 I think I'd actually disagree on the reason why this is bad. It's bad because thematically, there was no lead up to that pay off. What parts of the game leaned heavily on the theme that over industrialization and destruction of nature would lead to humanity's downfall? What part of the game, other than the natives are a naturalist styled faction who REALLY likes harmony of nature, focused on this idea?
Judging from the quests you brought up, it sounds like the game focused more on social and political angles of the relationships between the factions (as shallow as they were) rather than ANYTHING pertaining to being kind to nature and you're killing yourselves with industry.
It's very much a last minute addition that the writers threw in because they didn't know what they wanted their ultimate message or theme to be. Maybe if you play the prologue and then skip RIGHT to the end it would sort of be a throughline. Because at least then you see how smoggy and bad the living conditions of the city is.
But none of the colony cities have this same theme. Maybe if they did it would make sense. Maybe if there were quests where you actually got to focus on these hypothetical factories the colonists were setting up that were killing the trees or actively harming the colonists despite them insisting that they need them to survive it would have made sense as a thematic throughline. But they don't.
Also, that just makes the thing of the "being bound to island keeping you safe from the Malichor" a huge plot contrivance because if it's just industrialization that's killing the Continentals then... Why are the natives safe?
There is only two things that I agree with you in this video. That the banter during combat gets on my nerves and your choice of eyebrows with the bushy ends.
That actually made me laugh lmfao
Hey um it’s me (if you remember) my channel name is crazy long and I need a new one and your the only guy I thought I might have some advice on this. So um any ideas or advice for how to name it?
Well I can’t say for sure, but I’d find a theme (food and aquatic stuff in my case), then try to find something with a really good ring to it. Like Red Dead Corn Bread or something idfk
Thanks
@@Farmos484 you bet!
As a Nermernuh, it's funny that stories like this often set out to humanize Native peoples but end up telling imperialist narratives against their own made up versions. You mentioned how every tribe is treated mechanically as one, which ties into the idea that Native peoples were basically all the same and lost a historical conflict on the more or less equal terms of 1 group vs 1 group.
Which is a handy imperialist narrative for saying things like "ah, we won fair and square" or "they just couldn't keep up with us" when in reality, the history is of tribes turning against each other, being used by other groups, undermined, sabotaged, etc.
Like with the Crow siding with the fed of the US to help undermine the Lakota and other tribes. So it's funny when someone tells a story that is trying to have anti-imperialist themes, but adopts a narrative that is structured like imperialist historical perspectives.
Also, it makes for less varied storytelling, since you're dealing with a monolith instead of disparate, half-related cultures. Anyway, just wanted to comment since I'm enjoying the video and it seemed relevant.
Ever seen a video on this game by "Tehsnakerer?" You make a lot of similar points to him. I do like your video, but I liked his too :).
I have! I was about halfway finished with my recording when I saw it, and I only did a second playthrough because of it (that’s how I learned about the divergence in Act 1). I tried not to be too similar but I did agree on a lot of his points, so there was inevitably going to be some crossover
@@saltyshrimppasta I think he focused more on the flaws in storytelling, while you primarily covered how the lockout abilities (strength, magic, charisma, etc.) ruined gameplay flow - and you both agreed it took forever. Granted, I'm only a little past halfway through your video, but it seems to be going in that direction. It's just funny. I'll listen to yours for 30 minutes, then suddenly I'll go "That's a Tehsnakerer point!" Then I'll listen for another 30, then "Hey! Tehsnakerer said that!" Not saying it's happening constantly, just funny when it does happen. And they're such obvious points that I'm such you came up with at least some yourself. But even if you didn't, it was just funny to me. Like I said, I liked his video and I like your video :).
That’s a interesting case. Kinda looks like assassins creed spin-off
It didn’t feel like it shared much gameplay in common with Assassins creed games (the older ones at least; I haven’t played Origins or Valhalla), but I definitely didn’t enjoy it much.
@@saltyshrimppasta don’t know about the gameplay I was just talking about the looks
Oh in that case, yes it does have a bit of an AC feel to it. I think the Ubisoft pretty much owns the AAA design right now so it wouldn’t surprise me if they borrowed heavily from the AC series when crafting the various cities and environments.
great video! if you have a bit of a problem with strukstering your videos. do you know tehsnakerer (another youtuber, 1:29:00 ok i see you know him :), he also has a video on greedfall and you two have very different styles, but maybe you can still get something out of watch his video on greedfall or so. in his videos i always have much more the feeling someone is talkling in a way to come to a point, but still you can get the whole thing even if you tune out for a bit and so on.
sry for my bad english (im from germany)
No worries dude, your English is perfectly fine! TehSnakerer’s video is ultimately what made me replay the game to get some of the other endings, and I think it’s really high quality.
@@saltyshrimppasta yeah, i think so too. and your videos made me think of his videos instantly :)
Spoilers: This was a pretty good game. If you main guns then you are very Over Powered. I stopped playing after I found out your nation went to the island in the past.
I remain one of the 5% of players to beat the game
Yeah GreedFall didn't impress me. I like the idea of the game more than I did the actually liked the game. Sub and saved this video because I don't know how far I be able to watch this video in whole, but I like the process and commentary so far.
Greedfall 2 was just announced, and I’m simultaneously really excited to see where they take the game and dreading the fact that I will have to play it.
@@saltyshrimppasta Well maybe it will be better. Some companies can learn. It's rare, but it could happen. Let's hope they don't go down the BioWare path.
@@vincentmartin9667 I’d love to see them refine the formula into something great, but I think the “BioWare path” is their destination sadly. They’ve said publicly they want to fill the void BioWare has left. I like what TehSnakerer said about Greedfall: “I don’t want them to be the new BioWare, I want them to be the first and most interesting Spiders.”
why are the sometimes "big ben clock sounds" in the backround? is it from the game or is it from your recording?
Do you have a time stamp?
@@saltyshrimppasta it is only at the start of the video and only in some seance. i think it was in the game.
It’s possible, although I did switch editing softwares at some point in 2021 due to audio issues (especially in the Metro video), so it’s possible that it was something with the settings.
:)
Hey while i think your commentary is great and the video works just as is perfectly fine. I would like it way more if you put some sort of fitting not too distracting backround music on the backround while you speak. Cause right now as the video stands its a bit fatiguing to watch it in one sitting when its mainly just your voice and nothing else. Anywho keep up the good work
I agree! My main issue with music is just finding the right tracks to go in the background. I came to the decision to work on adding music in my Dead Space vid (you can tell in that part that the audio leveling is just slightly off) and I’ve been slowly building a folder of songs from various sound tracks to have at least something to play. I realized during Private Sessions Mass Effect videos that having the right song for the topic is basically a must.
@@saltyshrimppasta hey thanks for the response! And yeah it would help make your videos way more natural to watch cause even tho i think your humor lands well and your critique is well presidented it jusr feels abit hollow when there is nothing aside from the speaking
I’m trying to enjoy responding to comments while I can before the day that I inevitably have get too many of them and have to quit. I’m also glad you enjoyed it! I think the Greedfall vid is one of my favorites, even though (or probably because) it was a nightmare to bring together
@@saltyshrimppasta well honestly just calling it rn. I can deffo see you on the same level as some of the other top game analysts on youtube. You have the charisma for it and the way you present your arguments is very compelling
@@illansuu9572 Well I hope so because I told my manager I was only working here until I’m UA-cam famous, and I wouldn’t want to look like a liar…
1:35:35
Did the greed fall tho?!
I don’t believe it stayed where it was, but it’s not very clear based on what little information we’re given about the greed in general. It definitely slipped though.
You should just give up gaming as you are a overly critical
To be fair, you did click on a "critique and analysis" of the game. I'm not quite sure what you expected....but I'm glad that you like the game. There are some things about it that have stuck with me since making the video and I use as examples for "things done right" in other games, but overall I really didn't enjoy it.