After 2 years in early access, Greedfall: The Dying World still feels unfinished

After 2 years in early access, Greedfall: The Dying World still feels unfinished | PC Gamer Skip to main content Open menu Close main menu PC Gamer THE GLOBAL AUTHORITY ON PC GAMES US Edition UK US Canada Australia Subscribe Sign in View Profile Sign out Search Search PC Gamer Games Hardware News Reviews Guides Video Forum More PC Gaming Show PC Gamer Clips Software Codes Coupons Movies & TV Magazine Newsletter Affiliate links Meet the team Community guidelines About PC Gamer PC Gamer Magazine SubscriptionWhy subscribe?Subscribe to the world’s #1 PC gaming magTry a single issue or save on a subscriptionIssues delivered straight to your door or device From$1Subscribe now Don’t miss these Action After 6 hours, Crimson Desert is one of the most overwhelming, chaotic, madcap videogames I’ve ever played—and I’m hungry for more RPG Esoteric Ebb isn’t just the best Disco since Disco, it’s the closest anyone’s come to the magic of tabletop D&D in a videogame RPG This bizarre CRPG features claymation graphics, beat ‘em up combat and the option to send defeated enemies to a prison colony, and it just left early access after a massive final update RPG It’s only March, but I’m calling it: Esoteric Ebb is 2026’s best RPG and the first worthy successor to Disco Elysium RPG Monster Hunter Stories 3 review: An excellent monster battler bogged down by a war story without stakes Games The best indie games on PC Strategy Heart of the Machine review: A fascinating grand strategy RPG that starts to buckle under its own ambitions Roguelike After beating Slay the Spire 2 with an 8 year old deck, I’m starting to feel like this is more of a remake than a sequel RPG The best RPGs on PC RPG You’ve never heard of it, but a Russian studio made a fantasy take on original Fallout way back in 2001, and it honestly kind of rules MMO Project: Gorgon has recaptured the old-school MMO magic I thought was dead and gone by letting me ask a pig about its mother so hard it dies Action After playing the free demo of this bloody medieval carve-‘em-up, I’m praying the devs deliver a holy gaming experience RPG The new game from Disco Elysium’s studio feels like the first Christmas after your parents’ divorce Action Styx: Blades of Greed review: Engaging, challenging stealth in dizzyingly vertical puzzle boxes Games PC Gamer’s Game of the Year Awards 2025 Trending NEW: PC Gamer Clips! Marathon Arc Raiders Best PC gear Quizzes Games RPG Greedfall 2: The Dying World After 2 years in early access, Greedfall: The Dying World still feels unfinished Features By Shaun Prescott published 10 March 2026 Spiders’ prequel has some things to admire, but it’s both overly buggy and frustratingly conservative. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. (Image credit: Spiders) Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter PC Gamer Get the PC Gamer Newsletter Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. You are now subscribed Your newsletter sign-up was successful Want to add more newsletters? Every Friday GamesRadar+ Your weekly update on everything you could ever want to know about the games you already love, games we know you’re going to love in the near future, and tales from the communities that surround them. Signup + Every Thursday GTA 6 O’clock Our special GTA 6 newsletter, with breaking news, insider info, and rumor analysis from the award-winning GTA 6 O’clock experts. Signup + Every Friday Knowledge From the creators of Edge: A weekly videogame industry newsletter with analysis from expert writers, guidance from professionals, and insight into what’s on the horizon. Signup + Every Thursday The Setup Hardware nerds unite, sign up to our free tech newsletter for a weekly digest of the hottest new tech, the latest gadgets on the test bench, and much more. Signup + Every Wednesday Switch 2 Spotlight Sign up to our new Switch 2 newsletter, where we bring you the latest talking points on Nintendo’s new console each week, bring you up to date on the news, and recommend what games to play. Signup + Every Saturday The Watchlist Subscribe for a weekly digest of the movie and TV news that matters, direct to your inbox. From first-look trailers, interviews, reviews and explainers, we’ve got you covered. Signup + Once a month SFX Get sneak previews, exclusive competitions and details of special events each month! Signup + An account already exists for this email address, please log in. Subscribe to our newsletter Having spent the last week playing the final version of Greedfall: The Dying World I’m faced with a conundrum. I admire its quiet ambition and some elements of its world, but it’s a humdrum slog to play. It’s the latest from Spiders, French purveyors of eurojank. The term is shorthand for an RPG that’s big on ambition but low on budget, relative to the big blockbuster studios. Think Piranha Bytes, early Larian and CD Projekt, and the Stalker series.The Dying World has been in early access for two years and this week gets its 1.0 release. It’s an approach to RPG development that worked wonders for Baldur’s Gate 3, but I’m afraid the results here are nowhere near as favorable.The Dying World is a prequel to the modestly successful 2019 outing set in a fantasy-daubed approximation of 17th century Europe. Controversially, it ditches the live third-person combat of its predecessor in favour of a rugged real-time with pause system that seems to answer to a new public relaxedness with ageworn approaches to combat. For those who love a rough around the edges western RPG it may sate that hunger, but this prequel doesn’t seem designed to bring Greedfall to a wider audience, which is weird because Greedfall seemed like a rare minor hit for a AA studio.Article continues below You may like Code Vein 2 review: a breezy hack-and-slash in soulslike clothing The new game from Disco Elysium’s studio feels like the first Christmas after your parents’ divorce In a year where Obsidian released a pair of RPGs, its best game was an early access survival romp Image 1 of 2(Image credit: Spiders)(Image credit: Spiders)The Dying World flips the script on its predecessor: in the first you’re a colonising noble, but in this one you’re the colonised. I play as the fully customisable Vriden Gerr, who belongs to a relentlessly exploited island nation where the colonising Renaigse are mining and poisoning, as is a brutal coloniser’s wont. Vriden Gerr is eventually kidnapped by shadowy figures belonging to the Alliance who—we gradually learn—are using the nat