Greedfall

My gut reaction was that it was a Fable 4 leaked photo, so Fable 2 was a good guess. But it's Risen 3, like one guy says in the Reddit. I've played it a little, and it's kind of what we're all hoping Greedfall is going to rise above? Painfully mediocre, aside from the lovely aesthetic.

Lack of jump mechanics doesn’t make a game terrible, but still it’s a feature that gives so much sense of freedom. If I’m nitpicking, that’s a negative point.

Ubisoft forums cured me of ever visiting official game forums. Made the mistake of returning during AC Odysseys release to ask a question and my god the vitriol for a completely benign question re resources!!!!! 

Yeah it isn’t about utility. It’s just nice to not be glued to the ground. I use constantly when a game allow me that.

To be fair real life colonization could be summed up to being a hamfisted affair. Yeah one could write a flowery thesis how colonizers were motivated by greed, economics, religion, and "curiosity", but "they were just dicks"  can just as easily get the point across.

I think what Spiders meant is that the endings can be justified by any POV with enough critical reasoning. Whether they're morally sound or not is subjective, but I think they're making sure every choice made in this game can be justified  and can be logically backed up by the context of the narrative. I don't think Spiders need to go out of their way on things.

Your character does do climb at marked areas, so it's not like De Sardet will always be glued to the ground outside of cut scenes. It just won't be free style

Seems to be Steam's top-selling game right now (#2 if we count the CS:GO pass). Hope it can live up to people's expectations to some degree. Spiders could really use a hit.

Historical digression incoming...

This misleadingly implies colonial enterprises were the work of the average Joe. Imperialism is never set up to benefit the colonized, and in that category settlers from the home country are included; hence why even colonies made up primarily of white settlers eventually revolted and/or demanded independence. It was not even set up to benefit the home country beyond elite interests i.e. quality of life for the average person in Victorian England was arguably worse than in earlier periods despite the empire never having been bigger, wealthier, or more powerful.

Therefore, imperialism is inherently evil, if we operate under the notion that evil is that which causes unnecessary harm to others, usually for one's own pleasure or benefit. Colonialism is likewise evil insofar as it overlaps with imperialism, which in the Modern Era is a lot. There are earlier instances of relatively victimless colonialism i.e. the ancient Phoenician and Greek city states around the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, or medieval Norse settlement in the North Sea and the North Atlantic. But these instances were fundamentally different in character from modern European colonization, which Greedfall is clearly based on. And you may have noticed that, at any rate, we don't play a working class hero but an extremely privileged individual.

There's nothing you're saying that I disagree with specifically, but.

I'm baffled by what you mean by something "not being the work" of the people who do it. The average Joe doesn't get into a boat and sail halfway across the globe to start a life somewhere he has only seen in drawings because he thinks it will benefit the elite, he does it because he thinks it's in his best interest and that of his family and loved ones, and the same goes for any atrocities committed over the course of his venture.

Who imperialism is "set up to benefit" is only tangentially relevant to why the people who are willing to get their hands dirty and bloody taking land from other human beings are so. And this game very obviously features a host of working men and women from the continent doing exactly that and only one De Sarlet who is there for an unrelated reason. For the purposes of exploring what colonialism and imperialism mean for people in practice, and what kinds of mentalities to personally be wary of under what circumstances that have historically lead to slaughter and oppression, I'd say their presence should weigh at least as much as his/her does.

I'm certainly not denying that greedy or stupid politicians have been instrumental in causing enormous harm throughout the centuries. But so far we've been rather more successful raising the average Joe's standard of living and educating him to be somewhat sensitive and morally responsible than we have ever been at directly trying to get rid of greedy or stupid politicians. 

Deciding that imperialism is evil is fine and dandy, but recognizing the tendencies that lead to the evil aspects of it within and around ourselves and learning to deal with them is a pretty important second step in my mind. And you can't do that by just dismissing it as bad or shuffling the responsibility off to a faceless elite at every opportunity, even if a lot of the chains of causality ultimately seem to lead back to them.

Ordinary men and women have done these things while looking the people they were doing them to in the eye, so you and I definitely can too. Dunno about you, but I'd like to be able to see that coming before I hurt anyone, just in case. Or less importantly, speak up or get out of dodge if I see it in others.

More coverage on Greedfall. It's in French though.