Do you like those old school PC point-and-click adventures like Full Throttle, Day of the Tentacle, or Maniac Mansion? Do you wish they were mixed with combat that takes really fast reflexes and great timing? Well, if you answered “yes” to both of those questions, then you might find this game to be worth reading more about.

Greedventory starts with a man telling his lazy nephew a story about the inception of a group called The Brotherhood and how adventurers can’t keep the loot gathered from successful quests due to The Brotherhood swooping in and destroying it all. The story-teller has had enough of this autocratic control that the group has over the land, so he sends his able-bodied nephew out against his will to end The Brotherhood’s reign once and for all. He equips his nephew with the few pieces of gear that he has kept hidden away and pushes him out into the cold dark night.

The first thing I noticed about Greedventory is its atmosphere. Even though it is a very tongue-in-cheek humor style of game, it really has a lot of work put into its visuals and music. The pixel art style reminded me heavily of the titles in which it seems to pull inspiration from, like the Monkey Island series, with expressive movements from both NPCs and enemies as well as nice lighting and little visual touches that might be missed if the player isn’t paying close attention. The same goes for the voice acting, sounds, and music. Voices are mostly just gibberish during the majority of the game, but during cutscenes the voice actors really put in a lot of effort and emotion and it undeniably elevates the mood that they are striving for. The music corresponds with a variety of pleasant tunes that range from jaunty folk music to sweeping orchestral pieces and it never felt unpleasant to listen to.

Since Greedventory’s primary roots are the point-and-click adventure genre, the game primarily plays like one. The protagonist is controlled via a few keys on the keyboard and also mouse clicks. Greedventory does not have gamepad support, and even if it did, I foresee it being absolutely infuriating to control. The controls as they are, are actually quite simple. The protagonist can only move around the environment while outside of combat scenarios and during that time the player can click on items of interest, solve puzzles, sift through chests and bags that contain gear that can be equipped, or break background objects like pots or barrels to try and find some gold. Some other objects that can be interacted with are broken hatchets that serve as save points, and bent swords that can not only be used as save points, but also a way to warp back to town or even level the character up.

Gold has multiple uses in Greenventory, much like how the Souls games do with souls, gold acts as both currency and experience. If the player dies, a percentage of gold is lost as a result. Thankfully, gold can be pretty easy to come by in most cases because pots and barrels respawn often, and they can be broken again to try and obtain more gold. Enemies and bosses also drop gold a lot of the time upon defeat.

Gear is one of the things I didn’t really care much for in Greedventory. All weapons and armor (besides the ones that say they cannot lose durability) have a durability meter. This normally wouldn’t be a tremendous issue, but in Greedventory, these items break far too quickly. There is a system put into place that attempts to offset this where when an item’s durability runs out, it has a chance to level up instead of break. This works well some of the time, but having equipment break during a tense battle that you don’t have time to replace while in combat is rather vexing. I would have much preferred using a blacksmith to repair and level my character’s gear. I also ran into a bug where an item that said it couldn’t lose durability broke, and I wished it hadn’t because it was a really nice legendary drop from a boss fight.

As far as combat goes, the protagonist attacks with a simple left mouse click and can block or parry with a right mouse click. Holding down the left click will charge up an attack and hit much harder, but slower. If parries are done with proper timing and enough times in a row, the enemy that is being parried will be stunned, and can be hit with a critical blow. Sometimes enemies will throw projectiles that can be deflected with the character’s shield right back at them (which is really satisfying). Another mechanic that needs attention is stamina. Attacking can eat through the stamina gauge very quickly, so keeping a good balance between attacking and defending is paramount during battles. Also, what rings the player has equipped can change the properties of the protagonist’s attacks, which can really make combat more strategic and fun than just hammering the left mouse button until something explodes into a blood pile. For instance, two of the rings obtained as soon as the game is started can help the player make it through some of the toughest sections in the game. One of the rings causes an enemy to bleed, and a heavy attack while using the other ring will absorb the bleed and create a vampiric attack that siphons health back to the player. Using this combination got me through some incredibly tough encounters throughout the game and is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to what depth rings can bring to battles.

The downside to the combat comes from when things get far too chaotic. In one of the first areas of the game, the protagonist is traversing a cave and comes across some dwarves that are throwing knives and bomb-like jars at targets. As a welcoming gift, they start lobbing these items at the player while they are fighting through a few small mobs. This part led to more deaths than almost any other part of the game, all because it felt like it should have come a bit later on when the player has a bit more of a firm grasp on the controls and the combat system.

The boss fights in the game felt much the same with some being incredibly easy and others being a bit of a slog due to some of the same issues with things just not feeling balanced properly. Don’t get me wrong, I really like the ideas that are present, but I think the execution of balancing it all could have used some tweaks.

Another early section that went on a bit too long was an area littered with traps. The first few sections of this were no problem at all, but near the end it honestly just felt a bit tedious with losing lots of gold and equipment all because of one slight misstep on a spike trap. Most of the areas later on in the game were much more fun to explore, so it was just a bit of a shame to see a few frustrating sections early on that might turn some players away.

Greedventory does something fresh with meshing point-and-click games with some Souls mechanics and its great art style and music show a lot of charm and care. A few issues like difficulty balancing and some bugs here and there hold it back a bit, but won’t ruin the experience for everyone. However, those who don’t enjoy difficult games or get frustrated easily should probably sit this one out.

Pros:

●        Pixel art style and animations bring the world to life

●        The music is very fitting and fun to listen to

●        The combat system is fresh and fun during most battles

●        The voice acting helps elevate the mood of cutscenes

Cons:

●        Difficulty balancing needs work

●        Gear durability system can be frustrating at times

●        Some design choices with certain areas might frustrate players

Score: 7.5/10