Redfall (2023)

Since getting an Xbox Series X last year, I have been curious about Redfall as I love Bethesda FPS games that lean towards the immersive sim genre. I don't know if this is that or not, but as a casual gamer who plays on the easier levels to enjoy the story and not get stressed over the various challenges, this game was exactly the kind of game I like. I played since the last patch and didn't do multiplayer so perhaps that is why I didn't have any negatives.

First I tried Jacob which was okay but after doing a handful of missions I started over with Dev and greatly preferred his powers. This game was really fun, it was like a spooky mystery. Sure it was not complicated or super deep, but just a fun romp in that world unraveling the mystery of what was behind it all. I will say the developers could have done more to flesh some things out but I just chock it up as a short game that had development issues but that they addressed most of it in the final patch.

If you want a fun shooter that you get cool powers, has a decent simple story, is fun on the easy levels, and has a nice immersive environment and atmosphere, give it a shot, you may find you like it.

It's clear that this was an assignment for the devs, not a passion project. The game is void of any intrigue, style, emotional depth, compelling gameplay, etc. It's nice that it has a functional multi-player and the weapons and abilities are fine enough, but the game itself on a very basic level is not particularly entertaining. I really really loved Deathloop. It was my first taste of Arkane. Then I loved Prey. Then I liked Dishonored. I've been eagerly awaiting Redfall, and like most of the gaming community, I feel a little duped.

If devs were able to fix all the bugs and optimize the enemies this could be a decent f2p online coop looter shooter. But without a major overhaul of the story, cutscenes, characters, and missions, I don't see Redfall ever becoming the AAA title it was marketed to be.

When Redfall was released on May 2 I caught a glimpse of the leaked gameplay that came out before the masses could get their hands on it. It was a short clip of someone fighting some vampires. Later in the afternoon, my friends installed the game, played for literally 20 minutes and uninstalled the game saying you should not play Redfall. We all know how the reviews came in, but I still wanted to give it a try.

Incase you didn't know, Redfall is a play on Farcry, and a looter/shooter with supernatural vampires. Open world, get quests from people in hubs, go fight vampires, get better loot, level up, and keep going. Initial criticism of the game included it was boring. The gameplay loop sucks. The loot sucks. The open world is dead etc. It had me thinking, did anyone actually expect a re-invented wheel here? Ubisoft has been pumping out the same shit for years and people eat it up. This format is not so far removed from Fallout or Skyrim, beloved series by millions of people. I couldn't wrap my head around it.

So I play Redfall. In fact, I put in close to 7 hours. At first it was the obvious defects that got me. Textures didn't render properly, the capped 30 FPS, and the absolutely fucking horrendous human AI, like oh my god, its so damn bad. But I didn't see what everyone else hated at first. The vampire AI isn't great either, but it's not as simplistic as everyone makes it out to be. Especially fighting two at once, you start to get a challenge on your hands.

There was also a lot of complaints about the open world, and the game looking poor. The map is small. It doesn't need to be, nor should it be chalked full of stuff in every, single, nook and cranny. And the art style? I feel like people are confusing graphical content and actual art style. The game looks pretty great, WHEN THE TEXTURES ACTUALLY LOAD and render properly. The gunplay was fine and honestly the gameplay loop isn't horrible either. Its a bunch of strung together fetch quests, and gathering loot, but that doesn't make it bad. Like I said, Redfall didn't re-invent the wheel, but no one should of expected it to.

So with this all sounding pretty good, even in my own head, I couldn't understand the hate. Was it the best game? Did it revolutionize anything? No, but it was still fine. And that's the problem, it was fine. Look, Redfall was sold (maybe?) as a AAA game title, but it was never supposed to be GOTY material. I looked at a lot of reviews, lots of negative commentary, and just could not mentally understand why people hate it. But then you roll it all up. Set aside the generic gameplay, I can get past that. But the deeper I got into the reviews, I couldn't justify playing any more.

• The 30 FPS
• The bad texture loading, sometimes taking minutes to come into focus
• The horrible human AI
• The loot is neutered by enemy scaling. A generic weapon found later in the game might be stronger then an epic earlier on. Fine, not a huge deal. But all enemies scale to your level. The incentive is just more DPS, but with whatever tier of weapon. There is no good thought put in to it.
• I have been told no matchmaking. That's right, 4 player co-op, but bring your friends because you can't match with people. I played solo.
• Weak gameplay loop. And I mean this as there is four characters to play as. You beat the game and there is a new game +, but really I can't see a reason you would ever do it. Nothing about Redfall grabs you and says "now do it again!"
• $90 price tag (in CAD). I played it on Gamepass, so it was fine. Full price, no damn way.

Maybe the most important point, if you take this all in context, but the sad realization that there is no way to fix this game. Sure, it might get patched and updated, but without rebuilding the entire thing, there is no NMS or Cyberpunk success story here. The game was released unfinished, and honestly poorly thought out. Even if it was finished with performance, AI and textures 100% sorted, the game would leave you feeling like "is that it?"

I don't give up on games very easily, and also don't rely on others to form opinions for me. I couldn't carry on with Redfall though. Not knowing that I was just doing it for the sake of saying I did. Don't buy it, don't play it. This game isn't going to get saved. It's going to quietly die on the vine.

Played on Xbox Series X.

Quick summary

Given their stellar track record I had high hopes for Arkane's Redfall. I hope this early failure is the fuel creatives at Arkane need to improve their game. I hope Microsoft is serious about their plans to support the game long term. If so, this game could be great.

Frustration: Design that didn't quite get there

Immersive sim and looter sim in a blender is an intriguing mash up but if this is the result of hours of designers iterating on how they best fit together it feels like a couple that decides to do things at the carnival separately rather than work together to win a giant stuffed toy.

I played co-op with some friends and we typically chat over any exposition crammed into a game and just hang out - you know the drill. We also tend to run and gun and loot and shoot - think games like Back 4 Blood or Vermintide. Redfall is at the same time trying to be an immersive sim where you can tackle objectives in the way you prefer, taking time to bask in the scenery and take in some lore sprinkled around in various forms. That way of playing seems diametrically opposed to the running and gunning of a looter shooter and I felt completely at odds trying to play it the way those imsim parts begged me to. It put in me in a crummy mood trying to interact with those aspects while also wanting to keep up with the group and help in a firefight.

Which brings me to another issue - the powers. Maybe my group needs to bump up the difficulty, but at normal none of us were using our powers. We didn't need to. We completely forgot they existed most of the time. Perhaps we would have been pressed into a need to use them if the combat encounters were more frequent or had some challenge beyond waiting for an enemy to charge at you like you're Serious Sam in the middle of a desert.

Frustration: Bugs and Crashes

While a video game as a product isn't as important to an individual as a replacement heart, you can draw some similarities (stick with me on this one). I think we can all agree a replacement heart needs to work 100 out of 100 times. While we wouldn't expect a game to never have a bug or crash, I'm really tired of games launching in such a sorry state. I have already had two instances where my game crashed right before our team completed a quest, leaving me not being rewarded for my part in the adventure and not having that progress saved.

Frustration: map and story progress tied to another player

Why is my story and exploration progress tied to another individual? This decision is so unusual that there is likely a really good reason for it, but it's impact is that it leaves me not wanting to play the game alone or explore other characters because I have to complete the story all over again. I would rather I be at the progress I am with my group, on an account level, and be given the ability to replay missions for diminished or different rewards.

In Conclusion

Ultimately I commend Arkane for taking a risk and experimenting by mashing together two genres in a way I haven't seen before. I am hopeful this game will get there with some love and attention, I'm just tired of games being launched too early - both from a design and stability perspective.