Critical darling Bethesda is having a big year. In September, the studio will launch its long-awaited new title, Starfield, which has been billed as one of the biggest games ever made.
First, though, comes Redfall, its hyped vampire-shooter game, created by in-house studio Arkane.
Redfall is Arkane’s first game to become immediately available on Xbox’s Game Pass. And, I’ll be the first to admit it: I was hyped. Dishonored 2, which it released all the way back in 2016, remains one of my favourite games, combining a unique steampunk aesthetic, inventive gameplay, and deep lore to create something truly special.
Does Redfall match up? In short: no. Damn.
The premise is so enticing. You play as one of four heroes stuck in a fishing town on the coast of Massachusetts that has been overrun by vampire horrors: Jacob, Layla, Dev, or Remi. Each of them has special powers that will influence your playstyle and the way you take them out as you set about clearing the place of its infestation like a supernatural Rentokill.
For maximum fun, this is a game designed to be played in co-op. Sure, staking vampires (and human cultists, and mercenaries) by yourself is kind of fun — but what’s even more fun is combining the characters’ powers (in addition to their standard gun-related weaponry) in exciting new ways.
Want to take out the bloodsuckers from above? Layla’s telekinetic elevator will launch you into the air — while Dev’s UV light immobilises them, ready for attack. Jacob’s long-range sniping skills and ability to cloak himself from enemies lends itself to a stealthier approach; on the other hand, combat engineer Remi’s penchant for tossing around explosives will let you target multiple foes simultaneously.
This all sounds good, in theory. Unfortunately, the game’s poor performance hamstrings much of the multiplayer experience. For one, it feels surprisingly low-budget: aside from being buggy as heck, the villains feel poorly designed; textures fail to load properly; and enemies are often surprisingly unaware of your presence, even when you start attacking them.
To make things worse, the co-op elements detract from the solo player experience. There’s lore here, sure — delivered in fun notes and book extracts, or lengthy, heavily stylised cutscenes — but, for the most part, the houses you enter are empty save for lootable items.
The most interesting things in this world are the Vampire Nests, where the player enters a fractured kind of reality (akin to Dishonored’s Void) to take down the vamps lurking within. Regardless, it all feels rather samey after a while — something that’s not helped by the story, which requires you to grind endless identical side-quests (most of which involve killing people or collecting a certain item) to level up. Even more annoyingly, Redfall’s characters all level up independently, so switching from one to another means down-skilling significantly. Yikes.
Fortunately, Redfall does provide some in-depth skill trees for players to get their fangs sunk into: it’s split into five different sections, each of which can be levelled up with skill points and comprises everything from better health regeneration to boosting each character’s powers. This at least lets you tailor your playstyle slightly, which is good news.
However, the overall player experience feels a bit… lacking. It’s a real shame, because there are promising story elements here. Redfall’s narrative and some of its more imaginative flourishes bring to mind Dishonoured — I particularly liked the Grave Locks: loot boxes that creepily tells the story of how the invasion came about— and the worldbuilding elements (such as the characters’ backstories) are genuinely fascinating.
Is Redfall worth playing? If you already have a Game Pass, then sure: an Arkane game is an Arkane game, after all, and it’s still fun, but the nagging sense of disappointment remains. These guys are one of the best studios in the biz, but they dropped the ball on this one. Fangs, but no fangs.
