It's a sad day when you have to admit your favorite developer made a bad game, but there's no better way to describe Redfall. As Tyler Colp laid out in his 40-hour review-in-progress, Arkane's co-op looter shooter is bland, unchallenging, and full of bugs.
At the center of Redfall's disappointing debut is its open world—the Salem-esque town of Redfall and its surrounding mountain trails. It's easily the biggest playable sandbox that either Arkane studio has ever made and it has no loading screens (besides brief loads to enter safehouses and the main fire station hub), which may help explain why it feels so lifeless. Arkane has traded its usual obsessive attention to detail in small environments for huge, sparsely populated city streets and awkwardly assembled interiors that aren't worth exploring.
