TITLE: Redfall
DEVELOPER: Arkane Austin
PUBLISHER: Bethesda Softworks
RELEASE DATE: May 2, 2023
GENRE: Action, Adventure, Open World, Shooter
Redfall is an open-world action-adventure game with a first-person shooter perspective, set in a rather unique vampire-themed universe. However, the development team has not effectively explored this element, coupled with a lack of depth in the design, inadvertently resulting in a gradually diminishing gaming experience. Not to mention, the mission system carries a strong linear sense, mostly revolving around approaching specific locations to collect items, interact, or eliminate dominating vampires.
Fundamentally, the Redfall experience bears resemblance to Back 4 Blood in mission design, featuring team-based shooting gameplay and a stronger emphasis on multiplayer rather than solo play. Players start from the Fire Station “base” and undertake main missions from the mission board on the upper floor. While the game also includes side missions that require exploration and interaction with NPCs, they are essentially condensed versions of the monotonous main missions. Even the concept of a “Safe House” carries a repetitive sensation in its design.
Specifically, you will find Safe Houses in each area of the map with the same requirement of finding and activating a power generator. These Safe Houses offer repetitive side missions with few objectives and only provide a slight thrill when facing mini-bosses. The issue lies in the fact that the Redfall experience heavily relies on a formulaic design for both main and side missions, repeating the same tasks throughout the game. Whether it’s tracking vampires, collecting certain items, or destroying something, the majority of missions revolve around monotonous objectives.
Throughout the playtime, the writer only encountered one or two missions that were more intricately designed and provided interesting information about the vampires. The brightest aspect of the game is the four main characters with entirely different skill sets, indirectly bringing a sense of excitement to the gameplay. For instance, my favorite character in the experience is Layla with her cool telekinetic abilities, capable of performing intriguing feats by manipulating objects from a distance, something the other characters cannot do.
Each character has an interesting backstory, but unfortunately, the development team did not effectively utilize this in building the Redfall experience. Moreover, players are not allowed to switch to a different character once a choice is made unless they are willing to replay all the tedious completed missions with the previous character. This somewhat confusing design choice inadvertently reduces the level of excitement in the game experience, which the writer believes is crucial in games with a similar gameplay formula to the Left 4 Dead series.
The storytelling aspect is also a drawback in Redfall. Instead of using easily understandable cutscenes, players only receive static and passive images, which weaken the narrative element. The writer lost interest in this aspect after a few story events occurred during the game experience. It gives the impression that the game was delayed in its development and had to resort to this solution. Furthermore, the NPCs in the Fire Station also exhibit poor behavior, as they rarely engage in meaningful conversations and simply respond with “Hmm.”
To say the least, even the multiplayer setup in Redfall is poorly designed. Instead of having a matchmaking system, Redfall only allows you to “Host Game” from the main menu. This means that if you are playing solo and have friends online, you have to exit the game and go back to the main menu to initiate multiplayer mode. The most confusing part is that mission progress is only counted for the host. Other players have to replay all the missions, even though they still receive experience points and keep their equipment from the previous co-op session.
It’s worth noting that Redfall is also very limited in terms of replay value unless you decide to switch to a different character, as both main missions and Safe House missions cannot be replayed. I don’t even want to mention the Vampire Nest missions with their linear and short design, which, despite incorporating roguelike elements to increase replay value, become repetitive and boring. Moreover, the rewards obtained from these missions are not proportional, rendering them almost useless when playing co-op.
Game bugs are also a disastrous issue in Redfall upon its initial release. Although the developers are diligently patching the game at the time of writing, the initial impression left a lot to be desired. From texture glitches to erratic character animations, there were some comical situations. Unlike Deathloop, the game doesn’t even support 60fps on Xbox Series X, and the controller menu interaction is not intuitive, merely emulating mouse movements with an analog stick.
On the other hand, the gunfights are quite satisfying when combined with each character’s unique abilities. However, the challenge in Redfall is not high, even at the highest difficulty setting in the initial playthrough, which is Midnight. The enemy AI is subpar and quite laughable. While the graphics don’t leave a strong impression, the development team did put some effort into differentiating each location, but it’s unfortunate that the open world in the game doesn’t offer much to explore. It is not expansive enough to get lost in or wander around.
In summary, Redfall provides a conflicting shooting experience. The game feels unfinished with many puzzling design choices, resulting in an unsatisfying experience regardless of whether you play solo or co-op. The biggest downside of the game is the lack of noteworthy positives combined with its high price, unless you belong to the type of player who is easily pleased and captivated by the vampire theme.