Redfall is Arkane defanged Dead and not entirely loving it. As one of four characters, all of whom come with supernaturally tinged backstories and accompanying special abilities, the player sets out to investigate the nature of the vampire invasion, keep a group of fellow humans alive, and, hopefully, escape the island. The beginning isn’t very inspiring stuff. Redfall kicks off with the player establishing a safe base of operations — in this case, at a fire station — and helping a group of survivors settle into their new home. There’s a stern priest, a gentle doctor, and a grease-stained gun vendor, each with their own storefronts, and an attendant flock of other shallow NPCs. No member of this cast is particularly memorable, and it’s hard to drum up interest in their fates, mortal or not.
The town of Redfall itself makes a stronger impression. It features a downtown core lined with centuries-old colonial architecture and outlying tourist attractions, including a lighthouse and museum, marking its history as a whaling center. Because there are few backdrops for a horror story better than mid-autumn, the town sits beneath grand orange-, yellow-, and red-leafed trees; many of its storefronts are decorated with pumpkins. These locations, along with others— a dried-out, fish-strewn lake bed or a shadowy, abandoned hospital, to name a couple more — create a stylish sense of menace enhanced by splashes of bold red ’80s paperback font across menus and area names.
Redfall is a bigger and much more deliberately paced game than I was expecting. Fun in multiplayer, I found that I enjoyed it even more solo. Creeping around with a sniper rifle, shooting vamps with stake launchers from afar, I was able to play Redfall as a stealth game, which was highly enjoyable. Some technical issues still need to be ironed out, but there is a lot of fun here for folks that vibe with the spooky open world.
Redfall shows some good ideas (especially in its level design), but they are not enough to compete with the brilliant previous works that Arkane gave birth to. With terrible gunplay, blank open world and forgettable story it represents a huge defeat for anyone who expected a good reason to fire up their Xbox Series S|X after a 2022 of empty promises.
Redfall on the other hand has bad game design; the quests are bad; the story presentation is bad; the AI is bad; the combat doesn’t feel good; these issues are beyond performance. If Xbox first party triple A games come out this bad then naturally the brand will be associated with bad quality games going forward.
In conclusion, Redfall has some good ideas but falls short in execution. The game’s level design is impressive but its gunplay is terrible and its open world feels empty. The story presentation is forgettable and the AI is bad which makes it hard to drum up interest in their fates. However if you enjoy spooky open worlds then you might find some fun here despite its flaws.
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