Redfall

What the authors lacked to be above average was the courage to stand up with full force for something unexpected. They could have taken inspiration from their colleagues from the French branch of Arkane, who came up with Deathloop. Redfall is an unpleasant reminder that talents and creativity run out with time. [Issue#327]

Redfall isn't as unplayable as some of the most intense reaction might lead you to believe. That said, we found it to be a rather mindless experience, often finding ourselves going through the motions. And when considering how it falls short in ways we wouldn't have expected from an Arkane title, the game is sadly a disappointment.

Redfall is an amalgamation of ideas from other more popular video games, however, lacking in its own originality and entertainment value.

Redfall is stunningly bad. After past successes, Arkane fails the mission miserably and looks like a real fish out of water with the looter shooter. Between numerous bugs, performance issues, an uninteresting story, flabby and completely brain-dead enemies, Redfall is not even capable of assuming itself as a competent looter shooter and even in a group, the fun is a mirage that only appears occasionally and almost always ironically.

As Redfall lacks any actual depth in terms of narrative or gameplay loop, it’s a hard game to recommend. But who knows, maybe six months to a year down the line, it could be a completely different and more engaging game. That’s just the time we live in.

Redfall wants to be many things at once, but at the same time it can't be any.

Redfall isn’t a total disaster, and there’s fun to be had in slaying vampires, especially with a couple of friends. But to call Redfall a shallow experience would be an understatement. I’m happy to loot and shoot and make my own fun, but there still needs to be something there to pull me through it. Nothing in Redfall, from the loot to the characters to the exploration to the power climb, ever made me want to keep playing, or feel like there was something more to achieve. No amount of bug fixes or updates will be able to improve Redfall’s fundamental gameplay flaws. It’s not just rough around the edges, it’s rutted all the way through.

Redfall brings a pretty nice visual style and the setting is also very strong in concept, complemented by a good atmosphere. But that's where it stops in terms of good news. Indeed, in execution, the setting is somewhat dull and more problematic are the many technical and graphical problems. The gameplay in itself is also uninspired, never challenging and has somewhat an identity crisis. In the process, the unique skills of the characters hardly show up as meaningful contributions. All in all, Redfall is a huge disappointment plagued by a host of technical shortcomings. Very unfortunate.

Redfall is an initially compelling game, but once it bears its teeth the sheer lack of quality propped up by unfinished ideas is abundantly clear.

From a studio having delivered far better and should in all likelihood have done so once more, Redfall is an uncharacteristically poor and cobbled-together brand of tedium. Though pockets of the developer’s signature traits remain when it comes to exploration, level design and reading up on the world of this fictional small-town settlement, it’s as far as the game goes in injecting a sense of care or thought to what it’s offering and asking of its player. Shamelessly limping from one half-hearted implementation and excuse to pad out its run-time to the next. The killing blow undoubtedly coming by way of its PC performance. A myriad of issues big and small that will take some doing to rectify. But even then, with a lack of enemy variety, creative mission design and simply reason to stay invested or evolve from out of, its gameplay just isn’t all that fun to engage with from the off. A bare minimum effort with such scarce appeal, Redfall stands as a devoid and near-lifeless pivot away from the standard we’ve come to expect from Arkane Studios.

Redfall doesn’t know what it wants to be, therefore it isn’t good at being singleplayer, cooperative, story-driven or action-based. And, most of all, it’s not fun, plus it comes out in terrible shape. I’d rather eat a whole garlic bulb than to play more Redfall.

Arkane Studios, which is often so great, has whiffed wildly here. Redfall performs awfully (at least on PC), and even when running at its best, it feels like a jumbled, disjointed exercise in compromised ideas.

Redfall squanders the potential of its core premise and the world that has been built around it with uninspiring shootouts and a fairly formulaic structure. Interesting characters and a pulsing soundtrack help matters, but when a shooting game isn’t fun to play there’s a limit to what else you can do.

As a game, Redfall simply doesn't measure up. The familiar Arkane magic that has always lurked in the developer's previous games is completely absent. Instead, we get an experience that is just as limp and uninventive as it looks.

Redfall is a humongous disappointment, as there are parts of this game that still feature semblances of that Arkane brilliance. The map has potential, there's just nothing to do in it, and the story delivers intrigue at times and shows that the small town America-meets-vampire concept is still very much alive and well. But, this game is an unmitigated disaster at times. It does very little to make you want to keep playing, and even if you do find something to enjoy, the horrible and outright disgraceful performance does everything it can to kill that passion in you.

Redfall tries to bite far more than it can chew and delivers a package with a middling presentation, a lack of interesting mechanics, and some pretty woeful performance. Despite its issues, and perhaps like its cultists, I want to love it - it just won't love me back.

Redfall is a major disappointment from a well-established studio that brought us the hit Dishonored. While I expected an immersive sim that would build on the phenomenal foundations of their previous games, I got a cookie-cutter looter shooter with an empty world, a non-existent story and very little fun. With the steep price attached to this title, I would not recommend it even with a fat discount.

The fangless Redfall falls flat, mangled and maligned by poor performance, numerous bugs, weak gunplay, and shallow loot-and-shoot gameplay.

Unfortunately Redfall will be remembered as the exact opposite of Arkane’s previous work. Utterly bland level design, flat and uninspired questlines, non-existent AI, and obsolete graphics are just some of the significant shortcomings of a game that creates the impression of a product created without any signs of vision.