Redfall is the new creation of the respected Arkane studios, a cooperative open-world shooter with many promises, which gives very bad first impressions to the public but not only.
One of the most anticipated releases of 2023 isn’t Zelda, Final Fantasy 16, or Star Wars: Jedi Survivor. No, this is a new creation from the French studio Arkane. A new entry called Redfall and presented as an open-world and cooperative shooter, where four players will be able to travel and free an island infested with vampires during a scripted adventure. On paper everything looks interesting in Redfall, Arkane has a reputation for creating unique universes, is used to the FPS genre and knows his stuff when it comes to developing very sandbox gameplay with lots of options for players. players. But only here, after previews and first images of gameplay which are far from having unanimous support, Arkane announced that the game would run at only 30 fps on Xbox Series X. A blow for a game which arises in Xbox exclusive.
The bad news keeps coming for Redfall, the new shooter from Arkane Studios. This week, the French studio’s teams announced that the game would only be released in one graphics mode on console initially, limiting the gaming experience to 4K gameplay but only 30 frames per second. A blow for all console players who expected a lot from this Xbox exclusivity, and who will have to deal with the framerate of the consoles of the 2000s.
This bad news comes just after the publication of a preview of the game from IGN, a preview that unleashed waves of criticism on Youtube and on the web for several reasons. First, the level of play of the journalist holding the controller is execrable, making the few combat sequences difficult to watch without tearing your eyes out, really, we put it for you just below for a little comic break in your reading. Second, the few combat and exploration images were legitimately singled out as disappointing. Nothing seems unique in this open-world shooter, which seems to have the only positive point of replacing zombies with vampires. The environments seem generic, representing the views and reviews of the American countryside (Fortnite bis in short), the animations are poor, the fights horribly stiff… All observed in just a few minutes of gameplay.
In addition, note that these observations echo one of the written previews of the game published on March 22, that of gaming pc. Where many newspapers did not hide their excitement after spending 90 minutes playing this future release, sometimes not hesitating to raise it to the rank of possible “game of the year”, the editorial staff of PC Gamer as for her, she expressed doubts about its quality, not hesitating to describe it as a “sad fall from the iconic Arkane studio”. Note that Robin Valentine, the author, noted many negative points in his preview, points that might remind you of something: generic environments and poor graphics, empty and lifeless world except for a few groups of enemies, absence incentive to explore, lack of interaction with the environment, repetitive and boring dungeons, fights without particular interest, poor animations… The list is long and strangely resembles the first impressions of the public four weeks later, after the release of the game’s first gameplay footage.
So without advancing on the total veracity of PC Gamer’s impressions, it nevertheless seemed important to us to recall the existence of this edifying preview as the game’s release approaches, and thus to underline the relevance of the public’s critical gaze. a month later. It should also be noted that all the newspapers having had the chance to test Redfall have nevertheless highlighted some similar negative points in their often rave reviews. In particular the emptiness of its open world as underlined IGN Franceor the absence of real impact of the scenario according to gamereactor. French side JVC remains positive but emphasizes dated graphics, poor animations, and an all too classic narration.
Far from us the idea of dismantling Redfall before its release, but rather of gathering the markers which seem to justify the doubts of the public. No, the players are not crazy; despite overall very or even overly positive previews, the first journalistic reviews of Redfall mention impressions of incompleteness. Worse still, they also talk about dated animations and empty environments. Two disturbing elements for an open world shooter.
By its first images, Redfall seems to be presenting itself as a forgettable title, like an attempt at mainstream gaming by a studio acclaimed for its intricate and niche games. Add to that 30 frames per second on Xbox Series and you may smell a faint aroma of disaster not unlike Gotham Knights, released technically outdated, empty, and at 30 frames per second on consoles. Now, as video game fans, we just have to pray that Arkane triumphantly proves to us the impertinence of our worries.
What is the release date of Redfall?
Redfall showed itself in detail yesterday during the Developer Direct from Xbox and Bethesda. A sequence of ten minutes of gameplay which concluded with a major piece of information, the game is planned for the May 2, 2023 for release exclusively on PC and Xbox Series. It will also be available in the Xbox Game Pass from day one. Unfortunately for Sony players, the game should not be released on Playstation 5 and will remain one more step forward from Xbox in the war of video game exclusives.