Expected for more than two years as one of the most promising Xbox exclusives, Redfall is on the contrary outdated on all counts. A surprise for a production from the revered studio Arkane.
Open world, vampires, weapons galore, all developed by one of the most respected studios in the history of video games, Redfall had everything on paper to please. This new creation from Arkane Austin’s studios has been available to the public for a few hours, as critics publish their first reviews. And the opinions are unanimous: Redfall is a disaster, a slip in the usually perfect choreography of Arkane, a mistake from beginning to end. To tell the truth, we could have guessed it, many lights indicated red as the release of this cooperative game approached, the latest being the total proximity between the publication of reviews and the official release of the game. Our editorial team also had the chance to test Redfall in detail, and gives you its opinion on this obvious misadventure.
I won’t mince words about Redfall, firstly because it’s an Arkane and Bethesda production, two studios that we can hardly forgive for their lack of budget. And secondly because the game has been postponed twice, which prevents us from using the excuse of a too premature release. This test was conducted in three-player co-op on PC.
Red Fade
Visually, Redfall is really nothing special. The game places us on an island in Massachusetts, taken over by vampires who constitute the only ounce of strangeness in the most banal settings. Imagine the first Fortnite map and there you are. Imagine the same empty skies, empty buildings (but here indestructible) and empty streets. Where Arkane had accustomed us to dioramas of exceptional depth in Deathloop and Dishonored, Redfall is as flat as the Nord-Pas-de-Calais. As you explore, you won’t come across wacky, dramatic, or grotesque situations that teach you many things about the world around you, like in the studio’s previous titles. Instead, you will find groups of visually impaired AIs and buildings in which you can at all and for all operate a sink or a shower.
Note that the performance of the press version on PC was catastrophic, resulting in many frame drops below 40 frames per second per second, not to mention certain bugs preventing you from aiming, shooting, or even interacting with the environment.
Second, your character animations are non-existent. Your tactical run is like literally floating in the air, healing yourself is like crouching, and taking damage results in a red flash and a decrease in your health bar. Only positive point, you can finish off a vampire with a stake in the heart, rare moment of action in fights where your weapons shoot wind, blue pixels or invisible projectiles. Because the gunplay of Redfall is also a disaster. Nothing really has an impact in its combat phases; neither your skills which are on the whole disappointing, nor your shots which have no impact, nor those of your adversaries unable to aim straight or detect you at five meters. Vampires, the REAL threat of Redfall, just float through the air towards you and your life goes down when they wave their arms, literally. In terms of progression, leveling up will only make your previous weapons useless, and make you invest points in a frankly disappointing skill tree. In short, on the gameplay side, nothing differentiates Redfall from yet another free-to-play found on Epic Games. Except that Redfall is 80 €. Ouch.
A scenario ? What scenario?
Secondly, it is very difficult to grasp the tone of the game. The introduction to the dire situation which terrorizes the inhabitants of this small island of Massachusetts is very succinct; through cinematic slideshows, semi-dramatic, semi-humorous dialogues and sensible flashbacks to teach us a little more about our beloved characters. It is true that it is necessary to keep a little mystery, so that the player can, by his exploration, discover a little more about the why and how of this bloody invasion, but Arkane had nevertheless accustomed us to better on the plot plan, whether it’s the complex political plots of Dishonored or the intricate storytelling of Deathloop. In Redfall, here you are going back and forth to find some information in a city deserted by its inhabitants, with vampires in it, period. And even worse, the majority of this information is presented in the form of logs to collect and read, or radio dialogue right in the middle of the action, a perfect cocktail for total confusion.
Speaking of your characters, it’s hard not to shy away from their misplaced enthusiasm, tactless jokes, and scripted lines of dialogue that repeat every 45 seconds. Because yes, in the absence of narration including your four characters (your hero seems alone in his adventure if we are to believe the rare cutscenes) the only interaction you will see between our four protagonists is in their dialogues. Except that lines of dialogue, there are probably two in all in the game since we hear the same incessant babble repeating itself every 25 seconds. And that’s only when you can understand what it’s all about, since most of the time your characters are all talking at the same time. A treat for your ears.
Conclusion
Difficult to go further in this review of Redfall. The game is very clearly a failure, an outdated outing technically, in generic storyline and environments, and utterly amorphous in its gameplay. Nothing is done to immerse you in the game. The feeling of danger is absent, the AIs are severely handicapped, your character floats in the air, the weapons shoot from the wind, the scenery is generic, indestructible and non-interactive. During this time, your characters all repeat in heart the same embarrassing sentences every 20 seconds while an average NPC gives you objectives by radio. Redfall therefore managed the incredible performance of being too flat to arouse the slightest interest, and too chaotic to avoid headaches.
We really wonder what Arkane was trying to do with this latest release. It is difficult to place this sad fall in the perfect pedigree of a French studio that we appreciate so much. Arkane Studio, renowned for its niche, lively, original games, has split a bland, generic and empty title, thus depriving itself of its audience, so loyal in the past, and now stuck in total incomprehension. As for our opinion on Redfall; it will be simple and brief: if you are over twelve, go your way.