Redfall Reviews
Arkane's vampire thriller is muddled and deeply compromised, but has moments of real charm.
Redfall's empty open world, flimsy shooting, and siloed systems make for a flat, dull experience.
Redfall is a bafflingly bad time across the board. Plagued with bland missions, boneheaded enemies, and repeated technical problems, Redfall simply wasn’t ready for daylight in this state.
Redfall is ultimately not up to Arkane's usual standards. It feels rushed, unfinished, and unsatisfying to play.
Immersive sim meets four-player co-op in this vampire themed first person shooter that features competent gunplay but a lack of ingenuity in its challenges.
Looking at the world of Redfall, I become sad by its wasted potential. For every great location, there are a handful of forgettable ones. The result is an empty-feeling game with several puzzling problems, like a lack of proper stealth takedowns, a tedious quest and waypoint system, and the inability to pause gameplay in single-player mode. Rampant technical issues hinder brighter moments, including frequent server crashes during multiplayer, inputs failing to work, broken animations, and numerous other bugs that make playing Redfall a frustrating experience. For a game about fighting the undead, Redfall feels soulless in all the wrong ways.
If this tone takes center stage in the back half of the story, combined with plot developments that add some momentum to the proceedings, it may be easier to overlook the game’s weaker aspects and appreciate it as a compelling narrative work. At this point, though, the town of Redfall is sucked too dry of liveliness for players to be invested in whether its vampires triumph or not.
Arkane takes a stab at infusing the genre du jour with its signature style, but the end results are a bloody mess.
I really spent most of my time playing Redfall thinking about what else Redfall could have been. I like that Arkane tried something new, and I’m bummed it came out like this. It’s a really unique premise and concept in its first bite, but its fangs don’t leave a lasting mark.
Redfall is an open-world game that retains some of the greatest virtues of Arkane's design, but is weighed down by certain issues related to the genre to which it belongs. Possibly it will be a game that becomes something much bigger in the future, but finishing it has left me with mixed feelings. Right now I feel that, despite its successes, what shines most about Redfall is the promise of what it could become... And I don't know if this ends up speaking well or badly of the game.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
The combination of open-world and supernatural foes has become increasingly wearisome in the last few years, and immediately after playing through Dead Island 2 I wasn’t particularly looking forward to Redfall. However, Arkane Austin should never be underestimated for putting their own spin on a genre, with Redfall offering enough surprises and memorable moments so far to set it apart from the open-world crowd.
Redfall will be a good game for when all the technical problems that launch treasures are fixed. Arkane's good hand in terms of setting and gameplay is moved to the background due to errors and failures and despite everything, this exclusive is very fun, despite innovating rather little.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
I wanted desperately to find a good game underneath all the bugs in Redfall, and every now and then a tiny ray of light would shine through and give me hope. I took my time to give it a fair opportunity where others wrote it off only a few hours in. Unfortunately, they were right, and this will go down as one of the more disappointing games that I’ve played in recent years. All we can hope for now is that Redfall’s disastrous journey serves as a warning to Microsoft and its stable of development studios. Not because the world’s second-largest company can’t take the hits, but because players deserve better.
In Redfall, Arkane's trademark can only be seen in places, and the end result, while not entirely awful, falls far short of what we expected from the return to the scenes of Prey's creators.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Redfall becomes Arkane's most fun game: no moral dilemmas, no existential doubts and totally enjoyable both with friends and alone.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
An echo of Arkane’s past glories - one in which the studio’s unique voice can still be heard, but more faintly than we’ve come to expect.
Redfall is hampered by issues like poor AI, texture pop-ins, and bland missions, meaning its stronger moments are overshadowed.
In no way is Redfall groundbreaking - but sometimes all a game needs to be is fun to play, and Arkane has created an experience that offers a good time.
Frankly, it’s a relief to see real neck-biters treated with the proper pulp care. Arkane Austin gets right to it: teeth, claws, and clear agendas.