Redfall Reviews
Redfall is an amalgamation of ideas from other more popular video games, however, lacking in its own originality and entertainment value.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
There is a sense of more hiding beneath the surface of Redfall; and an urge to find it is what pushes you onward through endless vampire skirmishes. But while pieces of promised treasure are sprinkled throughout, Redfall never shines quite as brightly as it should.
Redfall is an empty mess, an embarrassment of the Xbox platform and a completely mundane exercise in insanity.
Redfall, with its mediocre gameplay, forgettable story and generic visuals, comes closer to destroying Arkane's legacy than it does to being a properly enjoyable video game.
Arkane's open-world vampire shooter has some of the developer's trademark spark, but is let down by an identity crisis and technical woes
The more fantastical elements of Redfall fail to impress, but the everyday detail of its setting manages to shine through, surfacing little stories left in the wreckage. The problem is that, even if you’re willing to dig for those moments, they’re still overshadowed by the glimpses of another, larger story: the one that explains how Redfall came to be released in such a state as this.
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.
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.
A title that feels incomplete in every perspective. At least the Vampire hunting was a good experience, but only the boredom and stupid AI are the ones that fill the hollow open-world. On top of that, a lot of bugs and insufficient optimizations are making the experience even worse.
Review in Korean | Read full review
Redfall struggles to find its identity with mundane loot and attempted co-op focus that drags the game's interesting potential down to being a mediocre and disappointing FPS.
To say that Redfall needs major work to fix some balancing issues would be a bit of an understatement. For a game that had so much hype during its development and was supposed to be the first big game of 2023 for the Xbox family that wasn’t called Halo or Forza, it has fallen short in its delivery. There are quite a few issues with Redfall, lots of unbalance in gameplay, and plenty to correct before it can be considered a permanent and worthwhile IP.
Redfall is a broken mess that serves as the worst kind of Xbox Series X|S representation and a huge stain on Microsoft, Bethesda and Arkane's reputation going forward.
Review in Russian | Read full review
With Redfall, Arkane strayed a bit too far from its roots and couldn't nail the landing. While the core gameplay is fun, and there are moments of brilliance that harken back to Arkane's glorious portfolio, most of the studio's strengths clearly do not mesh well with the open world genre, as exemplified by the disappointing safe house missions. Additionally, the writing is very uneven, never succeeding in making the player care about any of the characters, and the co-op mode adds little substance.
Redfall, simply put, is a disappointment. What else can be said? In the end, uninteresting gameplay, untapped potential, boring or first-rate systems... We don't know what went wrong in Arkane Austin. But this really isn't the game we expected from them. Or anyone, for that matter.
Review in Czech | Read full review
Somewhere deep inside Redfall, there’s a great game with interesting concepts. However, a multitude of technical issues from dodgy AI to texture pop-in and FPS drops are keeping it from its potential. Despite these glaring issues, I did manage to find enjoyable moments in the New England town, and the game made use of the power fantasy that many looter games provide. However, the more I ventured into Redfall, the more fatigued I grew. The lack of stealth kill/knockout options also feels like a major misstep that diluted Arkane Austin’s signature immersive sim foundations. No doubt, Redfall will remain a blemish for the studio, and I hope they find their footing once again.
Pardon the pun, but playing Redfall really sucked the life out of me. It's a game that so desperately feels like it wants to be more than what it is, which is understandable. It's dreadfully dull, buggy, frustrating, and feels shackled to a genre that it doesn't really want to be part of. Far Cry with vampires sounds like a great idea, but ultimately, what we got feels like a shell of a prototype for such a concept.
While the game's "early access" state means that its technical issues can be fixed, Redfall's major problem is that its makers do not know what makes this type of shooter work. Maybe Arkane did not have enough time to properly make it, or maybe they shipped it a year too early. Whatever the case, this just feels like an obligation project, with its team woefully inept at figuring out why this genre of shooters functions in the first place. From its uninspired and not-so-hot loot system, its broken combat, its empty world, and ho-hum-to-boring missions that are poorly designed, there is really no sane reason why you should play Redfall. Well, apart from mild curiosity and the fact that you can subject yourself to the suckfest for free on Game Pass.
Arkane Studio tried to take risks with RedFall to break out of the ordinary mould, by adding several new elements such as an open world, cooperative gameplay and merging them with other elements such as RPG, looting system in addition to immersive simulation. But trying on more than one front and without sufficient experience in all of them will inevitably lead to shortcomings in several aspects with less efficiency and fluctuating quality of the final product. And this is what RedFall really struggles with!
Review in Arabic | Read full review
Redfall is an entertaining, albeit shallow, romp in the FPS genre solo or with a team. Though PC seems to be performing less than favourably and next-gen consoles aren’t being pushed to their true capabilities, the game remains functional, fun and occasionally frightening.