Review
Played on: Xbox Series X
Released: 2023
Although Redfall received a lot of criticism at launch, with a few of the key complaints fixed in hindsight, I decided to give coop a chance with a friend. With it permanently being on Gamepass, and just a download away, it's a no-brainer to at least give it a go!
After playing through it, I’m left a little mixed. Straight off the bat, I’d highly recommend playing it coop, as it adds an extra layer of entertainment to an experience that suffers from repetition and going stale halfway. Plus, it's clearly meant to be played up to four players!
Let’s take a closer look at my thoughts on this vampire shooter.
Unmistakably, an Arkane game visually. From the art direction to the design of the world. With a coastal theme blended with modern and retro inspired architecture, we know it's Arkane's strong suite! I stuck it in performance mode, an option missing at launch, and enjoyed the visuals at 60fps without even considering the quality mode. Lighting, atmosphere, day cycle and environmental detail is nicely balanced and offers a pleasant view as you wander about Redfall's town of vampires.
Although Redfall received a lot of criticism at launch, with a few of the key complaints fixed in hindsight, I decided to give coop a chance with a friend. With it permanently being on Gamepass, and just a download away, it's a no-brainer to at least give it a go!
After playing through it, I’m left a little mixed. Straight off the bat, I’d highly recommend playing it coop, as it adds an extra layer of entertainment to an experience that suffers from repetition and going stale halfway. Plus, it's clearly meant to be played up to four players!
Let’s take a closer look at my thoughts on this vampire shooter.
Unmistakably, an Arkane game visually. From the art direction to the design of the world. With a coastal theme blended with modern and retro inspired architecture, we know it's Arkane's strong suite! I stuck it in performance mode, an option missing at launch, and enjoyed the visuals at 60fps without even considering the quality mode. Lighting, atmosphere, day cycle and environmental detail is nicely balanced and offers a pleasant view as you wander about Redfall's town of vampires.
Sharp visuals and textures with tiny hint of cartoon vibes, makes it a colourful and pleasant game to look at. Albeit with a more minimalist density to the amount of finer detail. Never encountered anything but smooth framerate either. Lighting effects are very well done, with this slightly oversaturated look that suits the rest of the visuals.
Stranded on an island after a failed experiment, you must connect with other survivors and defeat the vampires ruling the town to escape a frozen time capsule. In a sense, the intro and premise behind the game is the most important story part it offers. From here on, it never really pulls you back into anything meaningful or deep.
The game is spread across two large, but manageable, open world maps. Each one contains a safe hub building, were the survivors are collected. It's classic Americana fire station on the first map and a boat museum on the second, from here you take on main or side quests to continue the story or help survivors at the safe house. These range from restoring power to collecting items of importance to the characters. There's luckily a sensible amount of side quests, never overwhelming the player.
Stranded on an island after a failed experiment, you must connect with other survivors and defeat the vampires ruling the town to escape a frozen time capsule. In a sense, the intro and premise behind the game is the most important story part it offers. From here on, it never really pulls you back into anything meaningful or deep.
The game is spread across two large, but manageable, open world maps. Each one contains a safe hub building, were the survivors are collected. It's classic Americana fire station on the first map and a boat museum on the second, from here you take on main or side quests to continue the story or help survivors at the safe house. These range from restoring power to collecting items of importance to the characters. There's luckily a sensible amount of side quests, never overwhelming the player.
In addition, across each map fast travel signs are scattered, when found allow you to travel quickly to key destinations. There are doors to alternate dimensions, where you interestingly need to kill a vampire heart, and other mini bosses scattered about. There’s a fair bit of buildings that can be explored indoors and hidden loot to collect. Across each map are safe rooms capture too, these have additional, albeit repetitive, tasks to complete.
Herein, lies some of Redfalls problems. The first map has excellent Arkane design written all over it, variation and detail in its coastal town theme. The second map situated more inland on the island, with the exception of a cool woodland, feels like a lacklustre farmland area added at the last minute. Re-using buildings from the first map, even a second church stands out as odd. It’s clearly the developers ran out of time. While it's graphically the same quality as the first map, it just lacks soul and thought behind it.
This lack of afterthought runs into the loot system too. While you’ll find better and more powerful weapons alongside your character levelling up, they just seem so random and there's far between anything unique or special. Even defeating main bosses drops random loot, lacking something truly cool or memorable. It doesn't properly reward the player in any significant way.
Completing the first map and then moving to the second, only having to basically restart your journey by doing a bunch of side quests that feel like a chore for the second time, feels demotivating. Repetition kicks in quickly and there’s little incentive in doing all these quests when there's a sparse and uninspired story chugging alongside it. Basically, you’re treated to some group discussions between the main characters when a main quest is completed. There’s hardly any memorable set pieces or depth to the characters.
Luckily, the gameplay is satisfying. The fast movement and gunplay feels engaging and fun. Added to the mix are special weapons for taking out vampires, like a powerful light gun, making them vulnerable to bullets. Excellent to take advantage if two players go together to shoot each their gun type! There's a shop en each main hub building too, allowing you to buy better weapons, although you often find them scattered about after fights anyhow.
Herein, lies some of Redfalls problems. The first map has excellent Arkane design written all over it, variation and detail in its coastal town theme. The second map situated more inland on the island, with the exception of a cool woodland, feels like a lacklustre farmland area added at the last minute. Re-using buildings from the first map, even a second church stands out as odd. It’s clearly the developers ran out of time. While it's graphically the same quality as the first map, it just lacks soul and thought behind it.
This lack of afterthought runs into the loot system too. While you’ll find better and more powerful weapons alongside your character levelling up, they just seem so random and there's far between anything unique or special. Even defeating main bosses drops random loot, lacking something truly cool or memorable. It doesn't properly reward the player in any significant way.
Completing the first map and then moving to the second, only having to basically restart your journey by doing a bunch of side quests that feel like a chore for the second time, feels demotivating. Repetition kicks in quickly and there’s little incentive in doing all these quests when there's a sparse and uninspired story chugging alongside it. Basically, you’re treated to some group discussions between the main characters when a main quest is completed. There’s hardly any memorable set pieces or depth to the characters.
Luckily, the gameplay is satisfying. The fast movement and gunplay feels engaging and fun. Added to the mix are special weapons for taking out vampires, like a powerful light gun, making them vulnerable to bullets. Excellent to take advantage if two players go together to shoot each their gun type! There's a shop en each main hub building too, allowing you to buy better weapons, although you often find them scattered about after fights anyhow.
Furthermore, there are cool special abilities to use. Summoning a vampire friend to help out or doing an insane high jump to attack the enemies from above etc. Each of the four main characters has their own set of skills, play style and abilities, all of which can be upgraded through experience points. There's a lot of room to get creative with your attacks, however I felt there's too few enemy types to give the player an incentive to use them.
Rating Redfall is a little tricky. From a visual and gameplay standpoint it’s solid, pretty to look at and highly enjoyable when teaming up with a friend for laughs and coop attacks especially. The first half of the game, literally the first map, feels solid too. Excellent artwork, environment design and a charming Arkane flair to it all, combined with fairly varied missions.
However, the second half of the game feels like a rehash of the first, with the story fading into uninspiring dribble and played on a lacklustre map. Mainline story ends on an indifferent note. Nothing you’re devoted into or with any solid familiarly with the main characters, it fades away from memory shortly after. While the story is not a make or break when playing coop, it's something to consider. What a wasted potential!
From a pure gameplay approach, coop shooter action with special abilities and leveling, it’s absolutely worth a shot on Gamepass. Just don’t expect to get engaged in its world, characters or lore in any meaningful or deep manner. Be aware that repetition will kick halfway and when it does it rapidly loses it's appeal. If you're not devoted when the map change happens in the story, don't continue playing.
