Redfall Review - Dull Fangs
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*This review was updated after its initial review-in-progress iteration. This full version of the review adds more context to the game’s story after completing the campaign.
I played Arkane Studios’ latest title Redfall, a first-person shooter open-world game filled with vampiric monstrosities. It’s different if you compare the studio’s previous projects but the storytelling and level design approach remains familiar. Here, we have a shooter that struggles to identify what it wants to be, juggling so many elements of what makes Arkane stand out while delving out of its comfort zone by delivering an open-world experience. In my close to 15 hours of playtime, I’ve realized the charm that this game delivers as some elements do work while others feel half-baked and buggy.
An island shrouded in darkness
Redfall is set on an island called Redfall a small town under the control of blood-thirsty vampires and their cult followers. You play as one of the four unique characters that failed to leave the island as they become the town’s best hope at fighting back and retaking the town.
The story is mostly delivered in the form of still images and shots of the characters in suspension. No scene is played out as it’s all being narrated by the character you play, injecting their unique personality into the narration.
The campaign mostly focuses on you understanding the motivations and histories of the Vampire Gods that have taken certain parts of the island as their own, eventually leading to you facing the big bad themselves. It's a unique approach to storytelling, but it failed to capture my interest after 15 hours. The game struggles to establish likable or even interesting characters beyond the ones you can play as Redfall feels like a book filled with different stories, separate but slightly related if you look hard enough, with some being better than others.
Halfway through the campaign, the big picture barely makes an impact, only slightly enticing you to discover what happens next. After the ball got rolling, the mystery never really materialized into something that would be worth the full journey as I was left with a “that’s it?” reaction once the credits rolled.
The town of Redfall is just filled with secrets and individual stories and I find joy in going off the beaten path to see what’s out there. Some houses or areas will have generic interiors but there’s been a couple that I’ve encountered that pique my interest. I was left curious about what exactly happened as how the interior was designed that it felt like it was trying to tell me something, and the notes left behind also sometimes serve as a piece of the puzzle.
These instances are the saving grace for my time with Redfall as the world is mostly empty and barren as vampires and cultists now roam the streets. The world feels abandoned, which would make sense considering the state the town is in, as most of the people you meet are all tucked in the many safehouses you help get up and running.
The world Arkane created is dark and damped, and sometimes the emptiness helps with the atmosphere they are going for as it tends to be eerie walking through an abandoned part of town and then suddenly seeing a vampire just floating around the corner. But it’s only effective in the first couple of hours as it soon losses its magic and eventually becomes just an empty world.
It’s a shame and it doesn’t help that the visuals look and feel outdated at times. Yes, there are visually stunning vistas like how they designed mountainsides and forests, and how the sunlight penetrates the trees and buildings. But there are also some parts of the game that look bland and flat, making the overall appeal inconsistent.
Feels good to put a stake where it counts
If there’s one thing that surprised me, it’s the gunplay of Redfall as Arkane is not really known for this. Each gun feels powerful and distinct. Shooting each one feels great and I tend to swap in and out between the different weapon types depending on the situation. When I’m in the motion of fighting vampires in a group the game feels great, especially with my character’s unique abilities serving as a utility rather than another source of damage, while the ultimate ability is primed and ready to be my trump card when things go south.
The special Vampire enemy types are the highlight of the game’s combat as they are the monkey wrench that can easily turn the tables in their favor if you’re not careful. Siphons are scary as they can constantly drain your life, while there are vampires that restrict your vision and attack from afar. My favorite is the Rook, a masculine Vampire that is an unstoppable force that only shows up when you’ve killed enough special Vampires. I just wished the game had better AI as the normal humans you face in this game are predictable and basic. They sometimes don’t go on cover and I’ve purposely funneled multiple enemies into one location to pick them off one by one. Normal Vampires have the tendency of being predictable, reducing their threat, even in greater numbers.
Redfall encourages you to tackle each encounter differently, use the environmental hazards in the area, or position yourself to get a better advantage before you alert all the enemies in the area of your presence. A stable for Arkane, Although, repetition kicks in as sooner or later as you just feel the need to go through the front door just to get it over with as other approaches are not rewarding or satisfying enough.
It’s not the looter shooter you think it is
Despite the game having the looter-shooter feel to it, the game’s itemization isn’t meant to trigger inspiration for different builds, which was disappointing for me. I actually don’t get the purpose of having a system like this. The weapons you find are equipped with affixes that increase accuracy or damage, have an extra bullet in the clip, or reload faster. Nothing crazy as I honestly can’t feel the difference of a gun with these properties, making the whole rarity tier system they have on Redfall feel irrelevant. At least the game’s basic skill trees have some noticeable impact on gameplay but not enough to encourage you to experiment with the possibilities. It also doesn’t help that there’s no synergy that can be made with your loadout and the current build of your character. You can spend most of your points to improve a specific skill, but you’ll never find a gun that complements it or any perk in the skill trees. I can go as far as saying there’s really no ‘build’ to create but more of a skill that you prefer over the others.
This is where I struggled with the game as it took time for me to not consider this as the traditional looter-shooter game despite having the base components of one as I’m going through a familiar gameplay rhythm. Many might struggle or even get turned off by this realization.
Once I finished the game, there was no endgame or post-campaign gameplay of some kind for higher-level characters to delve in. Once the credits stop rolling, your character is automatically set to replay the game from the start, a forced New Game+ as you get to play Redfall all over again with the current state of your character and all the gear. Aside from NG+, the only other replayability found in Redfall would be another playthrough with a different character, or co-op, which elevates the fun of the game just a little, but I doubt you’ll be able to get a consistent group going for the full ride.
It’s not also the open world you think it is
Outside doing the main campaign, Redfall is an open world that lacks the variety that other open worlds tend to have. There’s a lot to do but feels like fodder content more than anything as there’s only a handful of activities available that repetition could settle in earlier for some. There are side quests that serve as pocket short stories, Safehouse quests that lead to you fighting special vampires, and Vampire Nests that feel like quick dungeon runs that have randomized modifiers to spice things up and are a good source of better gear. Aside from that, there’s nothing much beyond this.
This open-world game is more on the lines of a segmented open world than a true open world as the game has multiple maps where you go from one map to another after reaching certain points in the main campaign.
Once you reach the second map, nothing really changes in terms of the open world. It’s pretty much the same activities and the same enemies, just a different landscape to do the same thing all over again. It becomes more apparent by this point that the world will remain dead and play the same, so I felt the urge to just focus on the main story.
Are there any bugs and glitches?
There’s a handful of them. It can range from enemies not spawning correctly to my character being stuck inside a door. I’ve had quests where I didn’t get the item I needed to progress, which resulted in me restarting the mission, and have also encountered mini-bosses to not spawn correctly which again resulted in me restarting the encounter.
Thankfully, fps has been at reasonable levels as the PC version of the game is capable of maintaining 60 fps in my system, though it tends to dip when out in the world on occasion. I’ve had one crash so far. The biggest concern is the fact that you need to play this game online. I was booted out of my game once as I lost the connection to the game’s servers. Not a fan of always-online in single-player experiences and hopefully this doesn’t become a problem at launch and is addressed in the future.
Current verdict
Redfall is a game that doesn’t do enough to really stand out as it’s currently failing to provide even the basics in elements that define it. It’s not a game I suggest for those that love the looter shooter grind or those that love to get lost and explore an open-world game. It’s even hard to recommend to those that love Arkane's past games like Dishonored or Deathloop. It’s a jumbled mess with only a handful of appealing traits keeping it fun enough to finish the main campaign and eventually experience the game with a friend or two. It looks like Arkane Studios strayed too far from the light with this one and is not something I would recommend.
5/10 (SKIP)
PROS
Guns feel great to shoot and the abilities of each character are a lot of fun to use
CONS
Predictable enemy AI
Empty world with repetitive activities
Dull story with no solid payoff at the end
Frequent bugs that disrupt gameplay
What I’ve Played
Currently have a 64% completion rate in the main story as of this writing
Reached level 20 with my first character Deviner (max level is 40)
Did all side activities and side quests in the first map
*This review is based on a Steam copy of the game that was provided by the publisher*
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