Redfall was doomed from the start. I knew things weren’t looking up when the game’s opening cutscene was composed of still images. While this isn’t indicative of a game’s quality, it is an indicator of the budget, and to see such a high-profile AAA exclusive get short-changed showed me that something was off from the beginning. Little did I know that this was the least of the game’s problems.

Arkane Studios has a long history of making great games with unique mechanics, going back to Arx Fatalis. Arx has a unique magic system where you draw symbols with your mouse to cast spells; Dark Messiah focused on physics-based melee with dynamic interactions between the environment, enemies, and elements; Dishonored re-invigorated stealth immersive sims, and the list goes on. Arkane’s games are polished, creative, visually unique, and detailed. Redfall is none of these things.

Redfall is a co-op, open-world looter shooter with a cast of four unique characters to play as, each with their skills and abilities. You are tasked with saving the titular town from a horde of vampires who have blocked out the sun and drained all the water in the immediate area. Not only is the most basic concept one that we have seen repeatedly from big publishers, but Redfall does nothing to stand out. You can feel how wrong it all is when you are dropped into the game. I would say that Redfall has some of the worst feeling shooting of any big AAA release, so much so that it is baffling. Even that basic mechanic fails, and there isn’t much in the game that fares better.

As much as writing in games has progressed, writing in AAA games feels like it is regressing. Every big game is full of quippy, Marvel-esque characters that are there only to be glib and get on your nerves. Lines of dialogue feel like they were focus-tested by people who barely understand everyday conversations. Characters in Redfall unironically use phrases like “deadass”, and the worst of it is that you can’t skip through characters’ lines like any other game. You must sit and stare at plastic facsimiles of Arkane’s art mime out their requests. Every element feels off, the shooting is floaty and unresponsive, the physics are rubbery and weightless, and the bland visuals lack that typical Arkane inspiration.

For a co-op-focused game, Redfall actively fights against the idea. Players who join you on your cryptid hunts won’t gain any progress toward their game. They must start the story from scratch if they decide to hop on their profile. While some character abilities work well together, like pairing Layla and Jacob for high-ground sniping, most feel one-note and pithy. The same limitations you saw from Borderlands in 2009 are here. The playable characters have only a few skills throughout the game alongside a couple of active abilities, and the loot will truly dictate your playstyle.

The loot in Redfall is incredibly basic, relegated almost entirely to mostly generic guns; it rarely feels rewarding to get a new firearm. Some are uniquely powerful and will last with you for a few hours, but most are throwaway armaments with slightly different names and stats. In another world, this game has a unique arsenal of weapons that all serve different functions, but this is not that world. Remnants offer unique augments to your skills that impact different stats, but they are never game-changing and ultimately serve the same purpose as so many other artifacts, charms, perks, etc., in every other loot-based game.

I never thought I would live in a world where I would describe an Arkane game as bland, but here we are. Environments are empty and lifeless, lacking any of the intricate level design that Arkane is known for. The whole aesthetic feels like an imitation of Arkane’s style, with none of the panache or creativity. Street after street is filled with bland houses; the animations are laughably stiff, and to top it all off, the performance is horrible. For a game that looks demonstrably worse than their previous efforts, including the original Dishonored, it barely runs on high-end PCs or current-gen consoles. Even the Xbox Series X, the console this game was ostensibly exclusively built for, only runs the title at 30 fps, something unforgivable today, especially for fast-paced FPS titles.

There are so many things wrong with Redfall; every element feels plagued by poor decision-making. The visuals are dated and buggy, the story is paper-thin and filled with annoying archetypes, and the gameplay is floaty, unsatisfying, and generic. Don’t even get me started on the atrocious AI, which can’t even make its way around basic objects. If Redfall was truly developed by the Arkane Studios I love so much; it must have been under difficult circumstances. Rarely do games like this exist without low budgets, tons of studio interference, and short development cycles. I don’t blame Arkane, and nobody should, but Microsoft needs to rethink their entire strategy if this is what we can expect from their AAA exclusives going forward. Keep the casket closed for this one.

Pros:

• The town of Redfall can be charming occasionally.

  
  

• Co-op is fun in the most basic sense.

Cons:

• Poor performance.

• Bland visuals.

• Uninspired loot.

• Boring character abilities.

• Insipid plot.

• Floaty, unresponsive shooting mechanics.

Score:

3.5/10

Reviewer played the game on PC and Xbox Series X

Redfall is out now on PC, and Xbox Series X/S