Redfall was undoubtedly one of the most anticipated first-party releases Microsoft had planned for 2023. It was also the first exclusive title released by Arkane since the $7.5 billion acquisition of parent company ZeniMax, as Deathloop was already planned as a multiplatform game and, in fact, launched on PlayStation 5 first due to a prior timed exclusivity deal.
Unfortunately, despite a delay of nearly a full year (the game was originally scheduled to launch in the Summer of 2022), Redfall had a disappointing launch last month. In my review, I rated the game 6.8 out of 10.
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.
Following the underwhelming launch, a report penned by Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier revealed that Arkane Austin suffered from understaffing and a lack of a clear vision of what Redfall should have been.
All that said, in an interview with Axios conducted after the Xbox Games Showcase, Xbox Game Studios Head Matt Booty revealed that Redfall is actually receiving ‘good play’ on Game Pass, hinting that plenty of users are playing it. He also said the goal is to support Arkane Austin in their endeavor to make it the game they originally had in mind through updates and new content.
It was a miss, but how much of a miss? I want to support them to be able to keep working to deliver the game they had in mind. They are hard at work on updates and continued content for Redfall.
Ahead of the game’s launch, Game Director Harvey Smith said Redfall would become the most supported game ever made by the studio. It’s good to see that plans haven’t changed despite the unsuccessful debut. There are, after all, plenty of examples where game developers turned around their games post-launch.
Arkane actually released the first update (version 1.1) earlier this week, improving AI, combat responsiveness, and some lighting issues.
