Redfall Review in Progress – Dishonored Meets Far Cry

When Redfall was first unveiled to be the next game from Arkane Austin, several gamers were somehow confused (and disappointed) that it looked like something akin to Left 4 Dead or Back 4 Blood, likely due to the presence of co-op for up to four players, a first for the studio.

It would have indeed been a weird turnaround for the development team behind acclaimed immersive simulation games such as Dishonored and Prey. That’s not what Redfall is, though, especially in the solo mode, where there is no trace of the other three heroes available at launch beyond the one selected by the player. The better question is whether the open world approach of Dishonored meets Far Cry was successful or not.

Ahead of the game’s release, director Harvey Smith assured Arkane fans that they would feel at home when playing on their own. After playing for around fourteen hours (Wccftech only received code on Thursday) and completing the first map, I’m confident that shouldn’t be a problem, though I also doubt this is the best possible direction for Arkane going forward.

First things first, though. Redfall is set in the eponymous fictional Massachusetts island, described by in-game lore and character as a tranquil place until a bunch of humans turned vampires put a dark shroud on the quaint little town, both figuratively and literally.

The game actually begins with the failed escape attempt of the chosen protagonist and a bunch of town members. The most powerful of the vampires squash those plans thoroughly by walling off the sea (which makes for an incredibly scenic effect and also opens up that area to on-foot exploration later on), then follow up by obscuring the very Sun, a necessary precaution that allows the bloodsuckers to roam freely even during the day.

As I already wrote in my hands-on preview from a couple of months ago, Arkane Austin definitely nailed the atmosphere once again. The contrast between the American small-town vibe and the crazed behaviour of the human cultists that have begun worshipping vampires or the vampires themselves, hideous creatures in a constant state of blood frenzy, couldn’t be more striking.

Those who would like to fully immerse themselves in the setting will find delight in exploring each small house and public building of the two districts featured in the game. The trademark excellent level design Arkane is known for shines brightly in this open world, allowing various entry and egress points in most locations.

Redfall rewards explorers with some great environmental storytelling (in the form of notes and diaries of the tragedies that happened throughout town while vampires took over) but also with more tangible recompenses, such as ammunition, resources, and loot, which is usually hidden behind safes or weapon crates that can be automatically lockpicked or hacked provided you have the required tools on hand.

Keeping your gear, which in Redfall consists of the weapons and a single boon called Blood Remnant boon, up to your level and with the highest possible rarity is useful but far from mandatory. That is partly because the encounters in Redfall are rarely very difficult, even when playing at the highest difficulty setting available for a beginner playthrough, Midnight.

The relative lack of challenge is one of the reasons I am doubtful co-op (which I didn’t try yet) will greatly enhance the replayability of Redfall. Sure, the interaction between the powers and abilities of different characters is intriguing on paper and I look forward to checking it out, but there just isn’t enough content in the game to satisfy the urges of regular co-op groups for any reasonable amount of time; especially not enough challenging co-op content such as boss fights.

Redfall’s version of replayable content is Vampire Nests, which could be loosely compared to dungeons in a roleplaying game. These are locations set in the psychic plane and accessed through a dimensional door that pops up in the middle of the open world or inside a building. Besides the random encounters experienced while roaming in Redfall Commons or Burial Point, they are the only content players can expect to continue encountering throughout the game. Even when you clear one of them, chances are another will soon emerge at a nearby spot.

Unfortunately, they don’t feature a lot of variety. Vampire Nests are rather linear levels where exploration is nearly non-existent and sometimes fights are, too. There is a small degree of randomization: the vampires could be in a trance, or there could be Watcher vampires, or there will be Heart Guardians. The latter are mini-bosses that protect the vulnerable part of the nest, but they are very easily dispatched if you know what you’re doing, even in a couple of hits. The hardest part of Vampire Nests is actually escaping them with the experience boost.

You see, after destroying the heart and looting the Blood Remnant, you’ll have a timer during which you need to find the exit door behind several heart chambers. Nothing untoward happens to your character if you don’t, other than losing out on the 1000XP bonus. On the other hand, if you stop by and check every heart chamber, they could contain powerful weapons on top of useful resources. There actually is the potential to get powerful loot here, but the lack of content that would require it makes the endeavor largely meaningless.

All that said, combat in Redfall is quite fun, thanks to the tight gunplay and the game’s immersive simulation roots. While this is no Call of Duty, there are several weapons to choose from, including different varieties in the same category (shotguns, assault rifles, sniper rifles, flare guns, revolvers, and pistols). There are also some exotic weapons best reserved for vampire slaying, such as the stake launcher and the UV beam. The former is extremely powerful against vampires but has limited ammunition, while the latter is great for petrifying the creatures at close range, which then lets you shatter them into dust. Weapons, especially those of rare quality, have added perks, such as improved shattering; but that’s not very helpful since most vampires will shatter even with a puny melee attack. Indeed, I feel like the perks could have been more varied; weapons can deal more damage or have improved accuracy, for instance, but none come with additional effects like burning, poisoning, electrifying, et cetera.

There’s also no crafting in Redfall. It would have been nice to be able to customize weapons, such as in Dead Island 2, even if it was just to add a silencer to your favorite weapon. That feels like a missed opportunity because the game still features that sight and sound-based AI seen in Dishonored, Prey, and Deathloop. A clever player can definitely get creative with that and have a lot of fun, particularly by luring the enemies (which even fight each other if they belong to warring factions) near environmental traps like electric boxes, explosive barrels, and the like.

While Redfall is not a pure stealth game, it is to your benefit to play stealthily. Still, I couldn’t help but miss the lack of a proper assassination move from the previous Arkane games. Here, you can sneak up on a human enemy and even kill them outright as they take bonus damage when unaware, but it’ll happen with a rather awkward melee bash in the back rather than a cool animation.

Complementing your combat tools are the abilities of your chosen character. I picked cryptid hunter Devinder Crousley, the only one equipped with Redfall’s version of the blink-like powers seen in Dishonored or Deathloop, a translocator device. Sadly, it is far clunkier by comparison, as you need to first throw the device and wait for it to land in a suitable location before activating the teleport. During combat, I mainly used it to get the healing effect that can be unlocked in the skill tree; it’s also useful to get around the deadly red mists spread across the open world or to reach higher ground.

The real star of Devinder’s arsenal is the Arc Javelin, an electric zapper that deals area-of-effect lightning damage and is also able to kill vampires outright without any need for stakes. I made sure to upgrade it so that it would deal a lot more damage when hitting someone directly, and the results were great. The last ability in Devinder’s skillset is Blacklight, which is incredibly handy when you’re dealing with a swarm of vampires as it can petrify all of them in a small area. The only downside is that it’s an Ultimate type skill that needs to be charged with psychic residue before it can be enabled.

As I said earlier, I’m just about halfway through Redfall, so I cannot pass a final judgment on its story. However, I can comment on its presentation, and I believe it’s suboptimal. The story is presented to players in a very fragmented fashion; while that works for environmental storytelling, it hardly does well for the main plot. Missions receive brief intros narrated by the main character, while the other characters, such as Reverend Eva and Anna, only talk rarely. Even the death of another character I won’t name is hardly registered by the crew of survivors.

It doesn’t help that the side missions where the player is asked to liberate each neighborhood before dealing with a vampire underboss don’t really come with any meaningful story of their own. Overall, it feels disjointed and unfit for this type of game. I wish they had taken a different approach to narrative; perhaps something like Marvel’s Midnight Suns would have worked better.

Graphically, Redfall is the prettiest game Arkane has made to date. Switching from the internal Void Engine to Unreal Engine did nothing to diminish the gorgeous artwork the studio can deliver. On the other hand, it did improve lighting quite a bit.

Also, unlike several recent Unreal Engine games, Redfall only has minimal traversal stuttering that usually won’t impact your gameplay experience. I’ve written a separate article on the subject of PC optimization, but overall, I am quite satisfied with how the game runs and plays on my rig. I’ve spotted a few bugs, both visual (textures not loading) and otherwise, but nothing too bothering.

Arkane Austin’s game director Harvey Smith said Redfall was one of the studio’s many experiments stretching the immersive simulation towards various genres. From my preliminary analysis, it’s not a failed experiment by any means, but it’s also not entirely successful and likely to be left behind for better fits. Stay tuned for the full verdict.