A vampire game set in a town filled with bloodsuckers? You’d think Redfall was a no-brainer. In the absence of Dishonored 3: Vampires, Redfall would’ve been an easy GOTY contender. This version of Redfall isn’t a GOTY contender. In spite of that, Redfall has some fun ideas, and Arkane deserves credit for trying something new. It’s just that Arkane’s doing is old hat to other studios that do what Redfall is trying to do, and they’re doing it better than Redfall. Borderlands has been doing looter-shooters for years, but they do it much better. Compared to Far Cry, Redfall could be described as an open-world game involving crazy cultists – but Far Cry already exists, and the formula works.
Redfall fails in a big open-world that feels totally empty, which is a big reason why it fails. When you’re wandering around, you’ll run into enemies and have a short gunfight, and then…that’s pretty much all you’ll do until you find more enemies. The game spawns enemies out of nowhere, so playing solo makes you more likely to die. I ran away from an encounter where my robot companion was being shot at despite no enemy being around, and I discovered that the robot was actually fighting a vampire.
Vampires and sunlight in Redfall are inconsistent. Sometimes I had to stake them in the open, but sometimes they’d step into the open and crumble. It seemed strangely sloppy for Arkane to put such a glaring inconsistency in their worlds. I also found the cutscenes to be weird. I didn’t have much trouble playing the game on Steam Deck, but once I triggered the cutscene, everything looked awful. It makes sense that cutscenes would look good, but the blurry images and weird lighting suggest otherwise. When you get too close to characters during gameplay, they look ugly.
Because Redfall lacks fun combat, it does not compete with Borderlands or Far Cry. Dishonored was a great series because you could build up your powers. Deathloop, on the other hand, had a fun hook that made going into battle fun, and it gave you different ways to approach enemies. As far as Redfall goes, it feels a bit flat. Since the weapons are underpowered, there is no incentive to uncover more enemies. I might have liked Redfall more if it came from a different studio. As well as a pretty town, Redfall has a compelling story about trying to retake the town from vampires and competing cultists. It’s ironic that Arkane would have been better off making a different, imaginary game if they hadn’t stuck with their strengths. Instead, they made this version of Redfall, which doesn’t suit them at all, and we’re all the poorer for it.
