Redfall - Xbox, PC

[MartyG]

Hmm. This game has an identity crisis and the reviews are not being kind, making it out to be a 2/10 game. It isn't as bad as Satan's spawn these reviews may have you believe. It's average, perhaps poor compared to Arkane's other work, but it's not completely dreadful - at least if you're not playing this at 30 FPS on console on your own.

I do think you need to play this game co-op though and on PC - I wouldn't want to play this at 30 FPS on console because the controls would feel slow and laggy. I can get this running VSync at 120 at 1440P Ultra and it feels pretty fluid. I played for a couple of hours co-op last night and had some fun with it, discovering caves with some metrovania element to them.

Graphically it doesn't feel particularly next-gen. It has some weird shadow rendering, and the textures are variable quality (definitely not as good as they could be, depth mapping is a little odd); I did check to make sure there wasn't a higher quality setting as I wouldn't say ultra looks that ultra and no RT to see here.

I didn't mind the hub structure and missions too much. It does feel a bit barren, and I have to wonder if that's because the engine can't cope with such a massive open world (it is big) and putting lots of enemies on screen at once. I did see a couple of occasions where the AI didn't initially "see" me even though I was in vision cone, and enemies are not hard to kill (but then a headshot with a sniper rifle should one-shot kill). The vampires don't feel particularly threatening, but they take a few more shots and I quite like the staking animations on them.

It feels like it's suffered a bit from being pulled in different directions design-wise, without properly nailing the game loop. Is it open world? Is it Left4Dead? Is it a looter-shooter? Is it an RPG? It has elements of all these things but never quite gels fully together.

It's not a game I'd pay AAA money for (£69? Yeah, no) - it's on Game Pass so I don't have to, but I want to play some more of it, co-op at least, so I definitely got some entertainment out of it.

Overall, I'd give this 5 Nosferatus out of 10.

[eastyy]

I played it for a hour or so, takes so many elements from other games like borderlands but does them all in a really mundane way, I think there is some enjoyment to be have on Gamepass but it really feels like one of those games that while patches and updates will improve things its core is just not good enough for any mount of patches to fix.

As Skill up said when the developers talking about long term support......just no move on lol

[nonny]

I'm enjoying it but it is really switch your brain off entertainment.

I think the biggest issue is how dumb the AI is and how it doesn't always trigger. They are just walking bullet sponges though the different vampire classes do mix things up and I've died a few times coming up against the Angler ones that drag you in close to bite you.

I don't mind the whole world aesthetic either. It is typical Arkane stylised characters but it just feels poorly executed on several levels.

I watched the DF technical analysis and some of the issues are inexcusable, like waiting 20 seconds for textures to fully load in and possibly the worst lighting / shadows I've seen in a game for a long time. That said it all looks a little nicer once the sun goes down? It definitely has a charm to it but it is all wasted when everything feels broken.

Anyway... hopefully they patch some of the major issues on console and it is all the better for it. Right now I would probably give it a 6...

[Lebowski]

Played a bit of this over the weekend and i was quite surprised, maybe because i was expecting a complete and utter dumpster fire of a game but i found it quite fun, i don't think id play it multiplayer as that would get in the way of the exploration and being able to just piss about doing what i want to do, I enjoyed exploring and getting better guns, the level design is pretty dam good and it feels like with a little bit more polish this could of been a mid to top tier game.

It was pretty fun just mowing down the cultists and vampires, (yes their Ai is dum on the cultist but their cannon fodder and i don't think it would take to much to fix them) its biggest crime is how some parts are pretty empty, like the devs just downed tools on areas. You come across an abandoned retirement home pretty early on, which you have to traverse to get to a downed helicopter, theirs a mist spewer and a pop up telling you how to neutralize this damaging Myst and loads of explosives and pick ups everywhere but not an enemy in site its weird to say the least and really dose feel like they got all the props and level design in place but didn't get time to place the enemy's.

Hopefully they wont just abandon this as it shows promise and can be quite creepy at times, hearing a vampire stalking about a house your raiding and having the hollow man turning tv's on and watching you is quite unsettling. I'm also liking how the story's unfolding via otherworldly artifacts this Feels right out of Dishonored. For me the kicker here is there's moments where arkane's finess shines through, but it really feels like theirs some mismanagement going on for it to launch so half done especially when this could of so easily been a win for Microsoft. it's not a terrible game like many have said its 7 and it could of easily been an 8 with a few fixes. If Microsoft are being hands off with their dev's id really start to be hands on.

[MartyG]

Played a bit of this over the weekend and i was quite surprised, maybe because i was expecting a complete and utter dumpster fire of a game but i found it quite fun

The internet hysteria train gets more clicks. No, it's not a dumpster fire - it's just an average game with some performance and AI issues that will no doubt get fixed at some point.

What it isn't is a AAA Xbox exclusive must-have, but given it's on Game Pass, I imagine that's where the majority are playing it ... that £70 asking price is very questionable indeed, however, the 14th worst-rated game on Steam? Frankly, that's ridiculous.

[Lebowski]

It really dose feel like games journalism in these instances lets itself down, jumping on the bandwagon of :clicks for advertising revenue: sees a lot of things made out to be a lot worse than they are. Eurogamer is one of the few outlets that have highlights how well designed the location of Redfall is, which gives me hope that if they fixed the population issues around the lack of enemy's and beefed up the AI they could turn it around, the base of the game is their they just need to fix a few things with it.

As for steam reviews, we seem to have reached some sort of peak with really badly optimized big budget PC stuff, EA's Jedi survivor, Resident Evil 4, The Last of Us Remastred, and Dead Island 2 all arrived with really broken performance, bugs and crashes even on the beefiest systems. It's more the state of the port and that it runs so badly is whats upsetting the pc crowd. They feel like they have been dealt another lazy console port where xbox is the target platform and they are an afterthought.

[MartyG]

I'm playing it on PC, granted on a fairly beefy one, but I've had less issues with this port than others of late, I can get this running at a (mostly) consistent 120 FPS with the only very occasional dip at ultra settings at 1440P.

There have been some very poorly optomised PC ports of late though, which is all the more frustrating when I see the "well, it's because you've only got 8GB of VRAM". No, that isn't the problem. The problem is sloppy ports with bad optomisation passes. You shouldn't need to be buying your way out of these issues by throwing better hardware at it.

Sure if you're buying a new card today, then yes, I'd be looking at 12GB, but the Steamdeck proves that PC gaming is perfectly viable on lower-end hardware - the issue is mostly a software, not a hardware one.

[Lebowski]

The biggest thing you can do to make this game play a hell of a lot better on xbox is too turn up sensitivity to around 3.6 Turn down input response to low, and Turn off motion blur it makes it feel and play a hell of a lot better.

I put about four hours into this last night and I'm having a blast with it, I'm ignoring that its a multiplayer game and playing it solo as Teleport guy Devinder, I've opened up quite a few safe houses explored loads of creepy buildings and did a fantastic side mission in an abandoned cinema that saw me rescuing hostages taking out cultists and facing off against a new type of Vampire called a shade that can swim in and out of the floor and shrouds you in a dark bubble that cuts of your view of the environment.

This mission had some fantastic environmental story telling that gave context to how the cultists where helping the vampires by luring people in by offering them sanctuary in the cinema, then feeding them to the vampire that was present there. A lot of the chatter from the cultists directly referenced this theirs notes scattered about showing what their doing and in the freezer where all the hostages and body's were kept, they where keeping score of how many people each of them had brought in with a tally on a whiteboard too .

This attention to detail and the sheer amount of memorable and unique locations is where all the dev time has gone on this it seems, wherever its a ship yard, a cinema, a creepy tv repair shop, or a radio station each location feels unique and carefully and thoughtfully crafted, and for me worth exploring, Their are 100 Grave locks scatted around the game world and each one lets you hear more of the story through the voice of the mysterious figure that caused the redfall vampire outbreak. (they also beef up your abilitys).

Another thing ive not seen mentioned in reviews is how you have a number of different vampires to face off against, all are pretty deadly in packs when solo, standard vampires teleport bite and slash you and move at great speed, Siphons, drain your blood across a distance and you need to break line of site to stop them doing this, blood bags are explorers that run at you, watchers act like sentry's and cause all teh vampires in an area to converge on you, Anglers, hook you and drag you towards them and Rooks are super powerful elemental vampires.

[nonny]

The biggest thing you can do to make this game play a hell of a lot better on xbox is too turn up sensitivity to around 3.6 Turn down input response to low, and Turn off motion blur it makes it feel and play a hell of a lot better.

I put about four hours into this last night and I'm having a blast with it, I'm ignoring that its a multiplayer game and playing it solo as Teleport guy Devinder, I've opened up quite a few safe houses explored loads of creepy buildings and did a fantastic side mission in an abandoned cinema that saw me rescuing hostages taking out cultists and facing off against a new type of Vampire called a shade that can swim in and out of the floor and shrouds you in a dark bubble that cuts of your view of the environment.

You're basically playing the exact same way I am right now. I'm also playing as Devinder and I am up to level 11 so far... have unlocked all the safehouses and completed all their missions.

Also have almost identical settings for the controls (think I turned mine up to 3.75) and it is actually pretty decent to play once you've done that although I am really hoping they get the 60fps patch and bug fixes out as that would be great... reading Martys post from PC I can't help but wish they waited and had that day one on console.

The game is very broken but I can't stop playing it right now. Go figure...

[Lebowski]

You're basically playing the exact same way I am right now. I'm also playing as Devinder and I am up to level 11 so far... have unlocked all the safehouses and completed all their missions.

Also have almost identical settings for the controls (think I turned mine up to 3.75) and it is actually pretty decent to play once you've done that although I am really hoping they get the 60fps patch and bug fixes out as that would be great... reading Martys post from PC I can't help but wish they waited and had that day one on console.

The game is very broken but I can't stop playing it right now. Go figure...

The way its talked about in reviews its set up like its unplayable with no redeeming features but the weapons are fun the vampires are cool to fight and its an interesting place to spend a few evenings, I've played a lot more polished games recently that failed to hold my attention, but theirs something about this that has grabbed me and made me want to pick it back up each evening to see more of it.

I think whats so good about it for me is theirs a real sense of place to Redfall, and if you like exploring the map and hearing the lore your well catered for, i got to the top of the lighthouse last night and was scoping out where to go next and was rewarded for doing so with an extra Grave lock a great view of the city and a nice shinny new weapon.

The cultist AI being stupid doesn't stop them being fun to take out. I got a gold assault rifle off a Rook last night and it makes quite a satisfying sound when you pop the head of a cultist, the snipers in this are fun too its pretty nice just sitting back on an areas and popping heads then moving in to clear out any straglers.

[nonny]

Yeah I think if they worked on the enemy AI a little bit it would go a long way here... I also don't like the dull thud you get when you melee someone. I almost think they should have had execution animations for attacking from stealth etc...

The mission structure is really basic as well. I can see that getting old really fast but the actual world and traversing it is still rather nice and I've got my bearings now with all the landmarks and different suburbs in town. It's just a shame it is so barren (though would you be out wandering around if the world was overrun with vampires?)

The audio work is excellent and hearing Vampires in the vicinity if you're using headphones is pretty scary... I had to turn off subtitles though as it ruins the surprise element there.

I can see this being a lot more fun in co-op but I am going to finish it solo first and maybe go back and mop things up a little when they patch it.

[Lebowski]

Yeah I think if they worked on the enemy AI a little bit it would go a long way here... I also don't like the dull thud you get when you melee someone. I almost think they should have had execution animations for attacking from stealth etc...

The mission structure is really basic as well. I can see that getting old really fast but the actual world and traversing it is still rather nice and I've got my bearings now with all the landmarks and different suburbs in town. It's just a shame it is so barren (though would you be out wandering around if the world was overrun with vampires?)

The audio work is excellent and hearing Vampires in the vicinity if you're using headphones is pretty scary... I had to turn off subtitles though as it ruins the surprise element there.

I can see this being a lot more fun in co-op but I am going to finish it solo first and maybe go back and mop things up a little when they patch it.

Yeah the mission stuff is basic but its no worse than any other Open World game, with side missions vampire nests and safe houses thrown in to add a bit of variety, Main missions seem to be go to place clear out the vampires and cultists find McGuffin loot/lore ect get more missions. I don't mind it as a structure to a game and i much prefer this to being overwhelmed with icons everywhere. As i said I'm more than happy with whats on offer and i dont think it would take to much to fix it.

If i where to sum it up in its present form It's a nicely constructed world full of vampires loot and nice locations to explore and if you can look past the poor Human Ai, some glitchy textures and framerate issues and some oddly barren areas that feel like they should have enemy's in them then theirs fun to be had here.

[Lebowski]

Put a few more hours into this the other night and Really surprisingly its coming to such an abrupt end after about 10-15 hours of play, i cant see any reason why you would replay the missions here over and over with friends theirs just no reason too, i'm not really sure why its a multiplayer game at all to be fair as theirs no real reason to replay any of the missions.

I'd revise my opinion now Ive seen everything, the games problems are far deeper than a buggy engine and broken Ai, its massively lacking in content too, it's like they took a single player experience and tried to scale it up rather than build a game that works for a team. i didn't hate it though it just feels like somethings missing that reason to piss about with your buddies and play it as a a team.

[nonny]

Haven't progressed much myself as I've gone back to finish BotW...

That's a shame it ends abruptly. It's an odd choice when they have already announced they're adding two new characters via DLC... If the replayability isn't there in the missions for co-op then what's the point... unless they add episodic story content with it.

All things considered with the issues it has this really does feel like a one and done then... w.hich is a shame

[Neon Ignition]

I've been playing this having finally gotten around to it on Series X. Controls wise it's felt initially a little over sensitive and the performance has felt fine, though I don't know what patches have been issued since launch.

I kind of wish someone went around dev studios and stopped them as soon as someone mentions making a 4 player co-op game, the ship has sailed and Redfall doesn't help bring attention back to them. Any performance issues etc it may have had feel entirely secondary, the game is simply underbaked from the design up. The core gameplay loop is well behind other open world FPS titles, the work together element doesn't feel as rewarding and the overall experience feels cheaply made and hard to engage with. It's not terrible or a broken mess, it's just a very simple and forgettable experience.