Redfall Review
Redfall is a hodgepodge that struggles to find its own voice. Nonetheless, my duty as a game reviewer compels me to attempt to describe it. It's FarCry, Borderlands, Destiny, and what else? The truth is, as a fan of the FPS genre, I had high hopes for what Redfall could bring to the table. I've seen its potential, but the gap between concept and execution is vast with this game.
Redfall is an FPS shooter that, to be honest, doesn't give me much motivation to pick up a gun. It undeniably has numerous issues that make it feel more like a rough draft than a polished game. The fundamental aspects of this game are lacking, resulting in an experience that's not only lackluster but also frustrating at times. It seems that the more I delved into it, the more its weaknesses became glaringly apparent and impossible to ignore.
The first major flaw is the forgettable storyline. You step into the shoes of one of four survivors after a vampire apocalypse has ravaged the town of Redfall. Predictably, you assume the role of the "chosen one" tasked with rescuing the town from vampire occupation. On the surface, this idea may seem intriguing and worth exploring. I mean, we've killed enough zombies, so transitioning to vampires might be okay, right? However, the problem lies in the fact that the in-game narrative leaves nothing to remember. The missions in the game, despite supposedly serving a storytelling purpose, lack logic and often feel like they are included just for the sake of it. I understand that hero shooter-style games don't prioritize character development and focus more on building the game world, but the four main characters are forgettable, and the rest of the world-building isn't compelling either.
I found myself particularly annoyed by missions that could be completed in less than 20 seconds.
Indeed, if these missions are only there to advance the story, I'd rather watch a cutscene and be done with it. This doesn't feel like gameplay at all. Of course, among the dozen or so campaign missions, there are a few that are fairly well-crafted, like the one where you explore a haunted mansion to investigate a girl with haunted dolls. However, overall, these well-crafted missions are few and far between, making the campaign gameplay feel lackluster.
A forgettable story aside, what's most crucial in an FPS game is how you handle the firearms. Unfortunately, the gameplay in Redfall falls short of being on point. The issue, especially in the console version lacking a 60FPS mode, is that the game's accuracy when shooting is questionable.
What I want to address here is the hitbox. This game is purely for entertainment and doesn't demand competitive precision since it's PvE, not PvP. However, for some reason, Arkane has managed to create hitboxes that leave much to be desired. There are moments when I shoot, and there's little to no recoil, yet somehow the hit registration feels off. I've shot at enemies point-blank, and they don't die as expected, even when unloading a whole magazine.
Certainly, hitboxes are crucial in FPS games because they determine whether your shots are hitting their intended targets. As you can see, simply hitting the enemy accurately in Redfall can be surprisingly challenging. This is a significant weakness in a AAA game of this scale. Ideally, the challenge for players should come from the AI, as they are programmed to react intelligently, evade, and surprise players with tactics, making the combat feel rewarding.
However, what if I told you that the enemy AI is quite dimwitted, yet the game still feels challenging? Here's where you might not fully understand, but the truth is, this issue leads to another severe flaw in Redfall's game design, which I'll address shortly. Returning to the AI, the enemies are indeed rather unintelligent, with limited attack patterns. So why does the game still feel difficult? It's because the enemy damage output is quite high, and you rarely get hit, but when you do, it inflicts significant damage, often taking you down in just 2-3 hits.
Especially in chaotic battles with hordes of vampires or fanatical cultists, even though they can't seem to hit you properly, if you let your guard down for a moment, you can quickly find yourself in dire straits. Saying that the game's difficulty depends more on the damage output rather than AI intelligence is hard to accept.
From this AI issue, we can deduce a significant flaw in game design: the leveling process feels like a joke. I understand that leveling up is supposed to grant skill points, which in turn enhance your character's abilities. These skills, while not groundbreaking, are decent. However, the core problem is that as you level up, your character doesn't feel more powerful, rendering leveling almost pointless. I mean, it's normal for enemies to scale in power as you level up to avoid becoming overpowered. In games like Pokémon or JRPGs, this system works well. But why doesn't it work in Redfall? It's because the game lacks enemy diversity. Instead of adding various enemy types to reduce monotony and increase late-game difficulty, Arkane Austin decided to stick with the same enemy types and just increase their damage output. So, when I level up and increase my health, I'm still taking almost the same amount of damage from these enemies. Imagine having 200 health at level 1 and losing 30 to 40 health every time you get hit. Now, when you reach level 40 and have over 4000 health, you're still losing 800 to 2000 health from the same type of enemy. Leveling up feels almost useless, as you don't truly feel any stronger.
Furthermore, the variety of firearms in the game is lacking. Redfall is clearly designed to serve a long-term live service or at least a looter shooter, where you shoot to loot weapons. The game categorizes weapons by rarity, meaning you might find the same type of weapon with different rarities, and the rarer versions may have additional effects. Regardless of your level, the weapons you buy or find later in the game are equivalent to those you find at lower levels. They might be stronger, but not significantly different.
The only positive aspect of gameplay I found is that Redfall's gunplay is decent, with a comfortable feeling of firing weapons, whether it's rifles, shotguns, sniper rifles, or launchers. Everything feels well-rounded. Unfortunately, on the console version, there's a significant oversight in the lack of support for adjustable aiming sensitivity while aiming down sights (ADS). Although you can adjust sensitivity for regular movement, it doesn't translate well to ADS sensitivity. This results in situations where I can't aim at enemies accurately, and it feels quite amateurish. By 2023, the ability to customize sensitivity and ADS sensitivity separately has become a basic standard on consoles, but Redfall falls short in this aspect, impacting its gunplay despite not wanting to criticize it.
Now, let's talk about the characters' skills. They are quite okay and provide enough differentiation between the four character classes. There's a character focused on stealth with the ability to go invisible, a support character who can heal themselves and teammates, a tech specialist using UV rays or electric attacks to maintain distance and engage enemies from a safer position. Overall, they shine when you play cooperatively, and it's rewarding when your teammates with specific character classes know what they're doing.
Honestly, the game experience has a lot of forgettable aspects, and the presentation doesn't shine either. The 30FPS performance on consoles is one thing, but the PC version also faces numerous issues. Graphic textures pop in and out, FPS fluctuates, and the game occasionally crashes. Not to mention, you'll come across destructible structures, and oh my, the explosion animations are not even hitting 30FPS, let alone 60FPS. But it must be acknowledged that the game's graphics are not bad; they might not look next-gen, but this has been Arkane's style for a while, as they enjoy a somewhat comic book-like graphics style.
There's something that looks rather Dishonored if you put it in the 21st century. The characters and structures clearly have a very animated look and are not ugly at all. However, it's somewhat regrettable that the game's world is indeed portrayed as desolate and grim, but it's a soulless type of desolation. It's quite different from the likes of Zelda: Breath of the Wild or Red Dead Redemption 2, where both worlds are barren and desolate but wonderful because they feel vibrant in their necessary settings. As for Redfall, no, I don't find this deserted town with no signs of life to be impressive at all. Running along long stretches of empty roads with nobody in sight, while the environment remains eerily calm as if nothing ever happened, doesn't feel right. There's no wreckage, no disturbance, almost as if there were no humans here, let alone the fact that they used to be here and now they've disappeared. It feels artificially lifeless and devoid of vitality. Of course, the level of detail in some structures is commendable, with beautifully recreated landmarks like theaters, cinemas, mansions, palaces, and public buildings. But these are just sporadic highlights in an otherwise lifeless world.
In terms of sound and music, Redfall doesn't stand out; it's not bad, but it's not enough to salvage its poor presentation. One thing I've always appreciated about Arkane's game design is their focus on artistry. This artistic touch isn't limited to the game's environments and characters; it extends to the game's user interface as well. The menu system in Dishonored 2, for example, featured various artistic fonts. While some may find multiple fonts confusing, it's undeniable that they put a lot of effort into making the HUD and menu elements look unique.
However, in Redfall, I can't fathom why they decided to use beautiful serif fonts alongside a very ordinary sans-serif font. This decision detracts from the game's overall aesthetic appeal, making it resemble a low-budget mobile game. While this may seem like a minor issue that many players won't notice, if you pay attention, you'll see that Arkane Austin's attention to detail in this aspect is lacking.
VERDICT
To sum it up, Redfall is a disappointment. The game had potential when considering its key elements: survival shooting, enjoyable co-op play, and the theme of battling vampires instead of zombies, which could have breathed new life into the genre. However, the actual gameplay experience is quite the opposite. It feels like Arkane needs more time to refine this game, as its current state resembles more of a proof of concept. In fact, it could be seen as a trial demo rather than a complete game. Arkane Austin undoubtedly has a lot of work to do to salvage this situation, and they may be running out of time, as the game's name is already becoming synonymous with disappointment. It's safe to say that Redfall has truly become a "Red Flag."
