Review: Redfall – Don’t Even Bother

Redfall is a near-perfect example of the state in which you should not release a game on any platform. While it may sound harsh to say that, the number of technical issues that plague Redfall makes such a statement justified. Between various bugs, lackluster visuals, and frequent stretches of boring gameplay; the game is simply not up to the par of quality that most gamers are used to seeing from developer Arkane Studios. Even the most diehard fan of their work will have to admit to themselves that this is not just not very good. It quite possibly may be the worst game they have released to date for Xbox Series consoles and PC.

Redfall takes the first-person action concept we’ve all seen before, from games like Left 4 Dead and Back 4 Blood, and applies it to vampires. The town of Redfall, MA falls victim to a legion of vampires after an experiment goes horribly wrong, plunging the town into chaos. You play as one of four characters that are trapped within the area and need to survive alongside others who have been cut off from the outside world, taking down vampires and their hysterical followers. The premise of the game sounds like it should work out very well, but it’s the execution of Redfall that turns everything into a giant mess.

The game is a technical cavalcade of errors. There are many problems that arise within Redfall, even if you’re playing for a short time. The visuals of the town you roam and everything within it look as if they’re polished-up models from past console generations, with frequent pop-in textures and massive bugs that appear as you traverse the game’s wide-open locations. There’s a lot of space to move around in, but everything around you feels desolate and empty, despite many buildings and obstacles to get around.

What makes this worse is how moving around to different locations within Redfall can become a chore as there’s no way to get around faster than on foot. You can use a fast travel feature to go to areas you’ve visited before, such as liberated safe houses and landmarks, but until you do so you’ll have to move around on foot. With so many vehicles in place around the town, you would think driving one of them would be possible to move around faster. But unfortunately, none of the ATVs or cars you see are drivable, making the chore of getting around all the more inconvenient.

But can you slay many vampires lurking around the area? Not as much as you might think. You’ll spend a lot of time getting from place to place in what appears to be an abandoned town, with forests and mountains that often feel just as empty. When you do finally run into groups of enemies to fight, the combat will be very messy. Your character has access to a number of weapons you can find and equip, as well as abilities you can unlock as you defeat enemies and complete quests while playing. Most enemies will be crazy humans that have grouped up and taken over locations, which often act as the fodder for stronger enemies you can find.

Vampires will be a bigger nuisance with their teleportation and abnormally strong melee attacks. You’ll have to not only drain their health with attacks but stab them with a weapon that is equipped with a stake to completely destroy them, otherwise they just regenerate their health and continue attacking. At first, this can be super annoying, but will eventually get easier as you find stronger weapons that do more damage and can stab vampires easily.

Getting into combat against vampires or large groups of enemies can become a big mess due to the game’s frequent bugs and glitches that randomly pop up at the worst of times. Hit detection from some enemies and their attacks often feel wacky, with some attacks landing on you from distances that look as if they should’ve missed completely. This happens often with vampires that jump around with their teleportation ability, as well as larger boss enemies that have big area-of-effect attacks that seems very unbalanced. With a little finesse, you can bring down almost any enemy and complete objectives, but it will be a struggle most of the time even after leveling up and opening up new abilities to use against them.

There are many activities and side quests to do in Redfall, there’s a large variety of activities that take you all around the town. But you will have a hard time enjoying them if you’re running into many of the issues mentioned before. Sometimes key locations or items you need to find to complete an objective will bug out and prevent you from finishing a quest, such as not being able to interact with something or pick up a key item on the ground. The same can happen to enemies you need to defeat, which can get caught in unreachable areas or disappear randomly and not be seen, despite being at their location. Problems like this should not happen in the frequency they do. It makes playing through Redfall a very frustrating experience that isn’t made easier, whether you play alone or with other people.

Speaking of which, you can team up with up to three other players via co-op online. Everyone can have their own character and builds to synergize in completing various quests. Co-op unfortunately does little to nothing in solving any of the problems inherently plaguing the game, so you’ll have to struggle through the same things with your allies. Some of the abilities you unlock for a character are better suited for having another person play with you, such as getting perks for reviving teammates or executing enemies near someone. It might be an issue finding others to play with if you don’t coordinate beforehand, but the options are there when the need arises.

Redfall in its current state is simply not a good game at all. It has way too many problems that need to be ironed out by patches that might come in future updates. The number of bugs and glitches that happen is embarrassing and makes playing through the main questline not worth the time investment. If you’re into first-person shooters like this, you have better options elsewhere to get your fix than what’s being offered here. You’re better off not even bothering with Redfall at the moment.

Have you gotten a chance to play through Redfall yet on any platform? What are your thoughts about the state of the game right now? Post a comment down below and let us know about it!