Deadly weapons, open-world, vampire slaying, telekinetic abilities, army robot dogs – it all sounds bloody cool. But when it comes to Bethesda’s Redfall, unfortunately, its ‘coolness’ has been dampened by buggy gameplay and an unpolished world.
Redfall is an all-new IP from Bethesda Softworks and Arkane Austin, offering to be Xbox’s next big Gamepass hit.
After previewing Redfall in March, I had high hopes for Arkane’s next big game, being a big fan of Deathloop and the Dishonored series. Back then I had a promising look at the story and gameplay, but now I’ve played the game in full I’m sad to say it hasn’t lived up to the hype – but that’s not to say it’s not a fun game.
You can check out my preview here: Hands-on with upcoming Xbox game Redfall
Redfall is a fast-paced, simple shooter with blood-sucking fiends and an almost comic book styled story. It’s in a similar vein to Borderlands, with plenty of loot and of bad guys to shoot down.
Good guys, bad guys and gameplay
In Redfall, players must defeat god-like Vampires and their followers. (Supplied)
There are four playable characters in Redfall.
Jacob Boyer, a stealthy figure accompanied by his trusty raven; Layla Ellison, a sorceress with magic powers and a possessive ex-boyfriend who happens to be a vampire; Devinder “Dev” Crousley, a teleportation expert who wields a lightning javelin; and finally, Remedios De La Rosa, also known as Remi.
I chose Remi, a healer on the surface but a wickedly strategic fighter underneath. Having her sidekick robot Bribon by her side was a huge advantage. Bribon is honestly my favourite part of the game, despite the guilt of sending my friendly army robot in ahead of the battle to absorb bullets on my behalf – he got me out of numerous sticky situations.
Oh, and you can interact with Bribon whenever you feel like a little serotonin boost.
Guns are simple in Redfall, point-and-shoot is as far as they seem to go. There’s no major recoil or distance to factor in when sniping. Maneuvering in combat is also to be desired, there’s a lot of walking backward and sideward but no dodging.
Gun variety is there, but I would’ve loved to see some sort of melee weapon – or even just a knife/stake for stealth kills. Alas, there’s no sneaking up behind enemies and pressing ‘square’ to takedown – you’re limited to a sneaky punch that may or may not kill them.
Pausing the game doesn’t actually pause it, almost like it’s constantly online. If you need the bathroom in a rush, you’re best to head to a safe house. You can fast-travel from anywhere, so one is never too far away.
Redfall’s open-world features some beautiful environments. (Supplied)
If you’re one of those gamers that love to read every scribbled note, every book, sign, and tiny bit of lore – Redfall has plenty. Tourism brochures, books and more fill the world. I wouldn’t encourage you to stop and read them all, as I don’t think they’re all worth reading.
The open world is beautiful, with a few surprises hidden across the map.
Vampire nests take the world and twist it around, crawling with hungry vamps you need to take out the vampires and destroy its heart. Once the heart is shattered, grab loot as quickly as you can and head to the exit, which is usually found in a wall cavity nearby. I found these vampire nests, while they look incredible, offered little variety in level design.
There are many characters you meet along the way, some missions require you to rescue others from dire situations that you can interact with back at the base, but they almost never seem thrilled to see me – despite saving their lives. In one mission, a pregnant woman is locked down inside a veterinary clinic in labor, the power goes out, you have to trek on over to the power station to turn it back on, then later she’s just chilling out with a new baby in an armchair and pretending I don’t exist.
None of these character interactions or cutscenes are ever cinematic, they’re all still images cut together to create somewhat of a storybook/comic book feel. It’s almost as if they were the storyboard frames for a potential cinematic cutscene but they just canned that idea.
Graphics, bugs and performance
The whole 60fps thing was a drama before I even began my review. A new generation Xbox Studios exclusive launching in 2023 at 30fps shocked us all. It’s a huge step back. Especially for a console that boasts 120fps with games that are years old.
At times, textures failed to load. Offering pixelated messes in Redfall – or maybe the artist was into pixel art? (Supplied)
Playing through Redfall at 30fps was fine. It didn’t affect gameplay too much (it was already testy), but it didn’t offer the experience I’d expected from an Xbox Series X title. We know it’s coming, so I’d suggest waiting until the next major update for this game before playing. When will we get the patch? No one knows.
Framerate is one thing, but this game has so many more problems than that.
I saved half a dozen clips in my first few hours with the game that paints a horrible picture at how this game performs.
Simple textures were sometimes delayed, or they’d not load at all. During some story scenes and while bringing up the map to fast travel there’d be low-resolution images on screen. Graffiti, blood splatter, and more were often pixelated messes, and shadows didn’t know how to exist.
Enemies were at a standstill or walking aimlessly into walls, often clueless I was standing next to them. Dead enemies would twitch back to life and have their clothing clip into the ground and stretch across the ground.
Here’s just a quick compilation of examples I came across:
Co-op
Co-op was excellent fun! Well, at least while it was working.
I had two times where the game session completely crashed, mid-mission too. Meaning we had to head relaunch, re-invite each other to the game and catch up to where we’d traveled. Another occasion saw the group lose half of the game’s audio with no gun sounds, footsteps and explosions. We could only hear character commentary and the whispers of bad guys as we approached. A quick restart fixed this.
At times, only one player could read in-game texts (notes and books around the world), despite them being interactable by all. We overcame this somehow, but it wasn’t consistent.
If you’re planning to play co-op with a group of friends, I’d recommend everyone jumps into a new game with a new character from the beginning.
I joined a fresh group with my level 14 character and it felt like we were playing on ultra-easy mode.
You also build “trust” by grouping together with friends, the more you play alongside them the more bonuses and experience you gain. But avoid straying too far away, the bonus is void if you separate from your team.
Overall, the group and I had a great time hunting down vamps, shooting cultists and doing quests but be prepared for a rough time.
Do we recommend Redfall?
During my 20 hours or so of game time, co-op included, I had a fun time – there’s no denying that. I don’t think I ever had a moment where I was annoyed about having to pursue a certain mission, I think it’s because I almost knew what to expect.
Redfall is marketed as Xbox and Bethesda’s next AAA, groundbreaking new title. Unfortunately, that isn’t the case. Off the back of Deathloop, Arkane Studios was in a good position to release something on par, if not better than Deathloop but they couldn’t stick the landing.
All of that said, Redfall is mostly a good time. I played through over 15 hours of single-player, pushing through the bugs and glitches, and came out the other side a happy gamer. But once I reached the game’s major turning point, I felt a little exhausted.
They’re not the first studio to have a disastrous launch and in this generation, they certainly won’t be the last, but we know Arkane is capable of so much more. While I’m not holding my breath, I’m hopeful they can turn this game around…
Quest Daily scores Redfall:
6/10
Bethesda supplied an Xbox Series X|S review code to Quest Daily for the purpose of this review.
