Day 41 - Redfall

Multiplayer, Immersive Sim, Horror  · 

Sam’s Take:

For a game so infamously bad that it killed Arcane Austin, it’s kind of wild that we played long enough for Microsoft’s free video editor to crash every time I try to load up the playthrough. This is SO CLOSE to being a videogame. It wants so badly to be the first big time multiplayer immersive sim. The designers imagine us telling each other to go in quietly, one character marking the enemies with their bird, the next teleporting into an advantageous high ground. They imagine us coordinating our skill trees so one can deal damage from a distance, while another goes in to finish off vampires with a stake. They imagine us… actually reading the lore… in a multiplayer game with friends. Ambition is the name of the game here.

You can see a real game baked in there. For all the nega-hype this game generated, there is passion and hope hiding under these nonsense slideshow cutscenes. There’s a want for teamwork and communication obscured by stuttering and broken walk cycles. There’s the dream of adrenaline rushes as you punch a steak into a vampire, destroyed by Skeeter throwing his FUCKING LIGHTING SPEARS and KILLING THE WHOLE TEAM AGAIN.

But there’s only so much kindness I can afford passion and heart. The game is simply broken. Even ignoring the infamous technical follies of this game, we played the tutorial, one main mission and one side mission and I’m pretty sure one of us asked “wait, what are we doing?” at least seventeen times. I truly think this issue trumps everything else, because this isn’t an open world separated from mission based levels like GTA V multiplayer. Redfall wants to combine its open gameplay space with its mission structure in the same vein as Prey, but with a team. It’s an ambitious idea, but even if it was plausible, Redfall is so unconfident in its approach that it’s constantly showing off its immersive-simness on its quest objectives. “HEY! DID YOU KNOW YOU CAN UNLOCK THE DOOR, OR GO IN THROUGH THE ROOF, OR BURST IN GUNS BLAZING! THE CHOICE IS UUUURRZZZ UWU!”. I would make fun of this more, but honestly if they didn’t tell me I had choices, I legit would never have known. No matter what, you’re going to have to shoot them and take the loot, because this isn’t ACTUALLY an immersive sim. Redfall is a looter shooter with ambitions to grow up just like big daddy Prey.

The game even has a (probably) 87 minute intro explaining its lore. There are ambitions to be the full story/systems/mechanics package in a simultaneous co-op game, but like… that’s insane for any studio, let alone one that just lost most of its senior leadership. If they were able to focus on just being a run of the mill Looter Shooter, and didn’t try to add in these unfocused disparate immersive sim elements, then maybe it at least it could have been dumb fun like a Borderlands. As it stands though the game is just too big for its britches, and all these words I’ve typed pale in comparison to this moment we had while playing:

Maybe I’m spending too long pontificating on the pulling between an immersive sim and a looter shooter. Maybe the game is just too jank to live. I’d love to take more time to compare this to Prey and do a full-on breakdown of this game some time, but honestly I got this game with a free trial of Game Pass, and I can’t imagine spending the $40 necessary to get it on Steam.

Recommend: I Can’t

Replay Percentage Chance: 10%

Time Played: 2 Hours

Skeeter’s Take:

I’m not that familiar with Redfall’s fall to infamy. I know Arkane Austin was responsible for bangers such as Dishonored and Prey (which I haven’t played Prey, but if you know Sam, you’ve heard all about it). Obviously their newest game had some hype behind it, considering the studio’s track record. I remember seeing the trailer, being pretty unimpressed, but kept an eye on the game as it was Arkane Studios making a multiplayer vampire hunter game - what’s not to look forward to?

Then the game was released and people were not happy with the results. I couldn’t tell you the specific complaints, but it was very poorly received.

Herein lies the oddity of coming back to Redfall in the wake of Arkane Studios being shut down. I guess they pushed one final update out for the game, despite not being paid for it, so respect if that is factual.

Anyway, my experience was surprisingly enjoyable. It definitely helped going in with bottom feeder, mariana trench expectations, but I was surprised. I expected to hate Redfall. Instead I came out feeling pretty lukewarm on Redfall.

Here are the current reviews for Redfall on Steam:

And here is the current price for Redfall on Steam:

This is important for a couple reasons. Firstly, there was no way we were about to pay $40 for Redfall. Thankfully, it’s on the XBox Game Pass, and I had a couple free weeks to give away. After dicegame and Sam jumped through some hoops to make new accounts and redeem the coupons we were off to the races (well besides a technical issue dicegame ran into, but I’m sure he’ll tell you that story).

I say this, because the price of “Free” or “$9.99” is a good price for this game.

$40 is not. And this is after many updates. I think even a $25.00 price tag would fit this game better. I get the $60 price tag at launch, but now that this game is abandoned, it really should be given the Atari ET treatment (thank god most copies are digital. We don’t have the luxury of dumping this into any landfills).

So, take everything I’m about to say through the lens of “I got this game for very cheap and played it after a few updates”.

I honestly had a pretty good time with Redfall. It’s not something I think I would come back to repeatedly, but for our 2 hour Monday Night gaming session, it was an enjoyable experience.

I need to go to bed soon, so I’m copping out on this review with a fun internet list - I’m not going to apologize (sorry).

Some things I liked:

Some things I didn’t like:

I need to go to bed. It’s past this old man’s bedtime.

GOOD NIGHT

Recommend: Only if you get it for free. Only if you have a few friends to play with.

Replay Percentage Chance: 5%

Time Played: 2 Hours

Guest Writer Dicegame’s Take:

The coast of Massachusetts peppers with English influence. Towns named “Bristol,” “Warwick,” and “North Kingston,” stand sturdy in the history of American colonialism. What a fine place for a game about eradicating the white devil: THE VAMPIRE.

First, I’d like to thank Skeeter and Sam for letting me hot box a flash forward review. Because I’m not a regular over here I’ve liberally extended the typical length of a review and encouraged myself to Have A Ball With This. Second, I’d like to give my sincere condolences to the game developers who, after not seeing their families for months (possibly years) to work on what I can only quickly surmise as “Hot Topic Firewatch,” were swiftly fired by a man named Matt Booty (mbooty@microsoft.com), head of Xbox Game Studios. Speaking of Xbox Game Studios, let’s take a moment to appreciate the arcane, ostentatious steps we took to play REDFALL.

(If Skeeter and Sam have already bemoaned over the process of getting this game up and running, hold F to skip this cutscene)

12:45PM Sam introduces Skeeter and I in a discord dm. The possibility of our schedules aligning to play this game is dubious.

5:20PM With uncertainty still in the air, Skeeter pastes two Xbox Game Pass trial codes into the chat. These are likely the kind you have sitting in your discord “gift” inbox, a feature that I can only imagine was designed by an Actual Vampire.

6:09PM Sam confirms. The gaming will commence. Morale is strong until the unthinkable:

This ain’t my first ineligible offer. I know where to go: incognito tab, gmail, new account, redwallmlg420@gmail.com (for some reason I thought this game was called “red wall” which immediately seemed impossible given the existence of Brian Jacques (there’s no way that’s his real name right)). Back to Xbox:

Finally some gaming. I click the shit out of that arrow button until it’s aligned with the rude gesture. The ineligible becomes eligible.

We are fucking back:

(Resume here if you’ve skipped the cutscene)

While the game is downloading I begin research (opening up the goblin bunker and searching “redfall”):

Making things awesome . . . . if you say so! I’d say this is a good omen. I for one am a bit of sicko when it comes to over analyzing the aesthetic tastes and desires of the AAA game designer. Let’s find out how Awesome this is really gonna get.

The game finishes downloading, and just when I thought the blood contracts would come to an end, look who comes skulking along:

BETHESDA.NET

This one actually wasn’t too bad. I didn’t even have to confirm the account in my email or anything. I could put literally anything into here and it would work. Try it with Joe Biden’s email!

I’m in the game. Well, I’m in the pre-game options menu. Which is kind of like a pre-game in real life. Configuring our settings before a night out. I stare down the well of possibilities but decline - we’re gaming sober tonight (except for Skeeter).

After the pre-game we look in the mirror:

FUCK. Is this really what I’m wearing? I look like a guy who’s about to rob a Uniqlo for a TikTok. I look like I’m about to hop a construction site fence and scale an in-progress building to take 360 degree photographs. I look like a tech artist at Arkane Austin! I wish I looked like an engine programmer at Arkane Austin, because then I might be able to figure out why:

I eventually configure everything to run at an obscure 1600 x 1000 (16:10) resolution in windowed mode on my main monitor. We start the voice call. Locked In.

I’m playing a character who’s name I don’t remember. But her tagline:

Joe Biden’s email payin off!!!

Credit where it’s due. Besides the 45 minutes of account drudgery and multiple monitor juggling, once we were in the game things cleared up. Select a character, add a friend to lobby, and ready up.

REDFALL begins with one of those 2D illustrated cutscenes that project managers or narrative directors at AAA studios seem convinced is the only option for expositioning. (Spoilers) We played this game for about 2 hours, and we could’ve just dropped directly into the thing without the introduction. There’s even a whole in-character cutscene that largely sets the same stage: there are vampires, a vampire queen, and you’re on a boat.

After witnessing grotesque vampire violence and an obscure threat from the queen, we started exploring the boat. I smacked a window and got outside. Already the immersive sim DNA of arkane is showing. I, the player, used my generic actions in a logical way that realized my will: Go Outside. And what a weird outside we were greeted with:

We’re in some kind of strange time-frozen wave. Something biblical is afoot. Imagine doing a dab here bro!

We make our way up to a derelict dock to encounter our first enemy: the cultist. The shooting is floaty, and these lowly grunts feel like they’re taking a bit too much damage. 3 or 4 shots a pop. I shoot an electrical box and down myself. The simulation becomes even more immersive.

We eventually make it to a firehouse and after our first encounter with a vampire, the game spreads its wings. NPCs populate the area offering the three nutrients of gaming: health, ammunition, quests. The doctor wears crocs!

Now that I’m talking about the actual game I’m starting to get bored. Look. The shooting is OK. There’s weird rng rolling on the guns (I got a legendary shotgun who my character inspected at great length every time I walked into a new area. Like what is this bro a funko pop.) The world is open-ish and filled with oil slicks and electricity boxes everywhere. We were in a park and there were boxes every 20 feet bro. BEGGING to get shot. There are many layers of “content” to complete that are all dialed in to create that kind of AAA open world 7 layer bean dip they want us to like. Minute to minute objectives layered on medium objectives, layered on larger narrative objectives.

We go through a fun haunted house style encounter after seeing a vampire skulking in the window. Crawling up a ladder to enter the top floor, we are delightfully spooked by the vampires inside. We run downstairs, remove the barricade on the front door, and head outside to strategically position ourselves behind a cop cruiser, an oil slick, and a pile of car batteries.

Hopscotch and Body Bags. Juxtaposition.

I electrocute skeeter on accident.

After completing a safe house objective, the game presents us with one of the most pleading tutorials I’ve ever seen.

Real talk: at what point do we need to just start over the entirety of AAA game development. This isn’t even condescending. It’s self-conscious. This game doesn’t even trust itself enough to let the player figure this out. Not that there’s even anything to figure out. Just play the damn game! There - you “Played Your Way.” I had to hold ESC for like 2 seconds to dismiss this screen.

Trust me though - we were playing Our Way. And we were going to get at least one campaign objective completed before canceling our temporary paypal subscriptions to an alt Xbox Game Pass account. We mosey through a universal studios haunted house rendering of massachusetts to explore a handful of helicopter crashes which eventually lead us to a crate of supplies. Something about the disrupting the cultists supply chain. I nearly died in a cave filled with toxic blood mist.

We were treated to a handful of vistas and generally got the feel of the open world and the automatic rifle. Our characters leveled up and gained combat skills. We fast traveled back to the hub and called it. I’m struggling to even come up with anything to wrap this review up. There’s little soul or hook to this game. Like someone with a fresh haircut showed up with a power point that read:

Thanks to Sam and Skeeter for having me on the show. Maybe I’ll make an appearance again! Until then:

Recommend: Game Pass

Replay Percentage Chance: 1%

Time Played: 2h

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