I will be honest with you. If I had to name a single studio these days that I could trust to the end of the world, it will be originally French Arkane Studios. Just look at their projects – Dishonored, Prey, Dark Messiah of Might and Magic or Deathloop. All the great immersive sims that I think are too few these days. As is often the case, even master carpenters sometimes cut. And the moment when I had to get burned by the Arkan for the first time, willy-nilly, has come. And that’s with the vampire shooter Redfall just reviewed.
If I had to just express my feelings about this game, I would choose one word general. Honestly, this is the last thing I expected to say about the Arkane project. Especially when we look at the premise itself. As one of the survivors, you find yourself in the island town of Redfall, which has fallen under the rule of vampires due to a few sycophants and an infection. Since escape is impossible, the only thing left for you is to unsettle yourself a little and go against those who have all this mess, the dead, the formation of a cult and the eclipse of the Sun on their conscience. Again, the idea is really good. But completely unused. Both in terms of story and gameplay.
Source: bethesdaPhil Spencer of Xbox throws ashes on his head for Redfall
In doing so, you take on the role of one of several survivors. Specifically, you have four characters to choose from − Jacob, Layla, Devinder and Remy. Each of these characters not only have their own personality, but mostly skills that Redfall and Arkane Studios itself are partly based on as such. In addition, you can go through the whole game not only alone, but also in cooperation with up to four players. You can easily become a vampire hunter alone or take different characters with your friends and combine your skills. Such a Jacob has the ability to scan his surroundings with a raven or become invisible. Leila controls telekinesis and can, for example, create an elevator that works like a trampoline, and Devinder, for example, can teleport and shock enemies.
They have experience with this in Arcana and so far the game works pretty well. So if we think about it absurd factthat the game does not have drop-in / drop-out functions, so cooperation can only be started in the menu, and progress in activities and missions is credited only to the founding player. However, the characters are quite funny and have a relatively likable or at least tolerable personality. And individual abilities are fun, though not original. As you level up, you will also be able to upgrade them with new options or simply upgraded versions. But, in my opinion, this functionality definitely ends. Weapons and equipment systems go hand in hand with skills. All over the world you can find a fairly typical repertoire of weapon types – pistols or revolvers, shotguns, assault rifles or even sniper rifles. And also a couple of special items, namely, for example, a signal gun or a thrower of sharp objects, i.e. poles. Each of these weapons has its own statistics and rarity, which determines additional upgrades. But here is the first stumbling block. This whole system just doesn’t work. Honestly. It seems boring, and worse, sloppy.
You’ll find rare weapons, even legendary ones, strangely often, and you still know that every time you level up, you’ll have to change weapons to find something more powerful. In the end, it’s not about that rarity at all. What matters is the level of the weapon, which is equal to the level of your character at the moment you found it. So, you know that a legendary weapon that has a lower level than a completely ordinary weapon is simply worse. And this is despite the fact that the legendary weapon may have some kind of mechanical or cool additional bonus. And since there is no way to improve your weapon, you will just constantly change it. Which is honestly just annoying. If the ending had only weapon archetypes, no stats, I would be happier. Also, I feel like there was originally going to be a better gear system, but it ended up being removed. You’ll find an arms dealer at your base, but he sells you pretty solid shunts, so he’s usually completely useless. And one of the activities you can do in the world is hacking vampire nests with the possibility of getting super gear. Which will probably last you ten minutes and then you can throw it away. With the fact that in a children’s backpack in the church it is easy to find such super equipment. Because it’s probably America, or I don’t know. So there really is no good reason to indulge in such side activities.the pleasant feeling of finding some kind of rare weapon simply does not exist, and the game does not have a system that supports this part of the game in any way.
Sooner or later, your time in the game will come down to simply completing one story mission after another. With them, you can probably say that they compensate for all this. But, unfortunately, this does not happen at all. The main story is completely dull and the characters will not interest you at all. In addition to the general dialogues, cutscenes are probably responsible for this, using the latest technology in the name of static scenes. No animation, almost no camera movement, no emotion… In addition, many events seem either completely unnecessary or unnecessarily rushed. For example, in the first part of the game, you have a certain number of story missions that you have to complete. Most of the time, however, you’ll just be walking around somewhere to clear the area and find a few spears or something to turn on, and after a while the game will let you fight one of the villains. And not feeling that you deserve it or that you have achieved something; feeling no satisfaction around the corner. And really, you won’t care. I must admit that after a while I started to get lost in history. Not because it’s difficult, but because the pace is deadly – in the negative sense of the word – and all the events seem so piled on top of each other that it becomes something of a ballast about everything and nothing at the same time.
Unfortunately, I wish I could find some overtly positive things to say about anything in Redfall, but I can’t. As I said, in all respects I consider the game ordinary. Mostly functional – mostly playable – but still perfectly ordinary. Even the open world didn’t do her any good. The environment seems dead, and unfortunately it doesn’t make a positive difference given the context, everything is empty and not a single part of it is even remotely memorable. In the end, one thing I have to leave to the developers, and that is that they managed to create a great atmosphere. I realize this may sound like an oxymoron given my allusions to the dead environment, but it is. When you find yourself in an environment full of vampires making strange sounds and one of the villains talks to you on a walkie-talkie left on the street as you walk through the mysterious shacks of a small American town under a shaded sun. .. At this point, you will feel that there is a good game hiding somewhere inside that could be much better than what we have. Such hints are exceptionally noticeable even in those story missions, where they sometimes take you to an environment that, frankly, seems quite pleasant. Such a hallucinated forest, or visiting an old house, which you will visit in two versions, are great ideas in which you will again see glimpses of something better; what Arkane does best. But, unfortunately, these are only glimpses.
In the finale, you still have to perform side actions. Which are actually partially required because you can’t progress through the main story without completing a certain percentage of them. And once you finish the main story, you have to start all over again, because there is no way to return to the game world after the end credits. Something like this was unacceptable already in 2008, when, for example, the basic Fallout 3 annoyed us with the same problem. What the hell are we supposed to say about this in 2023?! So, when we return to the activity as such, in addition to the nests mentioned, there is also the unlocking of shelters in the first place. They will then offer you one general task, such as defending the position for a while, after which they will give you the opportunity to fight a stronger vampire. But usually he is always the same person you met a few times before, only he may have a little more health and a unique name. Do you find this activity boring? Don’t worry, it’s only going to get worse, because defeating these vampires are side quests that you must complete to advance in the main story.
Worse, given the fact that the very concept of vampires seems to me the most underused. Yes, there are several types, and each one acts a little differently or does something different, but sooner or later – sooner rather than later – everything just turns into a more or less conventional firefight and attempts to put as many rounds into them as possible in the shortest possible time. Any attempt to make intelligent use of your environment, your abilities and perhaps combining them with other players, different weapons for different effects… None of this is needed at all. And for any difficulty. Regardless of the setting, the game is still ridiculously easy and the AI is incredibly boring. No, sorry, very retarded. Complete moron! And by far one of the worst things I’ve ever seen is a disaster in a AAA game that came out. Her total blindness, her lack of understanding of what’s going on around her, her poor aim, her coordination… I could go on and on, but to be honest, that would be a waste of words.
Anyway, in case you haven’t figured it out yet, and sorry for the colorfulness, Redfall really pissed me off. And, as I said, not because it’s a bad game in every way. But because I know it wasn’t enough and she could have been so much better! And because I know Arkane Studios has so much more! So the only part that I look at with some satisfaction is the audiovisual part. It sticks to the studio’s well-known style and offers a bit of a cel-shader hint with hard-edged features and a slightly comical treatment. The dubbing could definitely be better, but it rather falls on not-so-interesting characters. And individual environments, whether they are alive or dead, actually look pretty cute. But this is the least in the final. At the same time, although the music does not shine at all, it certainly does not offend and is actually quite pleasant.
So, to sum it all up simply, Redfall was definitely a disappointment in almost every way, and I honestly don’t know where the Austin branch of Arkan went wrong. This is a game that should have been much bigger.. Whatever the case, its biggest selling point will probably be the fact that it’s available on Game Pass. So, especially if you have a few friends and are attracted to Far Cry-style shooters, I can certainly think of much worse ways to kill 15 or so hours in a couple of boring evenings or during the summer pickle season. In everything else, especially due to the increasingly widespread optimization lottery, but rather I recommend putting your hands on it. And that’s whether you’re looking for a solid shooter or God forbid a game from Arkane Studios.
Verdict
Redfall just disappointed, what else can be written. In the end, uninteresting gameplay, untapped potential, boring or top-notch system… We don’t know where the error occurred in the Austin branch of Arkane. But this is seriously not the game we expected from them. Or almost any.
Source :Indian TV
