Arkane Austin’s Redfall is a shooter filled with guns, vampires, and special abilities that delivers a fun coop experience, even if some aspects can suck the joy out of it at times. Arkane has made a name for itself with games that excel in stealth and role-playing mechanics – both areas many shooters struggle to implement effectively. However, Redfall proves the developer is capable of branching out into the multiplayer market that’s been dominated by live service games and high-profile sequels, although a little magic is lost in the transition.
Players choose one of four playable characters at the beginning of Redfall, each with their own quirky personality and unique abilities. The game begins after a failed attempt to escape the game’s vampire-infested locale, leaving players stranded on the island with other survivors, fanged undead, and human cultists who’ll kill and betray anyone to impress their new blood-sucking overlords. Safe houses need to be reclaimed, vampire nests must be destroyed, and the mystery of the island’s infestation, along with its cure, awaits to be discovered in Redfall‘s campaign, which can be played in its entirety with between one to four players.
Redfall At Its Best: Vampire Slaying With Friends
Unlike Dishonored‘s more linear approach to storytelling, Redfall is an open-world game with two maps, loads of side quests, and various story missions to complete. Beating-specific missions are required to progress the game’s overarching plot, but at this time, all players level up and keep the weapons they find during cooperative play, while only the host is able to progress in the game’s story. There are different story mission paths, but each leads to the same conclusion, and choosing one instead of the other doesn’t affect the world or its characters. This helps multiple playthroughs with different Redfall classes feel fresh, but it is an inconvenience compared to other games that allow drop-in co-op multiplayer, like Borderlands or Destiny.
After establishing a safe house surrounded by powerful UV lights, players can restock on health items and ammo and catch up with several NPCs who, unfortunately, do not add a lot of lore or personality to the game. These characters are featured in the motion comic-like cutscenes that help move the plot along, but more is needed. If more side missions were used to fill out the cast’s relationships, lore, and connection to Redfall, it would have helped build a stronger connection to the characters and the town they are fighting to reclaim. The game’s upbeat hip-hop music also feels out of place, especially when it’s playing over conversations about NPC’s loved ones recently perishing.
Redfall’s Worst: Repetition & A Lack of Character Diversity
Each playable character has unique abilities that are a blast to combine with other players to craft effective strategies. However, each class only has two special abilities and one ultimate, which can feel repetitive after a dozen hours of leveling up a class. Respeccing a character’s skill tree does allow players to explore more of what their classes are capable of, but having more abilities to choose from would help Redfall‘s gameplay feel more exciting in its later hours. Weapons also feel lacking in how they handle. Discovering new weapons feels less exciting than it should because newer weapons have better stats but don’t provide many variations on how they handle compared to other guns of their type.
While exploring neighborhoods and completing tasks, Redfall‘s many towns and locations serve as a well-constructed playground for players to practice their mobility. The characters Layla and Devinder have abilities that can move themselves and their teammates to different locations in the blink of an eye. However, Remi and Jacob specialize more in distractions and stealth with invisibility. Combining these abilities to stun, trap, or quickly dispatch a group of enemies with other players is when Redfall shines the brightest. Hopefully, when future DLC delivers two extra characters, it will add to that gameplay cohesion that is, unfortunately, going to be lacking for single-player-only players.
There is a lot to enjoy with Arkane’s latest, even if some aspects don’t feel as fleshed out as they could be. The game looks and plays great on PC with several graphics options, including performance and ultra-performance modes. Although the gameplay could use more variation, the locations and enemies in Redfall are a lot of fun to experience with friends. Redfall does more right than wrong in a gaming genre filled with multiplayer shooters competing for limited screen time – and it’s worth a try, especially for friends who’ve dreamed of forming a group of vampire slayers.
Redfall releases May 2 on PC, Xbox Series X/S, and will be available on Xbox Game Pass. Screen Rant was provided with a PC code for the purpose of this review.
