Arkane Austin’s vampiric shooter Redfall has landed with a dull thud. Not only have critics been nonplussed, but audiences aren’t exactly enthralled, either — as reflected by the game’s ‘Mostly Negative’ user review score over on Steam. But can the California-based studio turn things around? Heck, in a world where CD Projekt Red turned things around with the disastrous launch of Cyberpunk 2077, nothing’s impossible, right? I mean, everyone loves a comeback! So, we thought we’d take a stab at figuring out the various ways Arkane can make Redfall the next Cyberpunk comeback kid. Let’s go!
Fix the Janky AI
In its current state, Redfall’s AI is as daft as a brush. Seriously, I’ve seen vampires teleporting into walls and getting stuck there, giving me the perfect opportunity to cheese them to kingdom come. Enemies will stare directly at me, and will seemingly not see me — and… no, I didn’t have my invisibility clock activated.
There were also times when my opponents were stood within arm’s length next to me and still didn’t land a single shot. In short, this game makes Stormtroopers look like eagle-eyed sharpshooters, and that’s a major problem.
Look, we’re all for enemies having a degree of inaccuracy to their attacks, or maybe turning an ever-so-slightly blind eye if our crouch walk gets a little too close, but right now Redfall’s enemies need to take a few classes in bad guy 101.
Fix Performance Problems and Technical Issues
Alarm bells were ringing when Arkane officially confirmed that Redfall would run at half the framerate of this generation’s industry standard. Indeed, launching at 30fps across Xbox Series X|S and PC seems bonkers in this day and age, yet here we are. But thanks to its lower framerate, its technical aspects are solid as a rock, right? RIGHT? Unfortunately, no, Redfall has a handful of technical problems as well.
Yes, adding insult to injury is the fact that the game can be pretty buggy and unstable to boot. Hard crashes, glitches, and a general cavalcade of bugs rear their ugly head more often than you can shake a blood-drenched stake at. But at least it looks pretty, huh? Oh, about that…
Improve Textures and Fidelity
Redfall is plagued with so many muddy textures it sometimes feels like the titular town’s foundations were laid upon an ol’ sludge factory. Sure, while Arkane are known for their stylised visuals — I mean, Deathloop and Dishonored are both great-looking games — Redfall feels like it’s missing the developer’s signature je ne sais quoi.
Really, the entire experience is overshadowed by a murkiness and blurriness that just feels a bit wrong in this day and age. Hopefully, Arkane can ameliorate these graphical issues with future updates. Fingers firmly crossed!
Fix the Floaty Running
You know something’s gone awry when a mechanic as basic as running has been botched. Not only does Redfall’s running feel way too floaty, but there’s almost no discernible sound when you run. It’s pretty perplexing that this basic feature got through QA.
Personally, I think sprinting in-game should have a bit of weight to it. Thankfully, this mechanic can absolutely be fixed via patches. Add some additional audio touches to the running and give it some heft, and you’ll have fixed one of the more glaringly basic problems in Redfall.
Improve the Awful Map
Right now, the map in Redfall is a chore to use. I mean, maps are supposed to help you get from point A to point B, right? Sadly, Redfall’s map is pretty tricky to read and it’s tough getting an idea of where you’re supposed to be going at a glance.
Compounding the problem is the fact that you can’t change the floors or levels of Redfall’s map, and objectives are often on different floors. Further still, the lacklustre in-game compass needs a revamp, too, as it sometimes doesn’t track the objective that you’re looking for.
Oh, and just to hammer that stake home, when you open the map, it doesn’t pause the game even if you’re in single-player… because Redfall is an always-online experience. That means if you’re trying to figure out how to quickly escape a horde of angry vampires chasing after you, you better be fast, otherwise you’ll be long gone by the time you exit out of the map and back into the gameplay.
Fix the Co-Op Campaign Progression
With Redfall’s emphasis on co-op gameplay, you’ll likely be surprised by another noticeable problem the game is cursed with: that’s right, the co-op progression is a little bit borked at launch. Fortunately, it’s not all broken.
In fact, the game will save the majority of your unlocks like, say, Hero levels, Grave Locks, weapons, skills, ammo and gear earned or collected while playing in co-op. The problem is, only the Host can save story progression in Redfall. Let that sink in for a second.
Therefore, if you’re playing co-op and you’re not the Host, you won’t be able to make any progress through the game’s story. That’s a humungous bummer, huh?
With a bit of luck, Arkane will find a way to make co-op progression feel more rewarding to those players unlucky enough to not be the host in their group of friends. Whether this is possible at this point, we’re unsure, but it’s a pretty major faux pas all the same, given co-op seems to be the intended way for players to enjoy the game.
But how about you? Are you playing Redfall? And are you as underwhelmed as us? Sink your fangs into the comments section below and let us know your thoughts.
About the author
