A Stake Through The Heart! | A Redfall Review
Arkane Studios is a developer known for some of the best immersive sim games over the last decade. From Dishonored to Prey, the team is always pushing the bounds of what an environmental sandbox can be and how the players can manipulate a solid set of systems.
Redfall feels a little like Left 4 Dead, a little like Far Cry, and by trying to be a little bit of everything, it ends up being nothing.
Related GameForce.blog post:
Redfall ditches Arkane’s intricate level design for something a bit more open and, in return, something a bit blander.
Redfall’s open world is split between two maps, the first being the titular town of Redfall, Massachusetts, featuring the city’s different districts and the encompassing coastal shipwrecks.
The second map, known as The Burial Site, trades in the suburban lifestyle for some more rural areas, including farmhouses, open pastures, and multiple cults vying for the vampire’s undying love.
Both of these maps feel empty in every sense of the word. Locked houses line the streets, with only a few having a way inside. Enemy encampments feature only a handful of cultists or vampires to hunt, and most of your time will be spent traversing cliffside and open fields with little to offer in the way of exploration.
In both single-player and cooperative play, something would catch my eye, be it a tall church tower or an abandoned shipwreck, only to find that there was little to nothing inside except for some scrap that could be used to earn a bit more currency to purchase health packs and lockpicks.