Time to Bite Back
I’m gonna be honest with you, things aren’t great in Redfall; and I mean beyond the vampire infestation that has overtaken the idyllic costal town. If you don’t already know Redfall pits players against a cult of vampire Gods who plan to overtake the world starting with the little town. As a group they divided the town and each rule over a separate area, of course this was after they blocked out the Sun in a way that would’ve made Monty Burns happy. Players are tasked with unraveling the mystery of these cults and help as many folks as they can in the process.
At the outset players will choose between 4 different characters. This choice matters as everything in this game is locked per character l. Meaning if you play an Ult any collectibles you found on the main would have to be gathered again. Each of the characters have abilities or gadgets to aid in taking back Redfall. For instance, I chose to pay as Layla who was subject to some experiments that gave her psychic powers. She uses these by way of summoning an umbrella that can be used to shield from bullets, call forth a spectral elevator that launches players into the air and allows access to the many rooftops. Layla’s ultimate is cool because she summons her ex-boyfriend who is a vampire to come and fight for her. That’s a good dude because I am not going to fight anyone for my exes, but that’s just me.
MSRP: $69.99
Platforms: Xbox (reviewed), PC
Price I’d Pay: $59.99
Each of the four selectable characters has special abilities, one specializes in healing while another can cause massive damage with a UAV filter. Each of these add something different to the gameplay experience but as a solo player none of these abilities are really that useful. I am almost certain that Redfall was developed solely as a co-op game, and somewhere along the way either because the developers saw what happened with Back 4 Blood or something else happened because now you can play Redfall in single player. I cannot recommend this as the game is not balanced for single player play, as good as the abilities are they are meant to be synergized with the other characters and they just fall flat in solo.
Since Redfall is run by various cults that means that players will face human enemies as well as supernatural ones. To this end, there is an array of guns that will aid in putting them down for good. There are various types of guns like assault rifles, sniper rifles, pistols etc. Players will need to use this gun to weaken the vampires before getting in close to ‘dust’ them with the stake bayonet attached to players larger guns. The game allows for the stake to be modified but it’s purely cosmetic, my favorite that I have unlocked is a lawn gnome attached to my guns. If players prefer to hunt vamps from afar there are also stake launchers and UV guns to help. UV guns are especially useful as they will kill the enemies who spew red mist that can damage players. Also, as a nice treat as players light them up like Blade did the fat vampire keeper Pearl in the first ‘Blade’ movie they will scream almost exactly as Pearl did; every time I killed one it got chuckle from me.
Speaking of enemies, Redfall has a decent variety of vampires, there are ‘Watchers’ who hang out up high and have a search light beam overlooking an area. There are Syphons which suck, (pun intended) these floating annoyances will go invisible and then reappear only to yank players towards them like Scorpion from MK, only to then suck the precious life fluids and then discard them like trash. The issue is there is no easy way to avoid this attack, as the game offers no dodge mechanic. Unless the player is in motion when the Syphon fires out its blood whip, prepare to be sucked. However, if players possess quick reflexes, it’s possible to fire enough bullets into the Syphon to stun them before they suck blood. But what really makes this easier is playing with a friend who can light them up and stun them long before players make it to the Syphons waiting jaws. There are also blood bags who explode in a bloody mess and cause a lot of damage if in range, which that range seems infinite as I had multiple occasions where I killed them with a sniper rifle from half a world away and still was damaged and killed by the explosion. I am assuming this is a bug and not intentional because it makes no logical sense. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg of questionable decisions with this game.
If you haven’t already heard Redfall has the mind-boggling feature of only allowing the host of the multiplayer session to save their mission progress. Meaning if you want to enjoy this with a friend, that friend will retain all the loot and things they find from you all’s play session, but they will have to play all of the missions over again in their own game. Another stupid thing about Redfall is due to the host only progression there is no ‘drop-in/drop-out’ multiplayer, in this the year of our Lord 2023. When ZTGD and I grouped up I was the host, and at the end of our session he left first and the game booted me, the host from my own game. All of this makes no sense because the marketing for this game promotes co-op play but the fact of the matter is the game is not conducive to that playstyle at all.
BUT it’s very CLEARLY not a single player experience as the difficulty when you are alone is off the charts. I had to fight the first boss, Hollow Man no less than 15 times before I was able to finally best him. And even then I had to cheese my way through it as his 3rd phase involves lots of adds and a shield for the big bastard. Even the vampire nests which pop up randomly around town and can impower the vamps who are within its range, are darn near impossible to solo. ZTGD and I tackled one with ease but when I did it alone again, I had to try no less than 5 times. And these nests ae important for two reasons, as I said above you need to destroy them to keep the vampires from being super powered but when you destroy the heart within them players will get 30 seconds to up the blood doors within and collect precious loot.
Redfall is a weird combination of looter shooter, single-player and co-op; the best way of describing it is ‘Far Cry Lite’. Loot comes in varieties from common to legendary but there are no changes in the weapons other than perks like +10 to damage or added defense. All the names are the same except from the legendries which are modeled more exotically than the normal loot. I know it sounds like I hated this game, but the fact is I rather like it. Fighting vampires is a nice change of pace from the tired zombie trop so it immediately gets points for that. ‘Dusting’ vamps was always satisfying, and the combat feels the smoothest that Arkane has delivered yet. But with all of the issues that can’t be fixed with a patch like the host only progression, not having drop in and the blisteringly difficulty level of playing single- player just makes Redfall a really hard sell. Unless you have a dedicated crew who has no issue with only one of you holding the save and everyone waits till you all can play together; then I wish you all well and know you will have a blast. But for the rest of us who will be forced to play single-player, just buckle up because the games difficulty and the wonky feeling controls are not going to be kind to you.
It just makes no sense that Microsoft promotes this game as this grand co-op experience but then put in place every system known to man to hinder that process or make it harder than necessary; no quick match in a multiplayer game in 2023 is ridiculous. Sadly, Redfall is a prime example of what current day Xbox has become, the potential for greatness is there but they can’t get out of their own way to reach it.
Review copy of game provided by publisher.
