![]() I was able to pull some interesting screenshots from the Xbox Showcase Extended that may reveal some additional scenes and information about Starfield and Redfall. Considering that the game doesn’t look or sound very good to begin with, as it uses the same art style many of Arkane’s games have in the past, it’s more strange than anything that the game has so many problems from an audiovisual perspective.Interesting Screenshots of Redfall and Starfield from the Xbox Showcase Extended We also experienced a menagerie of other technical issues, including crashes, progress-halting bugs, t-posing AI, and textures that took forever to pop in. ![]() On a mid-range gaming computer that’s able to easily run the likes of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt with its next generation update, we struggled to maintain a solid 60FPS even at the lowest settings. It’s also a tough sell from a technical perspective because, sigh, Redfall doesn’t run very well. However, given how many actually good looter-shooters there are on the market, Redfall is a tough sell from a gameplay perspective in addition to a narrative one. The game is obviously more fun if you have a few friends to play with, all of whom can drop in and drop out but do not progress their own stories if they’re playing with you. Forgettable levels, an open world that lacks any real variety, enemies that all have similar attack patterns and shooting/skill-casting that is in the absolute middle of the road quality-wise simply don’t make for a very engaging time. While none of these things necessarily ruin the overall experience, they do make playing Redfall feel superbly mediocre. Is this what things look like when you’re high? The complete lack of checkpoints in single-player, braindead AI that are either too easy or too hard to kill, entire skill trees that are useless unless you’re in co-op and the total lack of stealth options present bigger problems, however. It’s easy to ignore the lack of logic in its colour-based loot tier system that generously gives you gold guns at almost every turn, and nobody will be complaining about the inability to revisit the first open world map you’re tasked with clearing after you beat all the story missions there. Generic is a bit too generous of a word to describe Redfall’s gameplay, come to think of it, because it’s filled with issues that range from minor to major. Outside of the playable protagonists, all of whom have at least one trait that wouldn't be out of place in Dishonored or the like, there just isn’t a lot going on that isn’t based around hoovering up random items and killing bullet sponge-y enemies. Unlike in Arkane’s other titles, or even Bethesda-published games as a whole, Redfall is a co-op looter-shooter that shares more in common with Borderlands than it does with, well, anything the studio has put out in the past. ![]() The same is true for its gameplay, which is especially confusing given the title’s progenitors. Unfortunately, it’s not even so bad it’s good Redfall’s narrative is just bad. The game is chock full of pointless lore explaining the nature of the enemies you fight, the powers at play and even your character’s own backstory, but none of it comes close to being interesting or engaging. ![]() If you’ve ever played one of these quasi-apocalyptic games before, or have watched a halfway decent zombie movie in the past decade, it’s safe to say that you can predict every halfhearted twist and turn Redfall has to offer. There is a lot of dialogue to be skipped through in Redfall, but the thing is that the game would be better off without it. And even though the game has a few dozen missions, there’s blimey-all pretence to Redfall’s story, or a narrative for that matter. After a forgettable introduction that vaguely establishes why lamia-esque beings are snacking on the locals, you’re tasked with clearing out a small open world area because, well, that’s what video game protagonists do. The team’s 2023 title puts you in the shoes of four possible vampire slayers in a coastal town that’s recently been taken over by a bunch of blood suckers. However, for reasons that can only be speculated on, none of these exist in Redfall, which is easily the most forgettable AAA game to release in years. Their titles, with the sole exception of Wolfenstein: Youngblood are the very definition of instant classics, with each one sporting great visuals, unique gameplay and fun narratives. Arkane, the studio responsible for the phenomenal Dishonored series, DeathLoop and Prey 2017 is one of the best in the business. ![]() For the first time in my video games journalism career, I need to break whatever our equivalent of the fourth wall is to say that I feel bad about hating Redfall. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |