In many, since thatXbox e Bethesda Developer Direct of January, they looked forward to Redfall, presented as a challenging open world shooter with ruthless bloodthirsty vampires (literally). Expectations have grown a lot over the months and now that the game has arrived it’s time to understand if Redfall is really the title we expected: let’s find out in our review.
Redfall is available May 2 on Xbox Series X|S and PC (from day one also on Game Pass). So we’ve spent this last week hunting vampires, trying to hide the neck and reloading the stake thrower to tear apart those funny guys who love to drink Bloody Marys.
But let’s start at the beginning: what is Redfall?
Well it is essentially one first person shooter set in a (not so vast) open world represented by a town called, precisely, Redfall. The incipit of the story is apparently trivial: a quiet town is overrun by a vampire apocalypse. The plot, however, although it never completely convinces, manages to untie itself from the typical clichés of the genre, leading the player to put the pieces together as the story progresses.
Vampire that barks doesn’t bite
At the start of the campaign the player will be asked to choose between four different heroes, each with three unique characteristics and powers. Through the most classic of progression systems, it will be possible to enhance the chosen hero, both accumulating XP (and thus leveling up) than by spending i skill points. So far nothing too revolutionary.
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Once he arrives in Redfall our hero will start making allies (but also many enemies). In fact, the island is populated not only by ruthless vampires, but also by hostile mercenaries and special forces, who will not fail to take up their guns to take you out. From this point of view the gameplay mixes well stealth mechanics with open field shootings which, however, never worry the player too much.
I Human enemies are mostly weak, unable to react adequately to your attack, and will look more like a pack of pacifist hippies than military special forces. On the other hand i vampireswith a wide variety of different species, will be more difficult and will have unique characteristics.
This difference in the fights is also reflected well on thearsenal at the player’s disposal. Weapons, which can be purchased at the base or found around the map, consist of shotguns, assault rifles, and snipers (for fighting humans), but there will also be stun guns, UV weapons and flare guns to slay vampires. These, if weakened with normal weapons, leave the heart exposed: at that point you will be able to pierce them mercilessly, perhaps by insulting them.
Redfall’s review: no use crying over spilled blood
Also interesting is the loot mechanics offered by the game. Again nothing innovative or particularly excellent, but a simple mechanic that succeeds in the task of enticing the player to look around. Thanks to grimaldelli you will be able to break into the trunks of cars which, who knows why, always contain rifles. But they are Americans, we are not surprised.
The open world is really narrow, although the game map offers its unique points of interest. By unlocking historic points and shelters, it will be possible to activate fast travel, which is essential to avoid getting killed on the street.
Death in Redfall is not an eventuality, it’s a certainty!
In case of KO the player returns to the closest refuge/history point, recovering some of the ammo and the entire health bar. Enemies weakened in the previous action will remain as you left them. So even after dying 25 times, you will gradually be able to complete your quest.
About the missions: although they are part of an absolutely inconsistent storyline, the quests are well divided into main, secondary and even tertiary missions. Already because, wandering around the city, you may come across vampire nests. These will take you into a sort of Upside down Strangerthingsiano, in which you will have to destroy the heart of the nest and escape unharmed.
A lot of Red but also a lot of falls
After the first 30 minutes in which we were greatly disappointed by Redfall (remember the expectations at the beginning of this review?) the game begins to mesh. However there are many, perhaps even too many, holes and bugs presenti.
Some vampires, even bosses, disappear into thin air. The enemies get stuck in the map and the character, we don’t really know why, refuses to duck. All bugs that require restarting the game to be fixed. Since saving is only automatic, restarting, if you don’t return to the main menu first, could lead to loss of progress.
Added to this is an absolutely inconsistent narrative (if not for small flashes). The story is shown through still slides, narrated by the character’s voice. No cutscenes, no cut-scenes.
Summing up: how is Redfall?
If you approach the game without too much expectation, accepting that the first half hour will be a constant death/respawn cycle, then you might like Redfall. The game is also fun to play, especially in co-op up to 4 players, but it lacks a solid narrative structure at all.
Enemies are never real threats, except for some vampires, e the numerous bugs will make you want to bare your neck and invite the vampires to ease the suffering of yet another reboot. Despite this, the open world aspect leaves you with the possibility to choose the approach for each single mission and to wander around Redfall without too many obligations.
Replayability is guaranteed, but also limited, by the four selectable heroes. It would have been much more interesting to offer the possibility of switching them during the campaign. But no, to test the skills of a new hero you have to start all over from scratch. And the game, in its current state, certainly doesn’t want to do it.
PRO
- Good variety of weapons
- Great variety of vampires
- Different heroes with unique abilities
- Included in the Xbox Game Pass catalog
- Beautiful music
- Good progression system
- Staking vampires with stakes is fun
- Co-op
AGAINST
- Artificial intelligence of human enemies very artificial and not very intelligent
- Tanti bug
- inconsistent plot
- No footage
- Certain death for the first part of the game
- Inability to switch between heroes without starting from scratch