Arkane Austin's co-op vampire shooter Redfall is arguably one of the most underwhelming game releases of 2023, but just because it got off to a rough start, it doesn't mean Bethesda is done with it. There have already been some minor patches for the game, and apparently, the studio is still working on other updates like a 60FPS mode.
If you are at all concerned about the game's future though, Bethesda Softworks' publishing head Pete Hines recently told GamesIndustry.biz that the company is not done with Redfall yet, and insists the team at Arkane will "keep working on it", like how Bethesda "stuck with" The Elder Scrolls Online and Fallout 76 after bumpy launches:
"We are the same company that has had launches that didn't go the way we wanted, and we don't quit or abandon stuff just because it didn't start right. The Elder Scrolls Online's PC launch was not flawless but we stuck with it. Now it's like this insanely popular multiplatform. It's the same with Fallout 76. Redfall is no different for us."
Hines also reiterated how the 60FPS update for Redfall is still on the way and noted how the title would likely be around for a very long time because Game Pass lives "forever":
"Okay, we didn't get the start we wanted, but it's still a fun game… and we're going to keep working on it. We're going to do 60FPS. We're going to get it to be a good game because we know, as a first-party studio, Game Pass lives forever. There will be people ten years from now who are going to join Game Pass, and Redfall will be there."
So, there you go - Redfall will improve over time according to Bethesda, and eventually get an FPS patch. The existing minor patches have already resolved a number of issues tied to gameplay, combat, AI/NPC, environment, multiplayer, accessibility, UI, and improved the game's performance and stability.
Have you given Redfall another go since the recent patches? Do you think Bethesda and Arkane Austin will turn this one around in time? Leave your thoughts below.
[source gamesindustry.biz, via ign.com]
Comments 45
Didn't it take years before fallout 76 got in a good place? If so then I hope it doesn't take years for Redfall to be in a good place as well.
It doesn't matter if they improve upon the game's technical issues. The game is fundamentally not that good. It's a bland shooter with little variety and unsatisfying gameplay. There are plenty of other shooters more worth your time than Redfall.
I played and completed Redfall solo and i liked it. It had a satisfying gameplay loop
7/10
however Arkane should move on and make something else rather than waste time and resources trying to revive the games reputation
That game needs a ton of work to be even close to games like Borderlands...and when is it going to improve? It took ESO years to become popular.
Is keyboard and mouse finally working in Redfall on Xbox? It was stated it works but has not been for weeks after release...is atleat this fixed already?
I don't think its a bad game but its not a very good one either. They could add a flawless 60fps with RT included and remove every single bug but the core design issues are still there, FO76 got "good" because they leaned more into making it like FO3/NV with the updates but Redfall can't be transformed like that.
Much like Fallout 76, the launch was so disastrous that I’ll never go back to the game. Too many other, more interesting titles will release the next three or so years it takes for this to reach passable status that I doubt I’ll have time or desire to return to this.
I've always thought it was pretty good.
Not a good look for Bethesda and Arcane - basically they are admitting they knew the game was rubbish at launch but they still let it out the door. Why? They should have delayed - we are now four months on from launch and there’s still no 60fps mode and more issues with AI, bugs, graphical glitches, etc on top.
Communication from the studio has been pathetic over the past few months - weeks and weeks of zero information despite constant requests from players (see their Twitter, sorry X, feed).
Bethesda might think it’s ‘ok’ to release a game in this state as its on Gamepass and users will be more forgiving but that’s a lame excuse and even if some are then what about those that paid £70 for this on Day 1 or £99 for the Bite-Back Edition?
I’d love to see this game fixed and deserving of my time (it was the game I was looking forward to most in 2023) but at the moment it is still an almighty Red-Fail.
@trev666 same, i beat the game solo around 30 hours and while it needed another 6 months in the oven. I liked the art style and seen that with some more work the game could be fun. I love loot games and i think they could expand on that more and of course 60fps and some graphical tweaks would be welcomed. But i would dive back into it again once more updates and fixes come along. I am going to go just slightly less than you and go 6/10 but i think this game has enough style and story to expand and actually get pretty good. This news article made me happy to see so that means i must actually want to see more from the game.
Although I am in favour of fixing or improving bad games when it can truly be done, sometimes I wish the assets from these failed AAA games would just be handed to smaller teams to see what they can do with them.
Don't think this game can be fixed the bugs and performance issues are the least of it's problem it's just a bland boring game.
Just remove it from everywhere and forget about this "game" like about bad dream. Nobody really care about it.
@somnambulance 76 had the Fallout name to give it a chance of redemption, Redfall has nothing to fall back on. It doesn’t stand out in a sea of online co-op shooters, it’s a hard genre to break into anyway. Least we got some funny memes from its launch 😄
I think just leave it now. People aren’t going to come back to it. It’s missed it’s chance.
Focus on new games, then MS can start from Starfield and hopefully hit success after success.
@trev666 I bet you they have already started their 'next' game but as you don't need 'everyone' at the 'start' of development as some aspects need others to have finished their 'work' before they can start 'their' part in the development, you can still 'work' on fixing issues with this.
You can't animate faces for example without the voice work being carried out or maybe need some concept art to start work on creating the 'environments' for example. Therefore I doubt it will have a major impact on them making 'new' games.
It makes sense to improve the game too as it 'improves' the overall library of games offered by MS/Game Pass. In 10yrs time, you have new generation of gamers that may enjoy Redfall - especially if its improved.
I haven't 'restarted' playing it yet as I 'wait' for improvements - like I haven't restarted Cyberpunk yet either but understand that is a very different 'experience' now to the Launch code. Some would even say its a 'great' RPG now and turned the game around, same with NMS for example too...
Even if they patched it as much as Fallout 76, I'd rather play Fallout 76... and even that's not very high on the co-op session list compared to other co-op and or multiplayer games.
That's good to hear. I've played it for 40 hrs and left it to play again after it was fixed. It will never be a great game but I like the art style/atmosphere and combat with vampires.
It's terrible full stop just move in and wheres this 60 fps mode ??
I am going to give them the benefit of the doubt that it will improve over time. The great thing is that I have lots to play until then…
people go on about a 60fps mode the speed of movement in Redfall is astonishing
Don't they realize you only get one chance to make a good impression?
They'll never recover this game. They should just move on. Fallout 76 it doesn't even matter if it's great now it will never be taking serious by 99% of people. The damage was done.
I'll never be interested in this one due to the art style. Hopefully it's a small team patching the game while the rest of the studio has moved on to something new.
This is good news. I personally enjoyed Redfall.
I stopped playing it due to just more high priority games taking focus (Tears of the Kingdom), but I do plan to return at some point.
The 30fps doesn't feel bad at all. Other than some traversal stutter, the framerate is consistent. Sure, 60fps would be ideal, but it's not as if 30fps is this unplayable mess that people make it out to be.
I think the map could be populated out a little more. I think more can be done with Safe House missions. Perhaps working in some kind of story mechanic that lets you traverse between the two sections would be good. Maybe they add more vampire variety (Nerfing that blood sucker would be nice, too). There are a ton of things that can be tweaked for a better experience for players to make it less boring or bland.
Sure, the main story game loop probably won't change much, but they can probably change the way main missions work to provide a wider variety of accomplishing those story missions. They could always add substories to dive deeper into each of the main NPCs of the game, too - maybe with some juicier rewards.
I feel like the sky is the limit because the way it's all structured can be improved and expanded without having to make a whole new game.
I look forward to doing another run for Redfall. I enjoyed my first playthrough.
Cool, I can always go back to it. I probably put 6-8 hrs into the game. I thought it was solid. I just got bogged down with totk so I dropped it.
I played 40+ hours, completing the game. It was like an examination of game design — good and bad. Some of the bad stuff was head-scratching bad. A lot of work would be needed to make a real turnaround. There's not much complexity to the buildings like Dishonored.
However, I suppose fixing AI and combat would go a long way, couple with QoL fixes. Maybe revamp and expand the skill trees. Not so much for a person who spent the time I did to playthrough again, but for newcomers.
Well this will really show what Microsoft is capable of doing under Phil
it’s a forgotten game like it should be
I would just cut my losses if I were them and move on to a new project. ESO and 76 were big names with a lot of franchise recognition, hence why they had a chance at being salvaged after a bad launch. Redfall is a new IP, and one that fell flat on its face right out the front door. It'd be a waste of time and money to spend years trying to fix it.
Is it a great game? No
Did I enjoy playing it? Yes
I mean, they could have just released a good game to begin with.
Also I don't remember ESO ever being bad.
Beel playing it all the way back to when I was paid to test the pre alpha.
My only gripe, that persists to this day, is that you cannot swim under water like you've been able to in literally every other Elder Scrolls.
I liked Redfall alot. I would play it again.
Game needs a lot of love. It wasn’t terrible imo but a lot of the Multiplayer mechanics were pretty broken.
I am all for improving games that need improvement. But, why not ship a game that is solid on day one?
What a concept.
I do like Microsoft's dedication in getting this game to where it should have been on day one. But, at the same time delaying it 6 months or a year could've made the game much better.
The bonkers thing is that it's stayed around 70 for the physical copies.
I was pretty excited about the " Salems Lot, Far Cry" but everything I've read is that this game is still just not good.
Support is fair but I mean. Was it supposed to be live service? Otherwise first impressions mean a lot, especially for $70, $100 or whatever per region let alone Gamepass.
Also Arkane making a game structure they aren't used to. Sure Avalanche came over it with Hogwarts Legacy but it isn't perfect either. Just these scale more manageable due to the world size and how filled in it was/the licensed helped them somewhat/limited depending.
Redfall tried but not sure what to think.
If people give word of mouth about it, it doesn't help it can ruin it. If people wanted a vampire enemies, different characters Far Cry then sure besides the odd AI/bugs. It had some value (as far as the descriptions go at least, I don't know how it actually is I have to check reviews/footage to be sure again, I haven't played it, not interested in open worlds).
Sure many can recover or those that stick with it and hopefully if goes well it will be a fine game, but it depends. Many will still stick to regardless of what happened years ago, others will forgive it, others will not, but we shouldn't have to forgive publishers and what devs were required to do. It's why Indies have some control but depends what publisher if they are a big Independent company.
Players that were already interested in the game, a percentage stick with it, a percentage pull away from it.
As an example. I'm not into Forza Motorsport 8/reboot because I literally have other than the grid position payout feature (cough Ride 5 a AA game can do split screen what's the excuse Turn 10, priorities) that's the only thing I'm excited about, have no idea what the games offered, they haven't actually provided anything else for me to care about.
Other than hating online requirements because reasons of DRM and cheating and all that, even singleplayer like seriously?
Also accessibility where is the wifi/no internet accessible people Microsoft? Hmm.... What about bad server connection drop outs. Hmm....
The menus are not clear. To me if career progression and menus aren't clear I'm not interested. Menus/career modes and physics that's it or else I don't buy a racing game.
I only bought Forza Motorsport 6 to finish the Xbox One set, otherwise it's my most hated in the series.
No footage made it clear what it was, neither did reviews.
Trailers for Motorsport 8 sucked and were montages so how can I get excited. It sounds like when people sick of seeing racing game trailers, well try being someone that 'wants' to be excited but can't because they show you nothing compelling.
I had to work with the extended events.
Sure they showed more but I still am not excited/still confused what the game actually offers, even youtubers didn't help that much.
The RPG systems make me laugh at the state of the industry, I want more grid payout out like interesting features, not oh RPG elements that will be a direction to take the game, yeah thanks game industry your lazy, actually come up with something more exciting. Or go back in time and look at features that haven't been done. Sure I get time of day/night races those were fair I get that finally doing that is something but I don't want just 'realism' I want compelling features of other sorts too.
Quality of life, or actual changes not just oh the liveries, these cars/tracks and tire wear, I couldn't care less.
Where is my Sega GT car builder? Huh been waiting 20+ years for that feature to appear in a game again then AAA standards and other priorities (licensing is the focus and advertising cars not fictional ones or unique systems for more event types) I doubt a patent for it exists/or is still active. I think Apex (by Milestone) might have done it too but I haven't played it/watched enough footage yet I still need to.
Or anything else exciting then RPG systems. Especially oh RPG systems from open worlds in a racing game. No thanks. I already ignore gear score (I know the benefits but I've never found the system helpful even for what gauging it can do) I mean PP, I mean PI points to scale things and just go off stats and what I already know about the cars to do events.
I literally booted up Ride 4 yesterday and it has the Forza Motorsport 2 region system but isn't just oh you start with those cars it's actually restricted to those regions until the end of a point in the game. Yes should sound worse or as restrictive as FM6 but I haven't played far enough yet to comment. But I was surprised. Also 24hr endurance, a time/day system. Haven't had 24hr since GT4? Maybe another has I don't know none of the niche ones I've looked into have such stuff and well MSR had the clock time of day in city thing. Test Drive Le Man/Grid 2008 24 minute Le Man and a day/night cycle so the larger scale I don't know as GT7/Forza have been trying to do.
Sure it could limit things but man Milestone actually pulled it off. As restricted as it could be I could hate it I am well aware but for now I'll see (also if it has the Ride 1&2 special events in-between like Grid 2008 Le Man events cycle in and out then I'm fine with that to spice it up besides the auto cross and more from Ride 3 in there too? I mean Ride 1 & 2 had the events and a mix of races, time trials, head to head and more so if this has a FM5 variety while being linear championships and not FM6 separated I'll not hate it and enjoy it if all races then yeah it can get boring) and go well kind of glad FM2 didn't do it and only did it for the starting region not the whole campaign.
(unless I beat the world championship to open it up or I start free with another region and it's focused limited track selection).
But I mean it's better than FM6 where car classes were just there (and too casual only, not for veterans too like FM4 did for multiple audiences not 1 audience and the game being worse for it, that's not wide appeal that's 1 audience wide appeal and annoying other audiences (cough roulette breaking progression and made no sense and you can't even use the fast cars besides multiplayer/arcade mode so why bother? PGR 2 fast car access immediately quote than PGR3 solved Turn 10 there like what XD) and I had no track selection at all and mods weren't that satisfying.
At least here even if no track selection it's at least restricted to regions what tracks I do and has a focus. A focus on tracks/bike restrictions while annoying I can take then showcases like FM5 and more (1 lap magic woo) in FM6 to be separated and the only thing I liked about FM6 as the career mode sucked.
The same studio that introduced the rewind system to the world in 2006, before Grid 2008/Forza Motorsport 3 2009, let alone RPG points to build up that rewind limit and other elements. Says a lot when some AA devs can still have it in them to try things. Sure Ride 2 copied the FM6 car class intros but if they can bring back/actually change up their formula with the FM2 approach to just try something new for their games even if yes it wasn't as fully approached in FM2 I'm all for it than bland design FM8 has.
I don't know enough about the Redfall, it's not my kind of game anyway but still.
I just used Forza Motorsport as an example as it's on my mind after Ride 4 yesterday besides that the same can happen with any games, any genre, any devs game design decisions (not to mention I play racing games for gameplay not oh car nostalgia and customisation and such couldn't care less even though like cars because of racing games) and going wow......
The racing genre has a chance for something interesting to happen (or open worlds , hack n slashes, platformers and more) even if it's bikes and I don't even care for bikes but with gameplay directions changing per game 'm totally buying them if that happens (hoping Ride 5 doesn't do a Ride 4 I want it to be a one time thing or an 'option' like FM4 was or something giving player choice not too casual only but will see, even if I had to do the tutorial 10 times to get the time and their invalid times thing annoys me and the bike physics/turning can be awkward but I get used to it eventually XD).
It is a great game for me.
A 7.5/10. And most of the lost points was because the frequent disconnections from Bethesda's server.
Otherwise the game loop was great. Had fun playing it.
I finished the game in pc and had really fun with it, 7/10 because it had performance issues mostly, gameplay and gunplay was pretty nice. The only reazon I would go back to it woold be coop.
The think is ESO and Fallout 76 are, basically, MMOs. Those are the kind of game where a company and developer are geared up for a long tail and expanding the game for many years.
Redfall was supposed to be a standard release so I doubt there's that many people still working on it. The devs would have moved onto another project, or been let go.
From the behind the scenes stuff I've read this is a classic mess of a mismanaged project.
This has been a trend for a number of xbox games for a while
Really hope they do fix the game up. I've enjoyed what played and really love to see it get even better.
@BAMozzy The whole thing with cyberpunk for me is not so much the game as it is the UI, inventory screen, quest tracking, etc.
CDPR games always fail in those areas at least for me. Every game. The witcher 2 and 3 suffered from it. My thought is from day one all their games are designed to be played on PC with consoles to be an afterthought for just a port.
Is a shame because the game I would actually play and enjoy. Pretty much my base rules for any game. If I spend more time fighting the game (controls, camera, UI, inventory management, quest tracking) than enemies in the game. I'm out. I'm done. And I'm not coming back. Play games to enjoy myself. If wanted to deal with frustration, I'd just go back to work.
@GuyinPA75 well that's an individual thing but my point is every game is competing for your 'time' - whether a new game is 'worth' the cost or 'worth' your time on Game Pass or even 'combination' will vary - all I really hope is the 'quality' of the final product and that to me is the consistency and bug free experience at launch - the rest is subjective.
Its a massive step up from anything Bethesda has released at launch and still a 'typical' Bethesda Game at its core - for 'better' or 'worse' compared to maybe what 'you' expected or 'compared' to what some 'other' games are doing in this 'next-gen' era...
From what I have played so far - its a major step up from Fallout 4 and feels a lot more 'mobile' to. Combat feels more responsive that's for sure and certainly more 'solid' too but It still 'looks' and in a lot of ways 'feels' like a typical Bethesda game shifted to a 'space' setting and the 'potential' it could grow into - like ES and Fallout as 'IP's' have become. A 'much' bigger scope for 'modders' who are extremely excited by the potential I bet...
But it may not be for everyone and maybe 'frustrating' for a while but if you don't think things are for you, worth persisting with, its not as if there isn't other Games you'd rather spend 'time/money' on to play so they are all competing for your time inc those you already have 'access' to (bought/subscription etc) and if something isn't more appealing than the game you are currently playing, you'll not play whatever games are 'available' regardless of how 'appealing' they maybe to others...
Its a game almost everyone will play one time. Thats it. Its not an ongoing game at all. When your done with it, your done with it. This is a regular STORY game with Co-op. Its nothing like ESO or Fallout 76, those game have are intended to be played as on going games. Redfall is not. Should of made it how it should of been to begin with, do they not see the difference in the TYPE of game it is?
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