Here we go, folks. The team at Digital Foundry has taken another look at Redfall after Arkane delivered its huge '2.0' update — the one that introduced 60FPS on Xbox Series X and S — earlier this month. The big takeaway here is that the new 60FPS mode, and other improvements, put Redfall in a much better place - but the patch certainly isn't perfect.
Here's what the outlet had to say on the game's new performance profile; as of Redfall Update 2:
"Performance in the updated version of Redfall is mostly quite good, with some caveats. The quality mode on both consoles now operates at a locked 30fps, with no frame-rate issues as far as I can tell. It's a big improvement from the launch release, which suffered from frame-time hiccups during open-world traversal, and could exhibit some issues with a screen full of alpha. Even though it might not seem impressive at first glance, Redfall has clearly seen some CPU optimisation work, which produces a very stable experience.
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The performance modes actually manage to hit 60fps quite consistently. Most of the time, you're getting a flat 60fps readout, with no fluctuations at all. Traversal stutter does reappear, though in less pronounced form than on the launch release. Usually there's a short pocket containing some 33ms frames, and then the game returns to a flat frame-time line. I also noticed a couple of dips in combat during multiplayer play, though I suspect these may be CPU-related as well. It's not perfect, but clearly the game is much more friendly to the Xboxes' Zen 2 CPUs than it was at launch, and I think it's a satisfactory turnout on the whole."
So, yep, it sounds like Arkane has delivered very solid results in this department - players who were aggrieved with the game's performance back in May should be pretty happy with this new patch. However, not all of the game's issues have been fixed, and this analysis still takes issue with certain elements of Redfall post-patch.
Here's the outlet's overall take on the state of the game in October 2023:
"I played a fair amount of Redfall at launch and I do feel that the updated Xbox releases make for a substantially better game, as the basic gunplay is in a much better state at the higher frame-rate. Enemy AI seems to have been improved as well, and the game's analogue stick response is better by default. However, the mission design is still lackluster, and the world feels quite empty, even though the patch notes say the enemy density has been increased.
Assuming Arkane will continue development, clearly there are many areas for technical improvement, with some annoying visual glitches, oversights and outright bugs remaining in the updated code. I'm not sure that any amount of patching will make Redfall a truly good game, but Arkane has at least delivered the performance level it should have delivered at launch. And if this is the last hurrah for Redfall, at least the game is in much better form than it was five months ago."
Ultimately, opinions on Redfall are still likely to vary across the board - only you can decide if you think it's worth jumping back into after this new update. The added 60FPS mode sounds like a much-needed option though, and we're curious to see what you all make of the experience following this 2.0 update.
Have you had chance to play some Redfall since the update dropped? Let us know what you think of it down below.
[source eurogamer.net]
Comments 18
Im not coming back to this brainless game...not even at 120fps . The game structure itself is a letdown no matter what they do to fix its technical issues.
I'm still a big arkane fan ..but they just have to let go and stick to what they are good at. Single games with intriguing narrative
tbh i rather red fall over any ps4 or ps5 exclusive except death stranding.
The first step to redemption… Microsoft needs to show everyone that they will throw everything at this so that their reputation is not muddied…
@rustyduck
Oh my god….
I loved playing Redfall when it came out in May. Now, I have a great excuse to go back and play NG +.
@fabisputza007 Big fan of Arkane too, I haven't touched Redfall because the theme itself plus being MP never clicked with me.
Let me add that Deathloop sucked so hard it's insane how they kinda got away with it.
I hope that Dishonored 3 delivers, but for that to happen Arkane needs some "reestructuring" done.
I think this game was a 5 or 6 at launch and now it is a solid 6.5. Not worth buying but I would recommend the 12ish hours it takes to play the story on Game Pass. I played the whole campaign co-op and it was a good time.
Enjoyed the game at launch. Enjoy it today.
Hope they decide to go with it and make a new franchise.
@Nighto4 those are some harsh words for deathloop.
I ended up loving the game. Gotta admit the first 2-3hs, I didn't know what I was doing ..but then it all started to click.
Im cuirious..How much time did you spend with it?
@fabisputza007 +7 hours. I tried to like it, and some of the map design was actually good, but I found a lot of negatives:
-The loop gimmick gets old fast, and the whole game heavily relies on it
-For obvious reasons the enemies are repetitive but it wouldn't be an issue if the next point wasn't true
-The AI sucks, you can tell right away that it's worse than Dishonored especially while going for stealth
-Awful menus and UI design
The shooting is the only serviceable feature, and I had some fun during MP invasions but that's it.
30+ hours in Redfall from my playtime in May, and with 60fps is even better. Playing it all again, now with Layla (played with Devinder the first time)
Polishing a turd.
I'm actually impressed Arkane didn't abandon the game. But it feels like the are shaping and spraying perfume on a turd to make it more appealing. As they are improving upon the base game.... Its just the base game isn't good.
I've been replaying since the patch and the AI is definitely better. It could still use some work but definitely better than before. (Less respawns right on top of a enemy or in the middle of a fight.) The randomness of enemy spawns missing in the original release seems better as well.
Overall, it's a solid patch and if you liked it before but were frustrated, i recommend trying it again.
The 60fps helped as well. I'm close to finishing the hard mode which can be quite challenging at times when you're in lairs.
@Nighto4 Same for me, tried to like deathloop too, but could not get into the game after 5-6h of playing. I wish they release a new game like dishonored, which I like a lot.
@BobaTheFett hopefully in the future we will be able to mess with the Xbox series x clock speeds. I have my old ps3 RSX overclocked and it makes a big difference on certain games
No matter ,the game itself is garbage and if it wasn't on the game pass ,nobody would be mentioning it.
@BobaTheFett Considering my experience with the ps3 and PCs I overclocked over the years, any device really has some margin it can go above stock form. The main point is that the robustness will not be the same and the fans will make much more noise. For some this trade off is worth the benefits for the extra performance if they could choose to do it. Luckily, games today are generally better than some of the horrendous performance cases we had in ps3 era, but I would still like an overclocked Xbox sx just to see how much better it would do in more challenging games.
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