Is The Negative Reaction To Redfall Fueled By The Past Triumphs Of Arkane

There has been a considerable amount of negative coverage of the new game

Redfall and while much of the criticism for the game is valid; there are
times that I think the game may be a victim of the past hits of Arkane.I want to say at the start that I was not provided any review code for the
game as it does seem that after the initial wave of bad reviews emerged
radio-silence followed and the usually reliable media support for a
Bethesda release did not happen this time around.I opted to use Game Pass for my PC build of the game and I was frustrated off the bat with the lack of online matching which negated the multiplay for me even after hitting up various community forums and Discord to try to find players venture with online.Undaunted I plugged away solo and as time went on I found myself being
drawn into the world of the game more and more with each moment that
passed. The gameplay, weapons, and story may have seen a bit dated but did
hold my attention despite glaring issues such as bags of loot just
floating in the air, Vampires, who just stand in place and do not react
when shot or when you walk past, or enemy A.I. who often stand in place or
run past you in the middle of the action.

The issues with the game have been abundantly detailed in several reviews
and articles but the more that I played the game; the more I was drawn
into it and found myself eagerly looking to eliminate the various Boss
Vampires and continue the story.

I started to think that one of the biggest issue with the game is the
company that produced it. Having created the Dishonored series as well as
the successful relaunch of Prey and Deathloop; the bar was set very high for Redfall and
I did find myself asking if a smaller company had created the same game;
would we have seen such a negative response.

Redfall was the first High-Profile commercial Xbox PC exclusive released under Bethesda after they
were purchased by Microsoft and there does seem to be a segment of the
gaming community that had chilled on the game before launch and had alarm
bells sound prior to that when the game was delayed from the original
release date even though that is very common for games.It will be interesting to see if the game will continue to be patched and what new content may arrive down the line for it or will they simply cut bait and switch their focus to Starfield and future gaming projects.With Quakecon scheduled later this summer and a Microsoft showcase next month; gamers will hopefully get some questions answered but for now while I wonder what Redfall would have been like with more time and attention; I
do have to say that the game is not as bad as I had feared and despite
numerous issues their is a framework in place for an enjoyable game.

2 Comments

  1. Anon said:

    That’s a pretty weak way to look at it. Redfall is a mess and claiming that we people expect too much because previous games were better … I mean isn’t that the point of new games??

    May 16, 2023
    • gareth said:

      Look at it this way; The Last of Us was a horrific port and it got a fraction of the heat that Redfall did. It has loads of bugs but is at least more stable and playabale than TLOU was. If it was from a small developer vs Arkane and Bethesda many might say loads of bugs and when they fix them it will be fun. I have actually found it fun and engaging even with the issues. Yes it is far from perfect but there is something to it.

      May 16, 2023

Comments are closed.