Redfall reviews have dropped (at the same moment the game went live on Xbox, PC, and Game Pass, it turns out). The latest game from Bethesda developer Arkane Studios has divided critics, with many feeling the game, pitched as a vampire-hunting multiplayer romp, doesn’t reflect the studio’s pedigree. Arkane is known for being the developer of games like Dishonored, Prey and Deathloop. These immersive sims rewarded player experimentation, driven by pulpy art direction that gave the studio’s games a unique feel. By contrast, reviewers considered Redfall rather more paint-by-numbers, a watering down of the Arkane formula that has more in common with a production-line open-world loot shooter produced by Ubisoft. And that’s before the performance issues rear their head, of which there are reportedly a great many.
A note for transparency: Kotaku Australia did not have a Redfall review prepped for embargo, as Bethesda has the Kotaku brand on a global media blacklist and has for many years.
The Aussies
In Australia, the highest score came from Stevivor, awarding Redfall a 7.5 out of 10, whose review accepted the game’s flawed fundamentals but wasn’t left cold by them. I hope Steve finds someone who can get him that last 17 Gamerscore.
OK, but seriously, why make an Xbox chievo worth 17 Gamerscore? Unhinged. Diabolical. Gamerscore should be awarded in lots of 5 or 10 only. I don’t even care about my Gamerscore and that annoys me.
Moving on.
Next up was Player 2, with a 6.7, saying “(t)he crime of mediocrity is often more disappointing than the crime of simply being terrible and that feels especially true here.”
Oof.
P2 was swiftly followed by Press Start, kinder than most (as they often are), but still unimpressed at a 6.5: “If you are able to look beyond the game’s several questionable design choices, Redfall can serve up just a small bite of mindless fun beneath the island’s black hole sun.”
Further down, Gameshub came in at a 6 out of 10, saying “(t)here is a sense of more hiding beneath the surface of Redfall; and an urge to find it is what pushes you onward through endless vampire skirmishes. But while pieces of promised treasure are sprinkled throughout, Redfall never shines quite as brightly as it should.”
WellPlayed was the lowest of the lot, at a 4.5, calling it “(a) disappointing take on open-world first-person shooters, Redfall has none of the flavour or mechanical finesse that we’ve come to expect from Arkane Studios.”
Checkpoint Gaming filed a review in progress, and tried to give the game the benefit of the doubt (before giving it a swift kick in the backside): “Redfall is an interesting concept with some valid ideas, some cool lore, and some great moments driven by solid visual design and a knack for leaning into the supernatural. But with a vapid and dull open world, excruciating mission design, constant backtracking, and a plethora of performance issues—this release ends up sucking the life out of you one dumb glitch at a time.”
The Rest of the World
Review coverage did not fare much better beyond Australian shores. We Got This Covered wrote one of only a handful of glowing reviews, calling it “Arkane’s latest masterpiece.” XboxEra was mystified by some of its design choices, but tried to look for the positives.
At a 7, Game Rant felt the experience had strong bones but that the rest of the package rang a bit hollow: “Redfall is ultimately a fun experience thanks to the world, the enemies, and the gunplay itself, but as a whole, it’s an incredibly shallow one too.”
Gamespot really didn’t like it, saying “I can’t pretend to know whether Arkane chose to make a loot shooter or was assigned to make a loot-shooter, but I can tell you what it feels like: one of the best game studios in the world suddenly made toothless.”
Ouch.
Eurogamer‘s Redfall review in progress also tried to look for the positives, but its outlook wasn’t sunny: “The tech seems to be creaking and some of the ideas – the loot and other assorted Destinyisms – might possibly have been imposed from above. But this game already has an awful lot of charm, and that’s much harder to patch in after the fact.”
Redfall is out today on Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC, and Game Pass.
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