Redfall Hands-on & Q&A – Harvey Smith Talks Length, Open World Challenges, and Differences with Previous Games

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Arkane Studios is quite the unique game developer in the triple-A development scene. They've been known to make critically acclaimed games in niche genres like immersive simulations and continue on this path even though the sales are perhaps not as high as they would like (and as the games would deserve, I might add).

With their next game, Redfall, the Austin-based Texan branch is once again dipping its toes into something new, even though the direction is certainly a popular one these days. This will be their first open world and their first co-op multiplayer game.

I had the chance to play the game for around ninety minutes earlier this month during a preview event hosted by Bethesda in London. Let's clarify something right away: there have been discussions on various forums and social media where Redfall was compared to games such as Left 4 Dead, Back 4 Blood, and the like.

While the preview session was limited to solo play and co-op play with three or four players will be more chaotic, as admitted by Harvey Smith himself during our one-on-one Q&A (the entire transcript of which is available below), I'm confident to say that Redfall is very different from those games. Whereas those co-op focused titles include AI bots and have only the skeleton of a narrative, Arkane's game played solo is very immersive and strongly based on taking in all of the storytelling that the developers have disseminated throughout the island, whether of the environmental or traditional kind.

Beyond this important distinction, while playing by myself, I could definitely see that the Arkane DNA is clear in this game, albeit with a few differences. First of all, the atmosphere is top-notch, and it's one of the reasons why I believe this game will be