Redfall's final update arrives with offline mode as Arkane Austin devs praise their departing colleagues

rockpapershotgun.com:

Arkane Austin's ailing vampire shooter Redfall has received its final update, as the developers themselves are purged by parent company Microsoft. Announced a few weeks back, Redfall game update 4 introduces a much-requested offline mode and single-player pausing, together with some new in-game progression features and activities: a Community Standing bar whereby Support currency can be spent on rewards from the Safehouse Skill tree, and Elder Nests, aka vampire nests with specially modified vampire bosses. That's in addition to new enemy encounters in Redfall Commons, improved AI and a new Unrivaled Weapon.

The new Elder Nests will appear around Redfall much like Heart Nests, and are distinguished by a purple glow. Slay the boss vampire lurking within, and you'll earn a temporary Heart Shard buff that scales to campaign difficulty. As for the revamped Neighbourhood stuff, there are six ranks of Community Standing encompassing 39 permanent buffs, from cosmetics appearing on your map and compass to an Escape Plan buff that activates a salvaged Bellwether cloak for 10 seconds when your health is critical.

"All the upgrades from the Community Standing Skill Tree are meant to provide you with a mixture of QoL and gameplay benefits," the developers note. "A few of the traits will even help collectors finish out their hunt for cosmetics and Grave Locks. You can read more about the patch on Bethesda's official site.

Microsoft announced that Arkane Austin together with Hi-Fi Rush developers Tango Gameworks would close on May 7th, in what Xbox's Matt Booty termed a "consolidation of our Bethesda studio teams, so that we can invest more deeply in our portfolio of games and new IP."

Arkane Austin's other works include the wonderful Prey. Redfall isn't nearly as captivating, but I think even detractors would agree that it harboured the spark of something greater, with an engrossing setting and visual direction that were spoiled by bugs, a shortage of compelling