Review: Redfall is a refreshing loot shooter, even if it doesn’t play to Arkane’s strengths

videogameschronicle.com:

The most perplexing thing about Redfall is how simple it is. Fans of Arkane’s inimitable immersive simulators should measure their expectations before arriving in the game’s titular town, as it’s more vampire Borderlands than Dishonored with added Dracula.

This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. As an open-world co-op shooter, Redfall is a refreshing entry into the genre that more or less hits all the right notes. But by its very nature, the storytelling has to be more immediate and linear, and chaos reigns without a save/load system to control it. Even as a solo player, there’s much less opportunity to outthink your enemies and thoughtfully engage with the carefully-crafted environments Arkane is famous for in Redfall.

Instead, the broad experience feels familiar, with health bars, damage numbers, and loads of randomised loot. Spread across two sizable open-world maps, you’ll clear out theatres, clinics and museums, liberating neighbourhoods and establishing safe houses, Far Cry style.

You’re rewarded with XP that you can leverage to explore the branches of your skill tree, and Support, an all-encompassing currency used to buy weapons and stock up on health kits and tools. Ultimately, you’re trying to corner the bloodsuckers who have drained the life from this unfortunate Massachusetts town.

Before your arrival, a quartet of wannabe vampire gods hoodwinked the populace of Redfall, made many locals ‘go missing’ and raised an undulating tide around its borders so that no one could get in or out. What’s left is a vicious economy of deluded cultists and private military goons in thrall to their garlic-fearing overlords. Both sides want to squash the dwindling resistance to please the top dogs, and they make sure you know it with