Review: Redfall

destructoid.com:

With Redfall, I keep going back to the beginning. In my review-in-progress from the start of this week, I opened with the game’s introduction, because it paints quite the picture: a town overrun by vampires, some so powerful they can blot out the sun and freeze the oceans in place. It’s a good horror set-up: you are the livestock, penned into the town of Redfall, and you will either fight or be food.

It’s not too long after the introduction that I started to feel those drives fall by the wayside, though. There are pieces of Arkane Austin here, from immersive elements and storytelling to a generally interesting stylistic direction. But it all falters under the weight of bugs, repetition, locked-off doors, and a loop that didn’t do much for me.

Redfall (PC [Reviewed], Xbox Series X|S)Developer: Arkane AustinPublisher: Bethesda Softworks Release: May 1, 2023 MSRP: $69.99 (also on Game Pass)

Arkane Austin’s Redfall is set in the titular town, which has been overrun by a cabal of vampires. There are both normal, blood-sucking vampires who can fly, rip, tear, and do short little teleports around the area. But your focus, as either a solo player or a crew, is on the small group of vampire ringleaders. They, along with their cultist followers and a private military hired to roll in and destroy corporate evidence of wrongdoing, are the primary villains and objectives you’ll be going after in each part of Redfall.

To do this, you’ll need to pick a character and assemble the team. Redfall has some good character design, but in play, each one felt a bit lacking. Part of this problem is you get a decent amount of exposition through co-op, so I didn’t learn too much about my character playing solo; when the fog-spewing vampire Miss