Board 8 > Redfall Review Zone

(+) Yeah! (+)

The embargo isn't actually until tonight when the game launches, but Noisy Pixel broke embargo so here we go. There was also another review on Youtube that was already taken down that was a 6/10. Will be interesting to see what it averages out to when all reviews start coming out.

Noisy Pixel - 4/10
https://noisypixel.net/redfall-review/

Redfall is an anomaly because a game with this good of a team behind cant possibly be this bad, and yet, it is. There are these drips of looter shooter, RPG, and multiplayer elements sprinkled throughout, but none of them work together, delivering a messy and almost incomprehensible experience. Still, gunplay and exploration stay consistently fun, thanks to the satisfaction of taking down enemies and the level design. That being said, the single-player campaign is dull, but the multiplayer campaign could provide bouts of fun comprised of laughing at the strange AI behavior or the fact that no one can find keys to a door.

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Xboner

Ah yes, embargos that end after the game releases

A sure sign of strength

isnt that the website that already dubbed it redfail before it even came out due to the 30 FPS thing?

Shame what Microsoft has done to Arkhane. This game screams of corporates meddling.

ACG also apparently tweeted out early (has since been taken down) calling this one of the worst games of the year. Super unfortunate but this does sound like a mess. Definitely agreed that this smacks of corporate meddling - the AAA checklist nature of it is so far removed from what Arkane usually does and it feels like there was no real vision of how to combine all of those boxchecking elements.

I don't really see corporate meddling here; Microsoft is pretty well known for being (almost too) hands-off with this stuff.

I mean, who really knows. I know a lot of talent have left Arkane, before and after the acquisition. Arkane has always been a bit underrated, imo. Dishonored series is fantastic, Prey is severely underrated, no comments on Deathloop, because I haven't played it yet, but it seems more of the same quality.

Shame whatever happened here.

RyoCaliente posted...

I don't really see corporate meddling here; Microsoft is pretty well known for being (almost too) hands-off with this stuff.

Yeah we're seeing a pattern of Microsoft staying out of the picture for far too long, letting their studios meander without a cohesive vision or push until it's too late.

Read Redwall instead.

Sorozone posted...

I mean, who really knows. I know a lot of talent have left Arkane, before and after the acquisition. Arkane has always been a bit underrated, imo. Dishonored series is fantastic, Prey is severely underrated, no comments on Deathloop, because I haven't played it yet, but it seems more of the same quality.

Shame whatever happened here.

from most of what Ive read it seems like a buggy half baked mess that was rushed to release and should have been delayed

it will likely be another game that gets a 70-75 MC score at release but in a year will be great but no one will play it because it had a garbage release

pezzicle posted...

from most of what Ive read it seems like a buggy half baked mess that was rushed to release and should have been delayed

it will likely be another game that gets a 70-75 MC score at release but in a year will be great but no one will play it because it had a garbage release

It did get delayed. It was supposed to come out last summer. I'm assuming the devs messed around with stuff for a while without firuging out anything worthwhile to do with the concept, then only actually brought it together due to impending deadlines.

RyoCaliente posted...

I don't really see corporate meddling here; Microsoft is pretty well known for being (almost too) hands-off with this stuff.

Could be corporate meddling from Zenimax too.

pezzicle posted...

from most of what Ive read it seems like a buggy half baked mess that was rushed to release and should have been delayed

it will likely be another game that gets a 70-75 MC score at release but in a year will be great but no one will play it because it had a garbage release

It could also mean they are cutting their losses. Perhaps a lack of faith the game can be saved and just want to recoop what they can and move on.

This is just one of those games that should have been canceled 1-2 years ago and probably under normal circumstances would have. But Microsoft really needs exclusives and big games on gamepass and probably hoped this could have been one.

hockeydude15 posted...

This is just one of those games that should have been canceled 1-2 years ago and probably under normal circumstances would have. But Microsoft really needs exclusives and big games on gamepass and probably hoped this could have been one.

Yeah, like Scalebound I guess

Previews were pretty positive so it's a bummer if it turns out to suck. But also wouldn't be the first time a game company had misleading preview areas...

https://opencritic.com/game/14768/redfall

Currently averaging a 65. Worse than Gotham Knights, haha.

Feels like there's already been a lot of high-profile flubs this year. Ranging from 'good but poorly optimized' (Jedi Survivor) to 'just not good' (Callisto Protocol) to 'previewed so badly it got panic-delayed' (Suicide Squad).

Callisto Protocol was last year, but Forspoken fits that bucket even better :)

Started it up on PC, gunplay seems good so far and was expecting much worse performance.
Haven't really looked into the game much so was surprised you pick one of 4 premade characters instead of making your own.

I don't care about Redfall at all but I'm honestly getting worried for Starfield

squexa posted...

I'm honestly getting worried for Starfield

You should have been worried about Starfield when they showed it and it was just Fallout.

UshiromiyaEva posted...

You should have been worried about Starfield when they showed it and it was just Fallout.

Fallout in space is all I need. I just hope it's not Fallout 76 in space.

Ive never been really excited about Starfield even though I love Bethesda RPGs.

a space setting where you can only be a human just seems so lame to me

let me be a weird space fish man or something

Fallout in space sounds nifty.

KamikazePotato posted...

Feels like there's already been a lot of high-profile flubs this year. Ranging from 'good but poorly optimized' (Jedi Survivor) to 'just not good' (Callisto Protocol) to 'previewed so badly it got panic-delayed' (Suicide Squad).

save_us.totk

We did have Hogwarts Legacy, which was a hit in every respect :p

Other than that, remakes and AA games (Octopath, Theatrhythm, Hi-Fi Rush (though the devs say this is AAA)) carrying .

Hogwarts Legacy, a well received AAA game with one of the most popular IPs in the world, infinite marketing, sold gangbusters....and nobody remembers, cares about, or will ever talk about it again.

That game fell off the face of the earth.

UshiromiyaEva posted...

Hogwarts Legacy, a well received AAA game with one of the most popular IPs in the world, infinite marketing, sold gangbusters....and nobody remembers, cares about, or will ever talk about it again.

That game fell off the face of the earth.

I don't think this is entirely true, although the shine definitely wore off once people got past the 20 hours mark. It's something the casuals will still appreciate. People more used to the open-world format, less so.

MacArrowny posted...

It did get delayed. It was supposed to come out last summer.

I meant again. Its very clearly not ready

I dont think Jedi Survivor should be listed as a flub. After all Fallen Order had the same issues at launch. Its the number 2 reviewed major game of the year that isnt a remake behind only Hi-Fi Rush. It is also selling in huge numbers.

As far as games doing well relative to their expectations goes, despite only reviewing okay Dead Island 2 has done much better in terms of both reception and sales than anybody thought it would. It is all about what you expect I suppose.

As for Hogwarts Legacy there is one main takeaway: get ready for a lot more single player AAA games based on established IP. Kind of wild it took this long.

It is a weird year where, four months in, Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty is the only original AAA game thats reviewed alright. Most of the big announced releases for the rest of the year are sequels and remakes too. Lot of pressure on Starfield to perform.

UshiromiyaEva posted...

Hogwarts Legacy, a well received AAA game with one of the most popular IPs in the world, infinite marketing, sold gangbusters....and nobody remembers, cares about, or will ever talk about it again.

That game fell off the face of the earth.

I mean nobody here will

UshiromiyaEva posted...

Hogwarts Legacy, a well received AAA game with one of the most popular IPs in the world, infinite marketing, sold gangbusters....and nobody remembers, cares about, or will ever talk about it again.

That game fell off the face of the earth.

Uh, I'm sure many people who talk about it are either choosing to not talk about it on the internet for obvious reasons or aren't on the same social platforms you are looking at.

Though it could be that it's just a single player experience. I haven't seem people talking much about elden ring lately for the same reason.

Maybe 3 or 4 hours in and enjoying it so far. Not quite Prey levels of enjoyment, but hard to top Prey's opening experience.

Playing as the stealth guy with the ghost bird and really enjoying the powers so far, they recharge so quickly that they feel like they're just about always at the ready.
Pretty fun to ping where enemies are with your bird and sneak around and pick them off (finding an OP hand cannon helps.) Later skill perks cause the bird to do damage and break into multiple copies whenever they hit anything, very much looking forward to that.

The setting/story kind of reminds me of Resident Evil, just replace zombies with vampires and add a little camp and occult overtones thrown in.

And performance has been surprisingly good based on what I was expecting, guess they did the opposite of Jedi Survivor and had the PC version ready to go before consoles.

I was tentatively excited for this game but it seems like a bust. Just delay games FFS. You're just releasing this DOA at this point.

It was obvious from the announcement they weren't going to have 60 FPS that something was seriously wrong but people were still defending it. This seems like it deserves to bomb and maybe they'll reconsider putting out games this messy in the future.

hockeydude15 posted...

This is just one of those games that should have been canceled 1-2 years ago and probably under normal circumstances would have. But Microsoft really needs exclusives and big games on gamepass and probably hoped this could have been one.

Definitely seems like it. Since it's Game Pass which they admitted does not make money, they just didn't prioritize this game at all.

I will never get over them canceling Scalebound and Phantom Dust

foolm0r0n posted...

Since it's Game Pass which they admitted does not make money, they just didn't prioritize this game at all.

Every first party game is going to be a Game Pass game so saying they didn't prioritize it because of it going to the service is weird. Also it isn't like the game got no press or advertisements and was just sent out to die, I'd bet Microsoft tried a shit ton to make sure this wasn't a tire fire but it just couldn't be delayed again or else it just gets eaten by Starfield coming out in September. So instead we get a average to below average looter shooter with vampires that has technical problems that i'm sure will get ironed out over the next couple months.

I don't think Game Pass has anything to do with Redfall's final quality. Sometimes people just make a sub-par game.

KamikazePotato posted...

Sometimes people just make a sub-par game.

Not Arkane, it's their whole brand

Arkane's brand is single-player immersive sims though. This isn't like anything else they've made. Developers struggle all the time when pivoting to different genres.

And even Deathloop, which was completely in their wheelhouse, didn't release to a completely positive reception. I read some comments about how key devs left after Prey, but I'm not sure how accurate that is.

KamikazePotato posted...

And even Deathloop, which was completely in their wheelhouse, didn't release to a completely positive reception.

I don't quite understand that one. The game is plain awesome. It's a bit out of the box but not really. Other timeloop games like Outer Wilds are way more complex. But it was probably still different enough that it was hard for people to know what to do next, so they got frustrated.

Just played about an hour of Redfall. It's definitely unfinished so far. Tons of corners cut and polish missing where you would expect it, but overall not really bad. Way below their quality standard but fine for a free game. It does seem like the same type of game they're known for, with a bit more Destiny-ish quest structure.

I dunno, I played a few hours with a couple of friends last night and it just doesn't feel like an Arkane game to me. I remember being really invested in the world and backstory of Prey and Deathloop and reading all of the files thoroughly, but every file I've picked up in this has been so bland and uninteresting, I've mostly stopped bothering. The plot so far and characters have all been pretty whatever too. All that coupled with the technical issues really makes this feel like when Platinum get their B Team to work on something, while the A Team works on a project they actually care about.

Yeah and like the Platinum B games it's still the same genre, just worse quality

I think its less Game Pass thats the issue and more completely untested genre for Arkane + Microsoft being desperate for First Party titles on the Xbox Series + the game already having been delayed by nearly a year. Not everybody can pull a Nintendo and just go itll be ready when its ready, they can only do that because their release schedule is basically always full anyway. Werent there no first party releases on the Xbox Series last year?

LOL

https://twitter.com/PatStaresAt/status/1654530862275338240?s=19

That's incredible.

Holy shit lmao