Redfall is eerie by itself. Stories of individuals who were attacked by or changed into vampires after the vampire gods gained control of the formerly quaint island village are commonplace in the area. Even when armed, the anxiety of stumbling through caverns and houses in the dark with just a torch for guidance increases. Arkane Austin, the developer, is skilled at creating a threatening environment. Redfall’s odds, however, were substantially altered as more players joined. Together, we defeated the basic vampires, the adherents of their cult, and the mercenary gang out to kill us. There was comradery rather than the hushed murmurs of the night. And what was once a potentially terrifying journey through an infected metropolis transformed into a hunting group ready to take on the greatest enemies with weapons and abilities blazing.
I had the pleasure of playing Redfall on PC for almost four hours with one, two, and three extra co-op members. We freed a community center, battled procedurally created vampire nests, faced mini-bosses, and did a lot of exploration throughout that time. My temporary coworkers at Arkane Austin allowed me to try out the hard difficulty, and we were off.
If you’re mainly interested in Redfall’s solo experience, make sure to check out IGN’s original Redfall preview.
The first Distinctions Between Solo and Co-op.
Despite having the appearance of some other looter shooters or four-player cooperative games, Redfall’s creators have made it abundantly clear that this is still an Arkane game. It seemed like it when I spent a little over an hour playing by myself. The plot and simulated environment are both there, despite the fact that each character has just a restricted set of skills and that stealth isn’t always as important. Random encounters with vampires feasting on unfortunate victims, clashes between rival factions, and enemy conversations about the future are all commonplace. With a two-player co-op, everything still rings true.
I spent the majority of my time at Arkane Austin with Creative Director Ricardo Bare, who played Jacob, a former mercenary turned single sniper with a miraculous eye and raven to match, while I tested Devinder, a cryptid hunter who arrived to Redfall for a book signing. I took up the controller and promised Bare that I’d control my worst gaming tendencies, such as scanning the contents of a shop for extra health in imaginary junk food my character doesn’t need but deserves, reading notes left to lost lovers, and watching enemy patterns to figure out the best way to eliminate them as quickly as possible. I naturally ran on top of a vehicle to see whether there was anything in its bed as soon as we loaded into the second of two Redfall area maps. Weak habits persist.
But in cooperative, those routines seemed applicable. Most of the time I felt like we were partner detectives because there was only one other person on the adventure. Redfall freezes in the instant the vampires struck; houses are a disaster as people fled, and the battlegrounds of rival cults are filled with dead individuals who have stories to tell. Some of those tales are looted, while others are written out on scraps of paper or notecards that may be gathered. One of my favorites was a cult battle taking place in the midst of a torn-up convenience store. I’m not sure why they felt the need to hang a dead pig, but I have a hunch it had something to do with their veneration of the vampire deity Bloody Tom. ” I doubt he’d be interested in pig blood, though.” Perhaps offering the wrong blood is what brought this group’s misfortune.
Though we didn’t spend much time on the main Redfall story, I do know this: in order to defeat the now-reigning Redfall vampire gods, we must first understand who they were before they turned. Then we’ll strike. But I did manage to free the Redfall Maritime Center from a menacing blood tree. We were able to pull out a particular Siphon vampire dubbed the Heartwood Fiend by destroying three vampire hearts dispersed among its roots (and slaying vampires that came to guard it). It was a brief battle that yielded some treasure and plot points. We worked with the civilians to build another primary base of operations when the center was made available.
Working with the residents of Redfall is not only an important plot point but also a great overarching concept that runs throughout the entire work. Rather than receiving money, for instance, you can receive “support.” Toilet paper has a higher worth than, for example, a frightening doll or a wedding band. The cash is gained by accomplishing missions and collecting valuable objects that go back to the people sheltering in safe homes. Harvey Smith, Arkane Austin Studio Director, revealed that the toilet paper value is a tribute to the early pandemic when toilet paper was scarce while they were making Redfall.
