Arkane Austin’s latest game, Redfall, is out now on Xbox and PC after years of development and one high-profile delay. Originally set to launch in 2022, Redfall is finally here, taking players to a fictional Massachusetts town overrun by vampires in a shooter for 1-4 players. But what do critics think?
Reviews for the game are generally not painting the rosiest picture. GameSpot’s Redfall review scored the game a 4/10, with reviewer Mark Delaney called the game a “bloody mess.”
IGN’s review-in-progress for the always-online game had the reviewer feeling “thoroughly underwhelmed by Redfall’s vanilla missions and lifeless world, and very disappointed at its lengthy list of display issues and bugs.”
Redfall was developed by Arkane Austin, which previously made 2017’s Prey. Arkane Lyon, meanwhile, developed the much-celebrated Deathloop and Dishonored 2. A PS5 edition of Redfall was apparently in the works until Microsoft bought Arkane owner ZeniMax.
Redfall is the first title from Microsoft to launch at $70, a $10 price increase that the company warned in 2022 was coming. Starfield will also launch at $70 later this year.
Redfall is available to buy outright on Xbox and PC, and through Xbox Game Pass.
You can see more review scores for Redfall below. For more on the critical reaction to Redfall, head to GameSpot sister site Metacritic.
- Game: Redfall
- Platforms: PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S
- Developer: Arkane Austin
- Directors: Harvey Smith, Ricardo Bare
- Release Date: May 2
- Price: $70 or $100 for the Bite Back Edition
GameSpot — 4/10
“I can’t pretend to know whether Arkane chose to make a loot-shooter or was assigned to make a loot-shooter, but I can tell you what it feels like: one of the best game studios in the world suddenly made toothless. Redfall is Arkane making compromises to its own design philosophies to serve a genre it may have been better off avoiding.” — Mark Delaney [Full review]
We Got This Covered — 4.5/5
“With rich, beautiful open worlds, a multitude of weapons, and a wide variety of enemies to square off against, Redfall amazes. Players won’t regret staking their claim on Arkane’s latest masterpiece.” — Ash Martinez [Full review]
IGN Review-In-Progress
“After several sessions–solo, co-op with a friend, and also in a group of three–I must admit I’m thoroughly underwhelmed by Redfall’s vanilla missions and lifeless world, and very disappointed at its lengthy list of display issues and bugs.” — Luke Reilly [Full review-in-progress]
Windows Central — 3/5
“There are far too many similar games out there that do what Redfall is trying to do, only better. The finished result is an aggressively average shooter that doesn’t convincingly explain why it needs to exist as an always-online game. I desperately wanted to love Redfall, but I’ll just have to settle for not totally hating it. On the plus side, it did get me to install Prey again(and you should play that instead.)” — Jez Corden [Full review]
XboxEra — 8.5/10
“Redfall is fantastic in most ways. A few baffling design decisions around its co-op implementation and some frustrating technical issues hold it back. It is fun as hell solo, and ridiculously so in co-op. With a little post-launch support it is going to become something special. This may end up being Arkane’s worst-reviewed title ever, but it is going to be their most successful. Alone or with friends Redfall is a game any fan of the genre should play.” — Jesse ‘Doncabesa’ Norris [Full review]
The products discussed here were independently chosen by our editors.
GameSpot may get a share of the revenue if you buy anything featured on our site.
