Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot opens with chapter upon chapter describing its solid of characters and the Maine city they inhabit. Earlier than it turns into clear {that a} vampire has come to make their residence its new feeding floor, King spends quite a lot of time sketching the historical past and tradition of the populace. It’s an strategy taken in loads of monster tales: Give the viewers a motive to care a couple of bunch of individuals earlier than they’re preyed upon by bloodsucking ghouls.
Redfall, the newest from Arkane Austin, reverses this setup, introducing gamers to the titular, fictional Massachusetts island after vampires have drained a lot of the life from the place already. The end result — roughly midway via the story (our impressions are primarily based on about 10 hours in a solo tour) — is a sport that struggles to warrant curiosity within the destiny of its fallen city, and one which has a tough time discovering contemporary blood in overly acquainted tendencies within the apocalypse style.
As considered one of 4 characters, all of whom include supernaturally tinged backstories and accompanying particular skills, the participant units out to research the character of the vampire invasion, maintain a bunch of fellow people alive, and, hopefully, escape the island. The start isn’t very inspiring stuff. Redfall kicks off with the participant establishing a secure base of operations — on this case, at a hearth station — and serving to a bunch of survivors settle into their new residence. There’s a stern priest, a delicate physician, and a grease-stained gun vendor, every with their very own storefronts, and an attendant flock of different shallow NPCs. No member of this solid is especially memorable, and it’s exhausting to drum up curiosity of their fates, mortal or not.
![Layla, Jacob, and Devinder square off against a vampiric enemy, an Angler, that’s floating in a pagoda in Redfall](https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/UnhX6OyqVrzO5z0qDcsJBjS7kZA=/0x0:3840x2160/1200x0/filters:focal(0x0:3840x2160):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24625064/1._Angler_Showdown.jpg)
Picture: Arkane Austin/Bethesda Softworks
The city of Redfall itself makes a stronger impression. It contains a downtown core lined with centuries-old colonial structure and outlying vacationer sights, together with a lighthouse and museum, marking its historical past as a whaling middle. As a result of there are few backdrops for a horror story higher than mid-autumn, the city sits beneath grand orange-, yellow-, and red-leafed bushes; a lot of its storefronts are adorned with pumpkins.
These areas, together with others— a dried-out, fish-strewn lake mattress or a shadowy, deserted hospital, to call a pair extra — create a classy sense of menace enhanced by splashes of daring crimson ’80s paperback font throughout menus and space names. As anticipated of Arkane, a studio identified for creating a robust sense of place in its video games via elaborate set dressing, the interiors of those areas are full of on a regular basis gadgets and scraps of discarded writing. These particulars inform the character of the characters who as soon as lived there, hinting on the darkish secrets and techniques underlying the vampires’ takeover.
The environment dissipates, although, when enemies reveal themselves to not be the terrifying otherworldly creatures, ruthless non-public army operatives, or vicious human cultists that the sport purports them to be, however somewhat, numb-skulled taking pictures gallery targets. A extremely skilled soldier responds to the primary volley of gunfire by working headlong into the nook of a movie show, simply ready to be plinked within the head with a rifle shot. A creature of the night time launches a demonic assault by floating in a straight line towards the participant, teleporting away from a hail of bullets to again up just a little bit and check out the identical tactic as soon as once more. Whereas the enemies sometimes show a bit extra creativity — vampires generally zigzag across the display screen to dodge gunshots, and a few people arrange automated gun turrets — they’re largely brain-dead, presenting an actual menace solely after they swarm the participant and obscure one’s imaginative and prescient.
![washed-up boats and dock materials in a dried-up lake bed in Redfall, with a fiery moon hanging in the sky](https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/TLXEVJnsD9PMO66He2c2TORvhfQ=/0x0:3840x2160/1200x0/filters:focal(0x0:3840x2160):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24625084/8._Pushed_Back_Tides.jpg)
Picture: Arkane Austin/Bethesda Softworks
It’s price noting that the aiming is floaty sufficient on Xbox Collection X that one of the best battlefield tactic is often to strafe backward and forward with a shotgun, blasting at cultists and vampires after they maneuver their approach into the crosshairs. Switching to Home windows PC helped with this sluggish motion — and the digicam’s basic choppiness — however the gunplay continues to be unexceptional. This can be a drawback, given how a lot taking pictures have to be accomplished to wade via Redfall’s plenty of cultists, troopers, and vampires in any given mission.
Enjoying as Layla Ellison, a college scholar with telekinesis, is an attractive wrinkle to straightforward shooter design. However her suite of particular powers doesn’t do a lot to combine up fight that’s largely depending on mowing down waves of goons with no matter gun has the best injury quantity listed in its description. Layla can pop a giant purple psychic umbrella that acts as a defend, and she will additionally name in her ghostly vampire ex-boyfriend to drift round clawing at foes. However these powers, alongside together with her capacity to summon a glowing midcentury elevator cage that shoots her or different gamers up into the air, not often lend texture to the flat, unexciting gunfights.
A story that fleshes out Redfall’s glorious sense of place may assist overcome its lackluster fight. Thus far, the story hasn’t offered a lot impetus to press ahead via mission after mission of first rate exploration and drab gunplay. The incidental writing — present in locations like previous notes or flashback scenes captured in spectral dioramas — is evocative sufficient to paint within the broad strokes of the plot with an eeriness and human drama it in any other case lacks.
If this tone takes middle stage within the again half of the story, mixed with plot developments that add some momentum to the proceedings, it could be simpler to miss the sport’s weaker points and respect it as a compelling narrative work. At this level, although, the city of Redfall is sucked too dry of liveliness for gamers to be invested in whether or not its vampires triumph or not.
Redfall might be launched Might 2 on Home windows PC and Xbox Collection X. The sport was reviewed on Xbox and PC utilizing a pre-release obtain code offered by Bethesda Softworks. Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These don’t affect editorial content material, although Vox Media could earn commissions for merchandise bought through affiliate hyperlinks. You will discover extra details about Polygon’s ethics coverage right here.