The next game by the few developers that are keeping the immersive sim school of game design alive, Arkane Studios, is an interesting one. Redfall, announced last year and delayed to next year, is the next game by Arkane’s Austin studio that previously did the fantastic Prey (2017).
But Redfall looks to go way further than the usual single-player first-person stealth-action gameplay that the team used to make. Redfall has co-op multiplayer with up to 4 players and is set in an open world instead of separate sandbox levels.
The latest gameplay trailer from the Xbox & Bethesda Showcase 2022 earlier this month shows that it’s still an Arkane game in some ways. Squint a bit and you can recognise the shooting and the colourful weapons as something that reminds you of Deathloop (which is made by Arkane’s other team in Lyon). But now the characters are more quippy, and the enemies more bloody. Since you’re fighting vampires now.
Each of the four playable characters has a different skill set with synergies to do cool combat combos. And the gameplay trailer is emphasising it so much it’s easy to see this as another Left 4 Dead- which isn’t a fair comparison given Redfall is going open world with its level design.
Should you play in co-op, there are no class restrictions. As in, everyone can be the same character, but each character won’t be exactly the same as they can have different loadouts and upgrades. This is less Left 4 Dead (and also less Back 4 Blood) and more Borderlands in how co-op works.
However, publisher Bethesda has since confirmed that Redfall is perfectly playable as a solo experience.
“Redfall is an open world game, but it can be soloed with any of the heroes,” said Co-Creative/Studio Director Harvey Smith. “The pace becomes more exploratory; you can use recon and stealth to gather info on encounters and avoid enemies or get the drop on them.”
When playing solo, you won’t even have AI teammates. So you are entirely alone in the world.
How much will the solo experience play like your usual Arkane immersive sim remains to be seen.
Redfall will be out sometime in 2023 for PC (Steam, Epic Games Store) and Xbox Series X|S. It will be available day-1 on Xbox Game Pass and PC Game Pass.
