One of the big system exclusives for Microsoft’s Xbox video game system was met with poor critical reception on Monday, shortly ahead of its wide release.
Arkane Studios’ Redfall was scheduled to release on Xbox, Windows, and the Xbox Game Pass Monday evening. Initially announced at Microsoft’s all-virtual E3 show in 2021, Redfall is a first-person shooter for 1 to 4 players that puts you up against the vampires who’ve taken over a small town in Massachusetts.
Arkane is a satellite studio of video game publisher Bethesda Softworks, which Microsoft acquired in 2020. Past games from Arkane include popular recent releases like Dishonored, Deathloop, and Prey (2017). On paper, an exclusive game from Arkane was a big deal for Microsoft’s Xbox project, and it’s repeatedly cited Redfall as a highlight of the system’s 2023 release calendar.
That’s left Redfall with a lot riding on its success, but the game isn’t quite up to the challenge.
A brief critical interjection
I spent most of my weekend playing through Redfall. Short version: it’s actually fun with friends, but it’s miserable in single-player.
The playable characters in Redfall have all been designed with abilities that complement and reinforce each other, to encourage you to play as a team. While it isn’t as straightforward as each character having a specific class or role, they all bring an assortment of unique skills to the table that you’ll really miss if you’re playing as someone else.
Redfall is built and balanced around the idea that you’ll have at least two players at any given time, so if you’re alone, you often end up outnumbered and outmatched. It’s a recipe for frustration for solo players, or even if you’re trying to play Redfall with random internet strangers.
The road ahead
As of Tuesday morning, the Xbox Series X version of Redfall has a critical rating of 64 on Metacritic, with individual scores like GameSpot’s going as low as 40. It’s drawn particular fire for poor optimization on the platform, with the game being hard-locked to 30 frames per second on Xbox; repetitive gameplay; and a poor implementation of the “looter shooter” mechanics that characterize other games such as Bungie’s Destiny 2.
From where I’m sitting, the primary issue with Redfall is that the wrong team made it. Arkane is best-known for itsimmersive, absorbing first-person adventures. A studio like that developing a cooperative, loot-focused shoot-’em-up is the game-dev equivalent of getting Cormac McCarthy to write a light romantic comedy. Sure, he could probably do it, but it’s not in his creative strike zone.
This can be seen as a setback for Microsoft at a time when both it and Sony are dealing with criticisms about their consoles’ slow release schedule. While Microsoft did score an unexpected exclusive hit with critics earlier this year with the sudden drop of Tango Gameworks’ Hi-Fi Rush, rumors persist that it didn’t translate to a sales success.
With that, Redfall’s chilly reception, and Halo developer 343 Industries’ recent reorganization, the picture from outside Microsoft looks bleak. The Xbox Series X|S as a platform is in dire need of a big, unequivocal hit, in the same way that 2001’s Halo: Combat Evolved put the original Xbox on the map.
As of right now, in advance of Microsoft’s Xbox Games Showcase on June 11, it’s got two more chances to score that big hit in 2023. One is the latest installment of Forza Motorsport, which is said to be coming this year but has yet to secure a specific release date; the other is Bethesda’s own Starfield, a hotly-anticipated space opera RPG that’s planned for release on Sept. 6.
Xbox hardware revenue decreased 30% in Microsoft’s holiday quarter last year, the company reported last week, and it was the lowest quarter for revenue since the X|S consoles launched in 2020.
