The Redfall game is a cooperative first-person shooter video game developed by Arkane Studios, known for such cult games as Dishonored and Prey. It is set in a fictional town in Massachusetts which vampires and their worshiping cultists overrun.

As it was the first full-fledged project by Arkane Studios in six years, Redfall was a highly anticipated game. However, despite the hype and the buzz surrounding its release, it failed to meet expectations.

Reason #1: Raw quality

Arkane Studios is best known for making excellent single-player games and has garnered praise for its environmental storytelling, innovative combat, and well-written stories like Dishonored, Prey, and Deathloop, and its move towards a multiplayer raised a lot of doubts. Many experienced developers reportedly weren’t interested in making a multiplayer game and left the studio. Apparently, only one-quarter of the staff who had worked on Prey was still at Arkane by the time Redfall was finished.

As a result, Redfall feels rushed and unfinished, ultimately not up to Arkane’s usual standards.

Reason #2: Performance issues

Right from the start, Redfall was riddled with performance issues. Many players have reported experiencing technical issues that prevent them from fully enjoying the game, such as crashing, freezing, black screen, and others. All these bugs and glitches have made it difficult or impossible to play the game.

Also, Redfall only targets a frame rate of 30 fps on both Xbox and PC versions, while a 60 FPS performance mode will probably come to the game at a later date. Many players consider this restriction highly questionable, as 60 fps is usually regarded as a standard for an AAA title.

Reason #3: Non-immersive environment

Redfall is set in a lifeless town that has been sucked dry by vampires and occupied by cultists, and this fictional town feels both unbelievable and boring. Vampires and cultists don’t have any character, enemies occasionally respawn right in front of you, and there are no tasks that could bring more life or personality to this environment.

Also, there is a significant problem with the AI. Enemies in Redfall can’t see you at a distance of two meters, get stuck on stairs and in each other, poke into walls, or freeze in fright. Vampires that can teleport, turn invisible and are supposed to be a significant threat to the player, run towards you right under the bullets, turning the game into a shooting gallery.

Reason #4: Lack of content

The Redfall game sufficiently lacks creative content. Although players can fill their arsenal with several different types of weapons, from standard pistols and shotguns to UV blasters capable of petrifying the game’s undead enemies. However, the weapons within each category lack any distinctive identity. The legendary weapons in Redfall have little to set them apart from lower-level weapons in the same class, apart from modifiers and damage output. This results in an experience where gunplay in Redfall feels largely the same a dozen hours into the campaign as it did when players first took to the streets of this city.

Reason #5: Repetitive gameplay

The game's missions are almost identical to each other, with little variation in the objectives or the environments, which considerably reduces fun and engagement. Previous Arkane games also had a specific gameplay loop, but their players got a diverse selection of missions and activities to make that repetition keep from weighing them down. Redfall‘s missions are mostly fetch quests or combat encounters. As a result, the whole experience is less enjoyable than, for example, assassinations featured in Dishonored.