Redfall Review - High Stakes Vampire Hunting (COGconnected)

Redfall is a new first person vampire shooter from Arkane, a solo or coop game about fighting bloodsuckers in a fictional New England town.

[Sonic1881]

7.8 😏 😒

[SullysCigar]

Well hey, it could be worse - and it's actually the best of the leaked early reviews, by far.

Noisy Pixel gave it 4/10, calling it "bloodsuckingly painful". We might be in for a mixed bag here. IGN might throw Redfall a bone, though, we'll see.

[kingnick]

I expect some smaller sites will review bomb it for cheap clicks and some major sites like IGN will have their usual poor reviews that gloss over or don't acknowledge issues.

[SullysCigar]

^ I expect you're right. It's never a good look to set an embargo on or after launch, though. I guess some of these reviewers that broke the embargo have at least served to warn gamers at the same time as sucking up their clicks.

So far there seems to be a fair bit of talk about balancing being an issue with huge difficulty spikes ruining the single player experience, so there's something somewhat unforeseen. Unfortunately, ACG has come out and said it's "one of the worst games of 2023", but I haven't had a chance to see the rest of the review yet, so I'm not sure why.

[Lightning77]

Yeah and that same review score got taken down also.

I'm not expecting any 9 but several 7's 6's and some 8's.

[bangoskank]

@kingnick I'm starting to get the impression that the bigger sites give rigged reviews and the smaller sites are giving more honest reviews because they aren't shilling.

[SullysCigar]

^ @Lighning77, yes that's right, that review has been hidden until the embargo lifts. Same as ACG.

These outlets have possibly not intentionally skipped the embargo. It seems fair enough to assume you can share a review of something that releases today, but not on this occasion. Maybe this embargo was set because they don't want gamers to find out that Redfall doesn't deserve your time or money, but as I said, we'll see if that's the case, shortly.

It certainly doesn't show confidence in their product though, does it?

[Lightning77]

Who knows Doom 2016 had Day one embargo lift. This game officially releases World wide tomorrow.

It won't be 9's or anything but I'm seeing 7's which is average.

[IamTylerDurden1]

The game always looked mediocre. 7.8 is solid enough but B4B scored similarly and is mediocre, plus, it's one review. I can't see Redfall ever sniffing the borders of goty convo yet some proclaimed it a contender after previews.

Where exactly does it look like a goty contender? When did it ever? It always looked like dumb "fun" and to me a low 70's but considering the ineptitude of the critics i expected high 70's with an apex of 81 based purely on the fools who are professionals. Game looks corny, mindless, repetitive.

[Binarycode]

I'd rather be bitten by a vampire then play the game. That would be a good quote.

[Terry_B]

On Steam is mostly negative now. Over 200 user reviews already.

[jznrpg]

@Lightning77 I swear you said GOTY and now it’s 6/7 and some 8’s

[thesoftware730]

@ King,

So what would be a legit review? lol

[VenomUK]

Cogconnected's marks out of 100 scoring system is nonsensically specific. But in real terms a 7.8 rounded up is an 8 - that's a good score.

[Bathyj]

Nice spin Venom.
It's specific because they're specifically saying it's not an 8. It's a high 7.

[Chevalier]

Windows Central gave it a 6/10. MS site

[VenomUK]

@Bathyj Don't be entrenched in the fanboy wars mistakenly interpreting what anybody says as being about 'against my enemy Microsoft' or 'for my king PlayStation'! So much was said in my short comment that went over your head.

Firstly there was a point that a score so specific means it's foolish to categorise a game as say, for example, a 7.5 from a game that is a 7.6 - that's why broader scoring, eg marks out of ten or with half scores marks out of 20, is more helpful.

Secondly, in maths and in life a 7.8 is nearer to 8 than it is to 7. I hope that helps!

[IamTylerDurden1]

It'll sit mid 70's probably. B4B was mindless and mediocre and it sat mid 70's.

The ppl defending the game, like, it never looked good. What exactly made ppl say "goty contender!" ? I'm searching to see that..

[Notellin]

People really love Arcane and their particular style of level design/gameplay.

I loved Dishonored and Prey but didn't enjoy Deathloop.

I'm cautiously optimistic.

[IamTylerDurden1]

Note

I love Arkane and that is precisely why i have been so disappointed since it was announced.

I'm with you. Dishonored, Prey, Deathloop fuckin-A.

But brother, where do you see anything resembling those games in Redfall? Incredible setting, characters, story elements, or creative gameplay? I just see mindless, corny shit with a red hue.

[StarkR3ality]

Why doesn't everyone wait till the reviews show a realistic average? Don't understand the need and want for a game to fail. I suggest you're right but it's like a lot of people are personally offended by this game.

Chill out man.

[Eonjay]

Not sure the review or score imply that they want it to fail. The highlight pros and cons. It doesn't sound terrible but it doesn't sound like a 9 or 10 game either. Seems fair.

[StarkR3ality]

I'm not talking about just on this article though. Every Xbox/Redfall/Bethesda article, whether it be positive, negative or indifferent, people shit all over this game.

I get it doesn't look like a goty, but Jesus, I've never seen such disdain for a cheesy coop shooter.

[SullysCigar]

^ Stark, most people seem to trust ACG, right? He's on record as saying it's "one of the worst games of 2023". Now, I can't vouch for that, because I haven't played it, but there have been warning signs left and right for the past couple of months.

People might be sh!tting on this one for a reason. It's not personal and nobody's stopping anyone from playing and hopefully enjoy it. At the same time, people can't sweep what they already know under the rug - there was always going to be extreme trepidation going in to these reviews.

[StarkR3ality]

I'm not saying it's not gunna be a bad game, I guess I'm just sick of hearing about it now.

[IamTylerDurden1]

Stark

Because the game always looked mediocre. No agenda, just truth. For comparison Starfield looks fairly good given those who like Fallout know it should share some similarities and perhaps scratch that itch.

Redfall looks dumb. Sorry.

[Crows90]

Based on previews it's expected to be bad. Sooo...all it has to do is not be that bad to be better.

This is arkane. Nobody wants it to fail but they've been on a messy streak.

[Christopher]

***I guess I'm just sick of hearing about it now.***

I mean, you can just not click on Redfall articles then? Instead, you're telling people to stop complaining about a game they think is bad, including reviewers? That's not how that works. Not sorry.

[StarkR3ality]

I mean if you read what I actually wrote it's not just on Redfall articles is it.

[Christopher]

I mean, I did. But you didn't mention any other games other than Redfall, via implication at least, so that's why I said Redfall. Apply my message to [insert any other game here] as needed.

[IamTylerDurden1]

I'm so critical BECAUSE i love and respect Arkane and Redfall just doesn't excite me like previous studio entries.

To me, Redfall shares not the creativity nor atmosphere of prior Arkane titles. At least from my pre release examination.

It just looks flat. A bit of empty "fun". The characters, design, and tone all seem lacking compared to Dishonored and Deathloop, even Prey. They were also sp games first. Redfall appears to be co op first if you get my drift? More similarity with B4B almost than Dishonored. I'm not into that.

[LOGICWINS]

Xbox fan here. If ACG says the game is ass, I believe him.

[SullysCigar]

^ This is how you do it.

Sometimes games don't turn out how we'd like them to.

Days Gone got shredded (mainly) over performance issues - and deservedly so. They patched it up nicely a few weeks later, but you can't ask people to review games according to promises, only what's in front of them.

[Hofstaderman]

I didn’t buy Forspoken based on his review

[CrimsonWing69]

It's simple, people who want the game to prove naysayers wrong want validation because of insecurities. Then haters want to see low-scores to gloat and rub it in all the people's faces who kept saying this game would good... or at least they wanted it to be good.

It's fanboys on both sides.

Like, how is this different from sports fans and teams wanting one side to fail over the other? It's human nature.

We've already established reviews are pointless because most are all over the place. This gets a 7... .8, an 8 rounded? There's leaks of 4/10's from other reviews. If a review can neither be right or wrong then there's basically no point. It's just validation for the score you wanted.

[IamTylerDurden1]

Not wanting, just expecting a fail based on a mediocre looking game through the pre release process.

I mean..RF never looked good but this how it is. XB fans trashed Ragnarok for months pre release claiming it looked terrible. DLC, no improvement graphically, not next gen, delayed, the lizard enemy was mocked etc. With that pedigree coming off 2018 goty they attacked Rag leading to release. But the difference is Redfall earned this viewpoint by looking mediocre. Is what it is.

[GoodGuy09]

As expected I guess lol. The official embargo being just a little while before the release is all signs of bad. Since it's on GP, I guess mcsft doesn't really care.

[Crows90]

Microsoft doesn't care about any of it's IP...and especially they ones they just bought.

[Christopher]

A 7.8 is bad?

[Vengeance1138]

Based on it being from an Xbox 1st party studio who has full access to the "power of the Xbox Series" in order to make it run flawlessly as well as all the funding they want to try new things, YES, a 7.8 is hugely below expected.

Redfall and Starfield are the only things Xbox has coming for a very long time so both must be huge hits. If this were a random game from some 3rd party unknown studio, it would be a good score. If an Xbox or even Sony first party studio put out a 7.8 score game, very few would accept it based on the resources they had available.

[Christopher]

@Vengeance1138: Hugely below expected still doesn't make it bad (I'm not sure anyone has legit been thinking this would be a 9/10 or higher game for six months now, so I'm not sure what your "expected" level was). Review scores don't change in value from one company to another.

[Vengeance1138]

@Christopher

It doesn't make it bad but it also doesn't make it good either. The level headed people on here sure, we all know its an average bargain bin kind of game that should cost around $20-30 at most.
The Xbox faithful though? They have been expecting a heavy hitting near masterpiece, especially certain diehards users on here.

Review scores absolutely change in value from one company to another, without question.
If you showed me a game from a studio with a ton of financial resources behind them owned by Sony or Microsoft with a team of industry vets full of talent, a 7.8 score really isn't going to cut it.
Show me the same score from an indie dev with minimum talent and very little financial resources behind them and i'd say 7.8 score is damn good and good on them for doing what they could with what they had.

[Christopher]

***Review scores absolutely change in value from one company to another, without question.
If you showed me a game from a studio with a ton of financial resources behind them owned by Sony or Microsoft with a team of industry vets full of talent, a 7.8 score really isn't going to cut it.
Show me the same score from an indie dev with minimum talent and very little financial resources behind them and i'd say 7.8 score is damn good and good on them for doing what they could with what they had.***

That sounds more like a "you" thing than an "industry" thing. I go to Metacritic and games that are of a 7 value sit with other games of a 7 value regardless if they come from Sony or IndieNewbDev.

Now, how people react to the review score is what you're talking about. Not the value of the score itself, but your expectation of the company. Those are two completely different things. And, as I said, that's a "you" thing, not a review score thing.

[Vengeance1138]

@Christopher

You said that review scores do not change in value from studio to studio, I explained how they do. How does how the industry views it matters at all to how players view it? The way potential players view it, is the only thing that matters, they are the ones giving you money for it.

It being a "Me" thing, is all that matters as "I" am a paying customer, "I" am the one making a decision to give you money or not for the game. So if you disregard it as simply being a "me" issue and go on thinking that 7.8 is perfectly within the range of what players want, then sorry but your studio simply won't be around much longer. You make games for the players, for people like "me", not for the "industry".

[Christopher]

***You said that review scores do not change in value from studio to studio, I explained how they do. How does how the industry views it matters at all to how players view it? The way potential players view it, is the only thing that matters, they are the ones giving you money for it.***

1. They don't change in value.
2. You didn't explain how the review score changes in value but how you perceive it based on your personal expectations.
3. Individual gamers are not "the industry" and "the industry" isn't having these views but gamers are.
4. And those potential players base it on the review and historically don't spend as much on 7/10 games as they do 9/10 games. Regardless of who made it. It's based on the game itself.
5. You're trying to turn your own subjective view of expectations into a review score. Those are two different things.

[Vengeance1138]

@Christopher

1. They do change in value.
2. You are trying to turn this into me having some super unique view on review scores when my views are the most common. Has nothing at all to do with how I as an individual view it but how the masses view it, which historically a 7.8 score coming from a AAA studio is frowned upon.
3. Are you saying that "The industry" and "Gamers" are 2 very different things? Game devs are gamers, gamers are game devs. The people making the games also buy games, have their own thoughts on whats good and bad. They are the same, so not sure what you are going on about trying to make this grand seperation between the two.
4. Historically, indie games getting a 7/10 score aren't priced at $70-90 so gamers would absolutely be more willing to spend on a $30-40 max title despite the score. You are missing out on a huge factor that plays into review scores and also relates to Redfall as who is going to spend $70+ on a 7.8 game? If priced at 30-40? A lot more would be willing to take the bullet.
5. You are trying to turn the idea of a 7.8 review score into some greatly accepted concept even though there are many factors that go along with it. Yes a 7.8 score is just a score no matter how you slice it, but thats also irrelevant. What you get for the score and what the cost of the score is is what actually matters.

[thesoftware730]

@Vengence,

It's all subjective no matter how we slice it.
CoD games of late gets a lot of lower scores, Forspoken received mixed reviews, days gone was another full price game that many enjoyed, but had mixed reviews, Death Stranding also was met with mixed reviews, all of them retailed at full price.

I know not all of those games are 1st party, but they come from high end studios, and renowned devs...so it's not uncommon at all to have a AAA receive 7s, or 8s and be considered acceptable.

The test for this game in my opinion will be how long they can keep people engaged..roadmap, new characters etc.

[Christopher]

*** Has nothing at all to do with how I as an individual view it but how the masses view it, which historically a 7.8 score coming from a AAA studio is frowned upon.***

Sorry, but that's on you. Most people frown on a 7.8 from any studio the same. It's why people compare scores between games.

*** Yes a 7.8 score is just a score no matter how you slice it, but thats also irrelevant. What you get for the score and what the cost of the score is is what actually matters.***

Meaningless. A AAA game at 7.8 will sell through by name and recognition compared to a 7.8 on an Indie. Cost is a factor of sales, which review scores don't clearly set up as a 1:1 relationship let alone the more a game costs the more it tends to sell compared to similarly scored AA or A games.

---

Honestly, you sound like you want a reason why you can complain about AAA games more than others when in reality we complain about AAA games more because they are AAA games and not Indies. They are more known, more in the public's eye, etc. But that doesn't change the value of the score nor does it dictate some metric of expectation. Most AAA games don't score 8 or above on average, btw. Yet there's some expectation that they should or that the review is weighted in expectation even though history says those expectations aren't met? Silly,.

[Notellin]

Bethesda has always done this though?

[Elda]

Not a bad score. I figured the game will get 7 & 8s possibly some 6. Will definitely be trying Redfall out tomorrow.

[sagapo]

Yeah, same here. I hope the co-op will be good tho. It will make or break this game imo.

[TheLigX]

Microsoft continues to derp itself through the generation.

[Profchaos]

I don't knock a 7/10 at all even if this is closer to a 8 according to this site some all time great games have been rated 7 or lower especially since the ps4one gen where games get patched and updated post launch like I would have given cyberpunk a 6 playing it day 1 but a 9 when replaying it on ps5

[RaiderNation]

Swimmin' in 7's, just as I suspected.

[Northpoint]

Man, my twitter timeline was filled with Xbox fans praising this like it was the coming of Jeezus. Some bashing PS games with it. Now, complete silence.

[Father__Merrin]

this game will flop now as most will just try it out as part of thier subscription then uninstall. it wont be purchased

[Ninver]

It was never going to be purchased. Don't know why some deny the truth. Nothing about this game says "sleep outside midnight launch purchase".

It'll be forgotten in hours not even days or months. In some cases even minutes.

[ravens52]

7.8 That's not bad.

[jznrpg]

After watching some videos I’m not sure how they gave this game 7.8. It looks really mediocre without the glitches. It looks like a 5-6/10 without glitches.

[Flakegriffin]

It’s overall getting 6/10. This is just for this site alone.

[Viljong]

After the patch with 60fps mode it will be 9.2 easy.

[jznrpg]

Seems like too high of a score even if the game wasn’t buggy. It looks like a last gen game mode.

It’s one big lifeless map that looks like it was made for a mode of a bigger game waves of vampires scattered around that’s about it.

That’s what it looks like without the issues

[darkrider]

This review aged very badly. It's not a good game. It's not even remotely close to 7.8. Maybe a 4.8 its more accurate. So many gamers are posting videos of this game. Damn, does arkane got anyone working on quality? Testers? Where can I send my CV? Because I could help them a lot. The amount of problems in every single aspect of the game is scary. Did someone play this? Did Microsoft force arkane to launch this train wreck? They should say something, because their reputation just went down the drain. And they created good games.