Tag: arkane
Redfall is the first Arkane game we don’t like—what happened?
Redfall is Arkane defanged
Dead and not entirely loving it
Before Redfall, sink your teeth into Arkane Steam sale worth over $100
Redfall is almost here, and you can get in the spirit of Arkane’s vampire game by revisiting its back catalog in a deal-filled Steam sale. Beware that the sale ends before the Redfall release date though, with some of the titles even available on PC Game Pass, which Redfall itself will be joining soon.
MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Redfall release date, Redfall gameplay preview, The best vampire games on PC
Microsoft Scrapped a PS5 Version of Redfall, Says Arkane Director
Arkane are “fixing” Redfall’s always-online requirement
Arkane’s upcoming co-op shooter found itself in hot water when fans heard of Redfall’s always-online requirement, even when playing alone. This deflated some longtime Arkane fans since their other immersive sims – between Dishonoured, Prey, and Deathloop – had either no online functionality or were still playable offline. Thankfully, in an interview with Eurogamer, game director Harvey Smith said the team are now working to U-turn the decision.
What makes Redfall different to other Arkane games? It’s all comes down to trust
One of my favourite ‘blink and you’ll miss it’ moments in games comes in Final Fantasy 10, just after you defeat a big machine on a lake of ice near one of the title’s multiple temples. Your party jumps onto snowmobiles – two people per vehicle – and heads towards Macalania Temple to continue its journey. You follow main character Tidus for this part of the game, but who accompanies him on the sled can vary. It can be more or less any of the characters in the game, and who joins you depends entirely on some in-game criteria.
The game calls this ‘affection’. If Tidus uses a healing item, or healing magic, on another member of the cast, the hidden stat goes up. If he intercepts an attack aimed at them, it goes up. If he talks to a character first when they’re all spread out in an area, it goes up. At no point are you told about this, and at no point does it really matter. But, play your cards right, and you’ll see get a small interaction with another character that serves to deepen your understanding of them, or provide another sliver of context on the world.
I am obsessed with things like this in games. Alex once referred to himself as a ‘lore goblin’ for Elden Ring, and the phrase stuck with me. That’s what moments like this do to me. Seeing Rikku nuzzle her head into Tidus in a show of deep affection you don’t really see in the game – all because I’ve trusted/interacted with her the most up to this point? It’s a small but meaningful reward, and something uniquely enriching when it comes to player agency.
Stalker, Far Cry 2, and, well, Arkane: Redfall proudly wears its most obvious influences on its bloody sleeve
Arkane has a problem. Its games, by all accounts, are great. The Dishonored series, Prey, Deathloop – they all review well. Arkane, for generations now, has been a favourite of critics and developer peers. But that acclaim and clout does not translate into sales (or player count, if you’re taking services like Xbox Game Pass and PS Plus into account). Deathloop’s sales were the lowest of any Arkane game at the time it launched on PS5, at least in the physical market. Prey fared only slightly better – and that was a multiplatform release.
Redfall, then, is in a unique position. Arriving on Xbox Game Pass, day and date, means that around 29 million people will be able to boot up the game and immerse themselves in its vampire fantasy at launch. Without asking for a £60+ buy-in, without asking players to gamble what may be their quarterly game budget on an as-yet-unproven new IP, Arkane can finally show the mainstream what it’s capable of. And Redfall, from what I’ve played so far, seems like it has what it takes to capture your imagination.
First thing’s first, the shooting feels better than Deathloop. This is something that Arkane Austin’s studio director, Harvey Smith, chatted casually to me about before the hands-on. The development team, only fairly recently, figured out how to make the various different guns – stake launchers, UV light blasters, magnums, high-calibre sniper rifles, and more – feel really, really good. Each class feels right in your hands, whether you’re fanning the hammer of a revolver or wretching the level of a rifle back before popping another headshot, this is what shooting should feel like – not the paper-thin water pistols we had in Deathloop.
Redfall still has the “Arkane DNA” of Dishonored and Deathloop
With the Redfall release date closing in, Arkane’s take on open-world games with the studio’s signature immersion and design is piquing everyone’s interest. The shooter can be played in either co-op or single-player, so questions of how Redfall will fit into what Arkane has made before are coming up, and the studio has some answers.
MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Redfall release date, Redfall open world more like Far Cry than L4D, The best co-op games on PC
Arkane says that Redfall is closer to Far Cry than it is to Left 4 Dead
Immediate comparisons between Redfall and Left 4 Dead are understandable, but Arkane says it’s actually its take on Far Cry.
Odds are, if you see a game reveal that shows off a four-play, co-op shooter, you’ll probably think ‘oh hey, like Left 4 Dead.’ That’s what plenty of us did with Redfall, but in a recent interview with GamesRadar, creative director at Arkane Ricardo Bare dived deep into some details about the game, including all those comparisons to the classic Valve title.
“It’s totally understandable for somebody to come to that conclusion,” Bare said of the Refall/ Left 4 Dead comparisons. “There are four playable characters, you can play together cooperatively, and you’re going against the undead. But, in terms of the way that you play and experience Redfall, it’s not like those games at all. Redfall is more like loading into Far Cry.”