Damn, the xbox versions is flat out broken. Those texture issues are…yeah.
That quite the mea culpa.
I can’t speak to the console issues, and I don’t want to become “the guy that liked Redfall” but I like Redfall. It plays flawlessly on my PC, I’ve run into maybe four bugs (some vamps that didn’t aggro and couldn’t be harmed, a floating piece of the world, etc.) but overall it’s what it says on the tin, a looter/shooter with vampires. I honestly prefer the more deserted nature of the world, and having just moved on from the first area, it definitely has gotten busier and deadlier.
Where it’s lacking is in story, if it had a few more interesting side stories like Fallout that would make the world a lot more chunky. Still, if you want Bioshock 1 in a town instead of Rapture, with a halfassed loot system, it’s the ticket.
Yeah I’m still enjoying it. 7 hours in. I like that there is minimal cruft like crafting. Loot gets transformed into Medkit / Lockpick buying points. Bam. The only tiresome aspect that all games must have is the new gun with +2 of this and -1 of that. Me no care. I also don’t want to sit through NPC waffle unless it’s good, which it’s not going to be, so I’m glad I’m spared that. The other game I’m playing right now, also a Gamepass shlooter, is Everspace 2 and it could learn some lessons, with its 17 different upgrade paths and lengthy clunky dialog.
The jankiness here is… not bothering me. I haven’t really seen any outright bugs - I did think some controls like reload weren’t responding at a couple of points. I can see DF’s slo-mo texture load now I stop and look for it too. Still, less of an issue when the overall scene is rich, which it generally is.
On one hand, that Phil Spencer interview was impressive. Straight talk, admitting the problems, no excuses, and no shifting blame. I wish anyone in my management chain had the guts and communication skills to take that interview and give those kinds of answers.
But on the other hand, he has been great at giving the straight dope for years, and their execution is still shit. Their roadmaps are set out years in advance. They knew in 2021 how slim the 2022 first party AAA release calendar would be, and in 2022 (when they delayed RF and Starfield) that there wasn’t much else coming out in 2023. This was always going to be one of their three biggest releases for the year. And they just seem to have ignored the problems Redfall was having in development, doing nothing to right the ship. Maybe they did not realize at the start that the project was in trouble, but at the point they delayed the release they must have known, and still did nothing. I just don’t understand how that happens, and still don’t after watching the interview.
I posted the full video. He wasn’t just talking about Redfall. Highly recommend people watch the whole thing.
Yeah, I’ve got about 4 hours in solo (1.5 missions in, 2 safe houses unlocked), and I’m enjoying it thus far. I play pretty slow/stealthy tho, so I’m not super far into it, and still figuring my way around and levelling up my toon until I get all the powers and then I’ll probably see if anyone else is playing and try out the co-op (probably over the weekend).
I have some nits, but nothing which would indicate the level of hate being spewed thus far, but it is early. I’m enjoying a vampire game instead of yet another zombie clone, tho it has been far more cultists than vamps thus far.(XSX version).
Are… we the cult?
My experience is that it feels like the technical world building/engine team did a good job. The content team took a nap. The vampires are dangerous and there’s a nice variety of them, the humans are essentially ten years out of date. That said, they are no more or less dumb than Borderlands enemies, but way less varied. The vamps have pretty cool kits, the higher end ones are nicely threatening. The player movement is a bit off, it’s pretty basic and slow which generally doesn’t matter until you’re in a vamp furball, then you feel stuck in molasses.
In medium difficulty the curve is generous, your weapons outpace everything except the special vamps, again it can feel jarring when you casually murder twenty people and ten lower vamps then suddenly have to go ham to survive a special or a dogpile.
The biggest gripe, and I know I’m being repetitive, is the lack of story and vignettes. For example, first town there’s an enormous building with a giant lobster built into the roof. When I break into that building I’m expecting 10 minutes of sneaking, fighting, and uncovering a story that I can work to resolve. But here . . . nada. It’s just some loot, a few pages not related to the location, and then on to the next actual main mission point.
It’s 1/4 of several good games. The loot should have come from Borderlands, instead it came from Horizon ZD. The open world should be Fenyx but it’s Borderlands. The meta story events should have come from Fallout, but it’s Bioshock.
I still think it’s fine, and in fact good, but based on what you wanted coming into it, it’s going to disappoint if you wanted an equivalent to other AAA games in that genre. Nice mix, though.
The normal vamps get stuck on props all the time. I had one that couldn’t figure out how to navigate around or over a parked car. Since its only attack was a claw swipe, it was zero threat to me. I walked slowly around the car and plinked it to death with my pistol. Another couldn’t figure out a doorway so I punched it into stasis and stabbed it with a stake.
The watchers just post up on a high point and slowly sweep their vision cones back and forth. They’re no challenge at all to sneak past.
The human enemies at least don’t have to depend on melee, but they’re dumb as rocks. They were also prone to just bugging out and not seeing me at all.
The special vampires are better because they don’t just do melee attacks and they tend to zip around a lot. They’re fine. The only times I died was to a Shroud and one of the exploding ones.
Can’t argue, though I haven’t seen too many get stuck on the world, generally they successfully teleport to me if they are aggroed. One interesting and often deadly choice is that switching weapons doesn’t pause the world, I think that’s a good choice even if three slots is pretty restrictive. It has kept me from really trying anything beyond assault/shotgun/sniper, which is a failing in a game with six or seven weapon types.
Am I right in thinking that in solo play there’s no way to switch between characters? And share their effects on the world? Seems like that would be a more interesting change than just switching weapons.
That’s right, it’s like Borderlands in that sense, you pick a character and do the whole thing as that character.
I’m also in the Redfall cult, I guess. I’m really enjoying it, despite it’s partially-finished state.
I’m about 8 hours in, level 7. Just getting into raiding nests now. Apparently at level 10 there are respecs, which is nice because I just want to put everything into Cloak. Though I did finally have to bump up the difficulty level from Normal to Hard, because it’s just a bit too easy to accidentally cheese Vamps with the faulty AI.
I’m being a weenie, mid difficulty is okay for me. The first big bad fight took me five tries, so probably about right.
I’ve been using the stake shooter on the vamps early.
Well, different strokes and all that, and I’m seriously happy that at least some folks who bought this are getting their money’s worth (whatever they paid). I have not tried it, though it’s a type of game I generally really like, but the videos and reviews I’ve seen have been too consistent in calling out specific things that are of the type that would drive me nuts. I’ll pick it up eventually on deep discount though.
I have to say, though, any comparison to Borderlands is superficial at best. Borderlands, all three of them, center of bitchin’ tight gunplay, excellent combat all around, great weapon feel, and in general an environment and enemies perfectly suited to a looter shooter. Story, dialog, characters, all of that are crap, mostly, but the gameplay is AAA all the way. From what I can see of Redfall, the only thing resembling Borderlands is the very general, very vague concept of shooting things and taking their stuff.
You do you, but you have some very strong criticisms for someone who hasn’t tried the pudding. I get it if you don’t have Gamepass, it’s certainly not a $70 game, I’d give it $30 at best.
Re: @Pyperkub , I do that too, usually stealthing up so the weapon switch doesn’t kill me, though the stake shooter stopped being one-shot after level 6 or so. Still, very nice for not having to run up and stake the vamp after a “kill.”
I’m playing Devinder, I almost never use his teleport skill but the lightning rod is great in particular because it derezzes vamps in its effect without staking. Makes a big difference when you get swarmed.
I mean, yes, you are correct and I have been very clear that I haven’t played the game. I’ve been gaming for over forty years though and this sort of game is straight up my alley. I’ve watched enough reviews and other videos to convince me it isn’t worth seventy bucks. I’ve also seen enough to convince me I’d probably enjoy playing around with it for twenty bucks. But it’s a AAA game at AAA prices and one which its own publisher says is severely flawed.
I really don’t think in this case I need to actually play it to hold the views I do. And I’d never condemn anyone for liking it. I am just pointing out that I do not think any argument comparing this to the gameplay in Borderlands games makes much sense, given the clear differences in execution of the core shooting loop.
Comparison isn’t equality, and yes I’ve been gaming since Odyssey 1, so nyah! I get it if you don’t want to sign up for Gamepass but really, the barrier to entry is so low, why not give it a shot?