Redfall is a monster-filled sandbox with big immersive sim potential

After playing Arkane Studios’ redfallI was somewhat puzzled by how to classify the strange new co-op shooter spawned by the ghosts who Prey And dishonored. Closest thing I can compare redfall to is an expansive immersive sim sandbox that tries to keep its story centered.

redfall is definitely not a horde-based co-op shooter that resembles Left 4 dead or Warhammer 40,000: Dark Tide — studio director Harvey Smith has already emphasized that.

Yes, redfall contains co-op elements, but like other Arkane games, it’s a solo experience first. Smith even encourages players to play the game solo first and invite friends over for an encore. (Unfortunately, co-op wasn’t playable in a recent 90-minute hands-on demo with the game in New York.)

For the demo, I played Layla, whose drip and attitude made her the obvious choice for me. She is a medical student with witch powers and an ultimate ability that allows her to summon her absolute snack of a vampiric ex-boyfriend for help. It would be easy to fire redfall‘s four characters as class archetypes; their spread of skills makes them all equally suited to solo or supporting roles. Each character has two cooldown abilities in addition to an ultimate ability that recharges by killing bad guys.

In addition, each character feels different in their attitudes, motivations, and interactions with the world. Layla, for example, lures grenades into her gun using her telekinetic powers when she needs to reload and punches her former bae when he’s pulled from the shroud.

Before entering the open world, I had to research my equipment and assign a handful of skill points, which gave me a starting block equal to what players will experience about an hour into the main story. I started in an old fire station, one of the many reclaimed safehouses you’ll find scattered around the world where you can catch your breath.

Image: Arkane Studios/Bethesda Softworks

On my way to the town of Redfall, I encountered relatively empty streets. The common residents may have left, but Redfall is still peppered with enemy patrols, vampires, and environmental hazards ranging from gas canisters to car batteries. It’s essential to use these elements to your advantage when dealing with larger groups of enemies, as your ammo supply is limited and vampires tend to shrug off bullets. The compelling elements of redfall also enable fun unscripted moments like sneaking around to feed vampires to flip the switch on conveniently placed UV lights and dust them off.

Ultraviolet light, fire, and electricity are some of the damage types I’ve seen throughout the demo, with each type providing debuffs and counters for specific enemy types. UV lights may be great against vampires, but the human cultists running around couldn’t care less.

The cult members who work with the vampires are armed with guns and grenades, and they patrol in groups and will warn others of your presence. You’ve fought these dudes before, and they really don’t become a problem until they ask about the manager (i.e. the vampires) who run the show around Redfall. The pasty fashion-forward cryptids are usually found singly or in pairs and enjoy tricking you by teleporting to get close to their claws.

The vampires were more engaging than the more human enemies I faced, as bullets would only stun the leeches. It’s not that hard to beat them in 1v1 situations if you know what you’re doing, but getting tangled up with three or more at once can get unpredictable without a backup plan. If you want to finish them all, you’ll need to deploy them at close range or get creative by setting them on fire before finishing them.

Vampires come in several flavors. For example, Siphons are able to steadily drain your health from a distance while replenishing your own, while Shrouds restrict your view to a small area around them until they’re dealt with.

Fortunately, the eclectic arsenal is in redfall offers you some interesting solutions for solving the city’s vampire problem. In addition to your standard arsenal of shotguns and assault rifles, redfall features numerous improvised weapons, such as the flare gun, which can start fire or set enemies on fire, or the UV projector, which works like a freeze beam against vampires. My personal favorite, though, is the stake launcher, a three-barreled monstrosity that uses captured ammo from various environmental objects such as pool cues or guitars.

Image: Arkane Studios/Bethesda Softworks

I’ve only seen two redfall‘s factions during the hands-on demo, but Smith has promised additional human and vampire factions. When he said that rival factions could even fight each other, I immediately started thinking of clever ways to trick them into attacking each other.

redfall comes standard with four difficulty levels, and while specific zones of the map may be more difficult than others, according to Smith, increasing the difficulty in addition to having more friends in your game will spawn hostile clusters with added perks and more specialized enemies.

In true Arkane fashion, there are novels worth of literature scattered around the world and various random objects to pick up, inevitably turning your inventory into a magpie’s nest of edibles and romance novels. redfall has streamlined the process somewhat by having items automatically converted into food or money. These currencies are used to buy back consumables in your safehouses, which also provide you with localized side missions that will grant you loot and experience upon completion.

The side missions I saw during my time at redfall seemed to be fairly standard, offering small, predictable targets to accomplish near a specific safehouse. These ranged from clearing a specific house, flipping switches on a few scattered transmitters, to defending a point on the map for a set amount of time. One of the notable distractions from the main story are the vampire nests scattered throughout Redfall – which aren’t nests so much as small, linear sack sizes supported by a heart at their core.

Vampire nests work like a smash-and-grab heist, taking you and your party through an “upside down” part of town, with vampires liberally scattered along your path to the core. Destroying the core opens up different areas filled with shiny loot, but also causes the nest to start collapsing, giving you a limited window to escape with your dosh.

Completing side objectives or killing certain types of vamps fills a meter that summons an uber-vampire called the Rook. While I was thoroughly stomped by this guy during his only appearance in my playthrough, I was certain that while he’s tough, the Rook isn’t invincible. Of course, beating him will give you the best loot in the game.

Overall, the gameplay loop is up for the stretch redfall I had to play felt pretty standard for an open-world shooter, but it was still interesting to see Arkane’s take on the genre by mixing imm-sim elements with an asymmetrical, complementary class system. The solid firefight combined with supernatural abilities gives redfall a good starting block for players to experience the story and become more familiar with the systems before finally breaking up with friends when the game launches on May 2 for Windows PC and Xbox Series X.