Redfall review – vampire shooter is sucked dry of fun

Xbox Series X/S, PC; Arkane/Bethesda
Despite occasional flourishes, Arkane's latest game feels fundamentally at odds with itself

Redfall's developer, Arkane Austin, is previously best known for Prey, a beautifully intricate sci-fi adventure that encouraged players to be creative in their fight against its alien menace. You could activate computer touchscreens by shooting them with a toy crossbow, or squeeze through tiny gaps in the environment by transforming into small inanimate objects. It included a handful of guns, but using them always felt like a failure of imagination on the player's part.

By comparison, guns are all Redfall has. It's the same old parade of incrementally more powerful firearms seen in games such as Borderlands and Destiny, striving to excite the player through what they can have rather than what they can do. These guns are not Redfall's biggest problem, but they symbolise where Arkane has strayed from the path. This might be the studio's largest and most technologically ambitious game, but its expanse of a New England town and packed armoury amount to modest entertainment at best.