Redfall Is Getting Slaughtered On Steam As Gamers Revolt Against Buggy Releases

We want to love Arkane Studio's highly-anticipated FPS vampire-themed game Redfall, but it seems like poor early reviews for the Xbox and PC releases might just give us pause. That can't be good for a company with Arkane's reputation, let alone Xbox as a whole, which has been in need of a hit title to boost console sales.

It's hard to think that anything touched by Arkane (part of Bethesda Softworks) wouldn't turn into gaming gold. Previous outings like Deathloop, Prey, and the highly-regarded Dishonored series basically set the bar high for Redfall, which was developed to be an Xbox exclusive. The build-up to its 2023 release has been heavily covered by media, so it comes as a surprise (yet not really) when Redfall Metacritic is showing a preliminary critical rating of 59. Even sites like  Gamespot (4 out of 10), Steam (31% of 100%) or GamesRadar (2.5 out of 10) haven't been impressed either. Ooof. 


Part of the negative reaction to Redfall is in response to Microsoft capping the game at 30fps for both the Xbox Series X (@4K) and the Series S (@1440p). This was announced in April and yet Microsoft stuck with its decision even though it obviously drew heavy criticism from fans and media outlets alike. The company did say a 60fps mode will be available eventually, but to not have it at launch is quite a shot in the foot. The PC version has no such framerate cap, but it isn't faring much better with gamers complaining of framepacing issues and poor framerates altogether.

Reviewers are also harping on the repetitive gameplay, imbalanced single-player campaign, abundance of bugs in single/co-op/multiplayer modes, plus a poorly optimized combat system. As a first-person shooter set in the fictitious town of Redfall, Massachusetts overrun by vampires, you'd think that a developer with Arkane's almost-haloed background would get all those elements in Redfall right.

Updates and bug fixes will likely follow, but at its core, Redfall is considered underwhelming and quite contentious (such as requiring players to be online at all times); only time will tell how Microsoft addresses and mitigates these issues. Perhaps we have another Cyberpunk: 2077 on our hands? That game famously launched in a similarly maligned state, but subsequent patches have largely polished its experience to deliver on its original promise.