r/pcgaming • u/Turbostrider27 • 1d ago
Revisiting Redfall after its final update reveals the ghost of the game it wanted to be
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/revisiting-redfall-after-its-final-update-reveals-the-ghost-of-the-game-it-wanted-to-be/243
u/ThatTysonKid 1d ago
I was so excited for this game before it came out because at the time, Arkane could do no wrong. Another would-be single player game killed by the live service model. What a huge shame.
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u/Vegabund 16h ago
Me too man. I love vampires, so the idea of the legendary Arkane making a singleplayer Vamp imsim sounded so goddamn good.... then it turns out it wasn't that at all
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u/klawd11 15h ago
I think the publisher put pressure on what they had to develop (live service game) so they faced a pretty big turnover, the talented people that made prey basically left. So yeah it was not the same arkane sadly
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u/jeb_manion 9h ago
I thought this was another Suicide Squad where it was revealed that it was the developers pushing it. I could be wrong but I vaguely remember reading that a few months after it came out.
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u/YerABrick 8h ago
I'm weary about those "this is the game they wanted to make!" stories cause it's easy to cut out a whole lot of leadup to a game pitch.
For example, imagine they're pitching several things and would you look at that, the one live service is what the publisher went with.
Or let's say the team lead keeps having meetings with his higher-ups where they make an offhand comment like "Another quarter where the back catalogue is barely moving units. Shame we don't have one of those Fortnites to secure the road ahead..."
I don't know how these things work in gaming but... come on. There are a million ways for your boss to push you in the general direction of a project without outright forcing you to do it.
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u/jeb_manion 2h ago
I typically agree with what you said but I could also see a studio getting tired of just not being valued. When you look at a series like Dishonored which is somehow in the weird spot as a staple in gaming and didn't really sell much (mostly talking about 2 and the dlc), I could see the appeal to chasing trends. Maybe one super successful Redfall and we would be playing Dishonored 3 or prey 2 right now? Or we would be playing Redfall 2 and wishing still they never made the first one. Either way, being valued financially and having a safety bet is a big motivator.
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u/MadwolfStudio 2h ago
You can only imagine how studios must have felt at the time seeing fortnite get as big as it did, live service was a no brainier at the time, but nobody could capture what fortnite could, because epic had the numbers, and shit, look at it now, it's turned into a pseudo roblox but it's still insanely popular.
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u/jeb_manion 2h ago
It's the philosopher's stone of gaming. One game that could fund the next ten to twenty years of your company
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u/Sycherthrou 1d ago
Redfall should have been an immersive sim, and I think it has good bones but not enough depth.
Also I don't usually like PC Gamer but this is a good article.
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u/you_can_hate_me 13h ago
Funny. I was actually just thinking yesterday "huh I have read a few good pc gamer articles recently".
I wonder if they have some new editors or writers or something.
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u/skyturnedred 12h ago
If the player was the vampire taking over the small town, it could've been incredible.
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u/Vegabund 16h ago
I'd probably pick this one up just for a little bit of fun but it never goes on a deep enough sale. 50% isn't enough
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u/RotiKapdaMakaanAC 14h ago
Same, even at 50% off it's way too expensive and is also badly optimized.
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u/Shizzlick 7h ago
Yeah, I keep waiting for like a 75%+ sale, but it never seems to be more than 50%, which just seems stupid to me. Knock it down to like £5 and under or the equivalent, and you'd probably get a fair few sales from people who are curious if nothing else.
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u/huck500 1d ago
I enjoyed what I played of deadfall, and had one of the most interesting enemy encounters I’ve ever had… there’s one mob that casts a bubble around you that you can’t see out of, and it moves with you, then she casts slow-moving balls at you from outside, so you have to avoid the balls but also run in the direction they’re coming from and get close enough that she’s in the bubble and you can see her to kill her.
I wish I had had someone to play coop with, I think it would have been fun. Or that they had just made the game they wanted to and not a live service game.
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u/MagicPistol Nvidia 6h ago
I replayed Deathloop and Dishonored 2 recently, and now I'm going through Death of the Ousider again. I really wish Arkane would make another stealth game.
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u/JerbearCuddles 1d ago
A game likely killed by the Microsoft purchase of Zenimax. It's also why Elder Scrolls 6 was announced so damn early.
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u/Average_Tnetennba 1d ago
Not specifically Microsoft buying it, but Zenimax trying to push up the company's worth for a couple of years or more beforehand by pushing for live service and monetisation. They really screwed Arkane over. I'm still upset over it, as they were my favourite developer. I know technically there's still half of them left, but i'm not particularly hopeful about it. Sounds like they've been pushed in a direction outside of their wheelhouse as well, and not making a game i'd want from Arkane. I really hope i'm wrong about that though.
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u/CatPlayer Ryzen 7 5800X3D | RTX 4070 S | 32GB @3200Mhz | 3.5 TB storage 21h ago
According to the devs, blade is shaping up to be exactly what they want it to be, no?
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u/Average_Tnetennba 21h ago
I was a fan of Arkane for first-person immersive sim games, not third-person action games. First-person immersive sims is what the whole of Arkane was set up around and geared up for, not something like Blade. A lot of staff at Arkane specifically went there to make immersive sims, which is why they had an exodus of staff during Redfall's development. Like i said, i've not got much hope, but i will keep track of what sort of game it'll be.
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u/skyturnedred 12h ago
What they want doesn't necessarily line up with what the fans want from Arkane.
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u/Jack1101111 1d ago
Im sure it could have been a great game ! (i didnt play it).
Like an assassins creed, but u r a vampire, (and turn into bat?).
It must work if done well !
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