The first reviews of Redfall are here: It’s one of the biggest gaming letdowns of the year

After much anticipation and build up, Bethesda and Arkane have finally released their vampire first person shooter title Redfall, and the early reviews are in. Does the game live up to the hype? Erm, to put it bluntly… it’s not looking good. Early reviews are savage, and whilst a lot of the heavy hitter gaming publications are yet to release their final score they have wrote up their early feelings on the game. Here’s a roundup of the Redfall game reviews from across the internet, to help you decide if you want to buy it or not!

IGN: ‘Thoroughly underwhelmed’

IGN hasn’t given its final verdict score yet to Redfall, but the early review says its reviewer is “thoroughly underwhelmed by Redfall’s vanilla missions and lifeless world and very disappointed in its lengthy list of display issues and bugs.”

IGN also critique the sameyness of the missions, the lack of smart AI for enemies. They praise certain kinetic and bloody moments but say the great moments are irregular. IGN also damning declare that the start button broke when they played and that it doesn’t pause the game even when playing solo?

Gamespot: ‘Redfall is a game that should not have been released yet’

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Gamespot has given its final verdict on the game, and it didn’t hold back, concluding that “Ultimately, Redfall is a game that should not have been released yet. Its litany of bugs hampers the gameplay loop of exploring its world with friends, and that loop itself feels compromised by elements that are poorly executed and ill-suited to the team implementing them. I can’t pretend to know whether Arkane chose to make a loot-shooter or was assigned to make a loot-shooter, but I can tell you what it feels like: one of the best game studios in the world suddenly made toothless.

“Redfall is Arkane making compromises to its own design philosophies to serve a genre it may have been better off avoiding.”

Polygon: ‘Redfall is Arkane defanged’

Polygon has posted its review at the halfway point of the story – saying the narrative could pick up in the second half of the game but echoing the sentiment that the world is lifeless and the town doesn’t feel engaging. “The town of Redfall is sucked too dry of liveliness for players to be invested in whether its vampires triumph or not.”

Eurogamer: ‘Characterful, fun… a little bit janky’

Eurogamer has given one of the more positive game reviews so far for Redfall, but still critique its janky flaws that it thinks could get ironed out by some patches. The reviewer also calls the game simultaneously beautiful and ugly, which I think is a bit of a feat. “I’d say there are some good bones here. The tech seems to be creaking and some of the ideas – the loot and other assorted Destinyisms – might possibly have been imposed from above. But this game already has an awful lot of charm, and that’s much harder to patch in after the fact. Calm seas and sunny skies?”

Metro: ‘Open world vampire game lacks bite’

Metro has given Redfall a 6/10 score, summarising “Immersive sim meets four-player co-op in this vampire themed first person shooter that features competent gunplay but a lack of ingenuity in its challenges.” Metro praised the environments and the variations between the different enemies and heroes but criticised a “baffling lack of public matchmaking” and minor bugs.

At the time of publishing, Redfall has a score of 64 on Metacritic.

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Images courtesy of Arkane, Bethesda and Microsoft.