Arkane has a problem. Its games, by all accounts, are great. The Dishonored series, Prey, Deathloop – they all review well. Arkane, for generations now, has been a favourite of critics and developer peers. But that acclaim and clout does not translate into sales (or player count, if you’re taking services like Xbox Game Pass and PS Plus into account). Deathloop’s sales were the lowest of any Arkane game at the time it launched on PS5, at least in the physical market. Prey fared only slightly better – and that was a multiplatform release.
Redfall, then, is in a unique position. Arriving on Xbox Game Pass, day and date, means that around 29 million people will be able to boot up the game and immerse themselves in its vampire fantasy at launch. Without asking for a £60+ buy-in, without asking players to gamble what may be their quarterly game budget on an as-yet-unproven new IP, Arkane can finally show the mainstream what it’s capable of. And Redfall, from what I’ve played so far, seems like it has what it takes to capture your imagination.
First thing’s first, the shooting feels better than Deathloop. This is something that Arkane Austin’s studio director, Harvey Smith, chatted casually to me about before the hands-on. The development team, only fairly recently, figured out how to make the various different guns – stake launchers, UV light blasters, magnums, high-calibre sniper rifles, and more – feel really, really good. Each class feels right in your hands, whether you’re fanning the hammer of a revolver or wretching the level of a rifle back before popping another headshot, this is what shooting should feel like – not the paper-thin water pistols we had in Deathloop.
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