I recently picked up this game for free on Xbox Game Pass. At first, I thought it was going to be a "left for dead" rip-off, but I was very wrong. The game is set in two towns (Redfall and Burial Point) located on an island that was invaded by Vampires, forcing the local residents to become undead food or either to flee. However, the latter is not an option since the Island has been shut off from the outside world by a mysterious field freezing the waves around it and a massive darkened red sun in the sky fueling the vampires.
You start your game by choosing a type of Vampire hunter and make your way to the Fire Station, where you meet survivors and hatch plans to retake the city from the vampires. You will have to confront different types of vampires with various abilities and brainwashed cultists who worship the vampires and do their bidding.
The gameplay:
The game plays like your typical FPS shooter where you will equip various weapons such as handguns, rifles, shotguns, and more specialized weapons to take down vampires such as a Stake shooter and a UV gun. The general idea is to use different weapons in combination with your vampire hunter's ability to take down different enemies. In essence, you need to bring down the lives of a vampire to 0 and then finish them off with a stake to the heart, whereas human enemies can be a headshot. The vampires are melee opponents and are very fast and unpredictable. They don't move in a straight but rather zigzag and teleport all around you, making it extremely challenging to take them down. You will need to use your wits in order to outsmart them by either sneaking behind them or bringing them closer to a UV light trap. If you don't manage to stake them in the heart fast enough, they simply regenerate. The enemies tend to group up into tactical squads reminiscent of military personnel with snipers and assault teams.
The setting and the graphics:
The town is very interesting but mostly empty and devoid of all life. It reminds you of a typical coastal city with a small population of fishermen. The different areas are varied enough o keep it interesting by still retaining a sense of authenticity. The graphics are subpar and a bit disappointing. I found that Back 4 Blood which was realized a few years earlier had better graphics if not similar. You will have the chance to visit 2 such towns, the first one being Red fall and the second one being Burial Point, which is much larger.
The combat:
This game is hard, especially at the beginning. The best way to engage enemies is to snipe from afar, cloak to make it to higher grounds, scan the area with your abilities, agro 1 vampire at a time, run behind UV lights to turn vampires into stone and to use a variety of stealth options to take down massive numbers of enemies. The "guns blazing" approach will get you killed in an instant. I played the game on hard because I am a hardcore FPS fan, but for the average gamer (aka game journalists) even easy might be hard. The game isn't hard, you must use all your resources to take down vampires. The thing about this game is that there are never large waves of enemies. You can expect a maximum of 30 enemies per mission (around 10 vampires, a vampire leader and 20 human cultists) which isn't much considering how only the vampires pose a serious challenge. as they should.
The equipment:
The game has somewhat of an RPG feel to it, where you collect gear from various enemies which scales with your current skill level. The stronger the enemies, the higher the chance of getting more powerful weapons. The equipment system reminded me of Diablo 2 where you get the same item either as a common drop, rare drop or legendary drop. Red fall follows the same type of system. The legendary items rarely appear, but when they do, they are game changers. In Burial Point I found a legendary automatic rifle which was doing 30% more damage and killing vampires on the spot with a huge magazine extension. That weapon literally carried me to the final boss, playing offline solo. Consider this game to have a bit of a luck factor, if you find the right gear it can make all the difference.
The missions:
The missions aren't anything special. They consist mostly of killing a vampire leader or collecting some items. Your typical fetch quest, save hostages and kill Target A type of game There are also bonus missions where you can free certain parts of the town making it safer to walk around, or psychic missions where you collect memories to unlock boss portals. The missions do feel generic and aren't really that good, but this game focuses mostly on combat.
The story:
The story isn't really worth mentioning because there are 2 ways a supernatural flick like this can go. Either it's something to do with the supernatural or it is an experiment gone wrong. And yes! you've guessed it, this whole affair started because of some rich dude who wanted to be immortal. It's your typical "Resident Evil" type story, which nothing impressive.
The difficulty:
I am a pro FPS player and I found this game to be sometimes hard. The worst is when more than 3 or 4 vampires gang up on you, unless you have the right weapons and abilities, you can get killed pretty easily. The biggest reason why it's hard is that the game has no "dodge mechanic". You can run back and shoot, but the vampires always catch up to you, especially when they teleport. The only reason I managed to beat the game on Hard was due to my luck in finding legendary weapons and getting accustomed to using the Stake Gun (The most OP weapon in this game). I played this game solo, but I can imagine a more casual player hating this game because of its difficulty. It was reported that even easy mode is somewhat challenging.
What I didn't like about this game
- No way to dodge vampires. You can either jump on a platform or run backwards, hoping that they miss. The only thing I found remotely close to a dodge is to move up to a vampire and let him swing at you, and at that very moment move backwards. However, that's more of a trick and not a game mechanic.
- Game breaking bugs: I had to reset a few missions because the boss either disappeared or the mission froze. I would sometimes get stuck in walls and between street objects.
- Wasting money on healing items and other useless gear. You have so little money on this game, and to refill your ammo or med kits, it can cost you a third of your money, especially at the very early stages of the game. I literally had 0 money in the whole game, because I was constantly refilling my ammo.
- The skill tree doesn't focus enough on single player, and some of the abilities feel useless.