

It's astonishing to see how badly flawed this key system is. What did surprise me, however, is the severity of the issue both in terms of frequency and persistence with 10 to 20 second delays until textures fully resolve. Now, texture pop-in goes hand-in-hand with Unreal Engine if not managed properly, so I wasn't too surprised to encounter it.

The first and most egregious issue with Redfall involves textures. Other nice touches include the sinister volumetric red mist you'll contend with during your journey and some detailed texture work.Īlas, while the aesthetic can be appealing, Redfall exhibits a multitude of visual flaws which we need to address. From a distance, the world of Redfall holds up surprisingly well - the map is easy to parse with visible landmarks dotting the landscape while screen-space shadows help tie everything together. Many of the key mission areas feature the attention to detail you'd expect from Arkane: from haphazard stacks of CRT monitors linked by a rat's nest of cabling to ominous wooden structures precariously teetering above the player, there's a lot to like.Īs in many other open world games, Redfall features a dynamic time of day system with an appropriately dynamic shadow map that changes based on the angle of the darkened sun looming above. Redfall gets a lot of things right with its visual design - characters are stylised and expressive while weapons are neatly rendered, boasting slick animation as each shot pops off. The game presents a stylistic take on realism much like the Dishonored games, but with an East Coast American setting and small-town suburban aesthetic.
A TALE OF PAPER SWITCH PC
PC is to follow and the early signs are not looking favourable there either, unfortunately.

Watch on YouTube Redfall on Xbox - the Digital Foundry console tech review. Unfortunately, when it comes to delivering vast open world environments, Unreal Engine 4's reputation has been tarnished in recent years, with games such as Gotham Knights and Jedi Survivor exhibiting poor performance, visual inconsistencies or both at launch. That is, until the Typhon Hunter DLC, which uses Unreal Engine 4 no doubt owing to its multiplayer and VR functionality, both of which Unreal excels in. While Arkane Lyon has focused its efforts on the suitably impressive Void Engine, Arkane Austin's previous project, Prey, was built on CryEngine. With its multiplayer focus and open world design, it's clear that a change in engine was necessary to bring Redfall to life. Its immersive-sim roots are still evident, but Redfall delivers an experience reminiscent of Far Cry blended with a looter shooter. While solo play is possible, the game is clearly built with multiplayer in mind. Over time, Arkane has increasingly become one of my favorite game developers in the business, specialising in immersive sim-style first-person experiences. Overall, the critics have been harsh, but my own experience has been more positive - though this is far from the sublime genius of Arkane Austin's last game, the brilliant Prey.

The omission of a 60 frames per second performance mode turns out to be one of the lesser issues facing a release with a range of technical and content problems. Alas, things have perhaps not gone quite as planned.
A TALE OF PAPER SWITCH SERIES
It promises a vast Unreal Engine 4-powered world to explore while casting aside the shackles of the last-generation Xbox One hardware with a release exclusively targeting Xbox Series consoles and the PC. Redfall is an open world first-person shooter that combines mechanics-driven, immersive sim-style design with optional cooperative multiplayer.
