To many gamers, Arkane Studios has had quite a strong track record in terms of its releases over the past decade or so. Beginning with the critically acclaimed Dishonored, Arkane has built a reputation of making unique first-person titles with some engaging level design. In fact, Dishonored 2's levels are still lauded as being some of the most intricately designed areas to be released in recent years. Even with this impressive track record, it seems Arkane is still looking to step its game up with its next upcoming title, Redfall.
Redfall marks Arkane's first attempt at bringing the intricate level design of Dishonored and Deathloop to an open world, which has proven to be quite the ambitious task for the developer, as some of its staff have discussed in a new 20-minute look at Redfall. The video begins with a short cinematic for the game, showing Redfall's squad of playable characters displaying the abilities they have to help fight off the vampire horde that has taken over their hometown.
The video then opens up to a panel of four key developers including Studio Director Harvey Smith, Creative Director Ricardo Bare, Art Director Karen Segars, and Lead Producer Aaron Carter, as they discuss the various ways Arkane has stretched itself in making Redfall. Smith spoke about how it was interesting to ask whether the studio could accomplish what it can in linear games with an open world. He wondered whether the team at Arkane could "take all our narrative layers and our improvisational mechanics and our style and spread that out across an open world?”
Of course, Redfall doesn't just bring the challenge of moving the traditional Arkane formula into an open world, but it also poses issues due to its co-operative play. Previously, Arkane has explained how co-op will change the world of Redfall, making the game scarier if a player chooses to face the vampire enemies alone. Something that Arkane spoke about in this most recent deep dive is the wealth of options Redfall's different characters will bring, when working together or even alone. It seems the open world and characters will allow players to do whatever they please, from turning vampires loose to "see some cultist fortress real far away" and try to figure out the best way to approach it.
This video was released as part of Bethesda's ongoing QuakeCon 2022. Redfall will be making an appearance at another big gaming event in the form of Gamescom later this month, too, but it doesn't seem like any new gameplay will be shown there. With Redfall set for an early 2023 release, some are hoping they can see more of the game in the coming months.
Redfall will launch in 2023 for PC and Xbox Series X/S.