Building squad-based shooters may well require less in the way of resources, but making a good one coming from this angle is, clearly, hardly a cakewalk. As a spin-off to one of Siege's themed limited-time events years prior, it lacks the scope, scale, and ambition of said source material, which makes reports of empty lobbies and extended matchmaking waiting times today, just over a year after release, totally believable. It's a comfortable seven-out-of-ten tactical team-based affair that riffs on Siege's core ideas to a fault. Launched in January, 2022, I liked Extraction for what it is: a solid shooter held back by its source material. Although appearing to have sold pretty well in its opening stretch, Redfall instead looks set to become the studio's most forgettable outing against a tidal wave of genre familiars. Arkane's expertise lies in everything noted above in conjuring dark and twisted fantasy lands with unreliable narrators, cool magical powers, and page-turning narratives. That's not to say I have a problem with the genre – I've played my fair share of Rainbow Six: Siege over the years, and one of my most anticipated upcoming games at the moment is Embark Studios' The Finals – but, really, Arkane's fingerprints shouldn't be anywhere near a game of this nature. Redfall, frustratingly, is a squad-based shooter. The second part of that sentence, on the other hand, speaks to a wider, unfortunate habit in video games that seems more prevalent now than ever: chasing trends. Here, the characters are memorable, and the worlds that encompass them are unforgettable. My mind goes straight to games like Dishonored and its sequel, Prey, and Deathloop, each one of which is brimming with creativity, ingenuity and innovation. For me, the first part speaks to Arkane's impressive back catalog.
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