Redfall

Introduction

Redfall is Arkane Austin's open-world co-op vampire shooter, published by Bethesda Softworks and released on 2 May 2023 at a US$70 / NZ$79.95 asking price. It's currently 50% off at NZ$39.97. It sits at 39% positive ("Mostly Negative") across 3,067 English-language Steam reviews. This review read the 100 most-helpful negative reviews of 1,880 total, plus a sample of the 100 most recent English reviews.

A launch that converges on three complaints

Sixty-six of the 100 negative reviews read date to 2023, the highest single-year concentration this outlet has found in any game reviewed this session, and the launch-week sample converges hard on three specific, repeated problems. Performance: "abysmal optimization that requires RTX 4090 minimum & still can't hit 60fps," reads one review from launch week. World and AI: "The AI is pathetic, even on the highest difficulty... The world is empty," reads the single most-upvoted review in this outlet's entire sample this session, at 8,149 votes. And price: that same review opens by asking "Why do developers think they can charge $70 for games like this?" — a complaint this review found echoed constantly, with one reviewer noting "for the same price as this game, you could buy Dishonored, Dishonored 2, and Prey," Arkane's own earlier, far better-received titles.

The studio closed, and shipped a parting gift on the way out

What sets Redfall apart from most disappointing launches this outlet has covered is how well-documented what happened next is. Microsoft closed Arkane Austin in May 2024, alongside The Evil Within developer Tango Gameworks — and in the same month, the studio shipped Game Update 4, adding NVIDIA DLSS 3, an offline single-player mode and a pause feature, changes players had requested since launch. Bethesda later refunded buyers of the pricier Bite Back Edition the difference against the standard edition. This review's own sample of recent player reviews reflects real awareness of this history: "not great, not great, shame about arkane austin," reads one representative 2026 review from a player who finished the campaign at launch.

A genuine recovery, with a new complaint in its place

Recent sentiment has meaningfully recovered: 56% positive across this review's 100 most recent English reviews, well above the 39% lifetime figure. Reviewers buying in at the current discount describe a different game to the one that launched: "I know this flopped hard on release but I am really enjoying it, I'd give it a 7/10 for the $20 I paid for it. Technical issues are not present for me," reads one. Another, more bluntly: "kinda overhated ngl." But this review also found a new complaint specific to the post-closure period: several recent reviewers describe connection and server problems, with one writing simply, "How are you gonna sell a game that you no longer support," and another reporting being "stuck in connecting to server screen" entirely. With no studio left to patch anything further, these reports read as a genuinely open-ended risk rather than a launch issue with a known fix.

Verdict

Redfall remains, by its own lifetime numbers, one of the more comprehensively disappointing launches this outlet has reviewed — severe performance problems, an empty world and an asking price reviewers widely called unjustifiable all converged in the same launch week, and Arkane Austin's closure a year later is a genuinely rare, documented consequence of a single game's reception. What keeps this from a purely historical write-up is a real, measurable recovery in recent sentiment as the price dropped and a final patch addressed some of the original complaints — tempered by a new, harder-to-fix problem: the developer that would fix anything else no longer exists. Worth a look only at the current steep discount, and only with realistic expectations.