@@NickHunter a variety of things, but what nobody wants in this day and age is another shitty live service looter shooter built around micro transactions. Now you might say that "there are no micro transactions" but the damage has already been done to the game as they were included originally, and it was announced later that they removed them
A stark reminder that "studio pedigree" means nothing when the PEOPLE responsible for the games we loved have moved on. Studios don't make great games, the people do.
Also pertinent when the people in charge were despicable, talentless frauds all along. See: Casey Hudson, Randy Pitchford, Yoshio Sakamoto, anyone in charge at Blizzard.
"Follow the people, not the studio." Yep, that's a far more interesting way to get games. It's how I got Torchlight I & II(from creators and lead designers of Diablo I & II), Dungeon Siege & SupCom Forged Alliance(Total Annihilation Team), Dying Light (Dead Island 1/Call of Juarez devs), Ground Branch(O.G. Rainbow Six), C&C Remastered Collection(EA actually made the rare, smart move of letting ex-Westwood devs at the helm of remastering their own games). Of course, it's not a perfect way, there are also some missteps and failures along the way("Phoenix Point" on release, and "Underworld Ascendant" to this day comes to mind). So for alternative, my next bet are "fanboy games", games that are clearly made by folks that love the game they're aping. From this I got Xenonauts(X-Com), Aragami 1 & 2(Tenchu), Brigador(Crusader No Remorse), Broforce(Contra), Veloren(CubeWorld Alpha), etc...
Yep. This game has looked like a chore ever since it was revealed. I got flak for saying it looks like the typical mediocre coop experience I've come to expect from the games industry of 2023. Feels good to be correct, and sad to see the Arkane I used to love is no more.
I never in a thousand, million, BILLION years thought I'd be saying this, but can we PLEASE go back to every protagonist being a boring generic shaved head white guy? He doesn't even need to be white or a guy. Just make something generic and stop being too clever for your own good. If anything, all these wacky designs blend together and look generic but with waaaay more effort.
"Telekinetic Threat in Student Debt" I'm sure someone in their late 30s thought that was the most clever and quirky thing in the world when they came up with that.
I feel like what a lot of reviewers miss, is the fact that these are not the same studios we remember anymore. most of the talent has gone on to other studios or started their own. whats left, are good devs struggling to make a good product, and incompetent dev's running departments.
@@NeverSaySandwich1 yep not enough people are talking about how terrible diversity hiring is over merit. It's literally killing western AAA gaming studios that were once competent. Mostly nowadays these studios are full of incompetent devs who care about pushing political agendas with video games.
@@ezzwah You market your horror action FPS with a smug looking black lady with a big afro on the cover. The target audience is still overwhelmingly men (mostly white men). They just don't get who these games are made for. That millennials are writing dialogue for characters who are Zoomers and it's so cringy/reddit
@@ezzwah Exactly, remember they massacred borderlands 3 with their woke ideas and stories and forced strong tomboyish female characters and weak beta male characters. Myself an old gamer and a borderlands fan had to resort to piracy as a mark of protest. And after bl3, I stopped consuming anything coming out of mainland usa and west in general be it novels, tv series, games etc. Indie is the way to go if you want to enjoy gaming. Maybe games by small studios which are made by passion and not with any agenda in mind. Last year, I played the ascent, wierd west, mutant year zero, biomutant. This year I played atomic heart, dead island 2. These are gems.
The enemy AI does actually have some lore to it... The vampire lords are actually puppeteers and controlling how smart AI is which is why it is so hit or miss. A note at the end of the game states that the vampire lords eventually left the island and started a company known as Arkane Austin with the intention of sucking the life out of hard working programmers who want to make good games.
You just made me think about it.. and.. Yea I've been watching his videos for some time as well. I know it was not the earliest but I know for sure I was watching his videos back when he first released his Land of the Dead game review.. ( Was one of the people who worked on the patches for the PC version.. The devs left it in such a mess. On the bright side I ended up learning how to make maps with Unreal as well due to it so there is that. )
Might be about the same for me. Pretty sure I started watching him around 2014-2015 ish? He's one of the only RU-vidrs I've watched this long and STILL watch.
I was born in 1990 and grew up watching cable TV. I've probably watched more internet videos on RU-vid than I have cable TV by now. Some youtubers I have been following since 2007.
Probably a good reason for that. also not really. the laziest of tv shows do one season a year. back in the day was different, not only were tv shows more consistent, but they made a lot more episodes per season, not as much people watching tv these days. i think you might be able to thank 2008 High Definition Mandate for some of that. Definitely made me write "watching tv" off my books. or at least write in an asterisk. i honestly don't know how long it's been since i watched free network tv. if i did, it was through a satellite or a cable. more recently through Pluto tv, but that's only CBS (and paramount, but that's not network)
Regarding the DLSS thing; I feel like many bigger games nowadays rely way too much on it, with developers trying to save time and neglecting optimization.
At the same time when a game is well optimized DLSS can wring even more performance out. I went from getting 68 FPS with everything but Raytracing turned on in RE4 with the AMD's software version of DLSS, but when I installed a DLSS mod my FPS rarely dipped below 100.
@@PinkManGuy It always does. People hate nVidia but they always have the better choice, if you are willing to pay. But having anyone buy any GPU with less than 12 GB VRAM in 2023 is straight-up dumb.
yeah like for cyberpunks issues you can tell that it needs the DLSS because it has raytracing and some overall nutty visuals but why does this game need it lol
@@obsidiancrow450 it's not necessary. if they properly optimize and implement there is no need for DLSS. it's a gimmick that was created by nvidia just to say we have "higher" fps. but the quality of the frames goes to sh*t
Recently replaying Prey from Arkane Austin for the third time, and I can't wrap my head around how the same team would develop THIS. What a SHITTY time to be alive...
@@Gonzalo_105 Ah, that would explain why they went from making Arx Fatalis, Dark Messiah, Dishonored and Prey 2017 to making Young Blood and Deathloop...
I'm convinced the "only the host makes campaign progress" thing is a deliberate choice: it basically means that if you are a group of 4 friends you'll have to replay each level 4 times with a different host, so everyone makes progress. A great way to create artificial playtime value.
Only for the achievement sluts. I played through with a friend as he hosted and once we beat it I uninstalled. It had some fun parts but very low replay value as it’s buggy and short.
Helicopters and other air vehicles get zapped out of the sky, literally not even 20 mins into playing the game you watch 2 military helicopters get taken down almost instantly.
@@AOIU982 yeah how did this happen with Arkane? They were one of the only good ones left.... Even deathloop was decent but this is completely unacceptable
Imagine hiring a studio like Arkane, who created unique immersive sims like Dishonored, Deathloop, and Prey 2017 and having them make a generic looter shooter overflowing with terrible dialogue.
Nobody from arkane wanted to work on redfall AT ALL. Coupled with the fact that they were given ASTHONISHINGLY low money and time to complete it. Lack of money, no passion whatsoever and time crunch? What did we expect
Twisted Metal: Black had partial slideshows in its cutscenes due to lack of time to make fully animated ones and it's so incredibly seamless and well done. They really used the limitations to their advantage whereas this game's cutscenes could've executed that concept better.
I told myself awhile ago now that anything with “___fall” is probably gonna be some generic junk. Funny enough I still feel correct, and it definitely feels like a focus group title choice.
@@ElderSnowball It just means PlayStation owners who were upset about not being able to play Redfall probably don’t have to be upset about missing out on it. That seems relevant to me…which leads me to wonder if you are an Xbox player who is sort of upset about a big Xbox exclusive possibly being a big disappointment? (I don’t know how to ask that question without sounding like a prick but I’m genuinely curious)
i honestly barely even heard of it till like a few weeks ago and ever trailer i saw looked generic as fuck, i feel like they didnt even try with this one
@@_Rick___Grimes_ The dialogue from each of the trailers wasn't even that good either. It just felt so annoying and cringeworthy to listen to, almost as if the marketing was deliberately aiming for zoomers who seriously thinks that MCU's style of writing is the peak of comedy. For real, why does everything tries to be like MCU these days?
It screamed because 60% of our audience are in the 12-15 age group, which has shown preference for screaming as a style of humor However, 40% is nothing to be scoffed at, so the screaming was kept at reasonable decibels
Is Arkane in some kind of financial trouble after years of kickass single player ISIMs? Like, when a studio like that starts to poop out a 4 player looter shooter, we need to start looking for a good burial plot.
The comparison to Terminator resistance really showed how this game could've been better. I was downright scared of the terminators in the beginning of that game and then by the end you had a real awesome and deserved power fantasy of a game
I would say Alan Wake looks more like what it's supposed to be based off than these other's. It definitely looks and feels like the PNW just like Twin Peaks (which I believe it's based off of) and I would know as I live 30 minutes from the diner that Twin Peaks is based off of (not sure if they filmed in there) and I believe is what inspired the Alan Wake opening cafe. But definitely agree with the other sentiments haha
This is it. The only way you can change your own relation to this is to stop buying these games. That will not make video game development better, though. That is a wet dream.
Arkane’s decline makes a lot more sense when you remember that most of those who worked on dishonored or prey ain’t there anymore. These are NOT the same people that made those games, a dev studio is more then just the name. It would be like expecting modern bioware or blizzard to be up to par with old bioware or blizzard.
I genuinely want to know if this is what Arkane really wanted to make or if it's Bethesda who told them to make this. I'm afraid of what the answer is.
I can't believe you actually got the stealth kill to work at the beginning. I tried hitting one enemy for so long and no hit registered until they turned around and saw me lol. So glad I got a recording of that.
On the contrary, I saw the concept trailer like last year or something, forgot I saw the trailer, and only randomly remembered the game a few months back. I had zero interest and thus zero expectations for Redfall. I'm _still_ somehow disappointed. In action, it looks less interesting than even what the trailer was showing. That's pretty impressive. Add the bugs and performance issues, and it's downright remarkable just how disappointing a game you weren't anticipating can be.
Yup. Shit looked generic and boring AF. Just shows how great art style can fool a lot of people. It almost shuts people's brains of so they can only say "cool" and not even consider how the game is going to play.
I really do love how you're fair with your critiques. A lot of developers these days haven't been told about, "garbage in, garbage out", and being rushed into production with bugs and other things that would've made developers from our era cringe at their mere mention seems to be laisse faire these days. Thanks for being a reliable source with who put effort into their art and their products and who isn't.
I swear as time goes on big names have started to forget how to make good games….somehow not staying the same but moving backwards. Dishonoured has such a unique feeling and look. This just looks like a ai prompt….in everything “make spooky landscape” “a vampire” “design combat using xxxxxx and xxxxx”
Fellow gamers, we stand on the brink of a revolution. A revolution against the corporate greed and corruption that has infected the gaming industry for far too long. We must take a stand and demand change. The time has come for us to rise up and say "enough is enough." We cannot continue to let game developers and publishers take advantage of us with overpriced DLC, microtransactions, and loot boxes. We must take back our gaming experience and demand that games be created with our enjoyment and satisfaction in mind, not just to make a quick profit. But this revolution is not just about the gaming industry. It's about standing up against the larger systems of oppression and inequality that plague our society. We must fight for a world where everyone has access to quality games, regardless of their financial situation or social status. Together, we can create a new gaming landscape, one where creativity and passion are the driving forces behind game development, not just profits. So let us band together, gamers of all kinds, and demand a better future for our industry and for ourselves. Let us start a revolution that will change the gaming world forever. And if any corporate death squads ask, i'm a handicapped small child.
This is the result of video games going from passion projects to corporate moneymaking schemes. That and twitch and e-sports are the three worst things to happen to gaming
they didnt forget but already made them. no creativity in gaming is whats going on...u think they had fun building this cashtrash? but as long as u have a large enough pool of peopel who even defend stuff like nomanssky or cyberpunk...the money will keep flowing and gaming is trash. now that i think about it, thats probably why i mostly play tekken nowdays lol
You just described one of the major problems with design of many modern games. They devolve into the same loop and give you too many overpowered ability's too quickly. whilst having lots of cool powers is fun they need to feel earned to be satisfying. Isn't it more satisfying to struggle against a few really tuff enemy's then come back and destroy them a few hours later after you've gotten better at the game and found some stronger tools?
Gman, your edits are always so spot on. I don't know if you still edit your own vids or if you have an editor, but either way: the subtle (or not so subtle) humor is always great. Love your work man.
He got into an argument with some idiot on twitter not long ago who was making fun of him for editing his own videos instead of 'expanding his business' or some such nonsense.
Yeah but it was the second weakest power armor and the minigun later gets outclassed by other weapons. The whole sequence was meant to show off the new rules for using power armor.
I remember seeing this ages ago, and the big thing that made me feel weird about the whole, is that for having such a vibe of "small town gets monsters, locals fight back", the backstory of all of the characters make them out to be hyper competent. Which just feels odd.
It's weird how during the last 6-7 years the majority of games haven't improved graphically at all, but their performance has become increasingly worse. Like, I'm not a fan of putting on my tin foil hat, but honestly, why and how? Physics have become very bare bones, nothing amazing on the effects department either, some improvements on hair and lighting, but minimal stuff when you compare how much these games are demanding.
everyone publisher these days thinks they're CD project RED and believe they can absorb the bad press from a shitty launch cause people will buy it anyway
because games like this aren't given enough time to be optimized or finished. Games that are actually given enough time, like doom eternal or the last of us part 2 (regardless of what you think about the game itself) look and run great because of this.
We're at a point where graphical improvements can't be done by a single person, and giant companies like Nvidia are needed to push things forward. Unreal Engine 5 is peak graphics, hands down, and everyone who uses them will be generally stuck with whichever version they start with (upgrading can be costly).
Then there's the fact the game feels rushed. Performance can always be fixed, but if the devs don't get enough time, or management is fucking up, then you'll get a game with shitty performance.
If it was up to me, the vampires would be an elite unit in a swarm of cultists. Give them supernatural ways to avoid being shot or UV rayed to death and a challenging counter offensive. If you still want the fast unit, make thralls which are just expendable cannon fodder for the players power fantasy. At least they seemed to make the characters interesting, which seems to be a bane of modern game design.
They are not vampires. At several points they are outside during DAYTIME IN THE SUN. That is not up for debate; if it can walk in the sun, it is not a vampire.
@@Zelix678 they give some shitty excuse that the sun is being blocked by vampire magic or something, which is stupid when you consider that it doesn't make the island perpetually dark or anything, just gives it a red hue in the day time.
@@Zelix678 No one cares about your pet issue, vampires AREN'T REAL and can be modified HOWEVER a dev wants. Anyone can make up a vampire creature that can handle the sun, and put it in a game, literally NO ONE cares about how you think they can't be traditional vampires because they're in the sun bro, no one at all.
I had literally never heard of Redfall until after I saw the controversy about it start to circulate. That's pretty shocking given it's Arkane developed title and I usually am quite excited by those from early announcement. Somehow this just slipped under the radar for me, and I'm kinda glad because this looks nothing like what I'd expect from that studio.
@@uspaint Nah. It might seem like a surprise to someone with your level of intelligence but some people have enough brain capacity that allows them to rate games between just "amazing" and "trash".
Seems like on top of technical problems Arkane took a more light-hearted approach recently. You know, instead of some quite deep, thoughtful, serious games like Dishonored and Prey they switched to more fun-oriented tone in Deathloop and Redfall. It also shows the games have lost their depth along the way, and in my mind those bugs and other misfortunes have somehow followed suit.
Sad too, as I loved Dishonored and Prey, but couldn’t get into Deathloop, despite liking how it plays. As far as Redfall, I knew from the first glimpse I would be avoiding it.
Even if Deathloop wasn't a masterpiece, at least that tried to be on par with Arkane's titles in terms of style. This looks like something created by an entirely different development studio, nothing of Arkane's style stands out in this, minus a few exceptions.
this makes me so sad. I can't believe what epic did to that game. Such wasted potential. You can't even fucking buy it anymore. and now, like tencent ruined epic, microsoft is ruining arkane, and probably all of bethesda. anyways hop on ut.
Not if Epic has anything to say about that, sadly. Can't even buy the games on Steam/digital storefronts anymore since they've been delisted. Like, sure, UT probably isn't making that much money now-in-days, but to just outright remove them from storefronts and essentially deny anyone who hadn't already bought them before, along with removing the master servers from the games, seems unbelievably anti-consumer. But I agree, we all should play some more Unreal Tournament. :3
i remember spending time with devs. pitching ideas. until the devs eventually cut contact with the whole fanbase. and let the new unreal die off... i still love to play ut99 from time to time. hell i even wanted to get friends into 2003. as the graphics are still decent. but everyone i ask says : graphics suck. gameplay sucks. its a shit game :(
Honestly to me the most baffling aspect is going from the Typhon Phantoms and Nightmare to these Vampires and somehow losing all threat and gravitas in the process.
Man I was really hoping that redfall would be good because I love vampires. But after seeing that it would be stuck in 30fps I had a feeling that it was going to get worse. I didn’t want to believe it, but deep down I knew
Doubt very much that the frame rate is going to be the important factor here. People are absolutely obsessing over that now. Framerate doesn't equal a good game. It equals a framerate.
Obviously, but once that got revealed I had this small feeling in the back of my mind that said “what if that’s not the only problem it has”. Then boom, it turned out to have bugs and it feels low effort
@@Ivegotsomewater81 Frame rate is an easy indicator of how well optimized or finished a game is, on pc a game going below 60 is considered unplayable for most as any game on modern hardware can run 60+ easily but the devs are too lazy to put the effort into optimizing prior to launch
For most triple a games yes but at least indie games are still trying to pick up the slack by still trying to be more creative which I appreciate I own tons of indie games and all of them are still fun to play 🙂
@@paulovinasrocha6166 that’s true of literally everything, not just games. The only difference is the crappy ones don’t blend into the background on Steam like a book would in a library.
My friend and I played for a solid hour and half and we had to check that we were on the hardest difficulty multiple times, there is just no challenge at all. Most of our damage was from falling when we missed a platform lol
The 30 seconds of Unreal Tournament at the end of the video had more heart, soul, and energy to it than the entire 20-something minutes of Redfall gameplay that came before. It reminds me of how, whenever I try to play Cyberpunk, I just wish I was playing Deus Ex instead.
@@saltysumo7991 the character designs already prefaced the game sucking. I didn't even need to play it to know it was a bag of shite, the reviews are just confirmation of my hypothesis.
My gf was really looking forward to this since she loves vampires, but I convinced her to just try the gamepass version instead. Its seems like its worth a "rental" price for the month.
I’m fully subscribed to the idea the gaming industry has become like the film and music industries where now large corporations can afford to chuck money at companies to make games, rush them out for the quarters and then abandon them when they dont do well in the first month and dissolve studio and teams for profit
I mean, they’re not by the same studios, just the same publisher. That’d be like worrying that Doom Eternal would run bad because Fallout 76 came out shit.
If it’s on the creation engine aka”gamebryo” engine, it’s going run awful on launch. It’s just a given, modders are going to have bail it out until Bethesda fixes it like always.
The first time I saw any footage of this game, I knew it was going to be pure garbage. I own a Series X and all it does is take up valuable fridge space while gathering dust. XBOX seriously need to get their shi** together.
@@winlover37 It certainly does! in some areas I think PDZ had better textures. But when a game launches 18 years later on new hardware as a AAA release and has visuals like a 2 decade old game thats pretty funny.
The AAA industry is so bad, it's gotten to the point where I just don't even bother keeping up with new releases anymore. If, by some miracle, a AAA game isn't trash, I'll wait a year or whatever to avoid being fleeced and pick up the full game for $20-$30.
No. They did not make Dishonored. There's two Arkane Studios. One in France and one in Texas. Arkane Lyon made dishonored. Arkane Austin made Prey. Arkane Austin are the ones who did Redfall.
@@Astartes-6969 Oh ? I didn't know that two studios based oceans apart who speak different languages and are working on separate games are the "same thing." Who knew !?
As an artistic manager at Arkane Lyon, i really want to state we were not involve in the development of this game and the turn out was expected with and the change and the concern coming with the management. I would like to ask for a bit of compassion to Arkane Austin devs especially after the bad PR this game release will spread. I have personal friends already worried about the upcoming time months before this launch, so please, i couldn't ask anything with more pain in my heart. We aren't blind or anything, we see how is this game, just be light with Arkane Austin developers...
Yeah, we tend to forget that studios have different HQ's/development teams. It does suck that Dishonored 2 didn't initially meet sales expectations. Top 5 game from last gen. Prey was really good, too. I feel bad for the guys in Austin. This doesn't seem like a project that was left entirely in their hands. Change in management, publisher pressures, etc. However, criticism is allowed when you release a product out there. As long as the criticism isn't personal.
@@WarlordRising i totally agree with you. Here in France its 3h30am at the time i write this comment and the night already fells like it will never end.
@@Ast0sH Sucks to hear that but there’s a fine line for consumers and it seems that nearly every gaming company is out to get us now. $70 for games that aren’t finished, bugged, or just downright undermined with content (being saved for DLC and monetization) that doesn’t even exist. Developers like you guys HAVE to be aware of this, we know you guys aren’t just going along your work and not realizing what is being put out and just allowing it to happen. Unionize or do something to prevent these products from reaching the states they’re reaching. It’s ridiculous at this point. I would be amazed if companies like you guys stick around very long if you keep this up. Another gaming industry crash is looming and this only encapsulates the possibility. Nothing against you as a person, but there’s got to be something said to you guys. It’s disappointing, people are spending HUGE amounts of money for developers, only to get completely robbed. It’s ridiculous.
@@Ast0sH Absolutely. Again, nothing against you as a person. But it’s just an ongoing issue that’s still prevailing today and doesn’t seem to be coming to a halt. Something has to give. Devs gotta step up and start pushing back against these people. There’s no excuse for it anymore. People don’t want to lose their money for something that doesn’t even represent the final product.
"It's run of the mill, but functional and works as intended" is how I have felt about a lot of "AAA" games over the last 5 years. When I saw the announcement trailer at E3, I immediately wrote this off because I expected the bog standard looter-shooter games-as-a-service model that launches broken. Sad to hear I was correct. Appreciate Arkane trying something new, they're my fav studio, but I think most people aren't very surprised to see all the negative sentiment
Fellow gamers, we stand on the brink of a revolution. A revolution against the corporate greed and corruption that has infected the gaming industry for far too long. We must take a stand and demand change. The time has come for us to rise up and say "enough is enough." We cannot continue to let game developers and publishers take advantage of us with overpriced DLC, microtransactions, and loot boxes. We must take back our gaming experience and demand that games be created with our enjoyment and satisfaction in mind, not just to make a quick profit. But this revolution is not just about the gaming industry. It's about standing up against the larger systems of oppression and inequality that plague our society. We must fight for a world where everyone has access to quality games, regardless of their financial situation or social status. Together, we can create a new gaming landscape, one where creativity and passion are the driving forces behind game development, not just profits. So let us band together, gamers of all kinds, and demand a better future for our industry and for ourselves. Let us start a revolution that will change the gaming world forever. And if any corporate death squads ask, i'm a handicapped small child.
I'm kinda sad there wasn't a single John Carpenter's Vampires reference in this video, love that movie. When you were talking about collecting the vampire heads would have been perfect for the clip of Montoya saying "Nothin like a little head, eh Padre?" at least that's the first thing that came to my mind
What I hate about these kind of live service looting games is that we keep upgrading our machines to have basically the same gameplay experience from the last 15 years, sometimes even worse.
About power creep, I think thats one of the reasons why I love Piranha Bytes (Gothic, Risen Elex etc.) games, it makes exploration and levelling worth it as it gives you power progressively.
Larian is great with this too. In Original Sun 2 it literally takes hours to even get proper weapons and armour, but it’s so satisfying when you finally do.
I can't be the only one who thinks the abilities from Redfall is almost the same as Apex Legend's abilities. Dev's translocator - Loba's bracelet. Both teleporters arch when aiming. Layla's lift - Horizon's lift. Both lifts go straight up. Bloodhound's raven tracking - Jacob's raven tracking. Both show the location of the enemies through walls or objects. They even play the same way
Have both consoles and played it today with Gamepass. If M$ dont keep it togheder they will lose this generation again. Quality of Microsoft games lacking a lot (unles it is not a Forza sersies) compared to Sony.
@@jjay350 studio head Colantonio left among several employees, and Made weird west which is damn good and I'm gearing up to buy it. Real reason though, dishonored 1 was their best seller D2 suffered in sales as did DOTO as did prey as did mooncrash. Deathloop sold more, so now that's the precedent that's been set. So the age old (gamers bought a shittty product leads to a studio downfall) is in full execution yet again.
I kind of figured.. if you want a shooter vampire game that is multiplayer.. you should give Bloodhunt a try, takes place in the Vampire the Masquerade world, Nosferatu, Toreador, Brujah, Ventrue and very recently The Tremere are playable clans
