Though we didn't spend much time with the main Redfall story, what I know is this: in order to defeat the now-reigning vampire gods of Redfall, we must first understand who they were before they turned. Maybe offering the wrong blood is what brought misfortune upon this group. I'm not certain why they needed to string up a rotting pig, but I have a feeling it had to do with them worshiping the vampire god "Bloody Tom." I don't think he'd be too interested in pig blood, though. One of my favorites was a torn-up convenience store in the middle of a cult fight. Some of those stories are in the form of loot, while others are written out on loose sheets of paper or notecards to collect. Redfall stands still in the moment the vampires attacked homes are a mess as people evacuated and battlegrounds of warring cults are host to corpses with stories of their own. With only one other person on the adventure, more often than not I felt like we were partner detectives. Still, those habits felt relevant in co-op. Of course, the first thing I did when we loaded into the second of two Redfall area maps was run on top of a truck to see if there was anything in its bed. I picked up the controller and promised Bare I'd reign in my worst gaming tendencies scanning the contents of a shop for spare health in imaginary junk food my character doesn't need but deserves, reading notes left to lost lovers, and watching enemy patterns to scheme the best way to eliminate them as efficiently as possible. The bulk of my playtime at Arkane Austin was with Creative Director Ricardo Bare, who played as Jacob, a former mercenary turned solo sniper with a magical eye and raven to go with it, while I tested Devinder, a cryptid hunter who came to Redfall for a book signing. This all still feels true with two-player co-op. You’ll randomly stumble across a vampire feasting on an unfortunate victim, opposing factions suddenly break out in gunfire, and sometimes you’ll hear enemies discuss their plans for the future. Sure, there are limited abilities per character and stealth isn’t always as big of a factor, but the storytelling and simulated world are all there. When I played on my own for a little over an hour, it certainly felt like it. The Redfall developers have made it abundantly clear at this point that, despite having the look of some other looter shooters or four-player co-op games, this is, ultimately, still an Arkane game. The First Differences Between Solo and Co-op If you're most interested in the solo experience of Redfall, be sure to check out IGN's first preview of Redfall. My temporary teammates at Arkane Austin indulged me in trying out the hard difficulty, and with that settled, we were off. In that time we liberated a community center, took on the procedurally generated vampire nests, fought mini-bosses, and did plenty of exploring. I had the pleasure of playing about four hours of Redfall on PC with one, two, and three additional co-op members.
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