Arkane and Microsoft’s failed Xbox exclusive, Redfall, has finally received the promised 60fps patch – six months after the game’s release.
In a new blog post, publisher Bethesda Softworks detailed the changes introduced in the 4-player co-op shooter, which includes a 60fps performance mode for Xbox Series X and Series S consoles. The patch also includes improved performance across a “wide range of hardware” configurations, several fixes for AMD GPUs, and a slew of UI and mission fixes, as well as improvements to accessibility.
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While the long-due patch is nice to have and, at the very least, shows that Microsoft is determined to “fix” the game in the long run, it also begs the question of whether it’s too little and too late. According to SteamDB, which tracks player counts for all games across Steam, Redfall only has a handful of players at any given time – sometimes not even enough to fill in a full team.
Even according to Microsoft’s own top 50 most-played games on Xbox, people are playing older titles like Elder Scrolls Skyrim, Mortal Kombat 11, and Star Wars Battlefront 2 more than Redfall.
Redfall launched in May of this year and was billed as a premier experience from Microsoft and the next big title from Dishonored developers Arkane Studios. However, the game’s lacklustre gameplay, bland open-world design, and generally poor story failed to captivate the audience, with the game being panned by critics and gamers alike. The game sits at 57 at Opencritic with no praise in sight.
Whether or not Redfall will see a revival like No Man’s Sky – a game that was similarly panned on release but redeemed itself to become one of the best space spims available – remains to be seen. To their credit, Microsoft has promised that Arkane will “keep working on it”, with Bethesda Publishing boss Pete Hines saying, “we don’t quit or abandon stuff just because it didn’t start right.”
In my humble opinion, it would be wise to quit any development on the game rather than drag Arkane through it any further – a game the developers didn’t even want to make. It’s not only a waste of resources for a game nobody wants but also a waste of talent for a studio like Arkane, who are better off making amazing immersive sims like Dishonored and Deathloop that they are known for.
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Mufaddal Fakhruddin
Mufaddal Fakhruddin has been writing about games and technology for the past 15 years. He has lost count as to how many reviews he has written over the years, but he is sure headphone reviews make up at least 70% of that.
