Flare guns, stake launchers, and UV beams hype up the action against vampires.
Redfall Production Designer Ben Horne has provided fresh details on gameplay, saying that players will either choose a guns-blazing-style or stealth-based approach to slay vampires. Speaking at IGN Fan Fest, Horne also claimed that vampires can’t be defeated by only bullets, as players will have access to flare guns, stake launchers, and UV beams.
Players will find a wide variety of weapons that Horne hopes they will instantly feel comfortable with, including shotguns, sniper rifles, and flare guns. He claimed that unconventional weapons in Redfall will allow players to scour the world and decide how they want to play, saying, “Redfall has some unique weapons involved when it comes to the vampire slaying, like flare guns, stake launchers, and UV beams. These help to defeat the vampires in a very unique way, because in Redfall, vampires can’t be defeated by only bullets.”
Horne iterated that the wide variation of weapons will allow players to be expressive in fighting against the vampire threat. When it comes to the freedom of choice, he said players will find what they’re looking for. “They need something special and so a stake launcher, for instance, can really shoot from a distance when they’re vulnerable,” he explained.
Players will choose whether they will jump into combat against the vampire factions or sneak around the side when they hear an explosion, and there are pros and cons to the different approaches. As for the game’s world, Horne claimed the development team’s members wanted to maintain the things about Arkane’s style that they love, saying, “things about our games in the past that we really appreciate: environmental storytelling, strong kind of narrative through-put in the world so the world feels lived-in, feels worth saving.”
The production designer also touched on the similarities between Redfall and Left 4 Dead, making it clear that the studio wanted to create something different with inspiration from games like Dishonored, Prey, and Deadloop. The team likes to make games that have a coherent story and systems that players can exploit. He added, “For Dishonored, we went a little bit stealth and for Prey, we really focused on physics. For Redfall, we wanted to focus on world-building, we wanted to focus on that narrative story. So that’s what we’re focused on delivering.”
Arkane Studios’ multiplayer vampire shooter Redfall will release exclusively for Xbox consoles and PC via Steam on May 2.
