Deathloop<\/a>). The world of Redfall is littered with all sorts of different challenges and things to find, from safe houses and roaming enemies to punishing underground dungeons (where you can take on powerful foes in the hope of nabbing some strong loot).<\/p>\nStepping into this world felt a little overwhelming at first, but gradually we got a feel for it, helped along by the increasingly potent weapons we kept finding. Eventually, we fought our way towards a main story mission \u2014 a linear quest to unravel a multilayered mystery in a creepy old mansion.<\/p>\n
As we explored the house, clearing out some enemies and gradually piecing together the present-day storyline with flashbacks to the past, it began to feel like we were playing another gripping original story \u2014 the sort of thing that Arkane always tends to deliver. Any fears that this was a mindless multiplayer shooter seem to have been unfounded, as Redfall feels like a traditional Arkane experience writ large in a cool new way.<\/p>
After our play session, we were able to sit down with Redfall\u2019s creative director, Harvey Smith, who worked on a number of Deus Ex games in the Noughties and came to this project after focusing primarily on Dishonored for quite some time.<\/p>\n
Smith explained: \u201cI just worked on eight straight years of Dishonored \u2014 Dishonored one, Knife of Dunwall, Brigmore Witches, Dishonored 2, Death of the Outsider. So a lot of Dishonored, you know? In the same setting, same time period, etc.\u201d<\/p>\n
After that, Smith \u201cjust needed something very different\u201d. He said: \u201cAnd Ricardo [Bare, Smith\u2019s joint creative director] and I always talked about open world. And we thought it might be fun from a narrative standpoint to have different heroes. That if you play alone, it\u2019s like an Arkane game; if you play together, it\u2019s like an Arkane game multiplayer.\u201d<\/p>\n
As the vision came together for an open-world vampire game with co-op elements, \u201cWe were like, let\u2019s do haunted spooky New England. It\u2019s a little bit Stranger Things, it\u2019s a little bit Stephen King, it\u2019s a little bit Salem\u2019s Lot but it\u2019s modernised.\u201d<\/p>\n
And in terms of the story set-up, the team acknowledged that \u201cmonsters are always metaphors, and so there\u2019s a tiny upper class preying on everyone else\u201d in the game\u2019s world \u2014 that\u2019s even before the fantastical elements take shape and experiments go awry, unleashing \u201cscientific-based\u201d vampires on unsuspecting locals.<\/p>\n
Digging into those dark inspirations, Smith added later: \u201cWe had just gone through years of \u2026 populism, and, you know, laws that favour the upper class, the billionaire class, where they\u2019re just running the country at this point.\u201d<\/p>