Arkane Austin has released a first major patch for its widely derided co-op vampire shooter Redfall, promising “incremental improvements” across a range of areas including gameplay, combat, and AI – but its promised 60fps mode for Xbox Series X is still nowhere to be seen.
Redfall released to a less-than-stellar reception back in May, with Digital Foundry calling the Xbox version a “sad tale of unfulfilled potential and profound technical issues”, while its PC counterpart was so hampered by poor performance, technical problems, and bugs, Digital Foundry’s Alex Battaglia said there was the sense it “just isn’t finished”.
Launch was bad enough that Xbox boss Phil Spencer took the step of apologising to players, admitting, “We let a lot of people down this week”, leaving many to wonder how – and if – Arkane Austin could turn things around.
And now the developer’s first patch for Redfall is finally here, primarily focusing on what it calls “incremental fixes” built around four key areas for improvement: enemy AI responsiveness, enemy encounter frequency, vampire combat efficiency, and improvements to graphical fidelity. The full list of initial fixes is long, covering gameplay, combat, AI and NPCs, environment, performance and stability, UI, multiplayer, and stability. But it remains to be seen just how meaningful this first pass proves to be.