Another one?

 This is getting out of hand!

Now this really is a unique situation, far more indicative of the state of our industry than I think anyone really was ready to face. Two AAA game releases were set for release within a hair's breadth of one another, and both have been faced with overwhelming disappointment thanks to the clearly rushed and unfinished state of the final delivered product. Throw Jedi Survivor to the wolves and you already have enough chewing meat to keep them busy and fed for the winter, but dip the toes of 'Redfall' in there two and even the rapid hoards of the unforgiven online-sphere will be getting dangerously overstuffed! And as for people who were actually excited about the coming release of both these titles... woe betide them, I suppose. Oh god, do you think this trend might be picked up by the upcoming 'Tears of the Kingdom'? I really hope not...

Back when it was first unveiled, there was some genuine excitement for the game budding from certain sectors of the Bethesda/Arkane fanbase. Sure, I was curmudgeonly and remained so, but others out there remembered the highlights of 'Arkane' throughout Dishonored, and there were reviewers out there who labelled Deathloop a 'masterpiece'. (Seriously deluded reviewers in my mind, but there we are.) The benefit of the doubt was awarded to developers who seemed to have proved their infallible competency in the past. I have to admit that even I didn't believe that Arkane was possible of creating a total dud, just titles that veered in directions that I personally wouldn't have encouraged. I think Deathloop should have played around with it's core conceit as an actual narrative and gameplay mechanic, but just because it didn't I don't think the game was a total flaming doggie bag of mutt feces burning up my doormat.

And yet somehow Redfall did give me certain uncomfortable vibes. I didn't really gell with the idea of American-style vampires with their boring conceptualisations being a central antagonistic 'monstrous force'; and after playing 'The Witcher 3: Blood and Wine', Arkane's sleek and thin design of vampires weren't all that impressive. The marketing team seemed utterly incapable of actually presenting the game, creating a gameplay demonstration that didn't show off the open world, or the looter shooter aspects, and left people thinking it was a Left 4 Dead style game instead. The 'always online' stipulation set off alarm bells, which rang only louder when the devs said there'd be a workaround but it wouldn't be ready for launch. 30FPS on launch for consoles. Lacklustre gameplay showcases. I did get a bit of excitement for it based on vague promises earlier this year, but like many people when the day came I didn't even know Redfall had launched.

But once it did, it wasn't long until all the world knew. Because what's the one thing that spreads faster than a shining new AAA game that fulfils the wishes of all those who waited for it? A gold-plated, gem encrusted catastrophe- a tossed-up car wreck of a video game that smashes so spectacularly into the wall of expectation that people are left flabbergasted wondering exactly how it could be that this was ever allowed to release. And at the blasphemous 10 dollars above normal retail price point too! Oh god, there really is no excuse saving this mess. It is buggy? Yes. Does it innovate? No. Is it ambitious? No. Is there any real excuse for the actual state of it as a game? I would point at bad crunch from an overbearing producer, but at that price point it's hard to let anyone off the hook to be honest. I think this may go down as Arkane's biggest disappointment to date.

Before we start getting this at all twisted I want to be absolutely clear; the situation we're talking about right now is much worse than what Jedi Survivor had going on- because that game was just rushed to launch. People swear that beyond it's bugs Survivor is an incredible game worthy of your time and I very much believe them. That same gratis does not extend to Redfall which by all accounts is just a soulless, uninspired, betrayal of all the game design pillars that Arkane typically stands for. Everything that makes their games replayable, challenging, interesting, subversive, is lost in the pursuit of the lowest common denominator of looter shooter. And sure, the bones of what Arkane usually achieve are jutting out of the mess here and there, but that's just a sad reminder of the standard of games you could be playing instead. Bug fixes aren't going to fix that.

Of course, this has the knock-on effect of reflecting really bad on Bethesda, a company struggling with the perception of being hack rush-to-market developers who are losing that special spark which made them industry juggernauts once upon a time. Starfield is supposed to change all that and put them back on the road of right- but who's going to believe that Xbox have a clue what they're doing after suffering the disaster of Redfall? Sure, Arkane aren't in house developers so to speak, but Bethesda published that game. They've said, with their chests held out, that is the quality of game they're happy shipping with their name attached to the box. Starfield is already being powered by flagging and old tech- god forbid what that game is going to turn out like. And I don't want to be thinking these sorts of thoughts, but what else am I supposed to do?

Even further than the reputational harm that Bethesda are suffering in this wake, just think about how Microsoft are taking it. One of their big flagship console exclusives, the first that Arkane is publishing as a member of the Xbox family, a direct sequel to the, somewhat confusingly, well received 'Deathloop'- and it's a travesty. Another non-starter in a long line of painfully earnest attempts by Xbox to get their name in the races for the Console wars. No one is expecting them to turn around and start pumping out smash-hit mega games every other week but god we want something to hold onto and prove that Xbox is being backed by one of the biggest tech giants in the world. How can Xbox not secure a competent exclusive on it's belt? And I know, exclusives are a cringe concept anyway, but man I just want a quality first party title. For once.

I don't know what's going on at Arkane right now, but the irrational part of my brain is running around making excuses for them. I'm assuming this is a non-A team's product, spat out by a group of interns and merely polished up by in house teams to something resembling functional. But then I see that price tag. No, this was going to be their next flagship, but the galleon just ran aground far too early. As a fan I'm disappointed, as an artist I'm a little repulsed and as a casual industry observer I'm seriously concerned about the direction of a development studio that was once on the cutting edge of action adventure. What happened to the Dishonoured franchise- to Prey? Man... I kinda wish we ended up getting that 'Elder Scrolls: Redfall' game afterall now...