Arkane Studios did a Q&A session on their Discord Server where the community could submit their burning questions about Redfall. I always appreciate that Developers and Publishers take the time to do these types of things. There are a lot of insightful bits of information in the answers Arkane provided and I have added those to the relevant pages in my Redfall Wiki.
Question: In regards to crossplay, can we play with Steam friends while on the GamePass version, or would we need to all be on the same platform?
Arkane Answer: You’ll definitely be able to play with your friends on Steam!
Questions: Will there be cosmetic character customization, and will we be able to unlock any items through gameplay?
Arkane Answer: There will be several types of cosmetic character customization. Full outfits, head accessories, and backpack skins. With the exception of pre-order bonuses, all cosmetics are unlockable through gameplay. They’re all there as rewards for you to find or earn through playing the game.
Question: I know it mentioned there are multiple ways of doing things like in most Arkane games, but I guess I ask, to what extent?
Arkane Answer: There are a lot of ways to look at that. Some missions are optional, non-sequential, and have different ways they can be completed. The world is very open so you can reach the same location or objective through many different routes. Each of those is going to expose you to their own experiences by virtue of what you do or don’t encounter. You also don’t always have to take on a given objective in a particular order.
Question: Can we unlock the whole Skill Tree or will we have to specialize?
Arkane Answer: In your first playthrough you’re going to need to make some decisions on where you’d like to invest your skill points. You can play through the game on harder difficulties or co-op with friends to help push yourself deeper into the skill tree. But you won’t be able to unlock every node for a single character.
Question: I just HAVE to ask about the decision to include ladders in the game despite one of the pillars of Arkane being “F*ck Ladders” as well as Layla and Devinder having massively helpful movement abilities? Was it solely to aid Remi, Jacob, and potentially other heroes traversing the map? Or is there more of a story behind the decision?
Arkane Answer: Practically speaking, Redfall takes place in the real world, and this world has ladders! But at the same time, they do add another option for how you might want to approach something. Layla’s Lift and Devinder’s Translocate can be helpful for getting around quickly, but they’re not always the stealthiest approach methods. Sometimes you just want to quietly sneak up to a rooftop.
Question: Are weapons interchangeable or will some weapons be restricted to specific characters?
Arkane Answer: Everyone can use every type of weapon in the game. Sniper rifles, shotguns, stake launchers, etc. But heroes have an affinity to certain weapons, which will be represented in their skill tree.
Questions: What will you be doing during the day/evening? Does gameplay still progress as normal?
Arkane Answer: Regardless of whether its day or night, you’ll still be able to progress the game as normal. However, you will see differences in the types of enemies you encounter and what those encounters look like depending on the time of day.
Question: Is “The Rook” summoned procedurally similar to the Nightmare from Prey? Or does he only appear at predetermined points in the campaign?
Arkane Answer: Once the Rook is introduced into the game, he’s summoned as a result of actions you take from that point forward. If you take more actions that anger the Vampire Gods, you’ll see him more than once.
Question: Each character appears to have unique skills that are designed to work in tandem with other characters; how will this affect solo play?
Arkane Answer: The heroes do have a lot of fun synergy with each other, which can lead to some interesting gameplay scenarios. That’s a big part of Co-Op. However, each of these heroes was designed from the ground up to be viable on their own. Playing together with friends adds more options to how you might approach a situation, but that’s a benefit of each hero having a fully realized set of options to begin with. Layla’s powers were designed with Layla in mind. Once that was fun, then we started to look at how you could extend that experience with other players.
Question: Another question I’m curious about surrounds Remi’s skills and how Bribón operates. Is it always deployed and can be repositioned by Remi or does the player have to signal it and wait for a cooldown to return? Does it have an attack or defend mode or operate autonomously of you entirely?
Arkane Answer: Bribón is a constant companion with a bit of a mind of its own. Remi can position Bribón temporarily using her Siren ability to draw enemy attention. While that ability is active, Bribón is also in a defensive posture with its legs tucked in so it can withstand more damage. Otherwise, it is autonomous but follows your cues for what it should be doing.
Question: How well does the difficulty scale up solo vs co-op?
Arkane Answer: Difficulty scaling is pretty dynamic in Redfall. There are a number of factors being considered at all times. For solo play, you’re starting off with your campaign difficulty level, which scales as you progress through the campaign. For co-op, we’re considering your campaign progress and difficulty still but also looking at the number of players. Depending on the size of your party, you’ll see changes in the sorts of enemies you encounter, how strong they are compared to solo, and the frequency of elite traits. Those aren’t blanket changes either. Some encounters are always going to be easier or harder than others and some may not change at all. But that’s the point, things should feel more challenging because you have more players, but it isn’t a flat multiplier by any means.
Question: What are Arkane’s thoughts and design choices on blending immersive sim with open world settings in Redfall?
Arkane Answer: When you’re looking at the pillars of what makes an Arkane game, there are a couple that we knew we’d likely need to let go, in order to embrace the new pillars of a game like Redfall. Then there were a few others that would need to be adapted and evolved to fit this new context.
Environmental Storytelling is incredibly important to the team and we had to find ways to integrate that meaningfully when you can no longer control whether or not a player will encounter it at all. But we still wanted to invest heavily in making sure that those elements were there to be discovered and enjoyed.
The nature of missions allowed us to do a little more of that signature style of storytelling, to weave in emergent gameplay, and maintain the freedom of approach that players are used to. But we also invested heavily in the open world as well and you’ll find the same types of gameplay off the beaten path.
Looking at the Open World, the biggest change up front is scale. That scale meant that it was prohibitive to have designers come through and handcraft each enemy encounter you might come across. That sort of approach could also get very repetitive since it’s static and in open worlds, you could be crisscrossing an area multiple times. You don’t want to see the same vampire in the same spot always, you also don’t want cultists patrolling the same corner. We wanted the world to feel alive, that things were happening beyond player involvement. So, we developed systems that allowed us to take that design touch and apply it at scale. You’re not seeing a random spawning of enemies; you’re seeing an encounter that someone designed and injected with the flexibility to keep it feeling fresh. You’re still going to encounter those hand-crafted scenarios in the open world too, they’re just not necessarily tied to appearing in a specific location.
If you jump into Redfall and approach it like you would an immersive sim, you’re going to find a lot that feels very familiar. There is going to be a lot for you to enjoy.
More Redfall
Check out my Redfall Wiki if you want to be informed about the game.
