Redfall doesn't seem to blow solo players dry. The cooperative shooter should be as accommodating for lone wolves as it is for groups of up to four players, developer Arkane confirms.
Arkane discussed more about Redfall in a blog post on the official Bethesda site (opens in a new tab). The game, which will be released for PC, Xbox Series X|S, and Xbox Game Pass in 2023, will place a "huge emphasis" on the single-player experience.
Redfall "can be played solo with any of the heroes," the blog post reads. “The rhythm becomes more exploratory; you can use reconnaissance and stealth to gather information about encounters and avoid or trap enemies.”
The post notes that AI teammates will also not join solo players. Hopefully, this could make Redfall a more immersive game when played alone, giving players a chance to slow down and really comb the environment for secrets and insights.
Did Arkane fix a co-op shooter issue?
Similar cooperative games like Back 4 Blood offer single player play as an option, but generally emphasize multiplayer as the preferred game mode. Also, cooperative shooters tend to feature AI stand-ins when the roster isn't populated by real players.
Arkane seems to be taking the opposite approach by sticking to his strengths as a developer. Games like Prey and Deathloop showcase the developer's prowess for focused single-player experiences. So it's understandable that Arkane wants to keep this DNA embedded in Redfall.
Having cooperative play at the core of a game is not a bad thing. But this approach makes it much more difficult to stop and smell the roses. By comparison, Redfall's open-world design seems perfectly suited for a single-player adventure. As such, we're pleased to see that Arkane is aiming to make the single player experience as compelling as the multiplayer component.
Cooperative and multiplayer games also live and die for their community. If Redfall didn't have a powerful single-player component to back it up, it might as well be forgotten after launch as players move on to different games. Arkane seems to get around this problem simply by not throwing cold water on solo players.
We were very impressed with the gameplay of Redfall that was shown during the Xbox and Bethesda presentation. What was revealed was far more compelling than the CGI trailer that closed out last year's show. As a result, we feel more optimistic about the game now than we did a year ago.