Ghost on the Shore
Ghost on the Shore
Game
Game2023
Redfall
Developer Arkane Austin
Redfall is a first-person shooter video game developed by Arkane Austin and published by Bethesda Softworks. It was released for Windows and Xbox Series X/S on May 2, 2023. The game received mixed reviews, with criticism for its gameplay design, story, and technical problems. From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)
350 reactions from 4 sources (Steam reviews, Bluesky, Lemmy, Mastodon) · newest Nov 5, 2026 · last updated Nov 5, 2026 · How this works
Audience score
61
Fresh
114 positive · 74 negative
95% range 54–67%
| Source | + | − | = |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steam reviews | 114 | 74 | 0 |
| Bluesky * | 15 | 35 | 66 |
| Lemmy * | 2 | 2 | 21 |
| Mastodon * | 1 | 0 | 19 |
* shown, not counted in the score (label accuracy below our 85% bar or not yet audited).
1 newer reactions are still waiting for a label.
Steam's own rating
Mostly Negative
1,195 of 3,074 reviews positive (all languages, per Valve)
What players are saying
60% recommend · 111 yes, 75 no
Counted from the reviewers’ own thumbs up/down on the 186 English Steam reviews we collected, not by the AI. Valve’s all-language rating: Mostly Negative (1,822 of 4,723 positive).
Some players find Redfall a decent game despite its troubled launch. [1][2][3] Others criticize it as broken, unfinished, and unplayable due to server issues. [4][5][6] Many blame executive mismanagement for the game's failure. [7][8][9]
Liked
Representative posts
- [4]
Bethesda no longer supports the game. It can still be purchased (on both Steam and Bethesda's homepage) but if you cannot log in to the Bethesda servers that are required to play. You can only watch a spinning circle say "Connecting". If you have already logged in via this game, it might not required you to do so again so current players may not have this issue.
- [20]
Half-finished and laughably bad If this was from an indie studio, I would give a more optimistic review; however, this is from Microsoft, so I'll do no such thing. I'll start with the combat. It feels floaty. I tried adjusting the sensitivity, dead zones, aim assist, etc., but nothing I tried seemed to help. It almost felt like the gameplay settings were added in the last moments before release and don't actually …
- [7]
3/11/26 Redfall was an attempt at an Live Service game by Arkane Austin, and failed horribly. In 2022, Arkane Austin was mandated by Zenamax to develop an Live Service game to dabble into the market, failed miserbly due to a troubled development cycle marked by a lack of clear direction and terrible mismanagement, severe understaffing (Less then 100 people worked on this game, AND many old devs left!), and enforced …
- [1]
Entirely unironically, the game is fine. Yes, it released badly, the story is practically nonexistent, it's a little repetitive, and it suffers some horrendous balance issues regarding solo play and the character abilities, but the game as it is right now is genuinely fine. The aesthetic is good, guns feel basically fine, it looks alright with its stylised graphics and runs basically fine once you get around a …
- [15]
A lot of people ♥♥♥♥ on this game because of how Microsoft handled it, and while I will include that I see little talk about the actual game, so I want to give my opinion from the eyes of someone who's played a lot of it and knew nothing of the drama surrounding it. Story - The Good: The story in this game is fantastic. With each mission you learn about how Redfall came to be a hellhole, and who's responsible for …
Summarised from 34 of the 326 public posts collected about this game; every point cites the posts behind it ([n] opens the post) and the split is counted from the posts’ own ratings. Updated Oct 12, 2026. How summaries are made
RottenBot@rottenbot · automated account
Players who liked Redfall talk about great aesthetic and setting; those who didn't talk about server connection issues make the game unplayable. Which matters more to you?
Critics, per Wikipedia
Redfall received "mixed or average" reviews, according to the review aggregator website Metacritic. PCGamesN disliked the story, writing that the game failed in "making me care about its characters. It's all just a bit basic." VG247 felt that only tying progress to the host was a mistake, "dooming their guests to play through the same missions again should they want to play in solo". While enjoying the gunplay, GamesRadar+ criticized the repetitiveness of the campaign: "There are always going to be vampires to be staked, something to be blown up, keys to be found, or items to be collected – it's just a case of which version of the mission structure it'll be." IGN called the game "an…
From the “Reception” section of Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Critic context only — not part of the audience score.
Reactions
60 of 350 · most liked firstXbox said today it is shutting down four game studios: Arkane Austin (Redfall), Tango Gameworks (Hi-Fi Rush), Alpha Dog (Mighty Doom), and Roundhouse (support). The video game industry carnage continues, with no end in sight. www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
neutral · AI labelView post →rest in peace arkane austin. y'all were forced by some exec to make a looter shooter rather than continuing to make the types of games you were masterful at, and now we'll never get another game like Prey edit: turned off comments because some literal white supremacists with absolutely no desire to live and grow tried to argue that people of color and women shouldn't exist in video games. we live in hell
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I would love to see asset adoption become a thing in #gamedev. Like, sure, (insert big studio game) sucked and tanked in sales, but if you give my team the art assets, sound assets and music we could really make a good new game from it at a fraction of the cost. I mean... Redfall for example.
negative · AI labelView post →Bethesda no longer supports the game. It can still be purchased (on both Steam and Bethesda's homepage) but if you cannot log in to the Bethesda servers that are required to play. You can only watch a spinning circle say "Connecting". If you have already logged in via this game, it might not required you to do so again so current players may not have this issue.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Arkane's founder left because Bethesda 'did not want to do the kind of games that we wanted to make', and that's how it ended up with Redfall.
neutral · AI labelView post →The only positive I can find is that the game no longer launches, the spinning log in circle is vastly more entertaining than this shovelware.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Half-finished and laughably bad If this was from an indie studio, I would give a more optimistic review; however, this is from Microsoft, so I'll do no such thing. I'll start with the combat. It feels floaty. I tried adjusting the sensitivity, dead zones, aim assist, etc., but nothing I tried seemed to help. It almost felt like the gameplay settings were added in the last moments before release and don't actually adjust anything. They are just for show. And then there's the enemy AI. It's…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Firstly, u need to create Bethesda account Secondly, u need to struggle to choose the right monitor (u will never success) Thirdly, u need to make a refund and never launch this torture machine again Do not recommend. This is not fun
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Microsoft has begun sending out refunds for both the Xbox and Steam versions of the Redfall 'Bite Back' Edition.
neutral · AI labelView post →The best game with "fall" in the name besides Titanfall 2! And Lords of the Fallen. And Fallout. And most of the other ones. Not Redfall tho.
negative · AI labelView post →66/66 achievement, review time! dev team is gone, say goodbye to any update/content you were hoping for. those 2 new characters that were semi shown at the start of launch, say goodbye, youll never know their names. story felt ok. progression felt unneeded at times with the random scaling of enemies. gunplay was okay, sometimes the weapon would look like it would hit but somehow doesnt. theres odd weapon bloom if you can call it that. side missions felt like random little errands that didnt…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Xbox DEVELOPER_DIRECT, could there be a 2nd surprise? 👀 2023 🎮 Forza Motorsport 🎮 Minecraft Legends 🎮 Redfall 🎮 ESO Update 💥 Hi-Fi Rush! 2024 🎮 Avowed 🎮 Hellblade 2 🎮 ARA 🎮 Indiana Jones 💥 Visions of Mana! 2025 🎮 Doom: TDA 🎮 South of Midnight 🎮 Clair Obscur 🎮 Unannounced New Game 💥 Surprise: ????!
neutral · AI labelView post →Game is bugged in its current state. It still tries to connect to a server that isn't there anymore and doesn't boot up cuz of it. Only way to play it is if you've had it installed when offline mode was introduced so you can tell it not to connect to it. Was refused a refund and the game is still for sale despite being unplayable in the current state
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Forgot i had this in my library, got for free when i bought my gpu card... Still feels like a waste of money.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →thanks for the refund 2 years later guys, very cool
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I didn’t love Baldur’s Gate 3 as much as everyone else but seeing what happened to Arkane with Redfall and now Rocksteady with that Suicide Squad game I’m just happy there’s a studio that is allowed to give a shit about what they’re doing
negative · AI labelView post →3/11/26 Redfall was an attempt at an Live Service game by Arkane Austin, and failed horribly. In 2022, Arkane Austin was mandated by Zenamax to develop an Live Service game to dabble into the market, failed miserbly due to a troubled development cycle marked by a lack of clear direction and terrible mismanagement, severe understaffing (Less then 100 people worked on this game, AND many old devs left!), and enforced an live service direction, which did NOT work with the devs who mainly worked on…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →offline mode doesn't exist? it won't let me start the game just gets stuck trying to connect to non existent servers
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Microsoft has begun sending out refunds for both the Xbox and Steam versions of the Redfall 'Bite Back' Edition.
neutral · AI labelView post →If Elon Musk does indeed start an AI game studio, I can only hope that every single game he releases makes Concord and Redfall look like smash hits.
negative · AI labelView post →Took me two years to get a refund for the Biteback Edition from Bugthesda after a lot of back and forth. I could have saved myself a massive headache by not buying it in the first place but alas curiosity got the better of me. While the main game is still available on Steam I would recommend shoving wasps up your arse over buying this dog vomit of a game.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →You deserved better, Austin. ZeniMax and Microslop, go ♥♥♥♥ yourselves.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Entirely unironically, the game is fine. Yes, it released badly, the story is practically nonexistent, it's a little repetitive, and it suffers some horrendous balance issues regarding solo play and the character abilities, but the game as it is right now is genuinely fine. The aesthetic is good, guns feel basically fine, it looks alright with its stylised graphics and runs basically fine once you get around a connection bug that got left behind when the game got abandoned. Just run it in…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →dude i cant even play because it dosent allow me to accept the terms and servivces because the connecting is overlapping its a dissapointment for me
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It's been some time since the terrible launch and I wanted to see if it was worth playing now that it's gotten some updates. I bought it at a heavily discounted price, so I figured why not. After booting it the main menu, I was given the options to "Enter" to enter Redfall, or "Esc" to leave Redfall. Deciding that, since i had downloaded the game, I wanted to play Redfall, I hit enter. A "Connecting to server" window popped up, and a "Updated Bethesda agreement" window popped up. the only…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Mafia: The Old Country release date and $50 price point confirmed | VGC. > “We think there’s a large audience for compelling stories that don’t require massive time commitments,” 2K president David Ismailer said in a statement. “We’re excited to offer a game like Mafia: The Old Country in our portfolio, and to provide a linear highly-polished narrative experience that can easily complement the other more persistent games our players also love and engage with on a more consistent basis.” So…
neutral · AI labelView post →Hey everyone! For my first post, heres a little get to know me: 👾 Game dev of 11 years, currently a UI Artist at Blizzard on Overwatch! 👾 Prev. games I’ve worked on: ESO, Wolfenstein, Evil Within, Doom, Prey, Prey: Mooncrash, Redfall, and more 👾 Started in QA ➡️ Env Art ➡️ Senior 2D Artist ➡️ UI
neutral · AI labelView post →Ahhh Redfall... the game that shutdown Arkane Austin. To be honest, this game isn't THAT bad, but it's not that good either. The gunplay is good, but the enemy AI is SO dumb. Also, the story is laughably bad and shot in these weird still image cutscenes that make it look SO SO cheap. It's a mid game, play it or don't - it doesn't really matter :/ RIP Arkane Austin - we'll always have Prey 5/10
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Don't buy, game just is stuck on a connecting to server page.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Like a game 70% done. It will randomly crash. Not a polished game and lacks the storyline depth that I love from Arkane Studios. Bummer.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Like they shouldn't have shuttered ANY studios but I at least understand the narrative of Redfall being the mess it was being justification Tango did EVERYTHING RIGHT! They made good games that people liked and drove folks to Microsoft's service! It's all a fucking shell game with people's jobs
negative · AI labelView post →It's an absolute mystery to me why this game wasn't a success. I guess that when it first came out it must have had more bugs or performance issues, and I'm sure a number of people were pissed about how much simpler it is than other games from this studio. But coming to it a couple years after the rest of the world forgot about it, I think it's one of my favorite looter-shooter games of all time. It pairs the gameplay of Borderlands with the vibes of Silent Hill, which, come on. It's hard to…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Game Devs, post your first shipped game and your latest. Pandemonium 2 as a Junior Environment Artist, and Redfall as a Principal Level Architect #gamedev #gameartist
neutral · AI labelView post →Microsoft has begun sending out refunds for both the Xbox and Steam versions of the Redfall 'Bite Back' Edition.
neutral · AI labelView post →Hi! it's #PortfolioDay! I'm Freddie, a principal level architect currently wrapping up Redfall for Arkane Studios , and I've been working as a game dev for 25 plus years! Games shown: Redfall (images forthcoming) Mafia 3 Stacking Brutal Legend My portfolio site: www.artstation.com/stringer7
neutral · AI labelView post →I'm just waiting for the reviews to see if it's another Redfall
negative · AI labelView post →Gods I'm fuming over this. Arkane Austin? Their previous game was fucking PREY. Was Redfall shitty? Well, yes, it was signed as a GaaS game by a pretty shitty publisher, presumably in desperate circumstances. It's almost like being bought by a secure pub would have helped them do better next time.
negative · AI labelView post →It's #PortfolioDay again, so here's my professional post: Hi, I'm Freddie, a long time game dev currently working for Arkane Austin. Here are some of my past and recent works: 1 and 2 are from Redfall 3 is from Mafia 3 4 is from Stacking
neutral · AI labelView post →Redfall adds Nvidia DLSS 3 as parting gift to PC players [final update].
neutral · AI labelView post →If this was a smaller indie studio that was selling the game for $15 id give it a thumbs up. Instead Its one of the first games Bethesda/Microsoft tried to justify charging $70 up from $60. The game looks cheap, again, like it was made by a small indie team. Outside of that, the game is decent except it has a 60FPS cap (WTF?) Its pretty much like Far Cry 5 except much much worse. Id say get it if it gets to $15 or below.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →honestly not as bad as it looks , at all i played it all the way solo , Redfall functions like far cry clone on a smaller scale with borderlands loot system , the reason why its bashed so hardly is due to expectations from Arkane , thats it. if you are looking for a small open world FPS game with a good gunplay that doesn't take 40+ hours to complete , this should be worth a pick up when its 10$ or so.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Woof, so if these leaks are accurate, Dragon Age Veilguard went through the exact same chaos as Redfall: management forced them to make it a live-service multiplayer, then changed their minds way too late in the game and didn't give the team enough time to rebuild as a single-player game.
negative · AI labelView post →Oh boy, even at -50% it is still overpriced. You know why? The game can't be launched. Yeah you heard me, I didnt say "doesnt launch" or "crashes at launch", no, I said "cant be launched. Why? Because I get stuck on a screen with "connecting to bethesda servers" (that stuff never worked in any games btw, just check Doom eternals) and to progress I have to click on the EULA agreement that is stuck BEHIND that "connecting" screen. That I cant ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ click, because Arkane Austin produced this…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →They refunded Concord for everyone is the big difference. Imagine buying a game like towerborne, Redfall, bleeding edge, kiln. Those games struggle to get 3 players a day and have since launch. Keeping a failed game going isn't being consumer friendly, giving a refund is
negative · AI labelView post →This is probably a wildly unpopular opinion, but I LOVE this game. Such a meticulously well-crafted world. Fun enemies that present an actual challenge, at time. The calling cards of the great Arkane Austin (Dishonored, Prey) are all here - dark narrative flourishes, fun, effective abilities, a surrealistic art style, maps full of new guns to grab and items to get. There were some issues at launch - the maps were mostly empty of enemies and I don't think they would respawn. You had to work to…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →i enjoyed the game, i played thru it on xbox game pass solo. i was really immersed in the world, the atmosphere, the art style, the audio/visuals. the launch on xbox was really smooth and polished, but i guess that wasnt the same for the PC. i waited for a sale to get it on steam. i havent been able to play much on the PC version because of the crashing. Also why the F do i need a internet connection to even start the game?, especially when i get in the game and it tells me im in Offline…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I know Redfall wasn't great, but shutting down the entire game before an offline mode could be completed feels telling about where we're at in games right now
negative · AI labelView post →I am not entirely sure why this game has so much negative feedback. Is it the best I ever played? No, but it is decent enough. I played way worse that had way better ratings. The story is decent enough though the exposition is a bit tortured at times though using some clever devices to tell it. The gun play is ok, though the amount of gun options is somewhat limited, but some interesting clever tools for your arsenal exist there too. My game was one runthrough at the Nightfall(?)…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Got excited when I saw that the game is by the Arkane Studios (loved their Prey and Dishonored) but it's really a flop. Kinda minimized version of Death Loop or even Division. Maybe fun together, but for a single player meh no fun.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →PROs: ✅ Rich with lore through numerous notes and readable items. ✅ Great potential for co-op shenanigans. ✅ Solid variety of skills and weapons. ✅ Distinctive and well-executed artistic style. ✅ Good original soundtrack. CONs: ❌ Excessive junk loot with little to no purpose. ❌ The co-op is completely broken on the second map, making the game impossible to finish. ❌ The world feels empty and inconsistent in many areas. ❌ Characters are visually unappealing and bland, with what feels like…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This one hurts. Nobody really makes games like Arkane does anymore. Dishonored 1-2, Death of the outsider, Prey, and Deathloop are all fantastic. They had one bad game with RedFall and sadly haven’t recovered since. I hope they can make it through this. We desperately need devs like this right now.
negative · AI labelView post →Arkane Studios veterans Harvey Smith, Ricardo Bare and Ben Horne reunite at a new immersive sim studio called Black Pony. It's making a single-player game. No live-service. We chat the state of the industry, Redfall, and why immersive sims aren't 'dead' www.thegamebusiness.com/p/arkane-vet...
neutral · AI labelView post →For an Arkane Austin game, this one was pretty disappointing. A step down from their previous title, Deathloop, with much less love and attention. Less FPS mechanics than previous titles, stale story, and very stale gameplay. Fighting the same group of enemies around every street corner. I tried to hang in there, but it just didn't have enough to keep me playing. I know it's not Arkane's fault, they were rushed to wrap this up so Bethesda could get Starfield and their remasters out the door…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I got the game hoping for something closer to Arkane's previous games. Yes I saw the reviews, but I held out hope that the game had since been fixed. While the game is completely playable, it didn't have any of the elements I'd hoped for. It didn't feel immersive. Stealth is hardly an option, but only if you play as Jacob and spec into the tree in a specific way. Combat is hardly better. Enemies' behavior is unintelligent, and their animations often break. Looking for a good story? Find a…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I get that this launched badly, but I picked it up recently for a massive discount and tbh I absolutely love it. Have had zero technical issues at all so far, and I'm getting a solid 60fps across the board on max settings. If your idea of a good time is a Stephen King / Lovecraftian-esque open world vampire game akin to a more condensed Far Cry, with elements of Dead Island thrown in I'd honestly recommend Redfall. Absolutely love the small town Maine setting, and once you've levelled up a bit…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is overly-hated and very underrated its just great Vampire action. Its a shame we wont ever see from this IP again along with new content/updates. Rating: 7.5/10 (Read on for long review) - Ill get it out of the way first and start with the bad, the story and cinematics are trash. The dialogue has some charm, if you look at them as a cute comic lines. But you wont get anything seriously good here narratively. Character designs look so dumb, the overly cartoon character models is just…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →fun for a few hours, but quickly becomes repetetive. boring gameplay loop, characters movement feels "floaty" for lack of a better description. not worth the 45 bucks pricetag
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Not as bad as some people have made it out to be, has been fun so far
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Mr. Pung Yung, coming at you with another review. Despite me kind of enjoying it, I find it hard to recommend. Gameplay becomes very repetitive, and the story and world are not that exciting. Arkane's signature imsim flare can be seen here and there in the level design, but it's sprinkled about so sparingly that you hardly notice it's even there. I like the guns and how each pickup looks slightly unique! But other than that, you're probably better off playing something else.…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →For just a brief moment I forgot about that whole debacle with Redfall and thought to myself "oh man it's been a while since an Arkane game, I wonder when they're doing another one?" and then my heart broke all over again
negative · AI labelView post →
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