It's the kind of neighborhood I would have loved to trick-or-treat in as a kid, the perfect cozy little town to set a vampire story in. The town of Redfall may be one of the emptiest open worlds I've ever seen, but it does have exquisite autumnal vibes. Conversations with them have the emotional complexity of an MMO quest: 'My family is dead and I want you to go retrieve my daughter's stuffed animal.' Redfall pretends that you're 'biting back' against the vampires to save the people, but you're actually just being given a to-do list of tasks that force you to explore every section of the map.

Many of these characters have names and yet none of them have much to say or seem to recognize you. The game properly begins after you clear out the local fire station and join a group of survivors who hope to rebuild what they can and escape. The town of Redfall may be one of the emptiest open worlds I've ever seen. You can crouch and sneak by them, but you'll eventually learn how little of a threat human enemies pose, and how much of Redfall's level design is made to be trampled over with a team of four.

You pass by landlocked ships guarded by cultists who are never really given a strong narrative reason for being here in the first place. This eerie and visually striking opening sequence ends once you pick up a gun and venture out into Redfall's bland open world. I broke a window and stepped out onto the deck to see an entire wall of water curled over the boat. There are bodies laying around the cabin and letters that clue you in on where to go next. After choosing one of four heroes, you wake up in the boat you were meant to escape on before the vampire gods peeled back the ocean surrounding Redfall. Redfall doesn't start with an assassination or a time loop, but its quiet first few minutes fit neatly into Arkane's history of evocative intros.

Bethesda redfall