With 2023 now upon us, you’re probably wondering just what Arkane’s been up to with Redfall. The Xbox Series exclusive was delayed from Summer 2022, and expectations are high. Luckily, Gamesradar sat down with Arkane’s creative director Harvey Smith and studio director Ricardo Bare to give fans some needed red meat on the game, particularly when it comes to its gameplay.

For starters, Bare addresses the view that Redfall is Arkane’s version of Left 4 Dead. Surprisingly, Bare instead likens the game to Ubisoft’s Far Cry series. “”It’s totally understandable for somebody to come to that conclusion. There are four playable characters, you can play together cooperatively, and you’re going against the undead. But, in terms of the way that you play and experience Redfall, it’s not like those games at all. Redfall is more like loading into Far Cry.”

Indeed, Smith describes Redfall as being “a big-ass open world” where you have a home base that features NPCs that provide you with side quests. Or, if you just want to mess around in the open world, you’re more than welcome to just “pick a direction, start hauling ass, and run into the living-world stuff”.

However, Bare does acknowledge the negative connotations to having that Far Cry comparison, particularly with the open world being too huge. However, the team feels that they have a solution. “In terms of freedom, there’s what you would expect from other open worlds, but Redfall is an on-foot game – the scale and the pace is a little slowed down in that respect,” explains Bare. “We want you creeping through a cornfield at night in the fog, hearing vampires whisper in the dark. Maybe you’ll spot a farmhouse in the distance and sneak over to it, only to find that it’s full of cultists and a few trapped survivors who you can save. That’s the kind of vibe that Redfall has.”

Smith chimed in, saying that Redfall feels more akin to if you took the Arkane “creative values” and mashed them up with Far Cry 2 or S.T.A.L.K.E.R.. Players will be able to find instances of combat mixed up with story, or just good ol’ chaotic events. “You may start a mission at high noon and get distracted along the way. By the time you reach the objective, it may be nighttime with different enemy spawns. Every slight difference pushes you, naturally, to take a different approach.”

Redfall is expected to be released in the first half of 2023 for the Xbox Series and PC via Steam.