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 it. A lust for power in a group of people who take advantage of a gift meant to nurture and help others, twisted into a weapon to build themselves up and disposing of anyone who tried to stop them. It's dark, and you get a real feeling of accomplishment as you take down each member of the group.
You have a hub in both sections of the game; Redfall and Burial Point, with survivors who have their own stories and side missions you can complete. Some of them are bland, but a lot of them are fun, contain interesting story, and they feel real. It's not all sunshine and rainbows, not every mission ends well for the characters. It adds to the immersion and feels fresh compared to other games where the side missions are usually low effort fetch quests.
Now, counter point to what I just said, there are definitely missions that are just fetch quests but they are mostly few and far between.
You can see how this world can bend and even break people, and how others band together to survive. It's something that I feel like a lot of games have really forgotten, that sometimes a good story doesn't HAVE to have a completely happy ending. People break, people die, and it's not always fair.

The Bad:

You know basically nothing going into the game, and if you don't try to pay attention, you can miss a lot. My first run I basically missed the story because it's a lot of drawn out talking. There are cut-scenes in the game, but they are 3-D stills with your character just talking. The mix of slow reveal with slow exposition really drags it down. (Depending on which character you're playing you get different dialogue, that's something I don't think I've seen before and is interesting)
It does feel like the story didn't quite fit a full 15-20 hour game and got stretched out as far as it could. I 100% 'ed the game (All collectibles, all side missions, etc.) so it took longer, but if you were just wanting to play the main story, you could realistically beat this game in about 9-12 hours.

Gameplay-

The Good:

The 4 characters you can choose from each have their own abilities and skill trees, but the main crux of the game is the guns and staking vampires. The guns feel pretty good to control, and there's plenty of variety for what kind of weapon you want to wield. You can have up to 3 weapons equipped and its completely up to you how you want to run. You want to snipe people? Sniper, Smg, and pistol. Like being up close? Smg, Shotgun, steak launcher. Big fan of explosions? Shotgun, Flaregun, Steak launcher. Etc...

Each character has 2 skills and an ultimate ability. Depending on your playstyle you'll prefer one over the other, but they boil down to:

Sniper
Psychic
Gunner
Stunner

I like the different characters, they each have their own story and reason for being in Redfall in the first place, they aren't just the guy you play, they react to what happens around you. If you play co-op with someone, there is an entire trust system between your characters who talk to each other and joke around.

The Bad:

This game got 4 major updates before support for it ended and it is still a glitchy and broken mess at times.
The game stutters a lot, crashes are common (especially after you reach Burial Point), but the main technical issue with this game is that it just has bugs that will now never be fixed.
My first run of this game was Co-op with my husband and it was a 50/50 chance that when I hit PLAY the lobby just wouldn't launch and say error. I was able to fix this by forcing the game to always run in Administrator mode, which also fixed a lot of the stuttering and frame issues I had, but the game should be more optimized than it is.
There doesn't seem to be any one trigger that causes the game to crash, but they happen more often than I'd like. And be careful playing co-op because it seems that bugs and crashes are more likely when playing with others.

The skill trees feel weak, some perks are insanely great and feel like they shouldn't have been locked behind a skill, and others are completely pointless. You can respec your skill tree at any time, as long as you have 10,000 support to spend (Which you eventually will have LOTS to spend).
The Community Standing board that also unlocks perks for the entire party that feels very similar. Some are great and others are basically nothing, but it costs Support instead of skill points.

Support is this games version of currency, which you get by completing tasks, killing vampires, picking up junk items, and scrapping weapons. In the beginning you'll struggle to gather enough and have to chose between buying more ammo or picking up a new perk. But once you get about 1/4th of the way through the game, you'll just forget you needed it. When my husband and I got to Burial Point we had almost 2 million combined with every community standing perk already bought. It feels like this system is kind of just useless once you reach a certain point.

A key part of this game is the weapon quality system which is a highly debated topic but I have to be honest, it feels out of place. I think if it was just an unlocking system with perks specifically for the types of weapons you had it would be way better. (Example: You start with a pistol and find/unlock new weapons as you continue, you can choose which weapons you want to use, and each weapon has it's own skill tree)
It really does feel like corporate said: "People like Fortnite, make it like Fortnite."

Which brings me to...

The External Situation:

I can't confidently say exactly what happened, but it boils down to Microsoft trying to make a AAA MMO game out of what was supposed to be a story driven game. They jacked up the price to 70$ and made the team go in the looter-shooter direction, which is a stark contrast to the other games this team has put out before (Prey, Dishonored, Etc.)
Microsoft put money over players and it shows, but that's not even the part that makes me angry.
After the backlash of the game's release filled with bugs, broken AI, and how the game just is in general with the choices they made, Microsoft decided to just abandon the game, close the studio, fire 96 people, and write it off as a loss. Which is not only just a giant ♥♥♥♥ in the face of Arkane Austin, who tried their absolute best to bring this game to life, but also feels like a slap in the face to the players as well.
I really like the story in this game, and I wish we could get more of it, but that will never happen because it was fumbled. And that's the main problem with gaming today, its more about money and less about making something people will enjoy.

Overall, I think this game has more hate than it should. I do think that the current price of $40 is too much, it should be a solid $20 game, especially in it's current state with no future support for it. The initial $70 price was absolutely ridiculous.

But these points should not be against the game itself, it should be against the company that ruined it. Microsoft. It's so sad to see another great IP lost because the company that owns it sucks.

If you can grab this game while it's on sale and have the patience to deal with it's faults it's honestly a great time. My husband and I have been playing it nonstop since we bought it and laughed through the bugs while enjoying the fun of it. I wouldn't recommend buying it full price (I bought a key online and it cost me $10) but I would recommend playing it before they decide to axe the servers forever.
6.5/10

A lot of people shit 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 it. A lust for power in a group of people who take advantage of a gift meant to nurture and help others, twisted into a weapon to build themselves up and disposing of anyone who tried to stop them. It's dark, and you get a real feeling of accomplishment as you take down each member of the group. You have a hub in both sections of the game; Redfall and Burial Point, with survivors who have their own stories and side missions you can complete. Some of them are bland, but a lot of them are fun, contain interesting story, and they feel real. It's not all sunshine and rainbows, not every mission ends well for the characters. It adds to the immersion and feels fresh compared to other games where the side missions are usually low effort fetch quests. Now, counter point to what I just said, there are definitely missions that are just fetch quests but they are mostly few and far between. You can see how this world can bend and even break people, and how others band together to survive. It's something that I feel like a lot of games have really forgotten, that sometimes a good story doesn't HAVE to have a completely happy ending. People break, people die, and it's not always fair. The Bad: You know basically nothing going into the game, and if you don't try to pay attention, you can miss a lot. My first run I basically missed the story because it's a lot of drawn out talking. There are cut-scenes in the game, but they are 3-D stills with your character just talking. The mix of slow reveal with slow exposition really drags it down. (Depending on which character you're playing you get different dialogue, that's something I don't think I've seen before and is interesting) It does feel like the story didn't quite fit a full 15-20 hour game and got stretched out as far as it could. I 100% 'ed the game (All collectibles, all side missions, etc.) so it took longer, but if you were just wanting to play the main story, you could realistically beat this game in about 9-12 hours. Gameplay- The Good: The 4 characters you can choose from each have their own abilities and skill trees, but the main crux of the game is the guns and staking vampires. The guns feel pretty good to control, and there's plenty of variety for what kind of weapon you want to wield. You can have up to 3 weapons equipped and its completely up to you how you want to run. You want to snipe people? Sniper, Smg, and pistol. Like being up close? Smg, Shotgun, steak launcher. Big fan of explosions? Shotgun, Flaregun, Steak launcher. Etc... Each character has 2 skills and an ultimate ability. Depending on your playstyle you'll prefer one over the other, but they boil down to: Sniper Psychic Gunner Stunner I like the different characters, they each have their own story and reason for being in Redfall in the first place, they aren't just the guy you play, they react to what happens around you. If you play co-op with someone, there is an entire trust system between your characters who talk to each other and joke around. The Bad: This game got 4 major updates before support for it ended and it is still a glitchy and broken mess at times. The game stutters a lot, crashes are common (especially after you reach Burial Point), but the main technical issue with this game is that it just has bugs that will now never be fixed. My first run of this game was Co-op with my husband and it was a 50/50 chance that when I hit PLAY the lobby just wouldn't launch and say error. I was able to fix this by forcing the game to always run in Administrator mode, which also fixed a lot of the stuttering and frame issues I had, but the game should be more optimized than it is. There doesn't seem to be any one trigger that causes the game to crash, but they happen more often than I'd like. And be careful playing co-op because it seems that bugs and crashes are more likely when playing with others. The skill trees feel weak, some perks are insanely great and feel like they shouldn't have been locked behind a skill, and others are completely pointless. You can respec your skill tree at any time, as long as you have 10,000 support to spend (Which you eventually will have LOTS to spend). The Community Standing board that also unlocks perks for the entire party that feels very similar. Some are great and others are basically nothing, but it costs Support instead of skill points. Support is this games version of currency, which you get by completing tasks, killing vampires, picking up junk items, and scrapping weapons. In the beginning you'll struggle to gather enough and have to chose between buying more ammo or picking up a new perk. But once you get about 1/4th of the way through the game, you'll just forget you needed it. When my husband and I got to Burial Point we had almost 2 million combined with every community standing perk already bought. It feels like this system is kind of just useless once you reach a certain point. A key part of this game is the weapon quality system which is a highly debated topic but I have to be honest, it feels out of place. I think if it was just an unlocking system with perks specifically for the types of weapons you had it would be way better. (Example: You start with a pistol and find/unlock new weapons as you continue, you can choose which weapons you want to use, and each weapon has it's own skill tree) It really does feel like corporate said: "People like Fortnite, make it like Fortnite." Which brings me to... The External Situation: I can't confidently say exactly what happened, but it boils down to Microsoft trying to make a AAA MMO game out of what was supposed to be a story driven game. They jacked up the price to 70$ and made the team go in the looter-shooter direction, which is a stark contrast to the other games this team has put out before (Prey, Dishonored, Etc.) Microsoft put money over players and it shows, but that's not even the part that makes me angry. After the backlash of the game's release filled with bugs, broken AI, and how the game just is in general with the choices they made, Microsoft decided to just abandon the game, close the studio, fire 96 people, and write it off as a loss. Which is not only just a giant shit in the face of Arkane Austin, who tried their absolute best to bring this game to life, but also feels like a slap in the face to the players as well. I really like the story in this game, and I wish we could get more of it, but that will never happen because it was fumbled. And that's the main problem with gaming today, its more about money and less about making something people will enjoy. Overall, I think this game has more hate than it should. I do think that the current price of $40 is too much, it should be a solid $20 game, especially in it's current state with no future support for it. The initial $70 price was absolutely ridiculous. But these points should not be against the game itself, it should be against the company that ruined it. Microsoft. It's so sad to see another great IP lost because the company that owns it sucks. If you can grab this game while it's on sale and have the patience to deal with it's faults it's honestly a great time. My husband and I have been playing it nonstop since we bought it and laughed through the bugs while enjoying the fun of it. I wouldn't recommend buying it full price (I bought a key online and it cost me $10) but I would recommend playing it before they decide to axe the servers forever. 6.5/10