The main thrust of this game is about learning how to deal with deep, alienating tragedy, reconnect with a sharply divided community, and understand the repressive structures that actually enable disasters instead of turning on the visible small fry. The notes are about this, the game’s loop is rebuilding a community and helping in ways big and small, and there’s a truly moving sermon you can find that lasers in on this. It’s telling a pulpy, X-Files-esque plot about barely-greeked versions of Theranos and CRISPR and Henrietta Lacks, and it’s genuinely committed to that vibe. The open world was designed with the intent of feeling like STALKER or Far Cry 2, but the co-op and loot mechanics make it easily recommendable, especially when it’s on Gamepass.

It’s an ace pitch, and it’s ultimately unworkable in the final execution Games like Redfall are therefore unique in the ways that it shows what happens when those games make it to the finish line. This is probably how 1313 would’ve turned out, or the original project Titan, and definitely how the original Duke Nukem Forever would’ve turned out. It’s educational to witness, in its own way - the design and scope have so many disparate aims that feel in there out of obligation or as a way to paper over other underdeveloped parts. The stealth is undercooked, so instead there’s a focus on the shooting, but the shooting (while fun!) is undercut by the very simplistic AI, so instead there’s a focus on the open world, with lots of downtime where you’re reading notes and looking at graffiti and paying attention to the movements and sounds of this world, but there’s fucking co-op so you can’t soak that in without feeling like you’re being the weak link.

Any given individual part being half-baked would be something I could overlook if there was an overarching vision that guided it, or a single mechanic that was successful, or the narrative felt focused, but it’s just... not. The world itself is really well-considered and there’s great intentions in a lot of this, but the final product has nothing be truly standout without immense caveats. A series of ponderous Sunday School lesions that discussed with children how the Bible can be used to find peace in the game’s events are underneath a wall texture that takes thirty seconds to pop in. A moving sermon is protected by a vampire who pathed into the couch, stopped moving entirely, and docilely let me kill them unimpeded. Quests can be genuinely cute in their intentions - offering somebody whiskey and cigars one of their closest friends attempted to gift them before their untimely death - but there’s no reactions to them, and all you get is a cold stare and a bark you’ve already heard.

A lot of big canceled game stories are told in ways that focus on the pitch, and don’t discuss the realities of game development, which is about using state-of-the-art technology, legions of artists, musicians, and writers, and designing rules and systems in ways that tangibly cohere. Sometimes it just doesn’t come together, and most of the time it gets rebooted, massively reworked, or just canceled. Playing this game is a reminder of the infinite difficulties that underpin every game that ever releases. Even the most slapdash studio releases require sincere intentionality in itsdesign and direction. We all know who made this - it’s Arkhane, for crying out loud. More than any possible gamer out there currently despairing... you can bet money that everybody in the Austin department didn’t want the game to be like this even more.