Arkane's anti-vampire shooter Redfall won't be out until next week, but the launch trailer is out today, showcasing plenty of action in a vampire-infested town and a clever Easter egg that old-time immersive sim fans will certainly enjoy.
Before that, however, we've got the official PC system requirements. They don't seem too brutal, although that 100GB storage requirement is stiff, especially if you're still rocking a small SSD. Maybe the most notable thing is that there's no indication of what players can expect from each specification tier.
The omission is particularly glaring in light of the recent revelation that the Xbox version of Redfall will be limited to 30 fps. It's also worth noting that the specs for Arkane's previous game, Deathloop, did provide specific resolution and framerate targets, which makes their absence here even odder.
To the numbers:
Redfall PC system requirements
Minimum:
- CPU: Intel Core i5-8400 @ 2.80GHz or AMD Ryzen 5 1600
- GPU: AMD RX 580 / NvidiaGTX 1070 / 6 GB VRAM
- RAM: 16 GB
- OS: Windows 10 64-bit
- Storage: 100 GB SSD
Recommended:
- CPU: Intel Core i7-9700K @ 3.60GHz or AMD Ryzen 7 2700X
- GPU: AMD 5700 / Nvidia RTX 2080 / Intel ARC / 8 GB VRAM
- RAM: 16 GB
- OS: Windows 10 64-bit
- Storage: 100 GB SSD
Ultra:
- CPU: Intel Core i7-9700K @ 3.60GHz or AMD Ryzen 7 2700X
- GPU: AMD RX 6800 XT / Nvidia RTX 3080 / 10 GB VRAM
- RAM: 32 GB
- OS: Windows 11 64-bit
- Storage: 100 GB SSD
Back to the trailer: I can't say it really knocked my socks off. If there is one thing the world does not need more of, it's videogame trailers backed by shitty downtempo covers of old hit songs, and yet here we are with one more to throw on the pile. It's lazy, tiresome, and unoriginal, and it's a habit that needs to stop. (It probably won't, I know.)
The Easter egg, on the other hand, is clever, if not entirely surprising. At the 23 second mark of the video, a "Welcome to Redfall" map rolls onto the screen, with a note about a rally of some sort being held at the local fire station. The time of the rally is what's noteworthy: It's set to take place at 04:51 am.
0451 is a very famous number in the immersive sim genre, used as a password or keycode in games going as far back as the original System Shock and running through Deus Ex, BioShock, Dishonored, and many others. Over the years, it's become an almost obligatory tradition to squeeze it somewhere: Deathloop has a 0451 Easter egg and achievement, Weird West uses it to unlock a safe, and Atomic Heart makes a reference to it early in the game. In case you have any doubts about its significance, pop around to Wikipedia and search for 0451—it'll redirect you to the immersive sim page.
The presence of the number in the Redfall trailer is undoubtedly meant to connect the game to Arkane's previous releases, nearly all of them well known as outstanding examples of the immersive sim genre. I appreciate the nod, but I can't help wondering if it will have the opposite effect. To me, it's a reminder that Redfall is a co-op shooter, and that the odds of seeing the likes of Dishonored or Prey (which also had a 0451 reference, by the way) in the future are very poor. As Rich said recently, Arkane's immersive sims are brilliant but "they've never quite had the commercial, mainstream appeal of more straightforward shooters, and games need to make money."
Redfall unlock times
As you can see in the map, Redfall's actual release date will depend on where you live: It's set to launch at 5 pm PT/8 pm ET on May 1, which works out to 1 am BST/8 am HKT/12 pm NZST on May 2. If you're not sure what that works out to in your particular part of the world, this handy time zone converter will make it simple to figure out.
