Arkane's upcoming vampire co-op shooter Redfall looks as though it's wearing its inspirations on its sleeve, and that can be both a blessing and a curse. Naturally, as all four-player co-op shooters are, Redfall has been compared to the Left 4 Dead series throughout its marketing, and thankfully it seems to be learning the right lessons from it, providing four truly distinct characters with some extremely unique abilities. Even Redfall's developer has commented on these comparisons, saying that it was actually more influenced by Far Cry 2 than anything else. But to some, certain aspects of Redfall seem to take inspiration from a different game entirely: indie horror icon Phasmophobia.
Released on Steam Early Access in 2020, Phasmophobia became an overnight sensation when it launched, reaching the sixth top spot on Twitch during its first month. A first-person horror game, Phasmophobia puts players in the quaking boots of a team of paranormal investigators as they attempt to make contact with a spooky entity inside of a house, find a series of eerie artifacts, and identity the specific ghost haunting the location. While the two games have completely different gameplay mechanics, it seems as though Redfall could be taking inspiration from Phasmophobia for its interior design.
Redfall's Interior Sections Could Capture Phasmophobia's Suffocating Atmosphere
Phasmophobia shot to fame in 2020 for a number of reasons. After a timely October early access launch, Phasmophobia managed to capture streamers' attention immediately by offering a genuinely unique and terrifying horror game experience. When sneaking around an environment, players are forced to communicate either through walkie-talkies or proximity chat, and when a player gets separated from the rest of the group, those points of communication become a desperate lifeline. So, when the ghost starts messing around with the in-game sound, like cutting off the walkie-talkies mid-sentence, the tension immediately ramps up. Combine this with Phasmophobia's speech recognition mechanic, where ghost AI can understand key phrases and act accordingly to best spook the player, and Phasmophobia becomes one of the scariest games ever made.
While Redfall doesn't seem to be taking any of Phasmophobia's core mechanics, it does seem to take some inspiration from its eerie environmental design. Phasmophobia has a variety of different locations to tentatively explore, and every one of them is equally terrifying thanks to realistic lighting and design. Every moment of Phasmophobia's gameplay looks like a screenshot from a Paranormal Activity movie, with only a flashlight guiding the player's way through the pitch-black interiors of a house, farm, or prison. This type of realistic design makes every creaking door sound like an impending threat, and every shadow look like a horrifying monster.
From what fans have seen from Redfall's trailers so far, it seems as though the game's interior segments may be borrowing a little from Phasmophobia's visual style. During one trailer, the player-character is shown carefully making their way through a small suburban house. It's pretty dark inside, and the player's light is guiding their way. When they reach a room full of glowing objects, they pick up an artifact, and they're jump-scared by a vampire behind them. While this type of gameplay isn't exclusive to Phasmophobia, the overall look and feel of this sequence definitely seems inspired by it.
Based on all of the trailers released so far, it seems like Arkane is trying to strike a balance between horror and comedy with Redfall, with four quirky characters and plenty of lighthearted dialogue to break up the game's spookier moments. Striking this balance isn't the easiest feat. It may be better for Redfall to adopt a kind of alternating tonal shift with its levels, where exterior exploration is kept lighthearted, and interior gameplay is kept spooky, that way Redfall can help to balance both horror and comedy.
Redfall launches May 2, 2023, for PC and Xbox Series X/S.