Arkane Studios revealed at the dawn of QuakeCon 2022 that their new project is a cooperative shooter built around vampires in a sprawling open world. The team described this as their most ambitious endeavor to date, aiming to blend tight action with a massive, living environment that players can explore together. The scope marks a clear evolution from their earlier, more contained experiences, leaning into shared adventures that feel grand in scale and impact.
To illustrate just how expansive the project has become, developers compared its size to their earlier work, Prey from 2017. The contrast was striking: what began as a single, intricate space station experience blossomed into a world where every corner feels alive and interconnected—an immersive setting designed to accommodate cooperative play and emergent storytelling. The message was simple: Redfall is not just bigger, it’s designed to sustain more moments of discovery and collaboration, inviting teams to plot, explore, and survive together in a living world.
Speaking about the project’s magnitude, a senior designer recalled the scale of Talos, the colossal station from Prey, and suggested that Redfall would outsize that vision by miles. The comparison underscored a bold shift from compact, modular environments to expansive landscapes filled with secrets, factions, and dynamic encounters. The studio emphasized that the game’s open world would invite players to experience a shared narrative with friends, weaving together stealth, strategy, and fast-paced combat in a constantly evolving playground.
During development discussions, another veteran contributor described a moment when early world-building turned into a sprawling village scene, illustrating how quickly individual areas could grow into interconnected regions. The team recounted moving large conceptual spaces, merging vast regions into cohesive ecosystems where the action can unfold across varied terrain. This reflection highlighted the studio’s commitment to creating a world that rewards exploration and teamwork, with encounters calibrated to support cooperative tactics and spontaneous cooperation among players.
— Arcane Studios
As the project moved forward, attention shifted to how Redfall would release and what players could expect in terms of experience. The game was scheduled for a 2023 release, with public previews and gameplay trailers designed to showcase the cooperative shooter’s unique blend of vampire lore and open-world exploration. The trailers aimed to convey the core loop: work with teammates to overtake enemy strongholds, uncover lore, and adapt tactics in response to shifting threats within a living, responsive world. The emphasis was on creating moments that feel both cinematic and intimate, enabling players to connect through shared successes and challenges.
In addition to gameplay demonstrations, a number of observers noted the presence of unusual, lighthearted moments within the promotional material. One example featured a playful neural network-generated image resembling a well-known action star styled in a fantasy setting, a nod to the playful, experimental spirit that often accompanies modern game marketing. This moment underscored Redfall’s aim to balance intense, cooperative combat with a sense of whimsy and curiosity about the possibilities of technology and culture blending in the gaming space.
Ultimately, Redfall positioned itself as a standout project for Arkane Studios, combining cooperative action with a rich vampire-infused world. The development narrative emphasized scale, player collaboration, and a living environment designed to sustain long-form play, inviting teams to craft shared stories as they navigate a world that feels both familiar and endlessly surprising. Fans and observers waited with anticipation for the release window, curious to see how the studio would translate this ambitious vision into a cohesive, enduring experience that could redefine cooperative shooters in an open world.
Note: The project’s presentation and subsequent information reflect plans and previews from the period surrounding QuakeCon 2022 and the lead-up to the 2023 release window, with audiences looking forward to firsthand demonstrations and reviews that would illuminate how the final product balanced narrative depth with dynamic, multiplayer gameplay.