Bethesda shows some heavy RedFall action — which we’ll play in 2023

Microsoft started out its showcase today with a long look at RedFall, the vampire co-op action game coming from Bethesda.

It’s like Left4Dead, except with vampires and a different set of fighters who are armed with a combination of heavy tech weapons and special powers.

It takes place on an island town that the vampires have cut off from the mainland so that help isn’t possible. The narrator character Layla Ellison is pretty handy with a shotgun, but it takes multiple shots to bring some of the vampires down and then vanquish them for good.

Microsoft’s Bethesda revealed RedFall at E3 2021 last June as a co-op multiplayer game where human players take on a bunch of vampires in a small town called RedFall. It looks like a thrilling game where players have to acquire heavy weaponry and use special powers to deal with the supernatural might of the vampires.

Microsoft’s Bethesda said earlier that it would delay RedFall and Starfield into 2023 because it wanted to deliver the “best, most polished” versions of the games to fans.

It was one of many signs that the pandemic and working from home has made it more difficult to make games and harder to predict when the work of huge projects will get finished.

The company made the announcement at its Xbox and Bethesda Game Showcase today.

Redfall is the latest game from Arkane Austin, and it’s an open-world, co-op FPS set in the island town of Redfall, Massachusetts, which has been overrun by a legion of vampires. The first official gameplay reveal showed off the moment-to-moment gameplay, featuring the continued legacy of creative game mechanics that Arkane Austin is known for.

Players will discover interesting ways to combine the powers and abilities of their teammates to fight off the vampire horde. Redfall features a deep skill system for each character. There’s Devinder, the overly curious cryptozoologist, Layla, the telekinetic college student, Remi, the brilliant and dependable combat engineer, and Jacob, the hardened ex-military sharpshooter.

Familiar Redfall sites like downtown and seafront boardwalks lead to otherworldly spaces that alter reality in frightening ways. You will discover the mystery of Redfall’s vampire threat through narrative-driven action and environmental storytelling.