Perhaps more interesting is why any of these groups are enemies – and it has to do with how the world of Redfall was brought to life by creator Harvey Smith, Deus Ex designer and creative director of Dishonored and its sequel. . As a recent Redfall trailer made clear, this game’s blood-sucking brand was born out of the capitalist vampireism of Aveum Therapeutics, a money-conscious Big Pharma company to experiment with. not controlled. His plans go awry and lead to the New England town being taken over by actual vampires (as well as two factions of humans looking to take advantage of the undead presence).
After spending some time with the game, I was surprised to find that Redfall’s battle pitted my character against living, breathing humans as often as the undead. Two human factions stood out: True Believers, who saw vampires as the New God, and then members of Bellweather, a Blackwater-style private military contractor. These groups help maintain combat diversity and make for a slightly easier experience than the recently dead game. In Redfall, vampires can zoom in and overwhelm you quickly, and require not only ammo but also the last stake to put back into the grave.
“The theme is that the 0.1% [richest] were vampires,” Smith told me. “And in this game, they actually become vampires.” Our conversation comes after I go on an early quest in the game that culminates in the Addison Mansion, a spooky house that was once the residence of one of the founders of Aveum Therapeutics, who DNA experiments have led him to believe he is some kind of god. (If you’ve watched the excellent Dopesick miniseries, which focuses on the real-life exploits of the Sackler family, there are some interesting Purdue Pharma parallels here.)
“Our novels have never been a metaphor for illness,” Smith continued, describing people who became vampires or eventually became vampire cultists. “It’s always optional, it’s not like an outbreak of zombies where I accidentally infuse you with vampireism. You have to decide. So [Smith points to me] if you’re a vampire and I want to be a vampire, maybe I’ll ask you. And you can say, “Bring me your neighborhood kids.” And I’ll bring you my neighbor’s kid [in exchange]. It’s really our fiction.”