Arkane Studios are studios that have created a very loyal fanbase thanks to having its own voice and signature. The studio was founded by Raphaël Colantonio, who previously worked with EA on some amazing games like System Shock. After founding the studio, the team gathered by Colantonio would end up making games in similar immersive sims to System Shock, and the majority of those titles are considered some of the best games ever made. Colantonio left the studio in 2017 and Harvey Smith took over. The most recent game released, Redfall, met some heavy backlash from fans and critics. So in this article, we’ll see if Redfall is really that bad and also rank every other Arkane game.
Is Redfall Really That Bad?
If you want the short answer, yes. The game is in an absolutely horrible state and it seems the game was released broken. It’s not just technical issues such as frame drops, bugs, or collision issues of characters and enemies. Almost everything in this game has serious issues. Maybe the less-talked bout part of the game is the story that, compared to other Arkane games, is just mediocre at best. The worst part of the game is the gameplay, enemy design, and the shallow and hollow world. The game is among the worst games ever released on Steam which has more than 50 thousand games on it.
The gameplay gets boring after a few hours. The main reason for that is that the enemies’ AI is simply not there. They will see you and not attack. If you run from them to another room, they decide you are not a threat anymore and stop attacking. You will probably have more fun laughing at the state of this game than the actual game itself. So basically, yes Redfall is really a bad game and you can read our article on how they could have made a better job of making Redfall as well. If you haven’t played any other games from Arkane studio you might want to what other games this studio made and which of them are the best. So let’s rank all the games Arkane made in the past two decades.
8 – Redfall (2023)
There is no surprise that Redfall is the worst game Arkane made and it has to be a the bottom of Arkane game’s ranking. Yes, they have helped MachineGames develop Wolfenstein: Youngblood and Cyberpilot which are weaker games, but they didn’t design or make the whole game. In the case of Redfall, Arkane designed and made the whole thing themselves. And the fact that this studio just made Deathloop, which was a pretty good game, is just shocking.
7 – Dark Messiah of Might and Magic (2006)
Dark Messiah is the second game made by Arkane Studios in the first-person action RPG genre. The game divided fans and critics, with some praising the game for the sheer fun gameplay and beautiful graphics at that time, while others said the game had too many technical issues, especially the Xbox 360 version. The story is about a wizard called Phenrig that is sent to the city to accompany an expedition that wants to get a powerful artifact known as The Skull of Shadows. The game isn’t bad for a second title of a studio, but it isn’t among Arkane’s better games either.
6 – Arx Fatalis (2002)
The first game made by Arkane is much better than their second and last game. The idea behind Arx Fatalis was good and for a studio that has just started working was executed fairly well. Similar to other Arkane games, Arx Fatalis is a first-person game with elements of magic, sword fighting, and stealth. You can trace the signature of Arkane back to this game. Unfortunately, the game was a commercial failure when it was released, but over time it found its fanbase.
5 – Dishonored: Death of the Outsider (2017)
Death of the Outsider is a standalone expansion pack that was supposed to be a DLC for Dishonored 2, but the project got bigger and the studio decided to release it as a standalone expansion that tells the events after Dishonored 2. Like the rest of the games in the series, the game was praised by fans and critics, but the game didn’t add anything if you compared it to the previous games of the series. But at the end of the day, Death of the Outsider is a solid experience with some amazing writing.
4 – Prey (2017)
Prey is a very unique game that even stands out among the other games made by Arkane. The game is set in a space station called Talos I in orbit around the Moon. Players take control of Morgan Yu, who realizes something is not right and finds that the station is infested by aliens and has to find a way to get out of the station. The game is a mixture of RPG, stealth, immersive sim, and some elements of Metroidvania which makes Prey one of the most innovative games Arkane ever made.
3 – Dishonored 2 (2016)
When Dishonored 2 was released, everyone realized that not only was the success of the first game of the series not a fluke, but this franchise has the potential to be one of the greatest. The game is a direct sequel to Dishonored and this time players can choose to either play as Corvo or Emily. The core gameplay of Dishonored 2 is the same as its predecessor but much richer and more complex compared to that game. The game also has some amazing voice actors such as Pedro Pascal, Rosario Dawson, Sam Rockwell, and Vincent D’Onofrio.
2 – Deathloop (2021)
Before Arkane made Redfall in such a shameful state, they released a game with a lot of similarities called Deathloop. The game is a first-person shooter where players take control of Colt that is stuck in a time loop, and in order to escape this time loop, he needs to execute eight targets in the a single day. The hardest thing possible that Arkane managed to pull off with this game is that they managed to make a game that is in a time loop and doesn’t make it repetitive. This task on its own takes a lot of skill and talent to design.
1 – Dishonored (2012)
Dishonored is the Magnum Opus of Arkane Studios and any person who played it will put the game at the top of Arkane’s games ranking. This game brought something a such a high level that we hadn’t seen before. The freedom of choice on whether you want to fight every single enemy or just sneak behind them is amazing. But what makes Dishonored different from other games is its level design. The amount of choice you have to complete each mission is just unbelievable and still mindblowing. The game tells the story of a Royal Protector named Corvo that is set up for the death of the Epresses and now has to prove he is not guilty. The story itself, its structure, and plot twists of it are just amazing.
