A Really Late Redfall Theory
because what else would I talk about in 2025
There’s very little to say about Arkane’s Redfall that hasn’t already been said. Rather than retread old ground and operate in bad faith, I have a theory about Redfall I’ve been sitting on since 2023.
Up-front, I actually sort of enjoyed Redfall when I played it in 2024. All the patches were out and the dust had settled, there was no expectation. The game was short and to the point, nothing too unique but there was some essence of the proverbial sauce unrealized in the finished product. Back when the game was coming out, though, I noticed something strange. The vast majority of the achievements were not divisible by 5.
As a huge trophy and achievement enjoyer, I’m always cautious to keep my Xbox Gamerscore (GS) divisible by 5. It’s a sticking point in achievement hunting communities when a game has achievements ending in anything but a 5 or a 10. Yet, some games revel in having strangely valued achievements. But I’ve always wondered if developers choose to have non-0/5 Gamerscore to drive engagement. In the case of Redfall, I think this may be the case.
Here is the breakdown of all 66 achievements in Redfall:
20 achievements with a value of 17 Gamerscore totaling 340 GS
8 achievements with a value of 35 Gamerscore totaling 280 GS
38 achievements with a value of 10 Gamerscore totaling 380 GS
These values when added equal 1000 GS, a fairly standard value for a base game. Here’s some additional math that tell me these values were purposefully skewed to drive engagement without changing the total amount of achievements.
First, let’s remove 2 GS from the 20 achievements previously valued at 17 Gamerscore
20 achievements with a value of 15 Gamerscore totaling 300 GS
8 achievements with a value of 35 Gamerscore totaling 280 GS
38 achievements with a value of 10 Gamerscore totaling 380 GS
These values equal 960 GS. What to do with the residual 40 GS? Let’s divide these evenly into the 8 achievements already valued at 35 Gamerscore since 40 divided by 8 is a neat and tidy 5.
20 achievements with a value of 15 Gamerscore totaling 300 GS
8 achievements with a value of 40 Gamerscore totaling 320 GS
38 achievements with a value of 10 Gamerscore totaling 380 GS
The math checks out! These values equal 1000 GS again. By redistributing the Gamerscore, the entire Redfall achievement list could have been divisible by 5. My gut tells me achievements and trophies are one of the last things completed in development. I ran this by a game dev friend of mine and, in her experience, she corroborated my gut feeling. While I don’t have any interviews, research, or evidence that these achievements were completed towards the end of Redfall’s development cycle, I firmly believe making the achievements not divisible by 5 was an engagement tactic. I think the achievements were completed as outlined in my second example and it was a explicit decision to create the 17 GS spread.
To be clear, I do not believe Arkane or ANY other company sets out to make a bad game; however, the achievement list tells me the team may have known the game would launch poorly.
As the great Alien Bob once said, there’s no such thing as a bad game.
This is kinda scummy, tho it really looks like entrappment of people who should slightly care less about their gamer score, still specifically creating achievement scores that will leave blemish on your profile is insane