Arkane revealed in February that its upcoming vampire shooter "Redfall" (opens in new tab) would require a "persistent online connection," even if played alone. Reaction to this news has been less than positive, both as a matter of principle and as a practical matter. Believe it or not, there are still people living in areas where Internet connections are unstable.

In an interview with Eurogamer (opens in new tab), director Harvey Smith said that Arkane has "a lot of sympathy" for those who cannot reliably play online and is considering making changes to the game to allow people to play without a connection He stated.

"We listen. And we have already begun work to address this in the future," Smith said. 'We need to do a lot of UI work to encrypt save games and support that. So we're not supposed to promise anything, but we are investigating and actively working to fix that in the future."

There doesn't seem to be any requirement that Redfall be truly online at all, at least in terms of gameplay; according to Smith, there will be no microtransactions or in-game store, and DLC is planned. The actual purpose of this requirement is to allow Arkane to monitor the game and adjust accordingly, much like a live game.

"It will be able to do things related to accessibility. For example, if people fall off the ladder and die, that would show up." We can tweak the code for ladders. There's a reason it's not insidious."

"Redfall" is scheduled for release on May 2, but it remains to be seen if Arkane will have enough time to remove the always-online requirement. At this point, though, there are more pressing concerns about the game: in the most recent preview of "Redfall," the "combat was lousy, the world lackluster (opens in new tab)," and there was nothing terribly interesting or exciting going on. Hopefully the full game will offer a better experience for solo and group players alike.