It's still early days, but by the looks of it, the Xbox-exclusive Redfall has taken a stake to the heart and had a bulb of garlic shoved in its mouth. Arkane's vampiric romp has only just crawled out of the crypt, but already, it's matching an unfortunate precedent set by PlayStation.

Like it or lump it, it's still blue versus green as the battle of the consoles rages on between Sony Ponies and Xbots. While Sony largely has Microsoft licked in terms of chart-topping exclusives, it seems both have dropped the ball recently. First it was Forspoken, and now, it's Redfall. 

Redfall's critics score matches Forspoken

While Bethesda is holding Starfield back amidst hopes it could still be one of 2023's biggest games, the publisher powered ahead with getting Redfall to spread its bat-like wings. As well as being locked at a measly 30 FPS for now, a myriad of problems slam everything from empty environments to a paper-thin storyline.

Over on Metacritic, both Forspoken and Redfall have a Metascore of 64/100. Compare that to God of War Ragnarok scoring 94 on PS5 and Hi-Fi RUSH earning 87 on Xbox Series, you can see these latest exclusives have a lot of work to do. 

Looking at what the pros think, IGN France awarded 50 and said, "All of these conflicting elements are symptomatic of a game that can't quite decide what it is," while Pure Xbox's 60/100 added, "some irksome AI issues and a lack of clarity over what it really wants to be leave it feeling a little lost in a limbo of its own making."

GameSpot gave Redfall a worrying 40 and wrote, "I can tell you what it feels like: one of the best game studios in the world suddenly made toothless." At the time of writing, Redfall is Arkane's lowest-rated game, coming behind 2003's Arx Fatalis with 71. 

The console wars are heating up again

Redfall's abysmal starting score matching Forspoken has split the console wars wide open. Prior to the game's release, there were accusations that Sony fans would tear the title to pieces just for the sake of it, while others accused Xbox players of sitting smugly. 

On Twitter, one critic wrote, "Xbox has once again managed to do what Sony and Nintendo fail to do! ..take a great studio Arkane and run it into the ground head first. How does it do it so well? Congratulations Microsoft!"

The other side added, "Microsoft never said Redfall would be launched at 60 fps compared to Sony who got sued for lying about Killzone Shadow Fall graphics. But you'd rather talk about an Xbox exclusive that you had no intention of playing it. Yadelusional." 

One questioned whether it's a race thing, noting that both Forspoken and Redfall have black female cover stars, however, we've already covered a similar argument with Forspoken. It remains to be seen whether Redfall can be saved with patches or the mass appeal of Game Pass, but it could've had a better start. 

In a time we should be brought together, it looks like the bloody battle of the console exclusives is pushing us further apart, who'd have guessed? Then again, it could be worse, Redfall could be CrossfireX.