Something to look forward to: This year's E3 had plenty of updates on games we know are coming. Bethesda gave us a new teaser for Starfield with a release date of November 11, 2022. We got our first look at Avatar Frontiers of Pandora. And Nintendo updated us on the next Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild game. As exciting as some of those games are, it was refreshing to see something unexpected emerge.

Among the plethora of E3 game reveals and updates, Microsoft and Bethesda announced Redfall, a four-player co-op shooter in the vein of Left 4 Dead. However, players face off against powerful vampires in Redfall rather than the shambling hordes of zombies in L4D.

Rumors of Redfall emerged back in 2018 when Bethesda applied for a trademark on the name. Initial speculation was that it was perhaps going to be the subtitle for The Elder Scrolls VI. These assumptions were based mainly on a play on the word "Redguards," a race of humans from Hammerfell in TES lore, but also because it fell nicely into the TES one-word-subtitle naming scheme---Skyrim, Oblivion, Daggarfall, etc. As it turns out, Redfall is the name of an entirely new intellectual property.

In the game, Redfall, Massachusetts is the setting for the action, hence the name. Redfall is a "quaint island town," or at least it was until vampires took over. These are not your garden variety vampires, though. They were created by a genetic experiment gone wrong. They can evolve and develop new and unique powers.

Somehow the fiends figured out a way to block out the sun and close off the island to travel, isolating its residents creating a paradise where they could freely roam day or night to feed. The only thing standing in their way are the vampire slayers.

Up to four players can band together, choosing a "hero from a diverse roster," says Bethesda. By "diverse roster," it means just four characters (above left to right)---ex-military sharpshooter gone rogue Jacob Boyer, Redfall resident with telekinetic powers Layal Ellison, Navy combat specialist Remi De La Rosa with her robot sidekick, and paranormal investigator and gadget master Devinder Crousley.

It is an open-world game, presumably with some RPG elements considering the various powers and weaponry the heroes possess (masthead video). However, Microsoft describes it primarily as a first-person shooter. Either way, it sounds fun.

Dishonored developer Arkane has been working on Redfall at its US-based studio in Austin, Texas. It doesn't have a definite release date nailed down, but Bethesda expects to deliver the goods sometime in the summer of next year on Xbox and PC. Sorry PlayStation fans. It does not look like you will see another Bethesda title for a while since being bought out by Microsoft.