WARNING: Spoilers for Redfall AheadAppearing as the second Vampire God players battle during their journey through Arkane Studios’ co-op shooter,Redfall, the undead entity known as Bloody Tom stands as one of the game’s most disturbing villains. Capable of issuing edicts by speaking through the corpses of the citizens of Redfall, Bloody Tom and his cultists are some of the most macabre characters inhabiting the world of Arkane’s supernatural shooter. And much like the otherVampire Gods inRedfall, Bloody Tom hides a terrible secret that holds the key to understanding how he came to hold sway over the cursed town.
As players make their way through the streets ofRedfall’s Burial Pointafter defeating the Hollow Man, they’ll encounter corpses strung up on poles erected throughout the city. Much as the Hollow Man used the radio waves to communicate with his followers, Bloody Tom uses these withered remains to control his cultists and taunt the remaining survivors. After discovering a trove of surveillance obtained by the Bellwether mercenaries that provideRedfall’s primary human threat, the player begins to learn more about the strange series of events that led to Bloody Tom’s creation.
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Bloody Tom’s Saga in Redfall is One Strange Trip
The information obtained by the Bellwether surveillance team reveals that Bloody Tom was originally Dr. Thomas Kildere, one of the brilliant but twisted founders of the shadowyAevum Therapeutics companyheadquartered in the town of Redfall. Forced to cut his career as a neuroscientist short in order to care for his dying father, Kildere soon grew to resent this newfound responsibility. More concerned with his own experiments with increasingly powerful doses of potent psychedelics than the welfare of his ailing father, Kildere begins to ponder a grisly solution to his situation.
When Kildere learns of a powerful new substance in his former employer’s possession known as the “Gateway sample,” he turns his back on his father. Egged on by the sadistic psychiatrist Alice Young, who would later become the Vampire God known as Miss Whisper, Kildere leaves his father alone in his room to die. The bell that had once been used by the dying patriarch to summon Kildere became a symbol of the guilt that would ultimately consume the tortured scientist. Guilt, when combined with the source of the “Gateway sample,” would fuel his transformation into Bloody Tom and unleash madness onthe town of Redfall.
The Path That Leads to Bloody Tom Harkens Back to Arkane’s Roots
In order to discover Bloody Tom’s whereabouts and destroy him once and for all players will have to take part in a clever mission that captures some of the creative spark seen in previousArkane shooters likePrey. After receiving an “invitation” to join Bloody Tom’s unholy crusade from one of his corpse thralls, the action shifts to a campground overrun with Bloody Tom cultists tentatively ready to welcome you into the fold. This section can be approached in several different ways, with players being given the option to open fire on the cultists or go along with their ceremony. Particularly sneaky players can even stealthily sabotage the blood offering at the center of the mission.
No matter how players choose to proceed through this refreshingly creativechapter ofRedfall, they will eventually have to travel into Bloody Tom’s memories to wage war with the now-twisted neuroscientist. Taking place in a blood-drenched arena deep below the earth, the fight against Bloody Tom is one of the easier boss battles inRedfall, though what it lacks in difficulty it more than makes up for in gore thanks to the blood and viscera littering the landscape.
With his terrifying appearance and surprisingly psychedelic backstory, Bloody Tom makes for one ofRedfall’s most memorable enemies. And although it’s unfortunate that Arkane’s supernatural shooter didn’t feature more missions with the same degree of freedom seen in the infiltration of Bloody Tom’s cult, at least the path to the nefarious neuroscientist served as a great reminder of why some fans still love the developer despiteRedfall’s many missteps.
Redfallis available now for PC and Xbox Series X/S.
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