With jokes and names aside while having over 80+ hours and dozens of activities to do and having millions of units sold within days, Red Dead Redemption 2 still continues to impress. While Rockstar Games’ latest is a prequel, it builds heavily on the concepts of the first game, Red Dead Redemption, and expands on those concepts even further. Narrative, mechanically and even stylistically, this is a version of Rockstar that is ambitious, and exceedingly creative. Red Dead Redemption 2 is a once in a generation type of game and it left many players in awe.
“The game is absolutely fantastic I loved every minute of it,” Jake Kaiser, a sophomore philosophy major at Cabrini University, said.
Red Dead Redemption 2 is a story about Arthur Morgan, a high ranking member of Dutch Van der Linde’s gang. His story is extremely detailed and more in depth than the first game, and the game gives Arthur plenty of time to develop as a character. More importantly, players are given the opportunity to learn more about and bond with all of the other members of the Van der Linde gang and explore their stories, they also give a handful of quest, which helps players decide the morality of which path Arthur will take as a character. This gives Rockstar a chance to flex its narrative muscle.
The story is expansive, as Arthur and the Van der Linde gang try to find their place and survive in a world that wants to rid the outlaws. It’s at times exciting, as the gang pulls off incredible heists and survives intense gunfights, and then somber, as hope gives way to futility. Everyone has a story to tell and each character is well written and acted. It’s rare that a side quest feels like it was given as much attention as an essential story mission but Red Dead 2 gives every story its own purpose. Some of it is for pure entertainment but other times many players find a compelling narrative off the main story line.
With Arthur’s story, Rockstar has crafted an epic tale that fits the time period, the Western genre. The studio takes the time and patience to let story roll and develop over the course of several missions and then pulls the trigger.
Mechanically, there is so much in Red Dead Redemption 2 that it’s hard to cover everything. Bounty hunting, gambling, hunting or simply making sure the gang’s camp is stocked with supplies can be considered a game in itself.
“There is so much to do in this game that it is overwhelming at first,” Jason Coladonato, a sophomore at Cabrini University, said.
Players can choose how they want their Red Dead Redemption 2 experience to be. Rockstar has made sure that every detail did not go overlooked though every action has an animation, every interaction has a reaction and almost any distraction is worth pursuing.
No doubt it will take many players time to get used to everything that’s going on, but eventually it becomes part of being Arthur. Rockstar tries to hide as much of the “game-yness” as it can, to the point that players can turn off the HUD and get directions the old-fashioned way. Even shopping becomes its own experience, as players flip through a catalog to select items from a table of contents.
Dead Eye is back to give the gun-play a needed punch. Things start out fairly basic, but as Arthur’s Dead Eye ability evolves it becomes supremely satisfying to use. Rockstar has even borrowed the slow-motion glory kill camera effect to let players know when they’ve hit a nice shot.
Visually, Red Dead Redemption 2 is jaw-dropping, many players just stop and stare at the life that is going on around them. The game allows the various biomes to breathe, giving them enough space for players to explore and to give the impression that these areas are vast but still connected. Rockstar uses the map to make sure that players see as much as possible and understand just how much detail went into making this feel like a living breathing world. Small towns like Valentine have character and an Old West feel, but so do the snowy mountains.
Every corner in the more developed town of Saint Denis is packed with detail and fun elements to uncover, and then there are citizens all around to interact with. Most AI citizens are not going to give Arthur much in the way of conversation, but there are plenty of emergent conversations happening all around. Players might come across to a secret “KKK” meeting in the middle of a forest, a man being mauled by a bear or a pack of wolves, or a hermit hiding away from civilization ready to kill you after stepping on his property.
Rockstar has tried to deliver an experience where every action, every detail, every character has a purpose and exists in this world. Even if you chose to ignore the peripheral elements or get annoyed by the looting animations, Red Dead Redemption 2 offers a great story at its core, filled with memorable characters and exciting moments. Its story has weight but it is paced in such a way that the focus isn’t always on the central plot. And by the end, it’s impossible not to be invested in Arthur’s development and his own personal road towards redemption.
