Rockstar’s prequel to their 2010 epic Red Dead Redemption is finally here – after eight full years in development. We’ve been playing it for the last week or so, and the two of us have come to the conclusion that Red Dead Redemption 2 (RDR2) is one of the best games ever. Here’s why…..
Lucas:
Ever since I played the first Red Dead Redemption (RDR), I’ve thought “Damn, when can I get a sequel?” But rather that taking the story of the death of the Wild West forwards in time, in a stroke of genius Rockstar have delivered a prequel instead!
In the first RDR you play as John Marston, forced by the government to hunt down members of the Van der Linde Gang that you were once a member of. But in the prequel you play as Arthur Morgan, and all the gang members you felt no attachment to in the first game are fighting by your side!
RDR2 shares the DNA of the first game, with all the same core mechanisms: the bullet-time Dead Eye system; crime and bounties; fluctuating player morality; and all the good stuff that made the first one so memorable. This time however, the game has a fresher look to it, with photorealistic graphics and simulated physics. If you are looking for a game to lose yourself in, this is the one.
Rockstar have learned from their previous titles and have added some of the mechanisms from their other franchises. RDR2 allows you to customise everything: Arthur’s clothing, hairstyle, beard, horse, guns – and even the gang’s camp. The combat is still a little bit clunky, but they have made up for this by focusing on the gunplay. There’s a ton of depth to the fighting, and you need to make every shot count. It feels great if, like me, you like a bit of a challenge and keep that auto-aim off. The game is unpredictable and unforgiving, and provides countless opportunities for the player to create their own story.
The number of activities available in the RDR2 world is extraordinary. Bounty hunting, archaeology, poker, fishing and hunting are but a few of RDR2’s inventory of things to do. The scale of the game is enormous and so I give this game a 10/10, with a bad-ass seal of approval.
George:
RDR2 is the sort of game that defines its generation, so grand in scale and scope that it could only happen once every few years. Eight years of nightmarish development have produced one of the most arrestingly beautiful and confoundingly huge games ever made.
Like its predecessor, RDR2 is a game about the death of the Wild West. But rather than being a straight cowboy tale, this story is centred around mankind’s domination of nature. Industrialisation, colonisation and the endless march of progress provide the backdrop to — and driving force behind — the escapades of the Van der Linde gang. And despite an overlong story with some clumsy writing here and there, Arthur Morgan is an extremely likeable and malleable protagonist. The choices you make throughout his story will define much of his interaction with the world.
The centrepiece of this prequel is the new “focus” system, which allows you to talk to just about every character in the game. Whether you greet them, piss them off, or rob them; the inhabitants of this world (and in some cases the world around them) are startlingly reactive, and will remember your actions long after you’ve forgotten them. Get into a bar fight in town? The barman will remember your face the next time you walk in. Rob a bank? You’d better not go back there, even after you pay off your bounty.
It’s rare to play a game that so naturally responds to player action and so seamlessly hides the mechanics of it all. But RDR2 it isn’t without fault. Unfortunately the controls have suffered under the weight of so much possibility, and I found myself shooting a few too many innocent bystanders and punching a few too many horses. Furthermore, sometimes the world isn’t so seamlessly interactive, and when the systems break down, it really stands out. Also, as Lucas points out, the combat can feel a little clunky at times, though this is a problem that can largely be solved by tweaking some settings.
I’d like to say that the quality of the game was a surprise, but given the recent controversy around how much overtime Rockstar expects their teams to put in, I expected a game of this calibre. But we should never separate the end product from its means of production, so let’s celebrate the talent of the 3000-odd people who had something to do with its development – because they should be extremely proud of what they have achieved.
