Red Dead Redemption a crowning achievement
Rockstar has cultivated a reputation for themselves that centers around their meticulous, often neurotic attention to the minutae details of a game that coalesce in to a living, breathing gameplay experience. Previously, Grand Theft Auto V enjoyed the distinction of being Rockstar’s magnum opus in terms of how outrageously detailed the game was. Now, there can be no denying that Rockstar’s latest effort, Red Dead Redemption 2, is the developer’s crowning achievement.
For the first few hours of Red Dead Redemption 2, you will feel like you are playing a continuation of 2010’s Red Dead Redemption (in terms of gameplay, at least, as the latest release in the series is a prequel). This feeling will soon fade as you begin to take in the breathtaking scope of Rockstar’s latest Wild West epic.
Red Dead Redemption 2 casts you as Arthur Morgan, a typically suave outlaw living in 1899 - a time when America was on the cusp of rampant industrialisation and the cowboy found themselves a dying breed.
After the prologue section concludes, the open world revelas itself to you, and what an open world it is. Beautiful, ambitious and groundbreaking are just some of the endless superlatives that can be applied to this world. From wasteland plateaus to dense forests, from dusty ranches to bustling cities. Red Dead Redemption 2 pays homage to the vast spectrum of environments the turn of the 20th Century had to offer.
Another thing that Rockstar have to be commended for is introducing ‘ busy-work’ to a game without making it tedious, which is something that games in the survival genre have been trying to do for the past 5-or-so years without very much luck at all. Arthur must constantly shave, wash and eat. Bodies must be manually looted, large animals that you have hunted must be strapped to the back of your horse if you wish to sell them. Extra rifles and such must be stored in your saddlebags. While this sounds like tedium incarnate, none of this truly enroaches on the gameplay experience, only serving to even deeper immerse yourself in this beautiful and expansive world.
Playing 2010’s Red Dead Redemption will certainly cause you to put two-and-two together a lot more often in its sequel but it is by no means necessary to enjoy this experience.
If you own a PS4 or Xbox One and are not afraid of being totally consumed by this game for at least the length of the main story (about 50 hours) then just go for it - you will not be disappointed.