RED DEAD REDEMPTION 2

Developer/publisher Rockstar Games Format PS4, Xbox One

It’s okay if you don’t like it. We can even understand why. Red Dead Redemption 2 has UX problems up the wazoo. There are moments when the systems that bubble around beneath the game’s crust collide in unexpected, or annoying, or outright ruinous ways. It was eight years in the making, at eight studios around the world, and the implicit awkwardness of that arrangement often shows.

And yet. Yet. There is untold magic in them thar hills: in those frozen mountainsides, those arid plains, those fetid, foggy swamps and everywhere in between. This open world is unmatched in its scale and splendour. The remarkable fidelity of its flora and fauna, the drama of its dynamic weather, its peerless dynamic score and the systems that support them all – this is a videogame world for the ages, and a new industry benchmark.

It is also home to Rockstar’s best story, feeling at once like a sequel and a prequel, vividly performed by the finest ensemble cast the studio has assembled. Arthur Morgan is a man of reasonable intentions who accepts the likely consequences of the life he has chosen. Yet this time it is not his past that catches up with him. After six long chapters, largely spent running away from trouble, he is ultimately brought down by the one thing from which none of us is able to run.

The epilogue wonderfully sets the scene for John Marston’s original adventure, but there’s magic in the post-game too. We have come to appreciate how handsoff the game is with so many of its systems: you don’t need to hunt, or craft, or help people, but doing so deepens your connection with the world, and nets you a significant, but non-essential reward for your trouble. It’s a rare open-world game indeed that’s happy to let you ignore so much of it – as well as one that, for all its little flaws, is nonetheless utterly essential.