Review: Red Dead Redemption 2
If you’re looking to maximize your options out on the road, I would suggest bringing along at least a warm weather piece of gear and cold weather gear, which should perfectly set you up for almost any type of environment. Finally, for that third spot on your horse’s inventory for clothing, you can hold that for a favorite outfit or piece of gear that makes Arthur really stand out in the West.
Aside from the direct ways that you can interact with characters in Red Dead Redemption 2 , there are an even wider range of ways that Rockstar is truly aiming for players to really «live» inside this world by playing as Arthur. This comes down to factors such as eating, sleeping, taking Arthur to the local town barber for a haircut and a shave (if you want his hair or beard longer, you’ll have to wait until it grows out), and even down to whether Arthur enters a town armed or unarmed. Naturally, holding your weapon while striding through a town will have its citizens on edge and wary of your actions, while holstering your weapon will make for more civil engagements. As one of the Rockstar reps mentioned as we entered a town, this even extends to the way that you enter a new location on horseback — a calm trot into town will go over much better than charging headlong into town and (potentially) running over an innocent civilian.
The Red Dead franchise succeeds because it’s playing into the most American fantasies of what the Wild West was, while keeping it grounded. It was a time were America was still getting its footing as a new nation. Things were being discovered by a people who had largely still never seen most of what the land had to offer, thus appropriately titled, the Wild West. It seemed like a hellish dreamscape where those from the east coast talked of savages and wild beast, men who idealized the same sort of lawlessness discussed among certain circles. Yet, it was none of these things, for a people having just arrived to a nation, it was much tamer than one might imagine. Instead, it was a place not overly populated and begging for people to settle its lands (I hope we see Natives in this game). The west was a place of opportunity and discovery, somewhere one could make their mark in a relatively easy way (for the time).
In the story sections that we played of Red Dead Redemption 2 , it’s already clear that Arthur’s relationships with the members of the Van der Linde gang will play a crucial role across the whole game, on larger and more personal levels. Right at the beginning of the demo, those relationships came into play as Arthur and the gang were preparing to rob a train under the ownership of the oil tycoon Leviticus Cornwall, which started with Arthur assisting Bill Williamson to blow up the train tracks and derail the car. Naturally, after that plan went awry, Arthur and several other members of the gang instead raced to the top of the nearby mountain path to hop on top of the train. In the midst of the action, we saw that Arthur can issue commands to the fellow gang members as they pushed towards the conductor car, making the action feel that much more involved when executing the heist alongside his other fellow gang members.
Red Dead Redemption 2 is a long game and there’s a lot to do in it. The main campaign alone, along with a good number of Stranger missions, took us just under fifty hours to complete, which is exponentially longer than its predecessor. That’s barely even participating in the various other activities, such as hunting, gambling, bounty hunting and more. The Stranger missions are one of the bigger draws as they are once again whacky, over-the-top scenarios that fill out the world. Arthur may not have the sarcastic, comical timing of John Marston, but he still lends to each situation with his confusion. Sadly, I never saw a damsel tied up on a railroad track that needed saving. Speaking of Stranger missions, you’re also able to make choices that may affect scenes in the main story. For example, I met one woman earlier in the campaign and she appeared as a prostitute later on, which lead to a bounty immediately put on my head. Another was a surprisingly lengthy scene with a nun who I randomly bumped into once, and Arthur opened up to her. Your choices through the campaign do hold some weight as they can affect where specific people end up in the future and might even expand upon Arthur’s character more.
When you think of Rockstar Games, Grand Theft Auto is no doubt the first thing that pops into mind. They’ve built a multi-billionaire dollar franchise that has become a household name, but they’re a multi-studio company that has many properties in their catalogue. Midnight Club, Smuggler’s Run, Max Payne, State of Emergency, Bully and so many more, Rockstar is far more than just Grand Theft Auto. With that said, their third-person action adventure formula has worked for them in the past and so they’ve been implementing it into other titles, one for example would be Red Dead Redemption. Released over eight years ago, we dove into the Wild West like we’ve never done so before, with an Open world games guide world ripe for exploration, a compelling story with a loveable cast of characters and a cleverly-designed shooting mechanic. Here we are again, as Rockstar has created a more colossal and immersive game that puts it in a familiar territory, all while making feel like its own identity.
