Red Dead Redemption 2 (2018)

10/10

Definitely one of my personal favorite stories and biggest surprises in my gaming history. I really liked this feature of having a real influence on Arthur's approach in relation with side characters and his person truly appealed to myself because of moral decisions he had to made . Pacing in story and relations between each characters of the band are very good, the created world in which we move our character is splendid and every location really grabbed my heart while exploring it wide.

I haven’t played that many story-rich, cutscene heavy AAA action RPGs. When I got rid of my PS3 around 2008 until I got a Switch in 2019, I only had a PC to game on and played mostly sports management sims and 4X grand strategy games. Among the few that I’ve played, The Witcher 3, Mass Effect Legendary Edition, and now Red Dead Redemption 2 stand out as favorites. It’s hard for me to imagine that these aren’t the greatest three games of all time.

RDR2 differs from the other two in that they are epics of saving the universe while Arthur Morgan’s story is one of trying in vain to save a few lives and redeem a few souls. Its gameplay is far more focused on the minutiae of daily life; feeding yourself, feeding your horse, staying clean, even completing daily chores. I didn’t realize this at first and then ended up with a malnourished horse and an underfed Arthur. As the game progressed, however, it became fun to take a break from the missions for one gaming session and instead go hunting for more meat, more pelts, and more sources of money.

The story can be a bit maudlin from time to time, but overall it’s a moving story about somebody who is trapped in a situation he realizes too late will kill him and all he cares about. Choice plays less of a role in this game than in Mass Effect, for example, so more of the story is scripted. Choice is a bit overrated in games, though, in my opinion. I didn’t find that the story suffered in any way. There’s also lots of optional side content that adds to the world, like the UFO I managed to find.

Given that this game is in the collections of over 10,000 Grouvers, I doubt I’m providing anything new to most here. I’ll simply say this game is definitely a five star game and a must play if the management mechanics don’t become too tedious for you. I could easily see myself revisiting the Van Der Linde Gang again after a few years away.

I played on my Steam Deck. I purchased this game a few days after reserving my Deck, fully intending to wait for it to arrive before I played it. It worked almost perfectly with a few crashes in the prologue and one crash again right in the middle of the final mission. I turned on FXAA and didn’t have another crash for the 80+ hours in between. The graphics surely don’t compare to what I would have experienced on a big screen with a PS4 but it only ever mattered when I was trying to navigate in the darkness. The Rockstar launcher was sometimes annoying but it never made playing the game completely unpalatable.

1. Environmental details of the open world are truly breathtaking
2. Arthur, Charles and Dutch are well written characters and great acting
3. The rest of the cast are mediocre and 1 dimensional
4. Epilogue is WAY too long bloated, uninteresting and has a weak ending.
5. Typical Rockstar formula that hasn't evolved (ride to location and shoot bad guy rinse and repeat)

6. Would of had a lot more intensity and interesting story if John Marston was the bad guy and betrayed Arthur at the end and killed him. The story sets up a feud of John Vs Arthur and who Dutch prefers. It would of been cool if John with the help of Dutch conspired to murder Arthur.

I haven't played a Rockstar game since GTA4 and the gameplay is literally the same except with horses. I actually prefer the ragdoll physics in GTA4. The only thing that kept me playing was the open world setting and Arthur's character. And the Guarma location setting is one of the most beautiful islands in a video game!

Gameplay First of all I'd like thanks rockstar for giving this as a standalone version for a reasonable price for those who can't afford the complete version of the game, otherwise it is alot for those who lives in 3rd world countries like me :"). so if we straight ahead to the game, it is a masterpiece even without campaign in this standalone version. It gives you the right to create your own character as you desire and freeroam in its huge vast open world and choose your role to continue your existence in old wild west. It has many things to do around in its huge world such as go on hunting, find treasures, do some dirty criminal works and work as a bountyhunter. Soloplaying would get bored sometimes but with some friends it would't get bored ;), Infact it is very calming to ride alone with horse through its good looking enviroment. It is a well made game in visual effects, beautiful looking graphics and physics.

Community Majority from the community of rdo are toxic af, even I didn't got a good welcome back in the days from high level players. most of them willing to rape new players. For me the part of tying up with lasso is very annoying. And the other thing is many players lures out at us whenever we start a trader goods sell on the session and there will be no profit come up with it when they steal the goods and sell em themselves. going on a pvp against those is useless unless with quality weapons and potions... And about modders yes they do exists like in gta online but not as much as it.

-- THERE WILL BE SPOILERS FOR BOTH GAMES IN THIS REVIEW --

Red Dead Redemption II is easily the greatest video game story I ever consumed. It felt like a movie... The writing, acting, characters, and moments made this game such a memorable rollercoaster and I'm sad I won't get to play it for the first time ever again.

Now here is the thing, I have not played the first Red Dead Redemption which was released 11 years ago. I know about John's death and Jack's revenge. That's about it. So I was nervous going into this game in that sense. I'm happy to say that the prior knowledge of the first game did not tarnish the experience.

I'm gonna get the gameplay out of the way because this is more of a review of the story than anything else. The gameplay is... Ok... It's definitely not bad. But there is room for improvement. The cover system is an absolute mess for instance. The gameplay is very fun though. I love the attention to detail. There are things in this game that just blow my mind. The amount of random encounters and secrets you can find is huge. Seeing Arthur pick every item up, shave, clean his guns, skin an animal, and more is just so interesting. I love this game for the cowboy simulator that it is. Is the gameplay perfect? No. It can be repetitive, moving through the map can be a slog, missions are usually structured the same. Talk to the person, ride somewhere, something goes wrong, shoot out, repeat. And the game's biggest sin is that the choices you make in the gameplay hardly affect the story aside from the ending. Still a fantastic experience. That said, the story

Red Dead Redemption II takes place before the events of the first game at the turn of the 19th Century, 1899. You follow the Van Der Linde Gang. A gang of outlaws currently on the run from the government. Dutch Van Der Linde, leader of the gang, pushes his gang along. He has a way with words, he is smart, cunning, and cares about his people. His right-hand man, Hosea Matthews, the wise man of the group, Miss Grimshaw, a strict but caring mother figure of the group, Micah Bell, the loudmouth of the group, Bill Williamson, Sean MacGuire, Javier Escuella, Lenny Summers, Charles Smith, Sadie Adler, Uncle, Young 4-Year-Old, Jack and his mother Abigail Roberts, And John Marston, the protagonist of the first game and more are with this gang for many reasons. You follow Arthur Morgan, the surrogate son of Dutch as he and the gang fight to get money to leave the expanding United States for newer land.

The plot starts off with the gang running. Stuck in a snowstorm. The story has an expert way of introducing these characters, letting us get to know them, letting us care about them, and investing us. As the game trudges along, it never gets stale. Arthur is such an interesting character and is one of the most badass video game characters I've seen. This gang works the way they do is so fun to watch. They end up stranded in Guarma way later in the game and this is when we begin to see Dutch becoming unlike himself. Becoming more violent and selfish. This game has too many moments for me to explain but I couldn't get enough of it.

And then the reveal happened. Arthur, after attacking a sick man for owed money, begins to cough every so often. You don't think much of it until Chapter 5, where Arthur has a coughing episode, falls off his horse, and is taken to a doctor's office. Where it is revealed that he contracted Turberculosis which at the time meant that his life was limited. And Arthur begins to change. Realizing that he must do good in this world before going. And like Arthur, I felt like I didn't have much time left. It was so impactful to see Arthur become a good person. The story became so much more personal and emotional. You as a player feel like you have a purpose. Which is to right the wrongs and do good for the time Arthur has left. And you do that. After finding out that Micah was the rat, the one that led the Pinkertons to them, the one that talked, you and your friend John Marston, betrayed by what is left of the gang, have a final confrontation. And Arthur dies like a champ.

Never has a game made me feel so personal with a character. Never have I felt so sad for a character dying, but also so happy that he went out the way he did. After his death, the game cuts to 8 years later, 1907. John, trying to get away from crime, decides to become a ranchhand. But when he, Uncle, Charles, Abigail, Jack, and Sadie learn that Micah is still alive. You go and get revenge for Arthur.

It felt so good to put on Arthur's hat and blaze through enemies to kill Micah. And that trudge up there with John's theme from the first game American Venom blasting in the background (Need I mention that the music is amazing, especially the licensed songs). I like to believe that in that final stretch, for a brief moment, Micah thought that Arthur was back from the dead, and he was... just not in the way Micah thought. This game EARNS it's ending.

This story made me laugh, cry (a lot), smile, get angry, It made me feel things that most games don't make me feel. This game is SO close to getting a perfect score from me. If the gameplay (as good as it is) was just a little bit more refined, You bet I'd make this 5 Stars

Best. Video. Game. Story. Ever.

4/5

Would Highly Recommend

Considering we've lived for over a decade in a world where AAA developers devote absurd amounts of resources into graphical fidelity and completely surface-level detail above all else, it's kind of disheartening to know that this is basically the only game so far where I can say with confidence that the high-standard graphics are actually worth it. The intense detail of RDR2's world goes a long way to bringing this period to life and it really makes me wish we had more games with historical settings that have this level of authenticity. That fact that it also has the best story of any big-budget title in roughly the last decade makes me wonder what kind of games we could have if the mainstream gaming industry had even the slightest pretence of existing for any other reason than to hash out cynical skinner-box dogshite at the expense of its workers and the public at large. I would genuinely be surprised if this doesn't turn out to be the last actually good major release ever.

Despite all that the game doesn't really have that much replay value. Obviously being so long and having such a linear story is a factor in this, but for me it's mainly that once you've explored the map and seen everything (which was my main source of enjoyment for the game), you're not left with anything that substantial to do. I don't think I'll pick this game up again for a while but it was basically the only thing I played for about two months, and for good reason.

Technically, the most impressive game I've ever played. Past that? Great fun. All the systems work together well, the characters are memorable and develop in meaningful ways, including the side characters and the main story is engaging and concludes in a satisfying way. The best Rockstar game I have ever played.

Red Dead Redemption repeatedly left me in a state of awe and features some of the best designed and executed systems I have ever seen in an open world video game. The NPC AI (especially the wildlife) far exceeds anything you'll find in other open world games, and some of the gameplay systems are the most complex ever seen in the genre period. Even if you are not a fan of Rockstar games, you could likely appreciate this game for the technical marvel it is.

5/5

First played this game on PS4 when it came out and really enjoyed it. Literally could not stop playing it until the story was done.

Replayed it later on PC. I think the missions lose some of their sheen the second time around - and some sections (Guarma!) really drag. However the story, and particularly the characters, are still awesome. One of my favourite protagonists of all time. The environment and world as well is beautiful.

First impressions (PS4):

• It is already said many times, but yeah the controls feel very clunky at first. Arthur is either painfully slow or so fast that he ends up climbing tables or anything on the floor.
• First person camera REALLY helps, especially indoors. Since sometimes it's hard to see anything because of Arthur's huge hat.
• I had a hard time trying to read tutorial texts while also trying to listen to dialogues. A temporary pause to read tutorial texts would've been really heplful.
• I went to the general store in the first town and the store's catalogue was filled with many different provisions, yet it's very hard to notice their differences at first sight. I have to juggle between pages and study each one of them carefully. So far I love the graphic design in the game and I understand that they chose the "realism" way but a little bit of color would make my life so much easier.
• Inspecting an object AND grabbing people is the same button. So I ended up getting into a fight with an old man for no reason, and now I have an 80 dollar bounty on my head, while our camp's whole treasury is around 40 dollars. Great.

Still, I'm having a great time! I'm saying "hello" to everyone I see -which sometimes backfires and creates hilarious results- and petting every dog I encounter. Can't wait to play again!