Released: 26th October 2018
Developer: Rockstar Studios
Publisher: Rockstar Games
Certificate: 18
Formats: PS4 and Xbox One
Back in 2010, the original Red Dead Redemption made an outstanding impression on the industry with its unparalleled rendition of the wild west. The long-awaited follow-up is expected to not only surpass its success but also compete with the open-world games of the eighth generation of consoles. Does it deliver? If you’ve followed Rockstar Games up to this point, the final product is undeniably stellar.
Taking place twelve years before the first game in 1899, Red Dead Redemption presents the Van Der Linde gang, as they flee from the encroaching law enforcement of the Pinkertons after a robbery gone bad in Blackwater. You play as Arthur Morgan (voiced by Rodger Clarke), a lieutenant under Dutch Van Der Linde (Benjamin Byron Davies); as the gang dashes from place to place, only to have their planned scores come up short, Morgan, alongside returning characters John Marston (played again by Bill Wiethoff), Bill Williamson and Javier Escuella among many others, begin to wonder if Dutch is really worth following anymore. As things go from bad to worse, you grow connected to this gang and really feel the pressure mounting in the latter half of the game. Though the story the characters tell (which includes the typically long list of side characters in Rockstar’s releases) is impressive enough, it’s the man you play as that holds it all together. What makes Arthur such an outstanding protagonist is his moral ambiguity, which is also enhanced by a more organic honour system. One moment he’ll be ruthlessly beating up debtors to collect payment and the next he’ll be helping an old flame track down her estranged brother; the protagonist’s journey is an endlessly intriguing arc, an incredibly emotional and engaging tale that stands out for its thought-provoking tone just as much as it connects to the first game. Through a combination of near-perfect voice acting and in-game storytelling, Red Dead 2 pulls you in from beginning to end; you’ll sit down at the campfire in the evening to learn more about the characters and their escapades, interact with all of them on a regular basis and watch their outlooks change as things go on. In some ways you can shape the story yourself as some interactions change based on Arthur’s honour rating and he can also make choices that determine the outcome of some supporting characters. Even the random encounters outside of camp can offer their own unique mini stories. I would place the narrative under the same banner as 2008’s Grand Theft Auto 4; it’s Rockstar’s more serious approach to storytelling at its absolute best.
Unfolding across five main chapters, Red Dead Redemption 2’s wide open landscape is filled with sights to see, strangers to meet and best of all, an enormous amount of depth that often borders on obsessive. With his trusty steed in tow, Arthur can traverse the land at the player’s own pace, taking in a range of varied activities. Some have returned from the first game, most notably hunting both animals and fugitives, gambling in saloons and searching for treasure, while others are newly introduced. There’s a superb amount of customisation options that dramatically enhance the western experience; first there’s the Van Der Linde camp, which can be added to and upgraded with financial contributions and other items at the crafting table and these options also extend to both Arthur and his horse. Diligent hunters who track down the rarest pelts will be able to make better satchels with larger storage space or alternatively if you have extra cash from robberies, you might nip down to the gun store to improve your weapons with various parts. Even your horse has become more than just a vehicle to take you from place to place. Arthur needs to keep it happy, feed it regularly, calm it when confronted by dangerous animals, store weapons on it for immediate use and gradually level up its loyalty to acquire new abilities. Through it all, the new and improved honour and wanted systems are always moving back and forth in a far more natural way that befits the criminal nature of the gang. Just like the first game, having high honour means that non-player characters will offer greetings and discounts while in contrast, the wanted system logs your crimes and forces the player to pay off their bounty at a post office. At times, it’s unbelievable how many features have been crammed into Red Dead Redemption 2; even the light RPG elements are back with Arthur being overweight or underweight while also reacting to different temperatures. All of this is driven by a push for further realism, which allows Red Dead to match its contemporaries in the open-world market. There’s so much to do here and you’ll easily get 50 hours or more from the single-player campaign alone.
The focus on realism also applies to the gameplay, which has had some close refinements from the original title; many of which will take time to get used to. To add further immersion, Rockstar asks the player to carry out more physical actions when controlling Arthur. To name a few operations, Arthur must place any animal pelts on his horse for storage, take guns off the horse saddle to use them and manually whip out his firearms in combat. At first it felt a bit clunky and in combat the delay of arming up is a bit annoying but once you’ve wrapped your head around it, these elements make for a more closely-knit and well-realised experience. By locking on to various characters and items, Arthur has several ways to respond divided into “Greet”, “Rob” and “Antagonise”. While the dialogue choices aren’t especially deep, they do allow the player some additional expression in how the protagonist interacts with others. As for the gunplay, Rockstar has created a hybrid of Grand Theft Auto and Max Payne, translating it into a western setting. The screen lets out a flash when enemies are killed and cinematic angles of the bullets entering Arthur’s foes in bloody fashion often mark the end of gunfights. With that said, the aiming has been drastically nerfed from the original title. You’ll need a keen eye and careful use of the analogue sticks to land those lethal shots as reload times are extended and the auto-aim is a lot less automatic. As for traversal, Arthur and his horse control relatively well with more well-implemented reactions to aspects of the environment, particularly hills and mountains. Yes, you can crash your horse in this one and losing it in the middle of the frontier is rough as you’re forced to look for a new mount. The only element of gameplay that’s really lacking is the mission design; when Rockstar pulls the player out of the open world, they resort to the same formula they’ve used since Grand Theft Auto 3 all the way back in 2001, which ends up being the game’s biggest weakness. You talk to character, ride to a location while listening to exposition then tackle the objectives with a mixture of combat, horse-riding and stealth. There are memorable set pieces for sure, most notably robberies and other acts of grand larceny but they rarely leave room for player experimentation. The story missions are still fun, but they fall short of other titles which work the open world into the design template.
Not content to sit on its laurels, Rockstar has crafted yet another stunning environment with Red Dead 2, whose open world stands right alongside the best of the genre. Elements of the first game’s western setting remain, namely West Elizabeth and the town of Blackwater but the sequel is anchored east of that location with a much more diverse set of locales. Whether it’s the hilly terrain teaming with wildlife or the dingy swamps leading to Saint Denis, every location is absolutely bursting with immersive detail. Mixing this with the bustling wildlife and random encounters seen in the original, Red Dead Redemption 2 is always making its world as real as possible. Yet it’s the little details that really stand out; lifelike animations and tracks along the paths you travel, the insane amount of outfits Arthur can wear, and the way specific settlements evolve throughout the story, putting it at the top of the genre. The music is just as brilliant, with the game continuing the excellent move of placing tracks to match the emotional rises and falls of the narrative. The highlight of this is the sombre “That’s the way it is” towards the game’s conclusion, which I’ll leave to discover on your own. On top of this we have great action cues, visceral sound effects and a near flawless set of voice performances from every member of the cast. With so many lines of dialogue, every character is made to feel distinctive and just as richly detailed as the game world they inhabit. There’s little more I can say, outside of some minor glitches that often creep their way into Rockstar titles, Red Dead 2 hardly puts a foot wrong in the technical details.
The long wait for Red Dead Redemption 2 has ultimately been worth it, as the developer’s near unstoppable domination of the open-world genre continues with just a few stumbles. If it wasn’t for archaic mission design and some light control issues, it would easily be Rockstar’s ultimate masterpiece; as it stands, RDR 2 is still a phenomenal sequel that supplants the original as the finest western you’ll ever play.
Rating: 9/10 (Brilliant)
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