4.5/5 ★ – daneh's review of Red Dead Redemption II.

If there was going to be a game that was going to bring me back to writing long, convoluted reviews, I’m not surprised it ended up being this one. Red Dead Redemption 2 is one of the most fascinating games I’ve played in recent memory – it lands itself in a weird place where it’s both one of the most innovative AAA games I’ve ever seen, and also one that steps into many of the pitfalls that other open-world games of this caliber tend to fall into. For this reason, I’ve been thinking about this game so much lately! Because I legitimately find it interesting how many of the decisions they make are both so incredibly genius and also contradict themselves at the same time. The moment you boot up RDR2 and start a new game you’re immediately submerged into the incredible atmosphere and setting the game has created. Despite the wild west imagery seen through most of the game’s advertising, the first few hours of the game leave you stranded in the wilderness amidst harsh weather conditions and barely any civilization to be seen. This allows for the first chapter to essentially serve as a tutorial that not only introduces you to the game’s mechanics but also allows for much opportunity to get to know both the main character, Arthur Morgan, and the gang of outlaws he belongs to, which are, by no surprise, the heart of this game. RDR2 is a game with almost an overwhelming amount of mechanics, so during the tutorial segment the game’s depth is felt immediately, there are many things you can do that you’re taught, and it can even get to be difficult to wrap your head around everything you can do. And this isn’t particularly misleading, but it does set a precedent for freedom that can lead to a bit of disappointment later down the line. Once Chapter 1 is over and the “real game” starts so to speak, you reach the purest wild west experience a person could ever have. Go horseback riding, enter a saloon, bet your savings on a game of poker, get piss drunk, shoot a dude once you lose those savings, run from the law, capture bounties, it’s a treat! I feel like it’s a point already made but I genuinely cannot emphasize enough how perfect this game’s presentation is in every way possible; of course, the graphics are incredible, but the careful art direction is what truly brings this to another level, and the soundtrack helps a lot to set the vibes as well (seriously, they got D’Angelo on this thing! What!!!). It’s no secret either that the game aims for realism, many of the game’s contemporaries in the genre also aim for such a thing, but what’s interesting about RDR2 is that it goes the extra mile with it, more than any other game I’ve ever seen. You need to take care of your guns, maintain proper hygiene on you and your horse, animals can notice your scent, you need to skin them properly when hunted, Arthur’s weight can negatively impact his health if underweight/overweight or if sick, his hair’s length changes over time and must be maintained/shaved every once in a while, NPCs have varied routines and behaviors, and these are just a few examples, it’s sort of hard to explain how deep this game truly goes. What I find most interesting about the hyper-realism this game achieves is how these aspects can be seen as cumbersome and annoying, but in execution they… somehow aid the gameplay? One of RDR2’s main appeal is its immersion and how you can make yourself, the player, a part of the world, and these things help a lot with it. Riding around in your horse and simply appreciating the world is something I would not find myself doing in an open-world game that doesn’t work hard enough to earn its atmosphere, and whenever you’re not robbing something or shooting at people, it’s pretty clear this game intends for you to take a step back, relax, and take your time and bask everything in. It allows for so many moments of reflection that become much needed once the game’s fantastic narrative gets intense. I’m not going to lie, it IS pretty difficult to describe how these mechanics that might not sound great on paper do end up elevating the overall experience, but hopefully you’ll trust me on that one. This game makes sure by every possible metric that you feel like a natural part of this world that interacts with it in consistent ways, and that’s very refreshing! With that being said, what is odd to me is that this hyper-realism isn’t exactly carried through with the missions. They will guide you through very interesting set pieces and cool shootouts and some even have important story moments, but you have barely any freedom on how you want to tackle them, they are SO on-rails it’s painful, they’re extremely linear and limiting, you can barely stray a tiny bit away from the intended path before the game shoves you some text about how you need to return to your current objective, and if you don’t do so you immediately fail the mission and get sent back to the last checkpoint. Out of all the mechanics the game presents to you, you’re barely able to use any of them within the missions because the game is very afraid of player agency all of a sudden, it can’t decide whether it wants to give players freedom or funnel everyone through the same scripted path. I understand that for story reasons there’s times when the game needs to funnel the player into something specific happening, but I feel like they took it a step or two too far. And it’s a shame, because I genuinely think most missions are already pretty interesting! The gameplay is very enjoyable usually and they hook you into them pretty well, but they feel unnecessarily limited and that’s a shame. Something else that feels somewhat limited is the open world itself. I already sung my praises about how the presentation elevates this specific open world above many of its contemporaries, but unfortunately as much as I do love riding a horse through the wild west while smoking a cigar and listening to some old feeling americana music while running away from bounty hunters into a mountain, the open world’s strengths stop there. There aren’t actually many incentives to explore new places that the story doesn’t require you to go into; apart from different environments and small towns, you’ll rarely stumble upon something truly new in unexplored areas, and this is definitely something that affects the experience quite a bit in an open world game, where it almost feels like you can focus directly on the story missions and maybe some side missions and never see anything else and you won’t end up missing much either. It feels like a lot of potential that just doesn’t get used completely, and that’s really sad because it’s still fun to interact with this world, but it could’ve been better. With the aspects I’ve spoken about up to this point, Red Dead Redemption 2 is a pretty good game with some drawbacks, not exactly something I’d find myself thinking about much but something I’d really enjoyed while it lasted. However, there’s clearly one final aspect remaining to speak of that I loosely mentioned before – the story and characters. Damn. If this isn’t one of the best written games I’ve ever played. Hell, probably one of the best written pieces of fiction I’ve played. The game’s characters and story are all introduced and developed so well throughout the entire playthrough while keeping the pacing consistent, each member of the cast is so distinct from each other, each trying to build this gang of outlaws up while also shooting for their own aspirations and ideologies. They become most of the player’s motivation to progress and see where everything goes, because to be honest it’s pretty unpredictable and there’s so many strong moments. The development, the decline, and the redemption (haha lol I said the thing) that many characters go through is some heavy stuff man, and it definitely marked much of my enjoyment and, subsequently, many of my thoughts and admiration for this game. RDR2 is an absolute master in building character archetypes that get completely stripped down to their core and it’s willing to explore what it means to be a bad man, a person who doesn’t belong, how lines are drawn, and when vile acts start to feel justifiable, what morality and loyalty means, and if redemption (I said it again!) is a worthwhile endeavor, or just another impossible goal to follow blindly. It gets to a point where I’m willing to say this is one of those rare games I’d say are worth playing for the story alone (not that the gameplay here is bad!! It’s not perfect, but it’s still pretty good!). I know that I was somewhat vague in explaining how ridiculously good the writing is in this game, but I do want to keep this review spoilerless. To summarize everything into a few ideas, Red Dead Redemption 2 is a game that leans heavily on its story, characters, and presentation to show something truly special. It does so in a really well-built hyper-realistic setting that aids the gameplay a lot, even if the open world and mission structure end up with the shorter end of the stick despite still being pretty interesting and impressive parts of the whole experience. Not entirely a perfect videogame, but with one of the best scripts and writing I’ve seen in anything ever, I’d reckon it does come somewhat close to it as RDR2 knows its strengths and makes sure to highlight them as much as possible, which I can definitely appreciate.