'Red Dead Redemption 2' Review - Open-World Mastery
No Spoilers
Very few studios manage to craft a world so compelling and lively that you lose yourself in them. One such studio is Rockstar games. Every game from them builds upon their last, creating everlasting improvement. 'Red Dead Redemption 2' was no exception. In fact, the newest entry in their fantastic catalog is their most impressive and immersive game to date. A game that proves that world-building is more captivating than useless busy-work.
What I love about Rockstar is that they put so much attention into the worlds they create. I would describe this game's open-world as a character itself. Not only was it absolutely gorgeous, with its beautiful mountain tops and thick atmospheric weather effects, but it was full of colorful people to interact with. I spent hours exploring every nook and cranny discovering unique and interesting characters. May it be a series of eerie clues leading to the location of a vampiric man or a drunken war vet telling you the story of how he was betrayed by his best friend; almost around every corner was a new interesting face to meet. They also added a new interaction menu that gave you the ability to interact with these people in different manors. You could rob them, insult them, or just give them a simple hello. This mechanic also fed into the returning honor system that allows you to choose whether you want to be a hero or a menace. Either way, both sides effected how people perceived you, gaining you rewards for being a help around the town, or looked down upon from your horrendous deeds. These small interactions were eons more exciting and enticing than any typical base take-down mission or tower to climb. The game, also, never bogged me down with mission icons flooding the map. Much of the side content wasn't even on the map, instead, it left me to venture out myself and discover them. I found this to be much more enthralling since I wasn't just opening my map to find the next side activity to check it off a list.
If I wanted to find these activities and missions I had to explore. Exploring this world often led me to many interesting locations that contained compelling sites. I was always excited to find a cave or house, not because of loot or weapons, but because these hidden areas contained stories just through attention to detail. There weren't just tons of notes to inform you about the location, although there were at times and they were always an interesting read. But instead many of these secret locations had their history written through the atmosphere surrounding them and their design. At times I might have even come across cool easter eggs on the supernatural side of things, which was always fun to experience. Secret areas were always fun to explore, but the bustling towns and city streets were also fun to hang around in. In these towns, many shops and activities were opened up for interaction. Shops were mainly a vehicle for items to aid you on your journeys and mix and match clothing to customize your look. Bars were available for a time of unwinding and rest as you can rent a room, eat food to replenish your cores that help with survival or take a bath to cleanse yourself. But the one set of activities that were always fun to come across in these towns were definitely the mini-games. Poker and Five-Finger Fille were the two games I played the most. I know jack all about poker, but from what I could tell it seemed to have enough depth and strategy to keep other people playing. Five-Finger Fille, however, was pretty addictive and easy to learn. Then there was Dominoes which I never played but was a welcomed addition. These mini-games, although not abundant, were fun to get lost in and added a nice little distraction from all the shooting.
Speaking of which, hunting this time around was a lot more expansive and involving. Instead of simply shooting an animal and skinning it, the new system here was added for more strategic play. The ability to study an animal was neat as it helped pinpoint weak points to ensure a good pelt for selling. I was glad they added this mechanic since hunting has always disinterested me due to how simplistic it usually is presented. Fishing was added to the game, as well, as a nice companion activity to hunting. Unfortunately, the controls were a bit clunky when reeling in fish, making it a bit difficult to catch them. It wasn't a huge issue, but one nonetheless. Many of these activities were also integrated into more overarching stories. Many side-missions had hunting and mini-games but were presented through interesting characters and extra tasks. Most of the side-missions were multilayered and offered more insight into the different mechanics fused with the side-activities. But, side-activities weren't the only thing expanded upon in these missions, as the main protagonist, Arthur Morgan, was given a lot more understanding through these missions.
I'd say that Arthur Morgan is one of the best video game protagonists I've played as in a long time. His development from beginning to end was enthralling and emotional. His tough guy persona, in the beginning, was one that seemed typical for the generic western hero. But his actions and experiences he goes through transformed him, by the end, into a character that was not only sympathetic but extremely likable feeding into the theme of redemption. It helped that he was incredibly charismatic and funny due to the excellent dialogue and phenomenal voice work by Roger Clark. However, he wasn't the only interesting and excellently performed character. Since the game's plot revolved around your gang, run by Dutch Van der Linde, and the downfall of it, a lot of focus went into the characters. Each of them was fleshed out. Since the gang and you hold out at different camps, there was the ability to sit around a campfire or play mini-games to further get to understand your fellow members. There were even side-missions available for you to further explore their pasts and introduce fun gameplay elements, such as robbing certain locations. However, the people residing in your camp could also start to dislike you if you don't donate money for camp upgrades or don't provide meat for them to use. I found this mechanic to give a nice dynamic nature to the relationships between you and them. You could even antagonize them, through the small interaction menu, if you don't enjoy their presence. Even though all of the gang were interesting, the one member that stuck out was Dutch. Dutch's downward spiral was not only expertly paced out and executed, but one that brought about an emotionally driven second half of the narrative. Towards the end, he went from a charming and fun character into one of quick-witted decision making and greed-filled corruption. This effectively made his turn to villainy as one of the best origin stories for a villain I've ever seen. All these characters were what made this game's story so captivating, and it contained an epilogue that wrapped up the story beautifully.
Not only was the story engaging, but the story missions contained so many unique game-play elements and scenarios. Sure, most of them ended with a shootout, and I'd say a few times it felt kind of forced. However, the gun-play here is probably Rockstar's best combat system to date. The weight behind every gunshot or punch was satisfying and was aided by the phenomenal animations and sound design. Dead-Eye returning was also nice, with it being a helpful way to get out of sticky situations. But keeping the previously mentioned cores full allowed further use of Dead-Eye. The game had a multitude of weapons. There were various gun-shops around each of the towns that contained different types of weaponry. Shotguns, rifles, pistols, revolvers, melee, etc. Each of which contained their own customization options and strengths and weaknesses when it came to different situations. Horses have, also, been focused on a lot more in terms of customization and stats. Whether you tame a horse in the wild or buy one, each of them came with their own special statistics, with some horses being more suited for certain environments than others. Horse customization, this time around, was way more varied, and even a bit overwhelming. But I was grateful with the amount of personalization available.
'Red Dead Redemption 2' is a game I never thought I'd see anytime soon. It was an open-world game that sucked me in like no other. Its many game-play systems, fantastically realized world, and enthralling story added it up as one of my favorite games this generation. It's not a perfect game, as some clunkiness was present and the epilogue contained a few boring missions. But in the face of everything, the accomplishments completely shadowed over the flaws.