Red Dead Redemption 2 has been on the minds of thousands of players and fans ever since the release of the first game; a game many people consider one of Rockstar’s best. Finally released on the 26th October 2018, the game acts as a sort of prequel to the first Red Dead Redemption and fills in some of the blanks players would have had with the first game. Available on PS4 and Xbox One, the game returns you to the Western-themed setting of the Wild West, as it slowly comes to its inevitable end.
Starting off with the story, the game focuses on someone named Arthur Morgan, an outlaw and prominent member of the Van der Linde gang. As the gang travels through the Wild West, Arthur is anchored by his growing moral compass as he starts to question a lot of the gangs’ motifs and intentions. Forcing him to choose between the family that effectively raised him and everything that he’s slowly coming to stand for. The story even answers some questions we’ve always had about John Marston; combine that with everything the story provides, the overall story for the game keeps players engaged throughout.
When it comes to the gameplay, it is pretty much identical to the previous game. You still ride around on horses, you’re still equipped with a myriad of different weapons that were famous during the Wild West, and a lot of the gameplay choices are still the same. Even though the gameplay has remained relatively the same, that hasn’t stopped it from being refined. Rockstar Games have made sure to refine the gameplay down to a fine tee, and they’ve managed that quite well. The gunplay is satisfying and rewarding, the varied missions in the game keep you coming back for more outside of the main story, and there’s even an improved online mode this time around.
The online in the first Red Dead Redemption is a fun extra to the game, but it was never really a focus. That all changed when it turned out that GTA Online was considerable one of the biggest draws to GTA V and it seems that Red Dead Redemption 2 is doing the same thing. Basically, by taking the GTA Online formula and placing it into the Red Dead Redemption 2 setting, that’s exactly what you’ve got with Red Dead Redemption Online and it’s pretty much the ideal piece of content once you’ve completed the main game. There’s more than enough for you to do with friends and is a great excuse to pick the game up for.
Visually, Red Dead Redemption 2 may not be the best-looking game on either platform, but it does come very damn close. All of the characters in the game are uniquely designed with distinct looks to them, many of the locations that you get to explore is a fascinating part of the game to explore, and the overall game as a whole just looks incredible. There might be a few issues here and there, but in a game of this size it’s to be expected to some degree.
Overall, Red Dead Redemption 2 is pretty much the sequel that we’ve all been waiting for. The developers went and took everything they learned from the first game and everything that worked with GTA V and placed it all into Red Dead Redemption 2. For anyone that didn’t enjoy the first game, this isn’t going to change your mind, but if you’re on the lookout for a replacement to GTA V or simply loved the first Red Dead Redemption, this sequel is pretty much going to give you everything you were looking for, and more!
