After eight long years Red Dead Redemption 2 is finally here and in many ways it’s a better game than the original, and in others, it’s not worse. Just different.
Red Dead Redemption 2
Developer: Rockstar Games
Price: $60
Platform: PS4 and Xbox One
MonsterVine was supplied with a PS4 code for review
Taking place twelve years before the previous game, Red Dead Redemption 2 puts you in the boots of Arthur Morgan, a member of the Van der Linde gang, which is the very group you hunted down as John Marston in Red Dead Redemption. Taking place immediately after the infamously referenced Blackwater Massacre from the first game, you find yourself on the run from the law as you and your gang try to simply survive. Arthur himself is probably one of Rockstar’s most well-written protagonists ever, due in part to the phenomenal voice acting from Roger Clark. A small, easily missed detail that adds volumes to his character is the journal he keeps. On the exterior, Arthur gives the airs of a boneheaded thug, but his journal paints him as something more nuanced. Here you’ll see him fill out pages with various drawings and journal entries as he writes down his thoughts on events as the game progresses. Here you see a man struggling to be better while fighting with the reality of being a pretty bad person who murders and steals in the company of other outlaws.
A core part of the story is getting to see Dutch turn from this charismatic father figure into the paranoid broken man we hunt down in the first game, and it’s mostly him who’s at the center of this story. Every member of the camp is doing something for Dutch because they believe in him and his grandiose plans, and it’s the performances especially help sell these characters and their motivations. Mentioning anything else will venture into spoiler territory, but the cast of characters you meet and the story that unfolds is easily one of the most genuinely human and engaging games Rockstar has made. There’s a fishing mission early in the game that’s easily one of my favorite moments of the year because of how wholesome and genuine it is. Taking the time to interact with the members of your gang fleshes them out in some really surprising ways and, being a prequel, it’s interesting to see how events unfold for characters who appear in the first game, but especially for the ones who don’t.
This is a game that doesn’t ask for your patience: it demands it. Whereas Red Dead Redemption leaned more towards the action-packed revenge westerns, this game is more in line with the more methodical slow burners. Everything about it, from how the story unfolds to how you play the game, is slow, and it’s a slowness you’ll appreciate if you let yourself get immersed in it. I was told by a friend that he doesn’t think this is a fun game, and he’s right. You’re not here having fun western adventures with your goofy buddies. Your gang, effectively the only family you have, is on the run, starving, and scared for their lives and the game never fails to remind you of it. There are moments of fun to be had with Arthur, such as a particularly silly moment where you have to recover regular animals that are disguised as exotic creatures for a showman, but for the most part this isn’t a happy game.
Red Dead Redemption 2 is easily one of the densest games I’ve ever played. I mean that in both the content that’s there to be played and the ridiculously stupid amount of detail Rockstar crammed into this game. What Rockstar have created here can only be explained with dark magic. I’ve dumped hours upon hours into this game and I’m still in awe of how absolutely gorgeous everything looks on these current gen consoles. Not only are the character models some of the most detailed you’ll ever see on a console, but it’s the world itself that impresses constantly. From the mountains that evoke a very clear Hateful Eight vibe to the swamps crawling with gators, there’s always something new to notice; some little detail you missed, whether it’s the way the way a particular piece of vegetation moves when you walk through it, or the way the area is lit. Strolling through the city of Saint Denis at night still leaves me questioning how they were able to light this world so beautifully.
This level of detail extends to the game mechanics as well. Arthur has to take care of himself, which means keeping him well fed, showering to stay clean, you need to brush your horse, and his guns even get dirty which means you need oil to clean them. Hell, Arthur’s hair grows which means you need to get haircuts and shaves. The shaving menu is insane with how detailed you can get in not only which parts of his beard to cut off, but the length as well. I could probably spend a good chunk of this review just listing off all the inane little details that are part of this game, and while I know I just called them stupid, they’re anything but. It’s a stupid amount of detail for a developer to put into their game, like obsessively stupid, but it all adds to the atmosphere and genuinely immerses you into the world in a way most games don’t. There’s a “greet/antagonize” feature where you can talk to literally any NPC and have a mini-conversation with them. Do you realize how stupid it is that I can make my Arthur go around town saying “hey there partner” to every townsperson? And that the tone of the conversation changes depending on whether I’m hitting “greet” or “antagonize” as I’m talking to a person? That’s a lot of work that went into what’s inherently a kind of silly level of detail for a game and I love that Rockstar went to that level. Going into a shop no longer requires the opening of a menu. There’s still a menu mind you, but it’s in the form of a magazine you can flip through or you can just walk up to the items on the shelf and grab them yourself.
I’m constantly finding stuff that makes me go “This is a stupidly detailed thing, they probably spent thousands figuring this out” and the game is better for it. I remember losing my mind in Grand Theft Auto V when I noticed the flip-flops actually animated; that’s the feeling Red Dead Redemption 2 gives off constantly. Everything Arthur interacts with is beautifully animated from the way certain guns have to actually be cocked before they’re fired again, to how he opens a drawer or skins an animal. Even NPCs and wildlife are animated to a degree that just boggles the mind of the amount of work it took to get all of this to look as amazing as it does. What’s probably one of the best parts of all this is that you don’t actually have to interact with any of these elements. You’re not gimping yourself by not cleaning your gun, if you don’t care about people calling you smelly you don’t need to wash or shave, and you can unlock an option to auto supply the camp so you don’t actually have to go hunt for the food yourself. Nothing here is actually required, but an ocean of detail is there for you to dive into if you so please.
As densely detailed as the game is, there’s a lot to actually do out there in the open world. Each member of your gang will have missions for you to undertake, engaging ones that give insight into who they are, and really allows you to get to know each member at your own pace. There are your usual side-missions that you can find scattered around, treasure maps to acquire, bounties that provide a lot more dialogue than you’d expect instead of just silent NPCs to hunt, gambling minigames, doable chores for the camp,trains you can rob as well as literally any NPC walking around, or you could even stumble upon a morbid murder scene that kickstarts the mystery of a serial killer. Besides all that, you can go off hunting a ridiculous variety of animals and sell the meat or pelts off to a tanner, or try your luck hunting legendary animals. And by the way, I’d like to stress how many different animals there are in this game. I think I’ve seen maybe a half dozen different deer types, there’s a huge variety of horses, and I think I’ve seen dozens of different fish. I’m constantly finding new animals in this game and it’s almost exhausting. I recently swam to an island where I found crabs and iguanas I could actually kill for parts. I figured an animal that small probably wouldn’t reward me with anything, but as this game goes to show, no detail is too small.
The Final Word
Red Dead Redemption 2 is a masterclass in game design. Rockstar have managed to craft one of the most lived in worlds I’ve ever had the pleasure to explore in a game where you’re always finding something new and interesting just over the next hill.
– MonsterVine Review Score: 5 out of 5 – Excellent
