Red Dead Redemption 2, probably one of the best games of the decade

After my Final exams, I had a lot of free time, so decided to spend the vacation gaming. I decided to play Red Dead Redemption 2. Now, I had no idea what this game was all about, other than the fact that it was an open world game set in the Wild West. I just heard that this game was a masterpiece, and saw some ratings. So I decided to try it out myself, without any sort of clue whatsoever, for an absolute raw experience. And guess what? I was absolutely blown away by it. In today’s article, I will review Red Dead Redemption 2, and discuss why I loved this game so much.

Now, I expected this game to be something like Grand Theft Auto, considering it has come from the very same developers. But to be honest, it’s very different. Even after being a slow paced game, you won’t get bored at all. The developers put unbelievable attention to details. The gore is really great. The game does an amazing job of being fresh, and interesting, even after hundreds of hours in it. The game has amazing visuals, and I can easily say it’s photorealistic. Even if you don’t like slow paced games, you should try it. I can easily guarantee you, you won’t get bored playing this.

The story will touch you

The game starts with the gang escaping after a robbery gone wrong. Now, I won’t tell you anything other than this, because I want you to have an entirely fresh experience. Just one thing, don’t get frustrated by the first chapter. Play the first chapter patiently, and the world will suddenly open up to you from the 2^nd one. And yeah, watch the cutscenes.

You’ll easily get attached to the characters

Every single one of Red Dead Redemption 2’s character is different. The protagonist, Arthur Morgan, whose parents died when he was young, and grew up with the gang after that. There’s Dutch, who is the leader of the gang, and is like a father to Arthur. Then you have Hosea, who is like the 2^nd in command, and an intelligent man. There’s Micah, who is like a maniac. In short, each character can be distinguished from another.

The movement feels good, and has a little bit of depth to it

This is one of the first games that has such a movement system. While walking, if you press shift, your movement speed increases. If you press ctrl, it decreases. If you want to sprint, you have to hold shift. This effect is especially noticeable while you’re on a horse.

You will end up spending a lot of time exploring, even after you originally plan to rush the story

When I played the game myself, I decided to just rush the story. But guess what? I didn’t make much progress in the story as I expected. Why? I spent time exploring. The game actually forces you to explore the world at an extent. The first chapter is short, and really linear. But after that, the world really opens up to you. The mission design is one of the elements that inspire you to explore the world. After the missions in the 2^nd chapter, Arthur doesn’t return to your camp with others. The others leave him there to do some certain work, or he just refuses to. As a result, you have to return to the camp yourself. The world is so detailed, and full of so many surprises, that you actually end up exploring it, and just say, “Wow”.

I cannot, but talk about the level of detail this game possesses.

I’ve played a lot of games in my life, and among those, the games that make it to my most favorites list, have one thing in common. That is, all of them have a lot of details. The same goes for Red Dead Redemption 2. You might be walking down the road, and someone might be calling for help because he got bitten by a snake. If you decide to go and help him, he might offer you a free weapon if you bump into him in town. You’re walking through the town, and someone might recall the bar fight that Arthur broke out last night. A man might ask you for a ride, and proceed to steal your horse afterwards. And yeah, you can even greet or antagonize people. Greeting people gradually raises your reputation, and antagonizing decreases it, and it can even break out fights.

Like anything else made by man, Red Dead Redemption 2 isn’t perfect, and has its issues.

The only major issue with this game, is the combat system. The aiming isn’t really great. When auto aim is turned on by default, you know there’s an issue. A lot of the time, I’ve aimed at random civilians while trying to aim at bad guys. The covering system isn’t the best out there. Another fact is, the game is designed with controllers in mind. I’ve played it both on my PS4, and on my PC. So I could easily tell when I tried playing it with a keyboard and mouse. Besides this, the optimization isn’t the best on PC. But it’s a slow paced game. I’m satisfied with 25 or so FPS on my PC with high-ultra settings.

Final Verdict

In my opinion, Red Dead Redemption 2 is probably one of the best games released this decade. Just go play it. This game’s a masterpiece. No matter if you like slow paced games or not, you’ll love this one because of the way the game is presented to you. And yeah, if you ever think that the single player isn’t enough, you still have the Red Dead Online. In short, this is a must play title, and I highly recommend you to try it.