Red Dead Redemption 2 - reviews, opinions, discussions

[Cahir]

I've been thinking to write how I feel about Red Dead Redemption 2 for quite some time, and finally found the time and inspiration to do it.

Well... for starters... RDR2 is the best game I have ever played. Here you are, I've said it! Now, let me try to explain what exactly is RDR2 (for those who don't know) and how I feel the game is truly a wonder.

Important: I've played this game on PS4 Pro and I heard that PC port is... not the best to say the least. I cannot verify it myself, but because of those opinions, I cannot with clear conscience recommend playing it on PC. On PS4 Pro, it looked gorgeous and played gorgeous.

Red Dead Redemption 2 is an action-adventure game developed and published by Rockstar Games. The game is the third entry in the Red Dead series and is a prequel to the 2010 game Red Dead Redemption. The story is set in 1899 and follows the exploits of outlaw Arthur Morgan, a member of the Van der Linde gang, in a fictionalized representation of the Western, Midwestern, and Southern United States. It's basically a classical open world western game.

There are so many things that I like on this game, that I don't even know where to begin. But let me start to list the things that impressed me the most:

• The world and travelling - the world you can visit is just enormous! There are mountains, lakes, ponds, forests, prairie, desert, rivers, swamps, villages, towns, even a big city... you just name it! You can explore it by foot or by horse (I recommend the later). There is a limited fast travel function, but it requires upgrading your gang's camp. After the upgrade, you can fast travel to larger settlements you already visited. You can also travel by train or wagon, but this is also possible mainly in larger settlements. All this means that you cannot fast travel freely to any location on the map Now, I realize that this can be a nuisance... but I actually loved it. It encourages exploring and admiring the world, visiting hidden locations, experiencing random encounters. There are so many interesting places, hidden treasures, easter eggs, collectibles, that it's mind-blowing. The only other game I felt there is so much stuff to find was the Witcher 3.
• Visuals - to be honest, I believe this is the best looking game I have ever played (with Ghost of Tsushima being a close second). Everything is so realistic, you can walk through the snow almost feeling you slog through it in reality, you can climb up the mountain, almost feeling the exhaustion, as you would do it in person. You can wander through the forest and just stare how the animals running by. I have never felt the world being so much alive in a computer game. And the fauna... there are literally hundreds of types of animals in the game - herbivores, carnivores, predators, birds, fishes, you name it. And all look and behave so damn realistic, that I couldn't believe it's possible in a computer game. Just to make you realize how realistic this world is, just watch this video on YT.

• Story and characters - the story starts slow and runs slow in the first part of the game, which is one of the main complaints of RDR2. On the other hand, it allows you to sink in the world slowly, embracing it in your own pace. After finishing the Prologue, you can go anywhere, you don't need to rush. There was no feel of pressure between the main events (well, there were parts that were very intense and dramatic, but for the most of the game, there were no sense of rush). The story is one of the best I have ever seen in a computer game... I'm not ready to say, it is the best, but I can safely say it's in the top 3 for me. As for characters... well, here I can safely say, the members of Van der Linde gang are the best developed characters I have seen in any computer game. Each gang member is so unique, with all their strengths, weaknesses, problems, dramas. I loved some of them, truly hated others. None of them inspired no emotion in me. They felt like a family, and you could feel how the things change in the gang along the way with them.
• Realism - here I can safely bet, and it's not just subjective opinion. It is the most realistic game that has ever made! Which... can be a serious issue for some players. Each action is show on the screen, which can feel repetitive if you do it often (like skinning the animals). Personally, I love it. It allowed me to fully immerse in the world, like I would be Arthur Morgan and did all those things. Every character in the game has his/her own agenda and routine, they are not just standing by and chatting, they are performing daily routine tasks, visiting friends, running errands, they live their lives. Again to make you realize, how insane this is, check out this video:

There is basically one thing I didn't like in RDR2, which is entirely optional activity. There are few missions that require to collect different objects or mark different places across the entire map. You need to travel a lot and some of those places or objects are not easy to find. It can be tedious at times, especially for completionists.

There are so many little things I love in this game, that I could probably write an essay about. I think I will write about them from time to time later.

I'm super interested if any of you have played the game and how do you feel about it. I must admit I was not a fan of Rockstar games, I don't like their GTA series that much (I only loved the first games with top-down view), but I always liked the old western setting and always wanted to play RDR(2). I don't regret a second!

 

[Cahir]

One more point I forgot to mention. Some players may be hesitant to play RDR2 because the protagonist is an outlaw, a member of a gang of criminals. So he's probably evil, and it's hard to play him as a good guy. Worry not, you can play Arthur Morgan as you want, you can be an evil bastard, or you can be some sort of Robin Hood. There are some missions, when Arthur needs to show his bad side, but even then you have the possibility to restrain yourself and get what you need without being too violent. And even being a "bad guy" Arthur is a fantastic character, who is hard not to be liked.

 

[Antimatter]

Thank you for your review! I tried playing RDR2 on PC a few years ago and completely didn't like it:

- Arthur moves so SLOWLY in many places deliberately; e.g. looting is very slow, you can't use your mount in the camp
- the controls are very inconvenient on PC;
- you start playing Arthur as a bad guy, with not many options to even behave neutrally; I played until I was given a quest to get money from a person who declined to pay; Arthur could only behave very brusquely there
- the side activities such as hunting are very slow and weren't fun - I tried to hunt rabbits/deer for hours and didn't get much money from selling their hides and meat; and burglary and other hostile activities weren't something I could get into with my full heart

 

[Cahir]

Thank you for your review! I tried playing RDR2 on PC a few years ago and completely didn't like it:

- the side activities such as hunting are very slow and weren't fun - I tried to hunt rabbits/deer for hours and didn't get much money from selling their hides and meat; and burglary and other hostile activities weren't something I could get into with my full heart

I've watched a couple of playthroughs on PC version, from streamers that I know have powerful rigs, and I was very surprised that the game looked worse than I remembered it playing PS4 Pro. Noticed a significant number of funny bugs too, which I haven't really encounter on console version.

As for controls, I can see how it can be bad, if they just took it 1:1 from console version. It was not that easy to learn it even on console, so I imagine it could be even harder on PC.

- Arthur moves so SLOWLY in many places deliberately; e.g. looting is very slow, you can't use your mount in the camp

For someone who likes the game to be fast and always full of action, this can be a problem indeed. Arthur is indeed not a paragon of grace and isn't particularly fast either. He also barely swims, too. As for not able to ride a mount in camps, I haven't had an issue with it, since camps are not big, so you can navigate through it quickly. As for the looting mechanics, I personally liked it and quickly get used to it. It felt natural to me that Arthur needs to actually take make an effort to skin an animal.

- you start playing Arthur as a bad guy, with not many options to even behave neutrally; I played until I was given a quest to get money from a person who declined to pay; Arthur could only behave very brusquely there

Yeah, this was a mission I wrote about earlier. You need to collect money from people who don't want to pay. I was able to just threaten most of them verbally and got what I want. But... this may sound a bit controversial, but I don't find playing Arthur that much different from playing Geralt (in the Witcher series) or V (in Cyberpunk 2077). Geralt is not the nicest guy in the world, and can be also rough at times, and also V is not exactly a paragon of virtue too. True, I don't remember a situation when I was forced to do something that can be seen as a foul play, but on the other hand, even if I tried to choose the good options, I haven't felt like playing LG or even NG character. I don't want to spoil, but Arthur can undergo a significant character change during the course of the game, depending on your choices and how you play the game.

- the side activities such as hunting are very slow and weren't fun - I tried to hunt rabbits/deer for hours and didn't get much money from selling their hides and meat; and burglary and other hostile activities weren't something I could get into with my full heart

This slow pace is exactly what I love in this game, and I'm perfectly aware this may be a showstopper for some. I spent hours just to roam the country, hunting, fishing, looking under every rock. The exploration part in this game is epic to me. I too struggled with earning good money from hunting until I realized that each animal in the game has the quality level (represented by stars) and started to hunt only animals with the best quality. This helped to repair my budget quite fast. I also caught and sold a wild horses when I had a chance, which brought me a good money too (there is a unique white mustang that you can catch, but I kept it for almost the entire game as my beloved horse). The good way to earn money, albeit time-consuming, is to hunt for treasures. You can find various treasure maps throughout the game which leads you to sizeable treasures. One or two such findings, and you can earn enough money to be secured almost for the rest of the game. And finding those treasures solely looking at the maps and not checking online is a massive fun. As for more questionable activities, it's easy to avoid robbing wagons or trains, killing innocents, robbing banks and so on. I did no such thing (unless it was necessary for the story) and always kept Arthur on High Honour.