RedDeadRedemption 2 / £ 54.99 inc VAT
DEVELOPERRockstarGames/PUBLISHERRockstarGamesR
ockstar Games is a master of world design, but as
game designers the studio has relied on old tricks
for a long time. Grand Theft Auto V brought players
an incredibly detailed city to explore, but struggled to give
them a reason to explore it. The main story led players by the
nose through its tightly scripted missions, while the game’s
wide range of side activities were ultimately arbitrary. The
crucial difference with Red Dead Redemption 2 (RDR2) is that
Rockstar makes that attention to detail the point.
The studio’s latest game isn’t just a visual triumph, but a
tactile and narrative one as well. Every action, side mission
and tiny cabin in the woods legitimises its place in the game
world through Rockstar’s sheer commitment to craft, and
a design ethos that means every activity in the game is
compelling for its own sake.
This is particularly apparent in the storytelling. Rockstar
has always held strong cinematic aspirations, but this is its
first offering where the writing and, crucially, the characters
match the ambition shown in the environments. Red Dead
2 is actually a prequel to the original. Set in 1899, it sees you
assume the role of Arthur Morgan, a member of the gang of
outlaws John Marston is dispatched to eliminate 13 years later.
You might think knowing the rough ending of the story
would render it rather moot. However, RDR2 plays with this
fatalism superbly. From the game’s chilly opening in the high
mountains of the Grizzlies, your gang is locked in a battle for
survival. In those early moments the weather is their enemy,
but as the game progresses, society and the march of time
arise as the gang’s true adversaries.Your gang acts as the game’s narrative crux, a device
that previous Rockstar Games have sorely lacked. Almost
every mission involves a member of the gang, whether
it’s robbing a train or helping them to track down another,
missing gang member.
This breeds an intimate familiarity with almost all of the
20-odd gang members, from its charismatic leader Dutch
to a younger (but no less slippery) John Marston, to lesser
members, such as the fearsome Sadie Adler, whose cabin
you find at the start of the game, and the young Kieran,
a former member of a rival gang who earns his place by
saving Morgan’s life.
The script also does a lot of passive work, offering up
seemingly endless new dialogue or entire scenes almost
every time you return to camp – regardless of whether
you’re on a mission or not. After a while, it begins to
introduce optional story missions, such as going fishing
with Kieran, or robbing a house with Sadie.GAMES / REVIEWS
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+^ Astonishing
visuals
+^ Great story
+^ Peerless open-
world design
DEAD
-^ Familiar combat
-^ Restrictive mission design
-^ Grindy online
component