/VERDICT
Despite a few of
Rockstar’s bad
habits enduring,
there’s no denying
the stunning
open world
and fantastic
storytelling
of Red Dead
Redemption2.OVERALL SCORE
92 %%
You find yourself wanting to do these missions, not
because of the reward that’s offered, but because it means
you get to find out more about these characters. It makes
you keen to savour those quieter moments, not least
because the gang is living on borrowed time.
What’s truly remarkable, however, is that RDR2 applies
this eye for detail to virtually every activity in the game,
lending every side mission, bounty hunt or minor location a
unique bit of writing or structure. Helping a woman whose
horse has bolted might lead you onto some interesting titbit
about a local town that will prove fruitful farther down the
line, while exploring a burned-out village might reward you
with a treasure map that begins a whole new quest. Even
tiny cabins in the far reaches of the game world will house a
unique scene or secret. It could be a small stash of money, or
the skeletal remnants of a suicide cult.
Like The Witcher 3, RDR2 makes engaging with it in every
moment feel worthwhile, and that logic also applies to the
mechanics. Each action has a powerful sense of tactility. If you
go shopping for supplies, you buy items by physically picking
them up off the shelf. If you decide to hunt for bounty, you’ll
tear the ‘wanted’ poster off the wall and open it up in your
hands for information on the bounty’s name and location.
This commitment to detail renders a lot of the issues
with previous Rockstar Games moot. However, that isn’t
the same as confronting those problems directly, and
some of them are still present. Combat, for example, has
changed little in the nine-year gap between the two games.
It still uses a combination of cover-shooting and cinematic
‘dead-eye’ slow motion, complete with Rockstar’s unique
ragdoll physics engine, which sees characters stumbling
and tumbling as they’re shot down. It’s still entertaining but,
aside from some new weapons and the ability to play in first
person, it hasn’t evolved much.
The same goes for the mission structures, which still want
to choreograph your movements as intensely as those of its
NPCs. Admittedly, Rockstar squeezes an impressive amount
of variety from its old West setting, with missions ranging
from bank and train robberies to helping a man escape a
giant alligator in the swamps. Nonetheless, it’s a shame that
missions don’t give you more flexibility in terms of how you
approach them, letting systems breathe instead of dictating
exactly what you’ll be doing at each moment.
Lastly, the online component, which lets you create your
own character and explore Red Dead’s world with other
players (either in a posse or hunting them down for bounty
rewards), is hamstrung by a punitive levelling system that
requires an obscene amount of grind to get anywhere.
It’s a shame, because the potential for fun multiplayer
shenanigans is significant, and the levelling system gates
off much of the fun.
Nonetheless, the single-player game alone offers
more than enough fascinating storytelling and compelling
exploration to mark RDR2 out as a classic. The PC version
is also the definitive version, with mouse-look providing
greater control in combat, and there’s a truly dazzling array
of graphics options that lets you tailor your experience
precisely to the capability of your PC. If you own a rig that
can handle it, then RDR2 on maximum settings is one of the
best-looking games currently available. If you don’t, you’ll
simply have to settle for one of the most beautifully crafted
open-world games ever committed to code.
RICK LANE