Andy K: No videogame world has beguiled
me quite as powerfully as Red Dead’s vast,
atmospheric slice of the American West.
Rockstar’s Western epic is a game I
frequently revisit just to do nothing: riding
aimlessly around the wilderness, stopping
to hunt, chat to fellow travellers, or poke
around in old cabins. It’s a game I like living
in too. Moseying into Valentine to knock
back a whisky at the saloon, grabbing a
bath or a haircut, trying on some new
clothes in the general store, then turning in
for the night at the hotel. It’s the best
cowboy simulator ever made. I love the
story (I’ve finished it twice), but just
hanging out in that world is enough.RED DEAD
REDEMPTION 2
RELEASED 2019 | LAST POSITION 35
The Top 100
FE ATURE
6
DEATH
STRANDING
RELEASED 2020 | LAST POSITION NewJames: It may feel like
some old-timey Metal
Gear Solid 2 nonsense at
the start, but it rapidly
evolves into an open-
world hiking simulation
about building an
infrastructure co-op
with strangers. I’ve
given dozens of hours
over to the cause, hauling
materials to maintain our
highways, dozens more to
crawling up treacherous
mountain peaks through
blinding blizzards to
create an efficient
zipline network. All of
it, shared with other
people in their own game
worlds for no tangible
videogame reward other
than knowing I wasn’t
the only one to benefit
from the hard work. In acapitalist hellworld,
it gave me hope, or
at least a potent
homebrewed chemical
signal for coping.
Wes: *Smashes Like
button 137 times*
Rich: There’s simply
nothing like Death
Stranding, particularly
in the context of the
pandemic and how eerily
its concept maps onto
that. For all Kojima’s
excesses, and some
frankly honking
cutscenes, the experience
of traversing this world is
unforgettable. You
genuinely feel part of
something bigger. I can’t
get this wonderful game
out of my head, parts of it
will stick with you like
nothing else.