Red Dead Redemption 2 review

Red Dead Redemption 2 is the best game I have played in a very long time. The expansiveness of the world and all the missions to complete gives the game hours upon hours of fulfilling and rewarding gameplay.

           The game opens by establishing what role your character, Arthur Morgan, plays in his gang.  Morgan is an outlaw that lives by the code of his gang: family above all. To begin, the gang is already on the run after an event occuring in a town called Blackwater goes badly. The leader, and Arthur’s adopted father, Dutch, leads some of the men to rob a train to start collecting funds for the camp. From there, rivalries explode into violence and death, money is earned, trust is lost and so much more.

           The game is beautiful, with so much scenery and an ever extensive map for exploring. The different terrains range from the snowy mountains to swamps to the desert highlands. Along the way to destinations, many NPCs, or Non-Playable Characters, have random interactions that will impact your “moral compass,” having lasting consequences or rewards. Instead of removing you from your travels to start a cutscene, the NPCs will engage in quick dialogue that you can respond to on horseback, which is your main means of transportation.

These dialogues can range from a robbery that you can intervene in, to sucking snake venom out of a poor traveler’s leg. This plays into the lasting consequences and rewards for each event. When stepping into the robbery, the members of the gang associated with the robbery will then target you if one of them escapes alive. Once saved, the traveler will appear in town outside a gun store and will treat you to something for free. Along with that, if the weapons you bring are stored on your horse and you go into a mission, then for the duration of that mission you will only have the weapons on your person unless you return to retrieve those weapons.

           The game is a complete joy to play; it is the true definition of a role-playing game. Your hygiene does become worse over time, your hair and beard will grow, your guns will rust and start to break, your relationships with people in your camp can shift and become hostile. No one can tell you how to live: you can murder to your hearts contempt or be a saint that helps people as much as possible.

           My only concern is minor glitches that will make characters glitch through others and the some loading times can be hard to deal with. These things are to be expected with such a huge game with infinite ways to play.

Overall, the game is phenomenal and multiplayer is to be added, coming on November 30th to those that did not purchase on the first day or preorder. Multiplayer will involve your own custom character and the open word to explore with friends, along with player versus player death-match games. This game is continuing to get better within the month of its launching, so you should pick the game up and play it for yourself. Put yourself in the rag-tag boots of  Morgan and carve your own destiny.