![]() We know roughly how things are going to turn out for the gang, who’s definitely going to survive beyond the ending, and, by process of elimination, who probably isn’t. This also gives the game more opportunity to flesh those characters out, investing you in their personalities, their worries and their hopes.īefore playing, I was unsure about RDR2 being a prequel. One might involve robbing a bank with Bill Williamson, while another might see you hunt for a legendary bear with Hosea, the gang’s deputy leader under Dutch. Rather than taking missions from a long string of random characters as in GTA, here nearly all story missions revolve around one or several of your gang members. The other main function of the gang is to lend story missions more context. Even the more typically “Rockstar” character, Micah, the gang’s loose cannon, has a logic to his anarchic, misanthropic worldview that makes him relatable if not necessarily likeable. Although the world of RDR 2 isn’t short of strange individuals ranging from the zany to the depraved, for the gang Dan Houser & co have scaled back their tendency toward grotesque caricature, creating a group of characters who talk and act like believable, empathetic humans, which is particularly impressive considering they are unapologetic thieves and murderers.Īfter Arthur, Dutch is undoubtedly the star, a charismatic leader who is impossible not to like, even long after it’s become clear his approach to leading the gang is only making their situation worse. It gives you characters who you actually care about, a first for me in a Rockstar game. The gang performs two vital jobs in Red Dead Redemption 2. The gang is both the subject and the object of Red Dead Redemption 2’s story, charting its travels around the game’s condensed facsimile of the US, evading the Pinkerton National Detective Agency after a bank heist gone wrong. And this is in a game crammed with first-rate voice-acting. Nonetheless, it is anchored by a spellbinding performance by voice actor Roger Clark. Morgan feels like more of an archetype than Marston, although this is partly because the sheer scope of the game demands a lot of flexibility in his character. Instead, we assume the role of Arthur Morgan, a bigger, burlier anti-hero with a gruff southern drawl, a sly wit, and a hint of poet in his soul that belies his scruffy appearance and self-professed lack of education. We don’t play Marston here, although he does feature prominently in the story. Set in 1899, its story revolves around the trials and tribulations of the Van Der Linde gang, the last few members of which John Marston is dispatched to eliminate 13 years later. No doubt you already know this, but Red Dead Redemption 2 is a prequel to the first game. Red Dead Redemption 2’s opening chapter is quintessentially Rockstar, an absurdly detailed, highly cinematic, and oppressively choreographed trek through a frozen mountain wilderness. ![]() It’s a distraction technique that reminds me of what Ubisoft did with Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, although Rockstar’s approach to making an excellent game without fundamentally overhauling its design process goes way beyond adding pirate ships. Rather then funnelling everything toward some central gimmick, Red Dead Redemption 2 lends everything you do in the game an inherent sense of value regardless of how it ties into the core experience. ![]() It has effectively rendered my long-running complaints null and void through its sheer commitment to detail and craft. ![]() But I have completely fallen in love with it anyway. Red Dead Redemption 2 doesn’t fix these problems. But it all felt oddly purposeless, with no central mechanic to bind it all together. Outside of the story, the game simulated a whole bunch of other activities from investing in the stock market to practising Yoga. Its main story, while very well crafted, often left me chafing for a more dynamic experience that let you approach missions in your own way rather than precisely how Rockstar wanted you to. With Grand Theft Auto V, for example, I often found myself asking what the point of a lot of its systems and ideas were. I’ve always been impressed by the scope and technical ambition of Rockstar’s world design, but I’ve generally been left nonplussed by its approach to game design. ![]()
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