Red Dead Redemption 2: Best Game of 2018
In 2010, Rockstar Games released one of the greatest games in history, Red Dead Redemption.
It pretty much set the expectations of what a video game based in the wild west would be like to the highest and broke those expectations with an uppercut through the roof, scaring all the other video game developers out of ever trying their hand in the old west genre.
It told the beautifully painful story of John Marston, a former outlaw turned bounty hunter, as he hunted down his old gang to save his family from the Feds. The gameplay mechanics of Red Dead Redemption, such as the weapon wheel and Dead Eye, have since inspired a great many games that came after. But what did that leave us after we beat the game? Only 8 years of anticipation and conspiracies., Iin 2016, we finally got confirmation that Red Dead Redemption 2 was coming. Having been delayed twice, the game finally released (for PS4 and Xbox One) on October 26, 2018.
Red Dead Redemption requires 106GB of hard drive space available to install. After installation, it gives back 50GB of space back to you, so it only takes up 56GB to keep it inside your system. Delete it and you need 106GB to reinstall it. Capiche? If that’s not enough to make you punch yourself in the gut, the game comes with TWO discs. Yeah, that two disc thing hasn’t happened since “Metal Gear Solid: Twin Snakes” on the Gamecube. Anyway, the first disc is the data disc that has the first half of the game’s data and the second one is the play disc. It has the second half and it's the disc you will use to play the game. What else…?? Oh yeah, the installation is two to three hours long and takes even longer if you aren’t quick enough to change the discs as soon as the first half of the installation is done.
The story of the game is 60 hours long and I’ve only been playing for 17 hours. Yes, I’ve destroyed my social life, mental health, vitamin intake, kidneys, and mother’s patience in the first 8 hours. What is real life? Is it a legendary animal? ...Girlfriend, you say? Is that an expensive weapon? Anyway, the story is a prequel to the first Red Dead Redemption and the gist of it is pretty simple.
Set in the 1890’s, the beginning of the end of the Wild West. You are Arthur Morgan, a member of the Van Der Linde gang led by Dutch Van Der Linde (a major antagonist in the last game) and accompanied by not only the guys you were supposed to kill in the last game… but also John Marston. A robbery went bad in a town called Blackwater and now the government is hunting your gang down. The main objective of the story is to go on the lam and survive off the land. The story so far is quite amazing. It not only engages the player in dialogue, it also makes you want to keep going. Keep seeing how it all plays out in the end. The first chapter, in my opinion, was a little stretched. While it did set up some good introductions to characters, the chapter mainly acted as a tutorial disguised as part of the story when you could have essentially taken that part out all together or made it as an option for players who want a tutorial and as an option to skip for players who don’t… either way, it wouldn’t change the story that much as the beginning of chapter two likes to reinstate the issues in chapter 1 enough that anyone who was just finally starting to pay attention would be able to understand. Either way, it is quite amazing to see how the gang members develop into the villains you kill in the first game. You will play as Arthur Morgan for the first 6 chapters and play as John Marston for the epilogue, setting up the start of the first Red Dead Redemption.
Red Dead Redemption 2 is one of those games that truly lives up to its predecessor and then some. The gameplay is so vastly improved and dynamic from the first game;, it’s like video games can hit puberty. The mini map design, dead eye and weapon wheel mechanics make a return, but better. The mini map is now interchangeable to a degree that it's more convenient than the tediousness of just pausing the game to open the map. The Dead Eye mechanic no longer relies on a V.A.T.S-like protocol of waiting for you to confirm where you want to shoot, it will automatically mark a spot, allowing you to be quick when using Dead Eye and conserving Dead Eye power. This more reliable Dead Eye also has a drawback in that constantly turning on Dead Eye means accidentally shooting where you don’t want to, making you waste needless Dead Eye power. I like this as it not only makes players treat Dead Eye as a valuable resource instead of just an easy way to play, it also forces the player to get better at hand eye coordination so they won’t rely on Dead Eye. The weapon wheel is pretty much the same as always, with a few changes. Because Red Dead Redemption 2’s game engine is meant to be realistic as possible, the weapon wheel has been limited to only three firearms (or two firearms and one bow) because nobody can realistically pull 30 different types of guns from an invisible bag in their pants (looking at you, Grand Theft Auto V). Switching weapons ingame is also quite cinematic. Say you’re in a gun-fight and you want to switch from your carbine to your revolver. Arthur won’t just sling his carbine over his back or make it disappear from reality. He’ll hold the carbine by the barrel with his left hand and use his right hand to shoot the revolver. This realism of how guns are held was no doubt inspired by Max Payne 3, especially when you get the option to dual wield two revolvers or pistols. One excessively strange feature is the Eagle Eye ability. This is essentially a carbon copy of the Eagle Vision from Assassin’s Creed, most notably the version from Revelations. Eagle Eye essentially slows down time when you walk or crouch (like Dead Eye, but without being able to shoot a gun) and tracks animals you hunt by highlighting the trail they took. Red Dead Redemption 2 is teeming with several things to in your free time when you feel like exploring the world. You can shave your beard, get a haircut, get a bath, get a girl to give YOU a bath, play five finger fillet, order food, order drinks, cook food, go hunting, murder people, rob people, play poker, buy guns, buy clothes, get drunk, rob houses, rob everything, kill everything and most importantly… all you had to do was follow the train, CJ!. No really, Chapter 3 has a mission where you literally follow a train. It nearly broke my thumb.
I absolutely enjoy the fact that there is more customization in this game than the first one, as the first one only had full outfits to choose from and this one allows you to mix and match to create custom outfits while also forcing you to dress according to the weather. Yes, like Breath Of The Wild, you have to dress according to the game’s climate (hot, cold and average). The option to wield a bow is awesome, but I wish there was more than one. As an archer myself, I do pride myself on knowing what kind of wood my bow has and if its a recurve or longbow.
Unlike the first game, Red Dead Redemption 2 focuses on realism, so that means survival needs and hair upkeep. Eating or neglecting to eat will affect Arthur’s cores (Cores are Health, Stamina and Dead Eye). Eating will increase health, but bring down stamina, with neglecting to eat doing vice versa and causing Arthur’s weight to change. Yes, you can be a fat outlaw. Sleeping is essential for keeping your cores recharging at normal speed. The same can be said for consumables, although it does annoy me that Arthur takes one puff of a cigarette or cigar (both of which increase Dead Eye at the cost of stamina) and throws it away. Its surprisingly satisfying to watch Arthur eat a meal or drink coffee at camp while walking into the morning sun. Hair and beard will grow over time, but slowly. It’s annoying if you want to keep short and clean shaven like in the military and agonizing if you want to do Forrest Gump during his three years of running.
The bounty system also makes a return from the last game, but in a much easier fashion to survive and harder to be rid of. Bounties are more realistic, forcing you to wear a bandana to avoid being identified, lest you pay hundreds to the post office to remove your bounty.
Speaking of realistic, the weather in the game is highly dynamic. The snowy mountains feel like Canada during the winter of 2009, the canyons feel peaceful as you gallop through to see the sun shine over the road, the desert landscape in certain towns bring a paranoia of lack of vision and the night is ACTUALLY dark.
Red Dead Redemption 2 deserves a 13/10. It truly is game of the year and nothing can beat it.
Excellent story, a vast amount of activities/sidequests, the most massive playable map I’ve ever seen and near flawless realism with a few hiccups of glitches that are forgivable.
Lets have some moonshine, boys and girls, Arthur Morgan’s story will go down as a classic.
