Game Info: Red Dead Redemption II

Developed By: Rockstar Games

Published By: Rockstar Games

Released: October 26, 2018

Available On: PS4, Xbox One

Genre: Action-Adventure

ESRB Rating: M for Mature

Number of Players: Single-player

Price: $59.99

(Amazon Affiliate Link) Red Dead Redemption II is a prequel to the wildly popular Red Dead Redemption. Preserving the feel, the gameplay and even some of the characters, RDR2 feels like a comfortable extension to the universe of the original game. The player takes on the role of Arthur Morgan, an outlaw and loyal second-in-command to Dutch, the leader of a gang of outlaws and associated hangers-on as they hide from authorities after a botched caper in the town of Blackwater. Some of the members of the gang will be familiar to players of the first Red Dead Redemption, including the main character from that game, John Marsden. The gang is regrouping and most of the side quests undertaken by the player are done for the purpose of helping the gang recover its strength and, ultimately, the money that was lost in the disaster and remains hidden in Blackwater. The game controls are essentially the same as the first Red Dead Redemption and are, for the most part, comparable to other FPS or over-the-shoulder games. The Dead-Eye feature is retained, allowing the player to slow time while placing one or more precise shots on targets. The mechanic of using the 'X' button (on PS4) to control the horse's speed has also been retained, much to my personal annoyance. Two Red Dead Redemption titles in and I STILL don't have the hang of it. Most of the controls are context driven and the game does a reasonably good job of reminding you which button does what in its context as you play. Hopefully you have good dexterity to play this game; some of the menu/item use controls have you flexing your hand in a way you're not used to. Overall I find the controls somewhat clumsy and difficult to get used to. Yes, this being 2019, the game has to have some form of crafting. You can make bait for fishing, bait for hunting and camping supplies and so on. Harvesting materials consists mainly of finding herbs picked from the local plant life. This even includes tobacco. The biggest feature of the Red Dead Redemption games, for me, is the feeling of authenticity in the environment. I'm not an expert in the history and culture of the American Old West, but the game feels believable and realistic, at least to someone who doesn't really know enough to nitpick anyway. It's the details. When a horse rides through the muddy streets of a town, it leaves hoofprints and kicks up mud. Wagon wheels do the same. Get into a fistfight? That mud's going to end up on your clothes. Shoot a deer and throw it over your shoulder to carry it back to your horse? Yeah, the blood's on your jacket now. Stamina core low? Take a nap. Riding over terrain? Those tree branches and bushes will smack you if you ride through them, and your horse won't be too thrilled about it either. Sometimes the realism actually starts to make the game feel a bit overloaded. Maybe Red Dead Redemption II is too realistic for some players. If you don't eat and sleep regularly, Morgan will start looking thin and gaunt. His beard grows out, so you'll have to shave it periodically. Pay attention to the temperature outside, too. If Morgan isn't dressed warmly, he'll start suffering the effects of the cold. The same happens if he's overdressed for the heat. Sometimes the temperature can vary fast, so you can carry extra outfits in your horse's saddlebags. Been in a few gunfights? Time to clean your weapon or its stats will suffer. You'll need gun oil for that, which means a trip to the general store... Oh, and you'll also need to pay attention to your horse because yes, his needs matter too. Feed him, brush him, pay attention to his stats.

Highlights: Strong Points: Excellent production quality, graphics and sound; relatable and believable characters

Weak Points: Awkward controls; occasional glitches

Moral Warnings: Violence, language, blasphemy, unethical behavior, mild sexuality, very mild occult. No kitchen sink though. This is what I mean by the game being maybe a bit too real. If you're not interested in the immersive feel of a game like this, these details will become annoying because some are unavoidable. You don't have to do much crafting, but you had better maintain that weapon. If, on the other hand, you've been looking for an "Old West Simulator" then this is definitely the game for you. It's as close to Westworld as you can get in 2019. Getting into trouble with the law is still a part of the game, and a frustrating money sink. Committing a crime like robbery or murder will quickly result in a posse arriving on the scene to investigate if there were any witnesses. Morgan could kill the witness to prevent them from alerting law-enforcement though. Armed deputies will arrive and attempt to kill Morgan if he's still in the area. He can choose to fight or flee. Once law enforcement is alerted, the bounty on Morgan's head rises. Having a bounty on your head isn't much of a problem at low amounts, but the higher the bounty gets, the more aggressively Morgan will be pursued by bounty hunters. The option to pay off the bounty does exist, but it's a very painful money sink. To do it you just travel to the nearest post office, and you can pay off the bounty. There's a ton of mini-games in Red Dead Redemption II as well. I'm not only talking about the obvious games-within-a-game like Poker and Dominoes. There's also things like fishing, which can be done from a beach or on a boat. Yes, there's actually a scene where Morgan goes fishing in a boat with two other outlaws and the three of them chat and tell stories for as long as you care to keep catching fish. Listening to the men chat actually made it a little more interesting to just wait around to get a bite. The dialogue writing is quite good. The features of the combat system are fairly standard with the usual abilities to run, take cover, shoot, reload, etc. Morgan can rapidly switch between weapons during a fight which I found incredibly useful. The combat AI isn't bad, and can sometimes be frustratingly good at flanking so stay alert and use the mini map. The sound feels real and has all the details to keep up with the level of detail shown visually in the world. The voice acting quality is excellent and really helps bring the characters to life. The ambient music, heavy on the harmonica and strings, fits right in and felt like the perfect background score when riding alone on the plains of the Old West. Unusually, multiplayer doesn't ship with the base game. There is an online add-on for Red Dead Redemption II but it costs extra. So far community feedback on it doesn't seem to be very good. There's also a community feature that allows players to show off screenshots and communicate with other players, apart from any multiplayer play. It's an interesting fusion between video gaming and social media, though I didn't personally find it to be very useful.