Red Dead Redemption 2 for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One places players in the tougher times that Dutch Van der Linde's gang faced. As one of its key members, main character Arthur Morgan's adventures will see him completing critical missions to ensure the health and fortune of its members are maintained. Along the way, however, players will also be given opportunities to spend time with the various gang members in the camp doing activities such as hunting or going out on shopping trips.

These side-missions, while not critical to the main story, provide a great deal of characterization and colour to the overall experience. However, many of them can be time-sensitive in their availability. RDR 2 doesn't make this abundantly clear, but if you let them linger too long in favour of pursuing the main missions, or even other side-activities, they can vanish. At certain points, progressing the story will lock you out of these little missions, and you don't want to miss out on them.

It's easy to distinguish between what's part of the main path and what's not, as the missions focused on the core narrative appear as yellow icons on the map. Camp activities, however, appear as white icons. They can be tricky to see at times, so make sure you're regularly checking by bringing up the map and giving it a good inspection for them. As mentioned before, these missions may be your only opportunity to spend time with the folks that aren't out robbing trains and gunning down outlaws in the name of the Van der Linde gang, but their missions are valuable nonetheless.

GameSpot's Red Dead Redemption 2 review is live now, and the game received a 9/10. Kallie Plagge says it is "an excellent prequel, but it's also an emotional, thought-provoking story in its own right, and it's a world that is hard to leave when it's done."

We've got a bunch of features and guides for Red Dead Redemption 2 players to check out both before they start playing and while they are in the thick of it. First up is a collection of tips you should read before starting (you can also watch a video of them). This is spoiler-free information that the game provides over the course of multiple hours, but if you know it from the outset it is very helpful. We've also guides on how the morality and honor systems work, how to make money in Red Dead Redemption 2, and some information on how weapon customization functions.

For more on the game, watch Quickdraw, our weekly Red Dead Redemption 2 video series. In the first episode we analyzed the various Rockstar games that have had an influence on the open-world western sequel. The second episode, which you can watch in the video above, is a story recap of the original Red Dead Redemption.