Okay, I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that Rockstar’s Red Dead Redemption 2 will turn out to be a better game than Grand Theft Auto 5 for multiple reasons. I know you’re probably turning red in the face as you read this, but before you scroll to the comments section to “let me have it” give me a chance to explain my point.

Let me start off by saying that there aren’t many games out there that are successful with the old western genre like Red Dead Redemption is. Red Dead fills the void for any gamers who grew up watching The Lone Ranger and John Wayne films with their grandpa as a child.

Environment

Red Dead Redemption’s environment gave players vibrancy and variety. You could find yourself on a quest through the blistering desert, and within 5 minutes, you could be riding through snow covered hills in the mountains. I know Grand Theft Auto V offers players with variety in their environment as well, but it’s definitely not the same. In Red Dead, I could spend hours alone in the forest and not get bored at all. You feel like a true hunter as you hike the hills in search of your next kill.

It felt amazing riding into town to buy all the materials I needed for my next hunting assignment. The meticulously crafted environment offered so much to interact with. Compare that to GTA V’s wildland. If you somehow ended up in the sandy desert in GTA V, you were trying to figure out the fastest way back into town while complaining about the fact that there weren’t any cars around. Any interaction with a wild animal in Los Santos was just a nuisance that resulted in either wasting bullets or left your corpse rolling down the hill like a rag doll.

In Read Dead, each interaction with a wild animal was an opportunity. With each kill you could skin the wild beast and sale it for coins in town or use it for material upgrades, either way, it was beneficial. Also, players had the opportunity to follow treasure maps for a quick sum of cash and other rewards. The more you explored, the more you discovered, which is a reward in its own right.

Earnable Cosmetics

In this new age of gamers, things aren’t earned anymore. I see rants about how microtransactions are wrong and shouldn’t be featured in games all the time, and I’m sick of it. This is coming from a guy who wrote an article defending Star Wars Battlefront 2 and their microtransaction debacle. For a second, I had forgotten what it was like to earn costumes and weapons without feeling like you were cheated by the devs.

Remember how it felt to grind for an item? I miss that feeling. I miss what it feels like to be given a list of challenges and know exactly what rewards were going to come from completing those challenges. Better yet, I miss what it’s like to earn a special weapon or costume that enhanced my abilities in a specific way without making me completely overpowered. These are the things that Red Dead offers.

There are challenges Red Dead Redemption that, if you completed, rewarded you with something unique. Some of the challenges were easy and some were downright grueling, but the rewards were measured based on the difficulty of that particular challenge. Either way, the challenges added another layer to the game separate from the main storyline. These challenges kept me from beating the game so fast because I had so much other stuff to work for. This allowed me to further prolong my experience and enjoy Red Dead for months.

Storyline

Red Dead Redemption offered one of the most entertaining storylines I have ever had the pleasure of playing through. Watching John Marston, a dead-eye sharpshooter, rise back to the top after being betrayed by his so-called “buddies” was more entertaining than almost any other game I’ve played. GTA V offered an amazing story as well, but Red Dead stirred up emotions I didn’t know I could have because of a game.

**SPOILERS AHEAD**

Watching John return to his family filled me with so much joy. Riding on horseback through the mountains while hearing “Compass” by Jamie Lidell was an iconic and heartfelt moment for me. To this day, Red Dead Redemption is the only game that has made me shed a tear. When John Marston was shot down in his hut after his family escaped filled me with an unspeakable rage and sadness. Enraged that I didn’t shoot more of the bastards before I died and sad that the character I’ve gotten to know for weeks had died in such inglorious way. Watching little Jack Marston grow up and get revenge for his dad’s killer sent a rush of adrenaline coursing through my veins as I cheered in excitement.

These are feelings no other game has been able to conjure up in me.

These three reasons are why Red Dead Redemption earned a spot on my top 5 games of all time list and I’m sure Take-Two Interactive will grow on these aspects to make Red Dead Redemption 2 even better than its predecessor.

Red Dead Redemption 2 is set to release on October 26.

Pre Order

Click here to pre-order Red Dead Redemption 2 where you’ll get an exclusive mount, 3 weapons at the gunsmith and $1,000,000 put straight into your maze bank account for Grand Theft Auto 5, and more!

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