Red Dead Redemption 2, prequel to Rockstar's original Red Dead Redemption is an epic tale about a gang of outlaws on the run from the pressures of civilized life in the new frontier where the wild west is coming to an end. With its rich storytelling, new mechanics and one of the best graphical games on the market, RDR2 might be one of the best story driven open world game to ever exist. With over 175 Game of the Year Awards and 250 perfect scores, I today will help you decide whether this game is worth playing and does it live up to the hype or not. This review will cover the following sections and will rank them accordingly: Introduction (Wont be ranked) Story & Characters Gameplay & Mission Design Graphics & Visual Design Open World Overall Score and opinion This review may contain media taken from others and it may not be linked or given credits to, instead of reporting this website please contact me on my twitter and I will remove the media you have requested me to. This review will only cover the Single player game and not Red Dead Online (Though there might be a few mentions of it for comparison purposes) Introduction:In introduction I will cover things such as optimization, file size, age rating and price, to give you an honest description of what the game requires to run. First of all, RDR2 is an 18+ game and is made for older audiences, if you are below 18 (Like I am) then it really depends on your maturity but overall I'd give it a 13+ rating. The game has little to no nudity, I only encountered it 2 times (You can encounter it in a mission as well in one of the rooms of the Valentine bar but the cutscene barely lasts for 2 seconds and the women's private parts are hidden as well) and both were naked men but they're privates were hidden and it was optional to engage with them, as long as you keep away you should be fine. Gore and language is present though, language is though slightly mild since they usually only use words like B**stards and Son of a b**tch. A 13 year old should be fine playing it. The game is optimized, both for PC and console. I played it on a decent rig and got around 50 FPS stutterless with settings of medium to high (My GPU was RX 570). Consoles are fixed at 30 FPS whether you play on Old gen or New gen (Next gen upgrade has been teased but not announced yet) with backward compatibility, the framerate is fixed at 30 and doesn't usually give stutters, resolution may vary according to your machine. The file size is big, around 117 GB on PC and over 100GB on consoles (Xbox and PS4 sizes might be different) but for the content in the game, it is worth the space. There weren't many bugs and glitches I encountered in my 136 Hour playthrough, only 3: My horse jumped really high over a rock once, my character kept repeating the same dialogue over and over and I couldn't move after I set up camp. The PC Port when it launched was quite terrible but now it has been greatly optimized but the game is still very demanding. One warning about the save files is that if you uninstall the game, you WILL lose your game files since Rockstar has a terrible cloud system, I am not sure about consoles but if you do play on PC make sure to create backups for your save files otherwise they will be lost forever. The price is $59.99, now the price is perfect for this game from the amount it offers you but I would recommend getting it on sale, you can get it near to $30 and sometimes if your lucky $20. My digital copy was bought at around $38 back in June 2020 and the sale price has gone lower since then. Story & Characters:10/10 The story in RDR2 is completely flawless, to me there was no flaw at all. It was somewhat predictable but overall the story was the best I have ever seen in video games. This game is known for its story and I promise I wont spoil it for you. The story is over 60-80 hours long, divided in 6 Chapters and 2 Epilogues which is over 15 hours long. The story was quite a ride for me and I truly loved every moment of it, more than the narrative itself, the way they executed the story was flawless and in my opinion better than the actual narrative. The game is about the Van Der Line gang, one of the last outlaw gangs left in 1899 America and their journey of whether they survive this new era or die with it, You play as Arthur Morgan, a senior gun in the gang who was raised by the leaders who created it, through Arthurs eyes you see everything that goes around you, the happiness you experience in the story to the sorrow you have to bear, you will also experience the protagonists transformation of how he becomes from a ruthless stealing murderer to someone he really is deep down within. Each chapter takes you to different places and different states and across the map which introduces you to different characters, gangs, allies and even enemies. RDR2 also has over 30 different side missions which some branch off into multiple parts. Over the course of the chapter you meet new characters and see them change according to your actions, this game is somewhat based on choices you make and even though they aren't many, you can shape the story and the way you want to play it. Another system which is exclusive to Red Dead games is the honour system which not only affects the story but the world around you as well, have high honour and things might be in favour for you but if you have low honour you might face difficulties. The characters are truly alive, from the members of the gang to even the most random NPC's, all have personality and you can interact with them the way you want to, greet them, antagonize them or even rob and kill them, it all depends on you. Voice acting in RDR2 is the best I have ever seen in games, the dialogues are realistic and matches according to how society was in 1899. The characters can make you feel attached to them and each is unique and full of life. The story in the game is phenomenal and truly impressed me and will remain in my heart as one of the best narratives in gaming history, Rockstar nailed it again and I truly hope this kind of storytelling is present in their next game, bravo. Gameplay & Mission Design:7/10 Perhaps the only flaw I found in this game was this specific category, though its not all bad. First of all, the mission design gets boring and repetitive if you take too long finishing the game like I did. It took me over 117 Hours to finish the main story and the design wasn't the best thing in the game. A lot of missions are fun and very exciting that I enjoyed so much but most of the missions might be boring for an average player. I truly felt this flaw in the middle of Chapter 6, there wasn't any freedom in the game and you were forced to do what it wanted you to do which is a bummer. RDR2 overall is a slow game and it might not be for people who like fast paced games, if you are that person than you will waste your money buying this but I think the narrative makes it bearable since the missions are full of writing and twists which are exciting to uncover, one moment your riding your horse peacefully and the other your ambushed by someone and are trapped in a huge shootout. The only flaw in the gameplay was that it was repetitive and simple, that's it. Some say the controls are clunky but on keyboard they aren't clunky at all and to me were perfectly fine, however it is hard to aim and do things on controller and is a bad experience so beware, but either way if you get used to the sharp shooting you will be fine. The shooting is satisfying and fun, you can use a variety of weapons to take down your enemies, use a repeater or a shotgun or if you have the guts, take them out by throwing a hatchet on to them or blow them up with dynamite, its all up to you. The stealth is OK in this game, its not good not bad just okay, but there isn't a good variety of weapons for stealth since you can only use bows and melee weapons since there aren't any suppressors in the game and neither are there different bows and you cant customize your bow (That part is in Online though). My favourite part of the gameplay is horse riding, they feel slow but so damn satisfying and horses in this game are the best you can find, no other game has these kind of horses, you can interact with it too by feeding it, brushing it, leading it etc etc, there even are 4 Levels which unlock moves and things of your horse as you carry on, on top of that the animations and graphical details are insane, from visible muscle tendons to horse testicles shrinking in the cold. If words do not satisfy you, here is a gameplay video from DKGames. Graphics & Visual Design:10/10 The best part of this game is the graphics, the graphics are insane, mind-blowing, they will make you go WOW. From the harsh deserts to the lush green forests, this game has it all and the graphics are totally one of the best I have ever seen. Even on medium settings the game looks gorgeous. The textures are high resolution, the reflections are clear and sharp, the character clothing is amazing too, the way your clothes move as you move is smooth and fun to watch, the lighting is unreal and basically everything in this game is amazing, its on the par of new linear games like The Last Of Us 2 and even surpasses them some of the fields. The graphics are outstanding, the most impressive part of them to me was the lighting and the foliage, as well as the physics. The lighting is amazing, its truly realistic and it makes the game feel real, at some point you might even think its a movie of how good it looks, its really mind blowing and when I first saw the sun in this game i stood there for twenty seconds just looking at it and admiring its beauty. The foliage is realistic as well, from dried grass to trees I loved the foliage in this game, at a point in the story you go to a tropical environment and the foliage and lighting REALLY kicks in there, the reason the graphics are a big thing in this game is because of how many environments RDR2 has, plains, swamps, deserts, forests, it has it all and these environments showcase how the graphics would look anywhere. The physics are also great in this game, not GTA 4 level in terms of ragdoll but it does other things which make it look great, My favourite part of the physics are the water physics which are often overlooked, try throwing a dynamite in a lake and you'll see how the water explodes into splashes and ripples, or row a boat and you will witness its superiority, this game dominates water physics and even though there might be other games out there which do it better, its just too realistic in this one. You know what they say: A picture is worth a thousand words, so here is a small slide show of photos to give you an idea of RDR2's realistic visuals and landscapes Open World:10/10 The open world was rewritten in RDR2, the way they made this game was totally mind blowing, the details, the secrets, the interactions, things to do, all of it is superior in RDR2 than any other open world and this game wont be toppled by any other company other than Rockstar themselves. Things to do other than play the story are a lot, first of all you can roam around the 75 Km Square map in RDR2, though compared to GTA V its small but if you exclude the water in GTA V they're almost the same size but RDR2 feels big because how the map is designed for horse back, and the best part is unlike almost all open worlds with big maps, the map is also deep and alive, full of secrets and encounters while maintaining its perfect size. There are more than probably 50-100 Easter Eggs, secrets and much more, you can find abandoned cabins with dead bodies and figure out how they died, you can find references to Rockstar's other games and other things, you can even find a UFO in the game. The game, as I mentioned before, has many environments, mountains, snowy mountains, deserts, plains, swamps, many forests and much more, all have a diverse ecosystem of animals and even people. Animals are alive in this game and react to how you interact with them, fire a gunshot and it might be harder to hunt animals in that area because of the noise you just made, animal models are sharp and detailed and the attention to detail for animals is insane, how eagles hunt, how bears rub their backs on trees, how wolves mourn for their dead, its all there in the game. One other thing RDR2 did that rewrote Open Worlds was the interaction system, it was a simple yet a revolutionary system. Greet a passing rider, antagonize a pedestrian to get into a fight, help them, rob them, even kill them, all is up to you, interact with NPC's, animals, your horse, basically everything. The NPC's are alive in this game, full of realistic reactions and amazing voice acted dialogues, all have different personality and different reactions to your actions. Coming to the activities you can play in RDR2, there are quite a few, you can play over 4 table games (Dominos, Black Jack, Five Finger Fillet and Poker) and all are detailed (In terms of mechanics and your opponents) and require you to learn them and improve you skills as you play overtime, play them with strangers of the world or play them with your fellow gang members, you can go fishing or hunting. You can race strangers with your horse, you can craft outfits by hunting a variety of animals, you can encounter strangers wanting help and do bounties to bring criminals to justice and much more. At a point I turned in a women prostitute who had murdered men, I saw her hang in the next few days and after a week or so found her buried in the graveyard with her loved ones mourning for her. Besides activities you can do the one major thing the game intends you to do: Robbing, rob a random NPC and take their money, rob a stagecoach either in free roam or by getting a tip from someone, rob a store in a town and escape the law or even rob a train in many ways, buy a ticket and highjack it, wait for a train to pass by and highjack it, block the tracks and force the train to stop and rob it, there are many ways you can rob a train and even rob a store, in the open world you aren't forced to do anything and you can do whatever and however you like. One major bummer was that robbing banks is not allowed in Free roam, or isn't now at least, they are locked behind side missions or story missions but it is still present in the game and there is a choice to how you can rob the bank, either silently or go into a full out shootout. Also where you rob can depend on the payout, if you rob a wealthy town you might get more money there than in smaller and undeveloped towns but the strength and numbers of the law will also be higher there. There is also a unique wanted system in RDR2, make mayhem and people around will witness you do it, after they report it to the law officers in the area will look for you, after you escape a bounty will be placed on your head and bounty hunters will track you down, the higher the price, the greater the danger you will face, either deal with it or pay off your bounty in the local station. I can write so much of open worlds but what's the fun if I spoil it all for you, this game is the best open world I have ever played, Rockstar nailed it again like usual and I can only imagine if RDR2 rewrote Open Worlds, then GTA 6 will be the revolution of them. Overall Score and Opinion: 10/10Red Dead Redemption 2 is a true masterpiece, even though it has its flaws, all its other aspects are so good they barely bugged me, so I give it a 10/10, my personal Game of the Year. The story was an amazing ride and one of the greatest I have ever experienced, the graphics are absolutely mind blowing, the OST is amazing and fits the cowboy game and the open world is truly the best ever made, this has to be Rockstar's greatest game for they totally nailed it and surpassed everyone's expectations. Now for the big question: Is it worth the buy? Yes, it totally is worth the buy, though the game is slow and not for everyone, its an amazing experience and RDR2 is a total masterpiece and really shows that Rockstar did take 7 years to finish it, RDR2 is an amazing game and even though the Online portion is not good and isn't even close to the single player, Rockstar will make it better and as of now, robberies have been announced in Red Dead Online, an awaited update by fans, and will soon hit the game in Summer 2021. This game is and always will be a true piece of art. Additional Info: Platforms: PC Google Stadia Xbox One (Series X/S with backward compatibility) PS4 (PS5 With Backward compatibility) PC Requirements Minimum: Memory: 8 GB Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770M/ AMD Radeon R9 280 CPU: Intel Core i5-2500K/ AMD FX-6300 File Size: 150 GB OS: Windows 7 PC Requirements Recommended: Memory: 12 GB Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060/ AMD Radeon RX 480 CPU: Intel Core i7-4770K/ AMD Ryzen 5 1500X File Size: 150 GB OS: Windows 10 Price: $59.99
3 Comments
Raiyan (Green_Goon_57)
6/1/2021 06:04:06 am
Nice review mate!
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DARKxFENIX
6/1/2021 09:21:58 pm
Awesome review!!
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Der Wolf
6/5/2021 10:37:47 pm
Thank you! Leave a Reply. |