In fall of 2016, Rockstar teased us with several images that hinted towards the existence of Red Dead Redemption 2 before finally dropping its first trailer. It’s now been almost a full year since that trailer released. The game was originally slated to hit shelves in the fall of 2017, but the recent delay means that the total time between announcement and release will have been roughly a year and a half. While many are still incredibly excited about the game, these long, drawn out pre-release cycles tend to detract from a game’s impact upon release. Rockstar would have been better off announcing the game in one fell swoop six months before release and then going quiet until lau
While the PS4, Xbox One, and PC versions of GTA V prepped Rockstar for working on new hardware, they still weren’t creating an entirely new game. Even the first-person mode was just a new perspective. The game itself didn’t change drastically when it jumped consoles. With Red Dead 2 , the development team over at Rockstar is making their very first next generation game from the ground up. While the new hardware has been praised by developers, Rockstar is known for pushing hardware to its limits, and creating graphically stunning games, this new challenge could be proving more difficult than they anticipated, drastically hampering the game’s developm
The Red Dead franchise succeeds because it’s playing into the most American fantasies of what the Wild West was, while keeping it grounded. It was a time were America was still getting its footing as a new nation. Things were being discovered by a people who had largely still never seen most of what the land had to offer, thus appropriately titled, the Wild West. It seemed like a hellish dreamscape where those from the east coast talked of savages and wild beast, men who idealized the same sort of lawlessness discussed among certain circles. Yet, it was none of these things, for a people having just arrived to a nation, it was much tamer than one might imagine. Instead, it was a place not overly populated and begging for people to settle its lands (I hope we see Natives in this game). The west was a place of opportunity and discovery, somewhere one could make their mark in a relatively easy way (for the time).
Games are never delayed because the game is in a particularly good place. They are often the result of the product not meeting expectation,s so extra time is taken to smooth out the wrinkles. Hopefully, the delay is simply the perfectionists over at Rockstar trying to make the best game they possibly can, but there is a chance that the game simply isn’t coming together like they hoped it would. It’s been seven years since the original came out, which had many questioning whether or not a follow-up would ever come. As the company’s first next-gen game, there is a lot of pressure for the game to be groundbreaking, but the delay could hint at some trouble brew
Throughout this review, I may have seemed a little hard on Red Dead Redemption 2, but the overall package is nothing short of spectacular. It has its share of issues involving controls, but the vast majority of the experience is unforgettable. Rockstar has created the single most immersive Wild West game yet, with an intelligently-written story, a compelling bloom core genshin cast of characters, highly-engaging scenarios and a diverse open world to explore. The visuals are also truly stunning, with a substantial amount of detail put into each environment and character model, not to mention the extraordinary lighting techniques. The world is just ripe for exploration; it may not be the densest place out there, and I do wish there was a larger emphasis on hunting, but there’s still a ton to see and do. With around fifty hours to complete the main campaign, and even more if you do all of the other side activities, a game such as Red Dead Redemption 2 doesn’t come around this often. All I can say is wow.
Red Dead Redemption 2 is a long game and there’s a lot to do in it. The main campaign alone, along with a good number of Stranger missions, took us just under fifty hours to complete, which is exponentially longer than its predecessor. That’s barely even participating in the various other activities, such as hunting, gambling, bounty hunting and more. The Stranger missions are one of the bigger draws as they are once again whacky, over-the-top scenarios that fill out the world. Arthur may not have the sarcastic, comical timing of John Marston, but he still lends to each situation with his confusion. Sadly, I never saw a damsel tied up on a railroad track that needed saving. Speaking of Stranger missions, you’re also able to make choices that may affect scenes in the main story. For example, I met one woman earlier in the campaign and she appeared as a prostitute later on, which lead to a bounty immediately put on my head. Another was a surprisingly lengthy scene with a nun who I randomly bumped into once, and Arthur opened up to her. Your choices through the campaign do hold some weight as they can affect where specific people end up in the future and might even expand upon Arthur’s character more.