Red Dead Redemption 2 review

This article will contain spoilers for the game Red Dead Redemption 2 because why not?

    RED DEAD REDEMPTION is a work that doesn't really need any further statements from me. It's widely considered to be one of the best video games of all time if not THE best video game of all time. It's a storytelling and technical achievement that is magnificent to look at. It has a story of horrific crunch and vast expenditures behind it but Red Dead Redemption is currently sitting at the apex of what video games can accomplish as an art form. 

    So, with that said, this is going to be just my experiences with the game. There's no point in discussing it objectively years after its release so I might as well just talk about what I liked about it and those small things that rubbed me the wrong way. Generally, I absolutely loved stepping in Arthur Morgan's shoes and think the opening sections of the game are some of my all-time favorite ones in gaming. Playing as Arthur is a wonderful experience and 

    I enjoyed the game's systems of justifying all the hunting and crime I did. Providing motivations for characters to do things is something that I feel a lot of games fail to do and it hurts immersion. My immersion was intense for much of the game and I loved roleplaying Arthur as a provider for his large extended family, even though that required him to shoot a lot of people in the face.

    Later, the game tears that away from you as Arthur's family self-destructs little by little. By the time the Guarma mission happens, the game has removed a lot of your motivation for trying to make the gang function and things only get worse from there. I have mixed feelings about that since I'm inclined to think the game should have probably ended by that time. The Wapiti tribe missions was a good bit of writing and had some great moments but it was a struggle to continue to play through because it grew so depressing. Certainly, the ending was one that was established as unavoidable and powerful right up until Arthur breathes his last.

    I'm not going to be alone, I suspect in thinking that as entertaining as John Marston's two epilogues were, they were also completely unnecessary to the game. They really do feel like a DLC Expansion and I feel like cutting them would have actually benefited the pacing of the main game. I felt the same way about Far Cry 3 and Hoyt Voker's island.

    It was nice to be able to build John Martson's dream house for his wife but the game actually prevented me from having the same sort of investment that I had with Arthur Morgan earlier. If I'd been able to actually pay off John's bank loan little by little with all the bounties or robberies I could do, it might have been a more engaging story. Instead, all of that is resolved with the final mission and I feel that's a wasted opportunity.

    Mind you, I do have some questions about the finale of the game too as if Micah and Dutch really did find the Blackwater Heist money then why were they still bandits? I have no problem with the idea that Dutch planned to build an army to overthrow the United States or just wanted to "live free." But Micah is someone I presumed would take it all to California (San Andreas?) and blow it all until he was broke. Mind you, given Micah's utter psychopathy, I was surprised he wasn't a Congressman with that much wealth.

    I'm also inclined to think the Guarma mission is underbaked to the point of not really adding much. There's some great moments like Dutch strangling a woman and the realization that the "Tahiti" plan is insane since it is a tropical paradise itself. Dutch just disregards sensible plans like Australia (where, you know, everyone speaks English) or breaking up the gang because he wants to hold onto his position as Clan Lord as long as possible. Even so, the fact you can't return and there's nothing to do on the island other than the story missions makes it a wasted opportunity.

    Still, I have nothing but praise for the intricate parasocial relationships you develop in this game and could have spent hours more developing them with these fictional outlaws. I wanted to speak more with Mary Beth, Tilly, Hosiah, and Karen Jones. Watching the fictional family get torn apart was genuinely heartbreaking. There were some characters underdeveloped by the game like Sean and Keiran but with such a large cast, it's hard to give everyone the attention that they deserve. Still, I felt something with just about all of the Van der Lind gang. That's rare even with a Bioware game.

    Villain-wise, I think this game has an abundance of riches. Micah is a tremendously scuzzy character and I enjoyed killing him despite the fact none of the characters really are going after him for the right reasons. He killed Jack's dog. That's enough to kill him. I'm not even upset with him for killing Ms. Grimshaw. She had it coming for killing Molly. He didn't kill Arthur, that was tuberculosis. Dutch is really the overarching villain and that's because he is incapable of admitting he's screwed up and doesn't trust anyone getting the Blackwater money. But all the lesser villains are great too ranging from Mama Braithwaite to Colonel Feathers that I wish had a bigger role. Indeed, my biggest issue is we don't get more of some villains like Leviticus Cornwall and Cohm Driscoll.

    Gameplay wise, there's not much to say here. Rockstar is very good at making sure that the little mini-games of riding, shooting, and roping things are never tedious. It's pretty much what they do and yet the levels are never particularly hard or challenging. It's part of the reason they remain the god kings of sales in video games. 

    I think my favorite levels of the game were probably the Braithwaite mansion ones. There was nothing more fun than fighting the Leymone Raiders while doing a version of A Fistful of Dollars. Also, if they'd seen that movie, our antiheroes might have noted that it didn't end up well for the Man with No Name either. Everything is downhill from them but the stakes are raised from the early missions in Valentine.

    In conclusion, this is a fantastic game and has inspired me to get back into writing my Cthulhu Armageddon books due to them being Weird Westerns. I could talk about all the fantastic side characters and adventures that I had with them, the individual towns, plus how much I enjoyed wiping out the Braithwaites. However, instead, I'll just say that Red Dead Redemption used to be my all time favorite game. Now it's been replaced.

10/10