Red Dead Redemption II (PS4) Review

Wild, wild west.

 

 2010's Red Dead Redemption is one of my favorite gaming experiences when I first played it years ago. Developed by Rockstar Games (of legendary Grand Theft Auto fame), it was a fantastic western-themed adventure with an extremely memorable hero and fun gameplay. Eight years later and we were treated to Red Dead Redemption II, a prequel improving over its predecessor and starring a new hero. It's been on the backlog for the longest time and now that I made time to finally play it, does it meet my expectations?

 In the years before Red Dead Redemption, we follow the notorious Van der Linde gang in their final days as the Wild West life is fastly being phased-out in favor of the civilized life. We follow gunslinging outlaw Arthur Morgan, a member of the gang who chases the score of a lifetime while being hunted by the law. Joined by him are the gang's charismatic leader Dutch Van der Linde, widow Sadie Adler, and the first game's hero, John Marston, to name a few. The story was amazing as you get to experience the gang's ordeals as things get from bad to worse constantly. 

 It also told a tragic yet emotional tale with many plot-twists that'll keep you glued to your seat. Arthur was a charming, relatable lead-- and despite him being a criminal-- you still get a hint of humanity in him by the end of the ride. RDR veterans John and Dutch-- alongside newcomer Sadie-- were all equally interesting and stole every scene they're in. Granted, the side cast were good though didn't get much development aside from a couple of rides with them on missions. 

The tale here is one to remember and Arthur was a lovable lead.

 Red Dead Redemption II is a third-person (with a first-person mode) adventure game where you control Arthur as you rob, shoot, and ride across the wide country on your horse. Guns are the focal point of the gameplay and there's lots of them from revolvers to repeaters to shotguns that you'll need to shoot gangs and animals alike. The "Dead Eye" feature of RDR returns and it lets you slow time to accurately target enemies and quickly kill them. The controls were solid but with some issues like button prompts often won't respond when pressed. Also, the cover system sucked as you couldn't seamlessly transition from to cover to cover and instead you had to get out, get shot, and reach the next cover-- which made it feel clunky. 

The gameplay might seem overwhelming initially,
but it ended up being fun. 

 

 A new addition is the "Core" mechanic that are gauges that you have to keep track of. There's one for health, stamina, and Dead Eye which can be depleted if you get hurt, sprint, and slow-down time, respectively. They can be even upgraded overtime and your horse also has health and stamina cores to take care of. It was overwhelming at first, but the whole mechanic can be easily learned and taken care of by buying provisions, sleeping at camps, or cooking up foods that refills them.

 As you'd expect from Rockstar, Red Dead Redemption II's open-world is the best in the industry, with it being vast and insanely interactive. It's brimming with wildlife to hunt, strangers to either rob or help, towns to explore, bounties to collect, foods to craft, and just about everything else in between. The missions will have you performing heists, fighting gangs, and stealing stagecoaches, most end up being quite fun. Oftentimes you'll be making decisions in missions like taking either a loud, more dangerous approach or a safe, stealthier one, adding replay-value. Side missions will see you delivering requests for NPCs ranging from mundane to outright weird in exchange for money and cool items. The most memorable missions were towards the end with the stakes being high.

The scope of the open-world is breath-taking, with lots to explore.

 The camp is alive as characters often have interesting conversations like gathering around campfire to sing songs and tell stories, which made hanging around it worthwhile. As for strangers in the wild, you can either rob or help them to get a potential reward. One time I helped a man by getting rid of snake poison from him and I met him later in town and he offered me to buy anything from the gun store for free-- a cool encounter. All in all, the game took over 60 hours to beat at 88% completion-- and that's still not tackling all of the challenges and wildlife yet, so there's a lot of game long after the credits roll.

 No surprise, Rockstar blows it out of the park as Red Dead Redemption II carries outstanding production values. The stunning lighting, detailed backgrounds, and realistic animations, were amazing easily make it among the best-looking games from the 8th generation. Despite few visual glitches and stuttering, the game holds up incredibly four years later. The voice performances are fantastic with Arthur, Dutch, and John being standouts. As for the soundtrack, it was phenomenal with lots of tracks that perfectly fit with the game's tone. Some of the tracks that I loved were "That's The Way It Is", "Unshaken", "American Venom", "Red", "Love Come Back", and "Red Dead Redemption".

The production values are outstanding.

 

 As I expected, Red Dead Redemption II soared through my expectations with the gripping story, memorable characters, never-ending fun gameplay, and stellar production values. It's hands-down one of the best open-world games I've played with how intricate and lively its world was. Red Dead Redemption II is a modern masterpiece and a must-play for fans of westerners and adventure games, though make sure to cast a lot of time aside for it.