Editorial | Reflecting on Red Dead Redemption 2: One Year Later.

By Sam Coles:

Time is such a fragile existence where it suddenly goes by with the click of a finger, one year use to feel like forever when I was younger but now it just slips through my fingers like sand. Red Dead Redemption 2 came out one year ago (at the time of writing) and it is hard to believe, as it felt like I was waiting for it forever as the first game came out all the way back in 2010. I just want to reflect on my experience with the game over the past year, as well as the lead up to the game.

Back in 2016 gaming was in a weird spot because game releases were a bit meh, but towards the end of the year Rockstar Games changed their logo and it had the rustic look of Red Dead Redemption, we all knew what was coming. Then they dropped the first trailer showing off the beautiful world, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing as the leap from the first RDR was staggering it looked realistic and awe inspiring. Towards the end of the trailer it said it will releases in the fall of 2017, me being me though I knew this wasn’t true and I called it on Twitter at the time as I know how Rockstar work. Then lo and behold Rockstar delayed the game from 2017 to spring 2018 and then once more to fall of 2018.

Working in the games industry naturally I tend to get games sent to me; however there was something special when I got an email from Rockstar Games and they said “We are sending you a copy of Red Dead Redemption 2”. When the game finally arrived on release day at 8 o’clock in the morning, I sat there patiently waiting for the game to install and then when the game started I fell in love and felt 17 years old again like I was playing the first Red Dead Redemption.

The first time I booted up Red Dead Redemption 2 I was immediately enraptured with the world, mostly stemming from the visuals. The graphics from the original Red Dead Redemption were and arguably still are a marvel to look at, and I thought to myself how can they improve the presentation and they did it! Everything has an attention to detail that you just don’t see in most releases, they even put in the effort into things that most players won’t even bother to look at. Rockstar see every blade of grass, every footprint in the snow and specs of dirt on the player character to be just as important as the weather effects and character animations.

The characters and story are something that really stood out, especially the dynamic of Arthur’s gang where they all but heads but they all end up getting the job done, well until Dutch’s plan predictably fails. Arthur is a well-rounded character he knows what he is doing is wrong, however it is the only life that he knows as he has been with Dutch for 20 years. The whole gang have been characterised which is amazing, no other game would bother to flesh out each character like this. They all have their grievances, but they band together to get a robbery done it’s this dynamic that really adds a layer of unpredictably with how they are going to react.

The world itself was a joy to explore, unlike most open world games that relay on numbers *cough* Ubisoft *cough* Red Dead’s world is more organic and narrative based. It doesn’t flash up a notice saying “You are not a high enough level”, no it just lets you explore at your own pace and it gave me the same feeling when I explored Oblivion or Skyrim’s world for the first time. The game outside of missions doesn’t hold your hand, if you see smoke of a campfire nothing is stopping you to go and investigate, however it may hold several perils that will kill you. It’s this freedom that Red Dead Redemption 2 gives you when explore the world that makes it feel alive, this could apply to most of Rockstar’s worlds.

Now gameplay is the most contentious topic as some love the more “realistic” approach, while others prefer the first game with its more freeform movement. I fall in the former category as I find that the more realistic approach to movement and shooting add an extra layer of weight and tension, guns in the 19^th century were not particularly reliable and wore fairly quickly. They brought this across with the gunplay as guns would slowly get dirty and rusty, where they would become more inaccurate. You can clean them off with gun oil yourself or do it at a gunsmith, it doesn’t really eat too much into the gameplay and I think most people are rather hyperbolic about the “realism” because you don’t have to do most of it, it is there for the sake of immersion and role playing.

I’ll be honest I love the combat it has a sense of weight and brutality to it, you see every exit wound as you fan the hammer of your six shooter into a Lawman’s skull. Heads explode if you use a shotgun at close range, which actually made me jump when it first happened to me. Enemies will clutch at specific areas and limbs when you shoot them there as they cry out for help, as well their limbs flying off when you throw a stick of dynamite at them. The detail of body damage is so insane that bodies realistically decompose if you leave them out for long enough, again Rockstar showing almost an unnecessary amount of details in their games, in a good way of course.

Red Dead Redemption 2 will go down as a classic, a game that we will be talking about years to come like the original. One year has passed since its release and five years will go past in the blink of an eye. What Rockstar Games gave us with this beautiful and artistic piece of interactive entertainment is stunning. It just shows there are still triple A developers who want to present us with compelling single player experiences.