I’ve played Red Dead Redemption less than 10 years ago and despite considering it one of the best Rockstar Games’ titles at that point and a new benchmark for open world action titles, I didn’t love it all that much. It was too long, especially with the terrible Mexico chapter being completely pointless, its player controls were often annoying, despite looking good and it had lots of constant tiny annoyances, most of which were a mainstay in Rockstar’s titles. Still, I was very interested in trying out Red Dead Redemption II, just not enough as to borrow a current gen console from a friend. Now that the PC version is out and patched to work fine (at least for singleplayer, I didn’t even try Online and don’t ever plan to), I’ve given it a go. And… yeah, I didn’t enjoy it much. Yet, it was an experience that I was glad to try.
Just like with the Red Dead Redemption, RDR II has a lot of open world RPG elements to it and this time it’s far smarter about its usage. There are additional “needs” and systems for the playable character, which go deep enough to create a connection with the player and a need to go back to the camp to eat and sleep. Yet it’s not as ridiculously stupidly in-depth as it used to be in San Andreas, where you literally couldn’t finish the game without spending some time on some of the “needs” of the character or grinding some of the skills. Here, it’s background enough to add flavor and set a tone, but also meaningful enough where those who want to invest more time in this “simulation” will find it enjoyable.
Luckily, changes don’t end here and RDR II borrows the improvements from GTA V in terms of how the missions in the open world start. If the mission has a specific time period need, the time will be simple fast forwarded when you arrive, no more annoying “find something to do”. While the elements of camping, crafting, buying, upgrading and etc have been enhanced as well. Rockstar has finally embraced the mechanics and quality of life concepts from other open world titles, even if they’re a bit too focused on “realism” and “simulation”. And yes, there’s a bit too much of it for my taste. From painfully long animations for every little thing (I basically stopped looting a few hours in because it became insufferable), to the fact that you can’t fast travel from the map, only from the camp which you first need to set. Oh, but sometimes you can’t fast travel anyway, because the game doesn’t want you to. Why? Well, because it wants you to experience a music video for 5 minutes instead.
The “cinematic” feel of the game is basically its best and its worst thing. On one hand, this is bar none the best way story-driven content has been used in an open world game. Game needs to skip a very long ride? No problem, it switches you to cinematic camera that cuts most of the trip (and you don’t need to control the game too) while cool music plays and boom you’re where you need to be. Going in and out of missions is seamless. Missions can start completely unexpectedly – you would see a member of your gang just ride towards you and ask for help and you can agree and you’re in a mission. The way the characters animate, the way the game looks… I mean, holy crap this is most definitely the best looking game I’ve ever seen in my life, especially when it comes to lighting and fog/mist effects, it’s just unlike anything else. And there are so many nice concepts where you can do menial tasks while with other characters to make those more fun, learning more about each character, all of whom are memorable and great.
On the other hand, though, the game sets its pace and if you don’t like it, shut up, it doesn’t care. The “music video” I mentioned isn’t the singular instance, there are several moments like that. The animations constantly get in the way – I’ve played games where you control a heavy unwieldy tank which felt better than this. Game rearranges your weapon load-out all the time so it “fits the scene better”, and the player character will hide the two handed weapons automatically when riding on a horse. The only times when game ignores the “realistic” aspect is for the “cinematic action”, which usually means murdering hundreds of enemies. The amounts of enemies is so ridiculous that at one point during the story you kill what is described as about half the whole population of one town. And that amount of people to kill becomes the minimum for most story missions from then on.
With how little I find interesting so far, why on earth did I spend 46 hours with this game? Well, its story and characters are some of the best I’ve seen in big budget videogames is one of the reasons. It’s not some mind-blowing plot that covers things that you’ve never seen before. But it’s told in a really good way with really well defined and written characters and lots of interesting situations and stories to explore and evolve these characters further. The main themes aren’t that much different from the previous game, but the game just explores them from many new perspectives and better.
Now, is it a story that should’ve taken 46 hours? Hell no. Everything that was great, including the moments of quiet, could’ve been easily fit in half that time. And in fact, the game would’ve been far better for that. I was genuinely tired and bored by the end, despite being interested in the characters, despite still finding things to praise. Rockstar just couldn’t help themselves and put pointless stuff in, expand and pad out story bits with unnecessary encounters and hell they even managed to take the brilliant concept of the Epilogue from the first game and make it way too long and tedious too. It’s as if Rockstar made the endings so good they were hoping the players would forget how much pointless bollocks was along the way due to how good it all becomes by the end.
Red Dead Redemption II is a unique game in many ways. I don’t think we will have a production as expensive, as huge, as detailed and as cinematic in videogames soon if ever. It is also the best Rockstar story to date and one of the best stories in big budget games of recent years. But it’s not a particularly fun game to play, almost a direct opposite to GTA V that was first and foremost fun. And it’s way too long for its own good, getting quite tedious and boring by the end. It’s something that I was glad to experience, but also a game that I will probably never ever revisit.