Red Dead Redemption 2 is a game I rather would have loved to watched than played. It aims to fully immerse you in its world with the most realistic ways possible. This is both its strength and faults.

The game play of RDR2 is a complicated mess. On one hand, I loved many aspects, but I did not love many more. For example, controls are clunky with Arthur having a mind of his own sometimes. Story missions are also repetitive with either a.) go from point a to point b while killing some people on your way there or b.) go through hordes of enemies. The gun play is fun enough in short bursts, but quickly becomes boring and stale the more enemies you kill in a row due to there not being any real creative ways to kill enemies. Couple this with Rockstar's outdated design with constantly feeling to need to hold your hand through missions. If you don't do it Rockstar's way, it's the wrong way. Plus, the game's realism bursts through with constantly having to wait long times with horse riding to the actual mission while listening to someone talk, or watching a 15 second animation of skinning or looting something. All the extra side stuff (hunting, fishing, etc) can be fun, but quickly becomes useless when money is easy to come by and food is even cheaper to buy than hunt for.

However, while all of the above frustrated me to no end, RDR2's commitment to enthrall you in its world shines through in the parts I loved the most. Red Dead Redemption 2's world is jaw dropping to explore and look at. The attention to detail to amazing and the type of people you meet are always incredible to see and interact with. I have never fallen in love more with the journeys of characters than with RDR2's cast. Seeing most of them dynamically shift and change throughout, brought to life by the impeccable animation and voice acting, made me push through the mediocre game play to see what happened next in the story. While the story gets a bit messy in the ending portion, it still remains as one of the best stories I have ever experienced in a game. Arthur Morgan is by far my most favorite main protagonist in any game due to his personal self journey and discovery.

The push and pull this story experiences with its cast is unlike any other game I have seen. The world, animation, attention to detail, voice acting, music, characters, and story are unlike anything I have ever seen in a game before. I just wish there was a game to stand side by side with it in all its greatness.

Red Dead Redemption 2 is a great game. It's one I am going to be thinking about for a long time. And while I may not have enjoyed actually playing it all that much, I would not trade the experience I had with this world for anything else.

For the longest time I really could not get into this game, that first chapter is really something I struggled with, but finally after all these years I sat down and forced myself through it and my god am I glad I did.

Obviously everyone has already praised this game to death and upon final completion, yeah I can definitely see why.

Once the story starts going, it really starts going with an interwoven plot that stretches the American West beautifully with loveable characters you really grow attached too, to the stunning scenery everywhere you look, to even the silly little side characters you meet once and never again.

No matter where you go or what you do there's almost always something waiting for you around the corner to get invested in.

Of course we can't talk about the story without our main man Arthur Morgan. There have been a million different reviews and video essays explaining why Arthur is one of gamings greatest protagonists so I won't really go too deep into it but what I will say is this: I think Arthur Morgan is a good man, and watching his arc unfold before my very eyes made me understand completely why people fell in love with him. I found myself missing him immediately during the epilogue, which I'll come back too.


Gameplay wise, I think Rockstar have almost perfected their formula. The gunplay is easily the best from any of their games. I love the fact that your character actually has to be maintained, eat food, rest, groom themselves with hair actually growing all the time, it really adds to the authenticity and role playing of it all that I just adored. And as said the world is so full of life that traversal doesn't feel anywhere near as monotonous as other rockstar entries. I do wish there were more overall customisations for Arthur though, especially when in the online mode there's so much more to offer but alas :/


I think my only complaints with this game are the beginning and the end, which I know sounds bad but stick with me.

I think if I go back to replay this game, which I see myself doing very shortly because the choices you make actually effect events which is awesome and adds even more replay value..

Ahem anyways, I think upon a replay the first chapter is probably gonna go down easier knowing what's to come but as mentioned I did find it a bit of a struggle to get through.

And the ending. I loved Arthur's ending, it's absolutely beautiful. But the epilogue? Ehhhh I'm mixed on it.

I think it could've worked better if it was cut in half. The first half of it feels like the opening to another game with more tutorials for some reason and then the second half just feels pointless for most of it with John just doing random side quests with Sadie. Honestly the entire thing just felt like they had a "oh shit we've still got some loose ends to tie up before we connect it to the first game".

The epilogue does have some nice moments, I loved building the house of course and John and Abigail getting engaged was adorable. But I didn't really find the ending ending anywhere near as satisfying as the Arthur ending.

I think maybe if they just did more of a montage-esque thing with just quick snippet missions of the ranch and finding uncle and Charles and then building the house and happy ever after instead of expanding it to another 2-3 hours.


Besides that however, yes I can absolutely see why people adore this game and I'm annoyed at myself for not getting around to it sooner.

There were a few moments in the story where I found myself questioning characters decision making but those were few and far between in an otherwise beautifully told narrative with amazing characters, an amazing world and gameplay that, once you're finally set free from the clutches of the mountain had me doing all sorts of things in this gorgeous western sandbox.

I'd definitely recommend this to, honestly pretty much everyone, whether you're a story buff or a sandbox buff.

In the words of IGN "a little something for everyone"

Because that's a great source to be quoting.