This review contains spoilers
Great game primarily carried by it's protagonist.
First thing first that's easiest to point out is how gorgeous the game looks, not just the landscape of American frontier which looks like it was pulled straight out of a painting but even more urban areas like the main city of St. Denis and other smaller dusty towns perfectly capture the time period.
Rockstar poured bank into making this game and I suppose it's no surprise since GTA 5 and GTA online made all the money in the world, but it really shows. Attention to detail to the smallest thing to incredible animations right down to picking individual items of a store shelves and pocketing them in your satchel to fully skinning wild animals or the meme that was shrinking horse testicles in cold weather it's all very impressive for a time at least.
It does require certain level of engagement, slower approach to experiencing the content a more relaxed sit back kind of approach - cinematic is the word I'm dancing around here. However this commitment to realism and immersion does seem misguided at times. It's like the game is trying to impress you with few really good magic tricks that it keep recycling, where you go "Wow that's really awesome" and then you see it again and go "This is great" and then you see it again and say "I've seen this before but it still looks good" and then you see it again and go "Ok I know what is happening here". Prime example horse balls or essentially cold weather mechanic in general if you can call it that. Considering 95% of the game takes place in "hot temperature" there was no real reason to have these things except I suppose for free marketing online.
I guess what I'm trying to say in this word spaghetti is that the game focuses on things that impress you short term that evaporates quickly instead of putting that effort on something that will stick with you for a long time, well except for one thing that I eluded earlier that is Arthur Morgan the protagonist of the game although that's more of a compliment to the writing team and the voice actor rather than the actual game system developers. Indeed if it wasn't for his stellar performance and interesting interactions between other characters, side story missions or other NPC's in the world I wouldn't have finished the game.
When it comes to extra stuff beside the story itself there really isn't a whole lot there, I mean you have hunting which is alright at best I do wish the animal hides/pelts could have been used for upgrading stuff kinda like in Far Cry 3 instead of being solely for cosmetics. I sure hope you like horse riding tho because you gonna be doing it a lot. Unfortunately without Rhianna playing in the background it is a lot more tedious to get from one side of the map to the other compared to GTA. Last chapter in general despite having the best story beats it also has a lot of riding back and forth for long distances and it did get a little tedious.
The guns are fine for the most part and there's a bit of customization you can do this is probably where you gonna spend the most amount of cash you earn. They are satisfying to use especially when you see the slow mo Max Payne 3 style kill cams or some gory dismemberment, I gotta say it did upset me that the latest guns in the repeater and shotgun categories were unlocked super late in the game, you could use them for like 2-3 mission if you don't bother with the epilogue. Speaking of which, firstly the epilogue is way too long and maybe I would have given more of a shit if I had played the original Red Dead but man I did not really vibe with the way they wrapped up the story with Micah. They already had this climax at the end in chapter 6 this is were they should have wrapped it all up and then in we go with the epilogue 1hr or less to set up the events of the first game instead the game does drag on a bit too long I mean what other game you've seen with 6+ hour long epilogue, besides Nier I guess. Well come to think of it most of the villain/antagonist deaths were quite unsatisfying maybe with the exception for O'Driscoll.
It's a big game and I think with more casual approach and if you had played the original Red Dead you will appreciate this game and what it stands for a lot more than me.
First thing first that's easiest to point out is how gorgeous the game looks, not just the landscape of American frontier which looks like it was pulled straight out of a painting but even more urban areas like the main city of St. Denis and other smaller dusty towns perfectly capture the time period.
Rockstar poured bank into making this game and I suppose it's no surprise since GTA 5 and GTA online made all the money in the world, but it really shows. Attention to detail to the smallest thing to incredible animations right down to picking individual items of a store shelves and pocketing them in your satchel to fully skinning wild animals or the meme that was shrinking horse testicles in cold weather it's all very impressive for a time at least.
It does require certain level of engagement, slower approach to experiencing the content a more relaxed sit back kind of approach - cinematic is the word I'm dancing around here. However this commitment to realism and immersion does seem misguided at times. It's like the game is trying to impress you with few really good magic tricks that it keep recycling, where you go "Wow that's really awesome" and then you see it again and go "This is great" and then you see it again and say "I've seen this before but it still looks good" and then you see it again and go "Ok I know what is happening here". Prime example horse balls or essentially cold weather mechanic in general if you can call it that. Considering 95% of the game takes place in "hot temperature" there was no real reason to have these things except I suppose for free marketing online.
I guess what I'm trying to say in this word spaghetti is that the game focuses on things that impress you short term that evaporates quickly instead of putting that effort on something that will stick with you for a long time, well except for one thing that I eluded earlier that is Arthur Morgan the protagonist of the game although that's more of a compliment to the writing team and the voice actor rather than the actual game system developers. Indeed if it wasn't for his stellar performance and interesting interactions between other characters, side story missions or other NPC's in the world I wouldn't have finished the game.
When it comes to extra stuff beside the story itself there really isn't a whole lot there, I mean you have hunting which is alright at best I do wish the animal hides/pelts could have been used for upgrading stuff kinda like in Far Cry 3 instead of being solely for cosmetics. I sure hope you like horse riding tho because you gonna be doing it a lot. Unfortunately without Rhianna playing in the background it is a lot more tedious to get from one side of the map to the other compared to GTA. Last chapter in general despite having the best story beats it also has a lot of riding back and forth for long distances and it did get a little tedious.
The guns are fine for the most part and there's a bit of customization you can do this is probably where you gonna spend the most amount of cash you earn. They are satisfying to use especially when you see the slow mo Max Payne 3 style kill cams or some gory dismemberment, I gotta say it did upset me that the latest guns in the repeater and shotgun categories were unlocked super late in the game, you could use them for like 2-3 mission if you don't bother with the epilogue. Speaking of which, firstly the epilogue is way too long and maybe I would have given more of a shit if I had played the original Red Dead but man I did not really vibe with the way they wrapped up the story with Micah. They already had this climax at the end in chapter 6 this is were they should have wrapped it all up and then in we go with the epilogue 1hr or less to set up the events of the first game instead the game does drag on a bit too long I mean what other game you've seen with 6+ hour long epilogue, besides Nier I guess. Well come to think of it most of the villain/antagonist deaths were quite unsatisfying maybe with the exception for O'Driscoll.
It's a big game and I think with more casual approach and if you had played the original Red Dead you will appreciate this game and what it stands for a lot more than me.