Red Dead Redemption 2 is the craziest game I've ever played in terms of realism. Never in any other game have I ever been so wowed by the dedication it has to realism. I don't think any other game will be able to top this for a long time. For this alone it's worth playing to experience.
The realism stems from several different places in the game, and the first many will notice is the animations. Whatever system they have in place for characters to look at and pick up these items in world, realistically throwing them into their bag is simply nuts. Looting bodies, your character has to go through an animation to rummage through the other persons pockets. Granted, there will be some who just want the item to pop into their inventory and will see this as "lost time" but in terms of the most immersive and realistic game to date... it's incredible. Beyond "actions" you have muscles on horses moving realistically, dusters and coats blowing in the wind, trees swaying, I could go on and on about how every one of these minute details just works in a harmony that I've never seen before.
The other thing that blows my socks off in the realism department is the "idle" animations, specifically of the animals. If you're lucky, you might see two elk fighting between the trees in the woods. Birds will swoop down to lakes to catch fish. NPC's and your character will shift their body weight around when waiting. It's insane.
That aside, you might be wondering if the story is good and let me tell you, yeah it's good. It was always interesting to boot it up and experience a few stories that embody that ol' caricature of the wild west. The most fascinating thing that I kept coming back to was the conflict in the main character, Arthur, and how the industrial revolution in America was slowly but surely killing off the ways of the "cowboys and outlaws". It was thought provoking enough to keep me wondering about the characters even when I wasn't playing the game, so I'd say that it succeeded there.
The gameplay loop was engaging, and I felt like the controls were tight enough that no death or mission failure was outside of my control, and many missions let you tackle them however you wanted with whatever weapon loadout you wanted. Beyond that, the gun customization is out of this world, letting you add attachments that give raw boosts to stats, while otherwise letting you customize the appearance, like what kind of wood the weapon is made from. It's such a surprisingly complex and in depth system.
And that brings me to my only personal gripe with the game... there's so much to do... so so much to do. That it's overwhelming haha. I often found myself bee-lining for the story missions because I was attracted to the narrative the most, and what I found in my time in the world, is that the longer the story drew itself out, the less I felt compelled to experiment in the open world, and experience side missions and activities. The newness of it all, and the shock value of the realism also just kinda slowly faded away as I played more and more story missions... that seemingly go on forever haha. Though in its defense, I don't think the ending to RDR2 would have had the same utterly profound impact, had I not spent as much time as they made me spend with those characters, and within
Arthurs mind, but it's still something I have to bring up.
And I think GTAV had the same effect on me. There's just something about the Rockstar formula that doesn't sit well with me... I think of the time I spent playing Witcher 3, and while it might not be a fair comparison for many reasons, I spent well over 100 hours playing it, and still wanted MORE after that, and it didn't feel like 100 hours. Something about the Rockstar formula for me, makes it so I can feel every hour that passes, so that when I hit the conclusion, I'm satisfied with the story finale and the finality of its gameplay loop, even after a mere 50 hours.
That aside: This is a near perfect masterpiece. I think that any player from any background will be able to enjoy their time in RDR2 with any number of activities and side content, so much so that I truly believe you can spend an infinite amount of time in this game. NameBrand.
The realism stems from several different places in the game, and the first many will notice is the animations. Whatever system they have in place for characters to look at and pick up these items in world, realistically throwing them into their bag is simply nuts. Looting bodies, your character has to go through an animation to rummage through the other persons pockets. Granted, there will be some who just want the item to pop into their inventory and will see this as "lost time" but in terms of the most immersive and realistic game to date... it's incredible. Beyond "actions" you have muscles on horses moving realistically, dusters and coats blowing in the wind, trees swaying, I could go on and on about how every one of these minute details just works in a harmony that I've never seen before.
The other thing that blows my socks off in the realism department is the "idle" animations, specifically of the animals. If you're lucky, you might see two elk fighting between the trees in the woods. Birds will swoop down to lakes to catch fish. NPC's and your character will shift their body weight around when waiting. It's insane.
That aside, you might be wondering if the story is good and let me tell you, yeah it's good. It was always interesting to boot it up and experience a few stories that embody that ol' caricature of the wild west. The most fascinating thing that I kept coming back to was the conflict in the main character, Arthur, and how the industrial revolution in America was slowly but surely killing off the ways of the "cowboys and outlaws". It was thought provoking enough to keep me wondering about the characters even when I wasn't playing the game, so I'd say that it succeeded there.
The gameplay loop was engaging, and I felt like the controls were tight enough that no death or mission failure was outside of my control, and many missions let you tackle them however you wanted with whatever weapon loadout you wanted. Beyond that, the gun customization is out of this world, letting you add attachments that give raw boosts to stats, while otherwise letting you customize the appearance, like what kind of wood the weapon is made from. It's such a surprisingly complex and in depth system.
And that brings me to my only personal gripe with the game... there's so much to do... so so much to do. That it's overwhelming haha. I often found myself bee-lining for the story missions because I was attracted to the narrative the most, and what I found in my time in the world, is that the longer the story drew itself out, the less I felt compelled to experiment in the open world, and experience side missions and activities. The newness of it all, and the shock value of the realism also just kinda slowly faded away as I played more and more story missions... that seemingly go on forever haha. Though in its defense, I don't think the ending to RDR2 would have had the same utterly profound impact, had I not spent as much time as they made me spend with those characters, and within
Arthurs mind, but it's still something I have to bring up.
And I think GTAV had the same effect on me. There's just something about the Rockstar formula that doesn't sit well with me... I think of the time I spent playing Witcher 3, and while it might not be a fair comparison for many reasons, I spent well over 100 hours playing it, and still wanted MORE after that, and it didn't feel like 100 hours. Something about the Rockstar formula for me, makes it so I can feel every hour that passes, so that when I hit the conclusion, I'm satisfied with the story finale and the finality of its gameplay loop, even after a mere 50 hours.
That aside: This is a near perfect masterpiece. I think that any player from any background will be able to enjoy their time in RDR2 with any number of activities and side content, so much so that I truly believe you can spend an infinite amount of time in this game. NameBrand.