I crashed Red Dead Redemption 2 like hell. The press received the game in the afternoon of October 16 - nine days to go through the story, evaluate the open world and outside activities. Nine days for the most important game of 2018, for seven years of work by a huge team of talented developers. But you still need to grab a day or two for the review itself. In nine days, I played almost 100 hours, completely passed the story, and the game as a whole closed 82%. This was hard. But do you know what I did after the end credits? I slept and went to play again. Because I wanted to see more. Because the game didn't go bad for me even in this mode. That says something, right?
Perhaps the worst thing to do in a Red Dead Redemption 2 review is to just list what you can do in the game and how detailed it all is. And I want to do it, because we have a play of possibilities here! Here you can wash in the bath - and this is a separate mini-game. You can rob almost all types of transport of that time - and everywhere will have their own characteristics. You can hunt and fish - these are separate games in the game, because almost two hundred species of animals and fifty fish are no joke to you. You can clean weapons, customize horse saddles, and camp in the woods. For example, just look at the details of hunting and the animal world of the game - there is such detail and mania in everything.
You can do it, you can do it - you can dryly list everything that is in Red Dead Redemption 2 and it will stretch for thousands and thousands of characters. And that doesn't really say anything about the game as a whole. The same situation (on a slightly smaller scale) was with GTA 5 and even the first Red Dead Redemption - this is the norm for Rockstar games. There is an incredible amount of everything in them.
It is much more important to figure out why all this is done, whether you want to do it and how the elements of the game are related to each other. And if you still want details - watch the stream recording, where I answered many questions about the mechanics of the game.
In my preview, I described the "flow" state and talked about how Red Dead Redemption 2 immerses the player in it and how it can be broken, at the same time breaking the game. Read (I’ll try not to repeat myself much, so the preview will well complement the review) - this is the most important thing for understanding the charm of RDR 2. If the game succeeds in this, then even bring quests and ordinary cases on the road in the spirit of "bandits attacked the stagecoach" or “the hunter fell into a trap” will work differently. They will start working in principle. These are no longer dull cliches, but quite real requests of real people. But you also need to be able to present it, arrange it natively, without copy-paste and protruding crutches. Rockstar knows how - this already makes their open worlds the best in their eras.
Yes, I loudly declare that Red Dead Redemption 2 is the best open world game ever released. But tell me honestly, did you think it would turn out differently?
What's funny is that Red Dead Redemption 2 is a lot like Kingdom Come, which got its well-deserved top ten . Her world is realistic - there is no place for bandits and incredible adventures hidden literally behind every bush. No one will jump around you trying to entertain every second. A huge field may just be a huge field - are there huge empty fields in the world? So, no one forces us to walk in them - the game is the same. And you can wade through the forest for a long, long time and you will not meet anyone except badgers.
And the next you can be shot from the trees by a gang of local maniacs, roasting people alive at bonfires. In the same place where you quietly tore burdocks yesterday. Because the world lives, the characters travel through it just like you.
But there is something more important. In fact, there is always something going on in the game world. You just don't always see it. Behind that line, right now, the gang is preparing to attack the ranch. And in the bushes behind that hill the traveler was bitten by a snake and he is slowly dying from poisoning - you can find him and suck the poison (I'm serious). On that mountain, a hunter camped, he has a perfectly shot deer with him, which he takes to the butcher in Valentine, perhaps someone will want to rid him of this carcass earlier ... And along the road you left two minutes ago, a stagecoach will pass, laden with wages for the miners in Annensberg. There is always something happening, but the game does not tell about it - look and bump yourself, that's the whole point. If you miss one thing, you will find another, it is impossible to see everything.
And still no one bothers to create stories on their own. Here's a lone rider gallops - say hello to him? Or maybe rob? Threats, shots in the air, and now he has already rushed over the horizon - his mare was faster, and your accuracy let you down. In an hour you will meet the same traveler in the city, he will recognize you, make a fuss and start a fight. You may have to go to jail.
But maybe you are lucky, in the same city, for example, a hunter rescued from a trap will recognize you, introduce you to a gunsmith, and give you a new rifle. The gunsmith, however, will not be glad to you and will throw a couple of caustic comments about the fight that you drunkenly arranged in the local saloon two days ago. And the owner of the hotel will meet at the reception with a bandaged head - because he flew in that very fight. All this can be a consequence of plot episodes, and absolutely random ones, arranged by you personally on the go. This is how the world of Red Dead Redemption 2 breathes. Therefore, this is the best Rockstar game, and every new Rockstar game is the best. Denis Knyazev has already spoken well on this topic in his column.
You intellectually understand how this system works. Imagine the complex chains of scripts and triggers that Rockstar programmers have been working on for 7 years, 100 hours a week. But the feeling is amazing. Ordinary nameless NPCs turn into people: kind, vindictive, cowardly, cocky - alive. And the world comes alive. And you are part of it. He constantly reacts to you - and not only with procedural bandits in the bushes.
What is really there, when even shootouts in Red Dead Redemption 2 work for the atmosphere. Auto aiming, which allows you to write out spectacular headshots to each enemy with a careful movement of the stick, is also part of the puzzle. So is the manic weapon detailing with in-depth reload animations. As well as the need for a separate button to distort the shutter after each shot. Nothing is done just like that, everything is in place and serves a single purpose - to create an experience.
This is what turns a "regular" game into a "role-playing" game. Not pumping and numbers, not even a choice in history, but the world itself and your place in it. It is important whether this world notices your presence, considers you to be its inhabitant, or simply adjusts the scenery and entertains you. There are dialogues here, but there is no choice - not an RPG now? In words, it seems, yes - it does not fit under GOST, but on feelings? In some dialogues, you can't even participate, they have a different goal - to show that the locals live their own lives, they have their own worries and problems, they do not necessarily concern you. At the same time, Red Dead Redemption has numbers, weapon parameters and other purely technical elements of the RPG genre, but this is not the point at all.
And besides: a shot to the head is a shot to the head, it doesn't matter what the gun and the head have. Any fall from a horse can be fatal, even if you've pumped up health. Do you understand? It's good that some games still remember this.
The developers have told me personally that their goal is to create a game, a world that you want to return to just to spend time in it. Live there. Not to clear the sides and research question marks on the map.
They did it. The only important sign of a successful open world in games is triggered - you want to stay in it longer, and postpone the plot further.
Every element of Red Dead Redemption 2 works for this. Not just the living inhabitants. Laconic music that complements the atmosphere. Incredible work with the sounds of wildlife, interiors and cities. Brilliant voice acting. A picture that paints the most amazing landscapes, the best weather effects in the industry and the most beautiful sunsets - such beautiful, volumetric lighting has never been in any game, and will not be for a long time. Take a look at our screenshots, although they do not convey the full picture. Long rides on horses, trains and stagecoaches, a thousand little things like having to eat, drink, dress for the weather, pick up a hat after a fight and feed a horse, clean it and calm it down after a firefight - all this enhances the immersion.
Red Dead Redemption 2 has a lot of pleasant, detailed and animated routines that you won't get tired of even after a hundred hours. Perhaps it will be enough for two hundred or a thousand. But the game does not slip into a hardcore survival simulator - it knows the measure in everything and weakens "realism" where necessary. She also knows where a long trip is worth skipping - Rockstar has an excellent sense of this business.
And, of course, the era itself is important. 1899 is a symbolic year, the decline of the Wild West, one step to the new century. Civilization came to the frontier, still inhabited by people who do not know life without violence and endless freedom. They have no place in the new world, and the old one is about to be taken away from them - the game tells about them. Disgusting but regrettable poor fellows.
The Wild West in Red Dead Redemption 2 is a world where Valentine coexists, a village soaked in mud and whiskey, a cartoon settlement from a western, and San Denis - a large city decommissioned from New Orleans, with electricity, restaurants, art galleries and other benefits of the new century ... There is a half hour drive between them. The past and the future are just one step away. San Denis grows, Valentine - and other places like it - dies. San Denis is dominated by the "elegant", neat Italian mafia (and you will have to deal with it), and outside the city walls there are still ragamuffins in bandanas on horseback. For now.
When the heroes come to the real city, they are looked at as eccentric rednecks. Like savages. Likewise, the first settlers once looked at the Indians - history loves irony.
The Wild West in Red Dead Redemption 2 is ugly and beautiful at the same time. Incredible nature and bone-chilling violence. The first wonders of civilization and the pitch-black smoke of factories covering the picturesque views of the city. Gentlemen in expensive tailcoats, and miners choking in the mines. "Clean" financial machinations and begging veterans of the Civil War. Elegant shoes and dirty boots bitten by an alligator in the swamps. All this in a variety of settings - from the classic prairie (the game has almost all regions from the first part - except Mexico) to swamps and snow-capped mountains. Visually, the game at different times is similar at once to all famous westerns - from "Django" and "The Hateful Eight" to "Bone Tomahawk" and all the classics of the genre. Ultimate, correct, beautiful western for everyone - whichever subgenre of this direction you prefer more.
In the review, I act like Rockstar itself - I talk a lot, a lot about the open world, but I am silent about the plot. Before the release, it seemed that they didn't pay much attention to it in the studio. At one time I was generally afraid that another survivor would be planted on us. Fortunately, the reality is not so - in Red Dead Redemption 2, purely story content for 50-70 hours. From the videos, you can cut a series for several seasons. This is not counting the "big" side quests, from which whole story arcs follow, separated from the main story.
Do you know what's best about it? There are no mechanics pushing the player into the openworld - no pauses for "do the sidewalls until a new story quest opens." You can just sit down and go through only the plot. Yes, it turns out that it was possible.
But I don't recommend doing that. I described all the delights of the open world above, but there are those very large side quests. They can take two to three hours of time, they are not always easy to find, and they are insignificant and infrequent, but they affect the main plot. But what they always do is tell cool, self-contained stories. It is a sin to let it pass. Otherwise, how will you get acquainted with the local analogue of Tesla (developers traditionally avoid real names) and help him build a robot? How will you become a wild-western detective and go to investigate mystical cases in a village lost in the swamps? How will you help the Mayor of San Denis solve a lot of sensitive issues and test the first-ever electric chair?
Courage, proprietary rockstar satire, adventures that get out of the main agenda, and a deeper disclosure of the main characters are all here. Some of the sides would work for some DLCs as well. But Rockstar is not greedy.
Fortunately, the main storyline does not drown in the background of the often insane stories from the sides. Largely thanks to the main characters, of whom there are a lot - everything does not rest on one Arthur Morgan. Dutch, Marston, the gang itself are equally important characters. You will memorize all the names. And all, of course, are disgusting scoundrels and murderers who want a free, albeit not very peaceful life.
The gang will change. Dutch will also change - at the beginning of the game, you will never recognize him as the infinite from the first part. His transformation is one of the most interesting themes of the game, you can understand him, you watch his actions with excitement, but you can't get into his head, even after the finale there will be something to think about. This is a story of sad, lost souls that society only accepts when they pretend to be someone. The rest is a series of suffering and failure. They are to blame for something, but for something ... well, it's just that their time has passed.
It's hard to describe the delights of Red Dead Redemption 2's story in more detail without slipping into spoilers. But neither my conscience nor the embargo allows me to do this. So just know - the plot is great and it is written at a good book level. He surprises, turns everything completely unexpectedly and does not regret the feelings of the player, puts pressure on the patient and acts with the unscrupulousness of a bandit when needed. Even on the agenda of feminism, it jumps deftly and appropriately - after all, in those years, the movement for the right of women to vote was in full swing. Yes, yes, the spirit of the era here turned out to be no worse than that of Ubisoft. Unless the developers touched on the issues of racism casually and very politically - but you can understand them.
But more importantly, the story intelligently reveals the prerequisites for the plot of the first part and lasts exactly as long as needed. Well, maybe a little longer, okay - Rockstar still likes to tighten up individual missions and smudge the arches that would have looked better in a more concise version. But the characters here are subtly inscribed with characters and personal stories, but they still need to be dug out - communicating, running with the characters on a hunt and fishing, helping on trifles. The camp should become your second home, and the gang should become your family. Only in this way will the story be revealed most fully.
As for Arthur ... he is an amazing hero. You will remember him, I promise, and his story - no matter how scoundrel he is - will become very personal and touching for many. Yes, there is a place to cry. The evolution of his personality is presented in a standard and very vital way. He is mired in sins, but the easier it is to associate him with himself. And although it is rare, it is possible to influence his decisions.
Red Dead Redemption 2 is not a perfect game. There are none, in principle, and a dozen are always emotions and compromise. We already wrote about this in the Kingdom Come review . In the adventures of Arthur Morgan, you can find a thousand flaws and minor flaws. Well, you know, here the beard goes through the collars and the bow through the hat. Trees are too "flat", animals dull and throw themselves under the horse. And sometimes a bug can happen! Filler missions that delay the plot are also seriously annoying for many in Rockstar games - there are fewer of them, but they are still there. I only walk along the very top.
Red Dead Redemption 2 is the best open world game in existence today. And, of course, this is the best Rockstar game ever. The oldest. The most beautiful and thoughtful. Huge, but almost without unnecessary elements. This is not a GTA about horses. This is a new level for the studio, an important step in its development, and in the development of video games in general. It is a must play if you love video games. I rarely say that.
But the funny thing is that I cannot call RDR 2 a new generation game. This game is just the current generation! Just everything that was about the open world after GTA 5 - marking time, increasing the scale, grafon and "points of interest" on the map. Now let's see how it all works online.
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