Review: Red Dead Redemption 2

Another item you'll want to snag in your travels is the ancient tomahawk, located East of the Wapiti Indian Reservation, on the Eastern part of the Calumet Ravine. It lies embedded and forgotten in an old tree trunk, awaiting its new dest

Dice is bringing their FPS expertise to Star Wars: Battlefront Holiday 2015. We can’t wait for them to use their knowledge harnessed over many Battlefield games to create the ultimate Battlefront experience. You know which Battlefield game Dice shouldn’t model Battlefront after? Battlefield 4. Undoubtedly the worst launch of 2013, Battlefield 4 was a huge mess with numerous bugs, glitches, and netcode issues. Nobody wants to open world Game strategy a brand new multiplayer game at launch and find out its unplayable. That’s what happened with Battlefield 4 and a whole bunch of games in 2014. In fact, let’s make 2015 the opposite of 2014 and have every game work properly at launch, please!

Getting back on topic, the problem with the controls is that they can be overly finicky. For example, mounting your horse and strangling a nearby pedestrian are assigned to the same button for whatever reason. Same goes with interacting with an item on the ground and say vaulting over a railing to your death. Throwing dynamite while in cover can also be hazardous as more than often it found itself on the cover in front of us. In addition, dealing with a horse is the biggest pain in the ass than anything else in video games and Red Dead Redemption 2 is no exception. The difference between this and Grand Theft Auto is that your vehicle won’t run away when it hears gunfire, ensuring you fail a mission when you need him. The physics can be a little wonky, too, as we had multiple instances where the horse could easily make a small dip or go over a rock, but instead decided to trip over its own feet, dying in the process once in a while. We even had an instance where it ran into another rider while in the cinematic camera angle (which allows you to put the controller down as the horse gallops to a set destination), something the recipient of the crash was not too happy about. Finally, I don’t know who thought it was a good idea to assign the run button (tapping X) to the horse, but there has to be a better way. As you can see, I’m not a big fan of horses in video games, as it consistently feels like you’re fighting with them, which doesn’t help with the already finicky controls.

Throughout this review, I may have seemed a little hard on Red Dead Redemption 2, but the overall package is nothing short of spectacular. It has its share of issues involving controls, but the vast majority of the experience is unforgettable. Rockstar has created the single most immersive Wild West game yet, with an intelligently-written story, a compelling core cast of characters, highly-engaging scenarios and a diverse open world to explore. The visuals are also truly stunning, with a substantial amount of detail put into each environment and character model, not to mention the extraordinary lighting techniques. The world is just ripe for exploration; it may not be the densest place out there, and I do wish there was a larger emphasis on hunting, but there’s still a ton to see and do. With around fifty hours to complete the main campaign, and even more if you do all of the other side activities, a game such as Red Dead Redemption 2 doesn’t come around this often. All I can say is wow.

Outside of that, Rockstar has created an engaging system that allows you to rob shops, stagecoaches and even trains full of people at any time. All you need to do is put on mask (if you don’t want to get caught) and start demanding the goods. If you do most of the story, you won’t need to do this all that often as you’ll be rolling in dough, but it’s a fun way to de-stress. The Wanted system is also back, as the more heinous of crimes you commit and people witness, the higher the bounty is put on your head. You can change your disguise or grow your hair and facial hair out to avoid being recognized, but you’ll probably want to pay it off the fee to avoid bounty hunters coming at you in the wild. Alternatively, if you catch up to a witness, you can threaten them, or if a police officer sees it taking place, you can defuse the situation if it’s not too damaging of a crime. Occasionally it can be a confusing why you’re immediately pinpointed as the perpetrator, though, as we’ve had a number of instances where we killed someone, a pedestrian comes across the body while we’re nowhere to be found, and yet a bounty is set on our character. Overall, though, the system works fine and can even be entertaining to chase witnesses down as they plead for their lives.

Calling Red Dead Redemption Grand Theft Equine is a dumb joke, even by my standards, but the GTA influence is as visible as the scars on John's face. The game is played in a large open world map that spans part of Mexico and part of the western American frontier, divided into three regions that are unlocked as the story progresses. John's actions can influence his fame and honor which have an impact on how townspeople react to him. Helping innocent people fight off bandits may improve his reputation but gunning down those same innocent townsfolk will have the opposite effect. Like GTA titles there is a wanted system, where if John decides to commit crimes he can attract the attention of the law and depending on how far he wants to take it this may escalate into military involvement. John can surrender to the law men, kill them all or simply high tail it out of there until the heat dies down. The problem with the last two options is the law might give up on John but that just means they've decided to send a bounty hunter after him so they don't have to deal with him themselves.