Red dead redemption 2 Review

Gritty cowboy fun with a healthy dose of realism and stat management.

Read Dead Redemption 2… the one we have been waiting for, out of the gate broke records and won awards and that’s before the highly anticipated Read Dead online is released.

It had been long enough since the first game that i could hardly remember all the adventures i had in the world of Read Dead Redemption. But the second i got into Red Dead 2 it all came rushing back.

As most will know Red Dead Redemption 2 is a prequel to the last game, so we will be seeing John Marston again! Thank you rockstar, the world of Read Dead has only gotten more immersive and beautiful, the detail that has been put into this game to make you feel as though you are living the life of an outlaw is insane.

You have to wear appropriate clothing for the weather, keep an eye on your temperature as you might have to layer down. That’s not all, you have your facial hair that will grow over time so you need to shave, it brings a whole new feel and authenticity to the character customisation, makes the connection you have with the main character all the more meaningful.

Following that, I bet you were wondering, how will they replace the custom cars from GTA online in Read Dead. Obviously we all saw horses coming but did you see customizable manes, tails saddles, stirrups and horns (the bit you hold on to between your legs on a saddle).

Yeah the customisation is pretty awesome, and again it makes you really care for your horse, then you name it and it just turns into the purest of love, I was genuinely sad when my horse died. I literally was galloping along a path and slightly knocked another riders horse, this sent me flying off my beloved Pepsi, when i finally got back on my feet the horrible git shot Pepsi in the head and rode off and that was it, the end of Pepsi. (I couldn’t accept it so I got another horse and customised it and named it exactly the same)

You spend just as much time taking care of your horse as you do to yourself, brushing, patting feeding your horse, and spending all that time riding to increase your bond, so trust me when I say you will almost cry when you lose your buddy(my horse was called pepsi and I would restart the game to get her back).

When it comes to story I honestly don’t want to ruin anything, but I love it so far, all you need to know is that it’s about John’s old gang and their story.

In short the story follows the gang after they have been ran out of Black water as wanted criminals, and you all try to build your life back up to the fortune you had before.

The story can be a bit inconsistent however, as at the start you are constantly reminded you want to keep a low profile and a couple hours later it is all guns blazing “who are we going to rob”, There’s a lot of padding to the story, still enjoyable just has some inconsistencies.

You will also quite quickly notice that Dutch is always the one saying let’s all pitch in funds for the camp from everything you make… he does not donate a single penny towards the camps welfare. (But one of the first housing upgrades is because he wants something nicer to sleep in)

Moving on to graphics, the game is stunning, absolutely beautiful every detail is there, the flowing mane of your horse with the detailed moving muscles as you plough through the wastelands of the west, the forests, the animals that live there.

The whole world is amazingly detailed and is just plain breathtaking, even when you walk through the snow you leave a trail and it looks awesome.

You just end up completely involved with the world.

To back it all up as you can imagine the sound is again stunningly detailed, roaring bears as they charge, the huff of your horse as you push her to her limits even the ambient sound of a river flowing while you trot along the side atop the side of a cliff.

I find that sound in a game like this could easily fall by the wayside, but it is a huge deal, it does so much to the game, the detail and quality of the sound completes Red Dead’s immersion, in my opinion all those details you hear and usually pay no notice to make all the difference, when you hear the husk of a grizzly and spin around to see it crashing and rushing towards you that sound made all the detail, that sound is what made you jump. Safe to say the audio quality in Red dead redemption is no slouch.

To add to it all the feature set is really immersive, I have already mentioned the care aspect of both you and your horse, but things like a new morality system and a much more strict and easy to be at fault law in the west all things that make for a real great feel of realism to Read Dead.

The best feature to me however is the camp donation system, so in the simplest way you can complete bounties to raise money for your camps pot or donate your own, the funds can then be used to upgrade your camp with upgrades like better food stables and weapons caches.

I can not fully describe how amazing Read Dead is, and i can not imagine how wicked the online will be if the story is this good.

The sheer size of the 60 plus hours of story with more side missions and random events than you can shake a steerup at, even the characters you meet are amazing.

My favourite mission so far is one where you are found hunting down legendary gunslingers, and stealing their weapons after taking pictures of their dead bodies. And that was a stranger mission (side mission).

Again i can only imagine what online will be like, if it follows suit with gta online and is the Read Dead 2 version, it should only get better.

SUMMARY

Amazing world with an amazing story and a feature set that can only be described as full and completely immersive.