All you’d have to do is to play Red Dead Redemption 2 for a couple of hours before coming to the conclusion that this game is simply awesome. Or just look at the gameplay videos posted on Youtube, thousand of hours of gameplay footage being shared. And almost universally, the reaction has always been “Wow”. Rockstar is one of those companies that take their time with every game release, and they do it for very good reason. Just about every aspect in Red Dead Redemption 2 from the level of detail, to the graphics, to the voice acting is just on another level. Since it’s been just over a month since this iconic title was released, here’s a brief review.
GRAPHICS
Let me start off with one of the strongest points RDR2 has; graphics. Considering that the game runs on consoles that have been around for five odd years, the graphics it provides are simply astounding. The reflections, effects, physics, and everything from the tiniest blade of grass has been designed with expert craftsmanship. I mean, sure, if you take most video games of the current date, they all have an extreme level of detail. Stuff you won’t normally notice unless you are specifically looking for it. But do any of them top RDR2? I doubt it.
One of the secrets Rockstar used to develop realistic graphics is to take stuff you see around you in everyday life and embed it into their world. If you’re patient enough, you’ll notice the slow, realistic way that the clouds in the sky move or the gently changing motion of the shadows that have a very accurate reflection of the sun.
GAMEPLAY
Talking all the subtle aspects of the game, there are plenty of little things embedded into the gameplay that enhance your experience massively. If you were to brush on a tree that had snow on it, you would see snow falling off in little pieces. Every horse-drawn carriage leaves their own separate mud tracks, and the mud can be seen accumulating on the wheels of the carriage. What’s even better about this game is that even though Rockstar clearly sweats the small stuff, they sweat the bigger stuff a lot more. The physics the game has is simply amazing, with realistic explosions, gunshots, motion, and a ton of other stuff that is bound to make you believe you are living in the Wild West.
In addition to this, Rockstar gently introduces you to the mechanisms that underlie the game without making it boring or long. As the player, you’re supposed to concentrate on every step you take, since when you are playing, you and Arthur aren’t two separate people. You’re supposed to feel exactly what he feels, know exactly what he knows. Granted, with the level of immersive RDR2 provides, that ain’t particularly hard.
Hunting has been around in video games for quite a while now, but they generally don’t take you through the entire hunting process, which is something RDR2 does. The reason why most games tend to skip out some parts of hunting is that they’re sure if they were to put in every single boring detail, their players would never bother to hunt. After all, who doesn’t want to know the exact way to skin a deer, or to bait a fish, huh?
However, RDR2 balances this beautifully, giving its players both an enjoyable and realistic hunting experience, without making it tiresome or repetitive. While you think that you don’t notice these things, it’s these subtle aspects of the game, along with stuff like dynamic weather patterns, the way the environment around you slowly changes, and the way every single leaf of a tree shakes, all add up to show the terrific effort put in by the developers.
VOICE ACTING
According to Rockstar, RDR2 used over 700 voice actors to individually mold out every single one of the game’s characters, may they be a main character, or an NPC you might as well never meet. It’s one of the many surprisingly great things that you’ll notice when playing the game.
This is no simple feat since it is one of the major factors that contribute to the realism in the game. In the same way the people around you speak differently, so do the NPC’s. When it comes to the main characters, they rarely say the same thing twice, and in fact seem to have something to say about the exact situation you are in at that point. But out of all, the best voice acting was undoubtedly that of the protagonist, Arthur’s.
His massive vocabulary gives him the perfect personality that reflects a real person, and what he says changes with every little thing that happens to him. Wanna know something interesting? The voice actors of the main characters even look like the characters they voice. I mean, if you spent years voicing someone, I guess it’s only a matter of time before you start sharing the look.
STORYLINE
Some games are known for having great main quests, but terrible side quests. Some games do it the other way around. In RDR2, you wouldn’t know the difference, because both the main quests and the side quests are so well done that you sometimes aren’t even able to classify a mission as a side quest or main quest. Every single one of their animations is perfect, and the lip sync between the voices and the animated figures goes flawlessly. With Easter eggs hidden all around the storyline, and a deliberate focus on making every character as non-generic as possible, RDR2 really nails it’s 45+ hours on story mode… and that’s only counting the main quests. That considered, RDR 2 wouldn’t be such a terrible purchase, since you’ll be playing it till just about forever!
While the story behind Rockstars’ famous franchise, Grand Theft Auto, relies on specifically being the bad guys, RDR2 gives you a lot of options, and while some critics initially claimed that the game was basically Grand Theft Auto with horses, a couple of hours into the gameplay and that idea will doubtlessly be forgotten.
CONCLUSION
In this current day and age, it’s not easy to make a video game that’ll get you as many positive ratings as RDR2 did, but the reason behind their success was clearly due to the devotion and effort everyone from the developers to the testers to the voice actors and everyone else put in.
Ramesh Radhakrishnan
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