Red Dead Redemption 2 Forces You to Slow Down and It's For the Better

The scope for Red Dead Redemption 2 isn't necessarily tied to the "size" of the world, but instead its depth. From the short amount that we played of the game, relatively-speaking, I have no doubts that the Western world that Red Dead Redemption 2 is bringing to life will probably be massive. As recent trailers and screenshots for the game have highlighted several environments that players will explore throughout the game , such as the swamplands of St. Denis and the snow-capped mountains of Mount Hagen, there already seem to be a larger variety of different topographies, climates, and locations compared to Red Dead Redemption .

Now, while I enjoy that Red Dead Redemption 2 has built in so many things that force you to slow down, I think it's important to note that this probably isn't something I would want to see from every video game in existence. Trust me, I enjoy how streamlined most other games are now as much as the next guy. But in Red Dead Redemption 2 , I think I've started to see early on in my playthrough the larger purpose that Rockstar has with all of these added elements to the game.

The same can be said for Arthur Morgan. Are there moments of intense excitement in his life such as when he's robbing a train or watching the sunset over the plains? Absolutely. But even in the life of an outlaw on the run, you still have to make small decisions about whether or not you should take a bath or shave your face.

In Red Dead Redemption 2, that scale almost pales in comparison to Rockstar's dedication to making its world feel just about as real as the turn-of-the-century West can get. This includes everything from Arthur being able to take baths and shave, to being able to customize your guns, down to the metal inlays in the barrel and stock of each weapon. As Rockstar emphasized during our demo, the studio isn't necessarily aiming to make the game's world all about physical size and area, but about expanding the ways and methods that players can interact with the game's excruciatingly-detailed world, and how their actions and decisions will influence it.


Even after releasing in 2013, Grand Theft Auto V is still one of the top 10 best-selling titles each month, mostly because of its ever-expanding multi-player mode. Fans are continually surprised with how much content is being added to the game on a regular ba

Like I'm sure many of you have been doing, I've spent a portion of my weekend playing that new cowboy game everyone has been talking about. Red Dead Redemption 2 has been the game of choice in my off-time these past two days and even though I'm surely not as far into it as some others are, it's easy to see after any amount of playtime just how gorgeous its Open world Games collectibles-world is.

[pullquote]"The level of interactivity, mechanics, and systems available to players make Red Dead Redemption 2 as close as we can get to the living, breathing Western world that Rockstar is aiming to deliver."[/pullquote]

In the story sections that we played of Red Dead Redemption 2 , it's already clear that Arthur's relationships with the members of the Van der Linde gang will play a crucial role across the whole game, on larger and more personal levels. Right at the beginning of the demo, those relationships came into play as Arthur and the gang were preparing to rob a train under the ownership of the oil tycoon Leviticus Cornwall, which started with Arthur assisting Bill Williamson to blow up the train tracks and derail the car. Naturally, after that plan went awry, Arthur and several other members of the gang instead raced to the top of the nearby mountain path to hop on top of the train. In the midst of the action, we saw that Arthur can issue commands to the fellow gang members as they pushed towards the conductor car, making the action feel that much more involved when executing the heist alongside his other fellow gang members.

But unlike many others that I've talked to about this, I don't find myself turned off by any of these aspects of Red Dead Redemption 2 . In fact, I think these elements are Red Dead Redemption 2 ' s biggest strength from what I've played so far. Rather than just feeling like I'm another bland avatar that is filling a void within this larger open-world, Red Dead Redemption 2 is forcing me to live the actual (fictional) life of Arthur Morgan.


John agrees and puts on a spectacular show, ending with him knocking an unruly onlooker out. The feeble-minded crowd rushes the stand, buying Nigel West Dickens elixir en mass. Not crazily revolting, you lying piece of crap, but still dishonest. Until you find out that Nigel West Dickens elixir is poisoning people later in the game. So not are you dishonest, you’re also helping people ingest poison. Way to go John, way to


Two of this year’s biggest hit games, Horizon: Zero Dawn and The Legend of Zelda: The Breath of the Wild , have cemented this generation as the "open-world" gaming generation, and the latter, especially, is seen as an iterative step forward for the ge