I’ve got a problem with Red Dead Redemption 2, it is hardly a game. It is a beautiful gallery of the turn of the century architecture in the New Orleans-style city, post-civil war battlefields, and the second industrial revolutionary townships in the south. However, the game part of this game is half-baked and the story is just awful. Though the focus for almost everyone has been on the immersion of the game, for something as beautiful as it is, it breaks every gaming convention.

Yes, the game is beautiful, the atmosphere and the aesthetics are taking you back to an era you’ve never been to. The dangerous days of the dying wild west as Arthur Morgan, a gunslinger in the rogue’s gallery of Duch van der Linde’s gang. An outlaw with a purpose on the edge of a dying breed, on the run from the law, and running towards any promise of money.

There is no denying the world and depth thereof is next level, though it stands that the game on top is as deep as a puddle. Every mission for Dutch is the usual, “get money, fail, try again, and listen to Vass on the meaning of insanity.” That explains the writing of Dan Houser and the others for the last decade, insanity. It is merely repeating the same theory of betrayal, revenge, and a desire for money; something Rockstar has been pursuing with the greed of a turn of the century gangster. Though the company isn’t the point.

Much like my attitude to this review so far, the development team strayed from what they were meant to be doing, the story and gameplay are worlds apart. Something done almost to perfection back in 2013 for Grand Theft Auto V, is left to the side to pull you into the usual world filled with “random events” often happening á I’heure juste, or regularly. I don’t want to count the time I’ve met the man who gets kicked by his horse, the eugenics man in Saint Denis, and everyone else that returns. They are the usual parlor tricks around the seams of the creation, frayed and withered, still not the point.

The point of this whole thing is the details, the stories around the water cooler, and glimpses of originality. My favorite story of my own was hunting a skunk on horseback, pitch-black of the night, and I hear some racisms in the woods off the edge of the road. I hop off the horse, get some guns (I’ll return to this gripe), and find the Klan having one of their weekly meetings: mostly done in something they hate, darkness. Nonetheless, I took out some dynamite, threw in something to light the place up for a moment, and soon after, all I could smell was dead pony and grand wizard.

These little stories of creeping off into the woods, blowing men all over the place, and stamping fires out from the cross that’s fallen on a now-dead horse, are mostly reserved for Grindr and the internet. I’ve hogtied the eugenics man and left him like Gloria Swanson or Mabel Normand’s silent movie roles, or I’ve fed him to animals, but so has everyone. It is the moments when you think you have done something no one else has; possibly thinking the team at Rockstar hadn’t thought of that strike you. Those few and fleeting moments are when immersion achieves what it wants, though once you’ve played for more than 10-20 hours they’ve all gone.

Somewhere between 80-120 hours in over several months of play, the story is not the reason I keep coming back. I keep coming back because it is Westworld. A wide, open vista filled with all your western-based dreams, making up for that extensive void that is the story. The point of the game is not to play the designed experience of one creator with a vision for a crime fantasy in the west, but instead is meant to give you a box for one to interact with everyone how they see fit. Without the verbose nature of my explanation, it is not a philosophy of robots and humans.

Though I do feel I am right, the Westworld comparison fits quite well as the movie was several worlds, not the HBO single western. To lean into the philosophy aspect, games are our own little adventure parks; some open and others more linear. Hoping I don’t sound so pretentious, this is the first game that brings that full idea of something being constructed for the purpose of letting the world do the heavy lifting and not the single-player narrative taking center stage.

Now I’ve set up the best part, let’s talk about the gameplay: it is hell. If you are the type of boring sod that would rather pick up every-single-piece-of-a-puzzle-as-you-put-it-in-a-box, instead of swiping it all back in from the edge of the coffee table, this is your game. Every movement and animation is specifically laid out so if you want a box of ammo, you’ll be picking up no more than what’s in a box each time. A piece of cheese is a piece of cheese. It sounds simple, but ninety-nine point nine percent of games would make this easier on the player and developer.

To return to the point I stumbled into earlier, your horse will steal your weapons every godforsaken time that hunk of glue gets a chance. It is more realistic to see Arthur put the guns in the saddle, yes; though it is a [insert expletives here] game. The point is not that I am to be in a dysentery filled hole, though I want to step into a facsimile of that time and world. The game isn’t devalued by a bit of video game magic or mystery, but when you are shot in the head and killed when pulling out a shotgun, you might want to forgive my swearing for ten minutes.

The video game magic is good enough when we have a weapon wheel of the entire US military (at the time) on a bloody horse. How about the fact that I have several hundred books and notes in a satchel the size of Thumbelina on my hip, half a pantry of food, and several sticks of dynamite? Video game magic will work when it is convenient, though when it can get on the wobbly fat between my nips, there’s no need for magic. Yes, this push for realism while it isn’t entirely realistic does get on my nerves.

Though it is not just the glue with hooves that has this kind of problem. Everything from ordering a drink, playing a hand of poker, walking down the street, and all of the above take longer than a hooker’s accounts being read at her funeral. Between the Arthur-Tron Model.1899B controlling like a tank on a wet morning and every box being neatly placed to get on my jiggly ones, the third-person camera might as well be firing torpedos into Hellas Planitia. This is the only use for the first-person camera, or shall I say, the whole two degrees out of Arthur’s two periscopes.

Any time there is precision required, I do suggest one use this first-person camera to pick up things or loot the many dead bodies. Surprisingly the precision of aiming on consoles is best left to a third-person view of all things; yes, further away to shoot a spec on the horizon. Well, that’s when your horse hasn’t relinquished your guns to the gods of Hostigos. The only other reason I could see the first-person view being used for is poker, blackjack, hookers, and sickness.

About 500 words for two whole things is a good pace for me to be stoned by boredom police, so let’s make like sewage workers and get a shift on. Graphically in parts, it is stunning. You’d think that’s covered by the laborious piece about the world and its west-ness, but the effects and other nonsense in place make it look good to an untrained eye of “parallax scrolling” and “checkerboard rendering;” which I assumed is sex moves for robots. Nonetheless, playing both in 1080p and 4K, it is breathtaking to see some shots play out with little issue.

This transitions well to performance on 4K, which is variable on consoles. I’m not talking about the blurrier PS4 Pro Vs Xbox One X, I’m talking about everyday performance. Most of the time, I’ve known the game to run well-ish on basic consoles and fine on the higher ones, but 4K kicks the bucket. In Saint Denis, in 4K, while raining, you might as well be watching a slide show with all the weather effects, people, and other assorted processing hogs for consoles. This is why I dropped back to 1080p, I’d rather have a higher frame rate, (albeit here it’s 30-ish,) than a slightly higher or stretched texture.

So let’s talk story. It is a hot mess of an idiot’s idea of tension. The same problem with GTA IV had is that we have a bunch of heavily armored characters who have killed several million people in the preceding minutes, but as soon as a cut scene happens, all murder is called off. At several points, without spoiling heavily, the gang have chances to kill who are chasing them, Arthur can kill Dutch, and a myriad of other issues could be solved with a single bullet. Nevertheless, for plot convenience, we don’t kill because we might be at each other’s throat but we don’t want to hurt anyone.

As I’ve already stated, we’re following Dutch on his grand plan to get money which, unsurprisingly goes like a penny down the drain. We’ll spend hours setting up for a grand scheme that Dutch has been cooking up when you are betting small fortunes and robbing to make tuppence. In the case of the trolly station in Saint Denis, that comparison couldn’t be more apt. Most of which are just another excuse to have another 19th-century shooting gallery between the last vestige of cowboys and “the law.” It is just boring.

While I understand it is meant to be exciting, we know where this goes and why it is done. We know John is going to be one of the last surviving members with Bill, we know the gang are disbanded soon after the end of the game, and we know little Jack is a Johnny Depp look-a-like and murderer. It is hardly exciting to put you into yet another shoot out, taking cover and taking metaphorical slaps from across the room. It is exciting for the first few minutes outside of the mountains, though to pretend the same thing that something is revolutionary after it is pulled several times over the course of 60-70 hours is stupid.

Red Dead Redemption 2 is a damn fine technical marvel and breathtaking open-world. To stand on the last frontier hunting elk for miles is something I’ll never do in my lifetime, though as Arthur that’s what I’ve done. That’s all I like doing, ignoring the story and living my own little Westworld adventure. I may be standing in a minority here, though the game and story of Red Dead Redemption 2 is awful, though the sense of walking off and doing your own thing proves what Rockstar has been perfecting for over two decades: the open-world game.

Phenixx Gaming is everywhere you are. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Red Dead Redemption 2

$59.99 USD

7

Score

7.0/10

Pros

• Beautiful open-world.

Cons

• Low performance in higher resolutions.
• Hugely problematic gameplay.
• Weak story.