Howdy thar Pardner, welcome to this here Gamespot, so saddle up, grab your six shooter ‘n’ coffee and settle down for the read of yer life. Spaghetti Westerns were always fun, especially in the early days of colour TVs, as we saw greats like Clint Eastwood in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly dominate the big screen. The cowboy drawl, the harsh untamed wilderness, and those beautiful horses drew us into that world, something that the first Red Dead Redemption captured perfectly back in 2010. Now, almost a decade later, comes a prequel that we’ve been waiting for, and it is every bit worth the wait.

What’s it about?

1899, a time when the United States was still largely untamed and the law was being formed. Red Dead Redemption 2 follows the exploits of Arthur Morgan, a high-ranking member of the gang that the protagonist of Red Dead Redemption, John Marston, was part of. This game tells the origins of the infamous antagonists whose fates you already know of, if you’ve played the original. Led by Dutch Van der Linde, you meet the gang as they are on the run from the Pinkertons and the Law. Having left everything behind, they’re forced to hide in the harsh ruins of a mining town, trying to survive the elements.

The story is slow-paced, sweeping and magnificent — completely different and hitherto not done before in gaming — combining the raw tension of man vs wild that we see in the movie The Revenant and the dynamic of Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight. The tranquil surroundings and the slow pace are like the razor’s edge that we see in The Last of Us, which is exciting and gives you that sense of adventure. The story itself is excellent, as it takes you through harsh ups and downs, tackled with gritty realism. This creates a fascinating world that is rich with relationships, and each of the gang members feels organic and largely unscripted.

Screencap from Red Dead Redemption 2   | Photo Credit: Rockstar Games

Red Dead Redemption 2 is a monument to storytelling, one of those games that comes along, redefining the genre and changing it in more ways than one. Rockstar has used the sandbox open-world concept, and has not just built a game but a complete slice-of-life the way it was then, even though their world is set in a fictitious parallel version of early America. The game will take you over 80 hours to experience, but you can expect that hour counter to go higher just aimlessly roaming around, taking in the sights.

How does it play?

The movements of Arthur Morgan are realistic; there’s no superhuman level of gunslinging here. Moving around the environment is tough, and you have to keep an eye on your health and stamina stats, pause to eat, keep your energy levels and wits about you. Diving for cover takes time, and while the sluggish nature of the action takes some getting used to, it never breaks away from the momentum and pace. The same goes for your horse; as you traverse the world, you have to take care not to overwork it, and make sure you pick and store the right weapons for the job in your saddle.

Screencap from Red Dead Redemption 2   | Photo Credit: Rockstar Games

The moment the world opens up to you, it’s your choice on how you want to go about things. Random encounters see you getting robbed or doing the robbing. Casual visits to towns could turn into bloodbaths if the Pinkertons or members of rivals gangs catch a whiff of you. Yet, interspersed among all these explosions of ultra violence, are the many quiet moments that you will remember Red Dead Redemption 2 for. Walking in those beautiful woods, still wet from drying snow, to traversing the lush open fields and mountains with running brooks. This is paradise in a game, one that you can escape to, just to admire the view. Canter along, listening to the warm beating of hooves against the ground and the digital wind in your face, as you hum ‘Country roads’.

Rockstar has taken that realism and grit to a new level and the gore is largely uncensored: Headshots realistically cause bleeding, and thanks to those rudimentary yet explosive weapons of that time, body parts literally disintegrate. It’s the hunting systems though that benefit from this realism. As you hunt legendary animals for their pelts or for food, the game has you stalk your prey, set up the hunt and take them down. After which you are treated to an extremely realistic skinning sequence, which can be skipped, but it’s a testament to the realism and the work that has gone into the game.

Screencap from Red Dead Redemption 2   | Photo Credit: Rockstar Games

Should you get it?

Red Dead Redemption 2 is epic in every sense of the word, a sweeping drama that has its own pace that will make you fall in love with it. It is a game that pushes that standard high for all open-world games to follow. A game you cannot afford to miss out on.

The writer is a tech and gaming enthusiast who hopes to one day finish his sci-fi novel