PixlBit

Games of the Decade #12/Blog a Day #19

Howdy everyone, how are you?

One thing I love about video games is that they can take any real world setting and/or time period and make it interesting and fun while also telling a great story. For this game we will be going back to 2018 and many consider it as one of the greatest games of all time, so put on your hats and get ready to mount your horse as we look into Red Dead Redemption 2.

                                                Music in this game is fantastic ♥

Backstory time: It was 2011 and like you all know I was trying to get as many PS3 games as I can so I can try them. A really popular recommendation was Red Dead Redemption so I got it brand new for $20 and I really loved it. Almost a decade later and Rockstar gave us RDR2, which is apparently a prequel to the first RDR game. But is RDR2 better than the first game?

In the game you play as Arthur Morgan, an outlaw who is a member of the Van der Linde gang. The game follows Arthur and the Van der Linde gang running from the law, rival gangs, and the inevitable end of the Wild West. Dutch Van der Linde, leader of the gang, continually promises everyone in the gang that everything will be okay but they need to pull off one last heist to earn enough money so they can all ride into the sunset together and retire from this life for good.

While this game is in fact a prequel to the first RDR storywise, (which we will call RDR RDR1 from here on out), RDR2 brings a ton of improvements to the game as well as new mechanics and features. For this, I won't be talking aout the story since I could spoil something. One of the things that have impressed me is the graphics. Normally I'm not much of a graphics person, but this game looks beautiful. In fact this might be the best looking game I have ever played (on the PS4) based on graphical fidelity. Everything is beautifully detailed, from environment, characters, and even smaller stuff that you wouldn't think twice about.

 

                           The environments in this game look absolutely gorgeous

The map is huge. There is never a shortage of things you can do while you're out exploring when you're not gunslinging in a story mission. You can hunt animals, you can fish, you can even go bird watching. You can also take on bounties and bring in criminals for some extra cash. Sometimes you might run into npcs that need help or even take on sidequests if you don't quite exactly want to proceed the story yet. If that isn't your thing then you can also just explore and take in all that beautiful scenery and trust me it is really pretty.

One of the best parts of the game is the camp that you gang sets up, think of it like your base of operations. In the camp you can do various things like eat, sleep, contribute to the camp's funds, and even interact with the other members as well. I really like talking to the other characters because they always give commentary and react to events going on in the game. By talking to them you get to see how those characters are like, like what they like, dislike, how they are feeling and many more. It kinda feels like an rpg in a way with all the dialogue options you get and how you interact with other members of your gang. And yes, John Marston from RDR1 is here too since this takes place before that game.

"But Captain N, where can I play this game?" On the PS4, Xbox One, or even on PC. Just a warning, this game uses up a ton of storage on your system. I think it took me about an hour or so to install this game, it could vary for you as well as considering the various patches it might have now too. I suggest play on a different system while you leave it installing on whatever system you get it for. The game has online as well but I never got to try it. I'm not a fan of having to pay to play online. But if the online is anything like RDR1's then no doubt it will be fun.

 

                                    Sometimes you have no choice but to fire back

Final Thoughts: I was initially torn about which of the 2 games would be on this list and it took me a while to decide. I absolutely loved RDR1, it was such a fantastic game and I feel it kinda did the Wild West setting slightly better since when we think of that setting we imagine towns out in the desert and whatnot, which RDR1 really nails. But RDR2 had much more variety in locations, so while I think RDR1 did the Wild West setting better, RDR2 wins in having more variety and not being pure desert. In terms of story, I really liked them both in that aspect, the endings to both games had me in tears. I do feel characters are better in RDR2 because I feel they are more genuine. But I feel like RDR2 overall is the clear winner due to how much of an improvement it has over the first game in pretty much almost everything.

One trend I have noticed during this generation is that open-world games are everywhere. Last gen it was shooters that were dominant but this gen it's open-world games. I don't have a problem with these games, but one thing I don't like is when they add an open-world map just for the sake of having it which makes a game unnecessarily long. In many cases the map isn't very interesting and there isn't much to do. Sometimes even the story of a game suffers because of the open-world and it isn't easy to balance both. In RDR2 however you you always have something to do It never gets boring, couple that with a story that you always want to know what direction it takes, then you have a game that perfectly balances open-world with a story.

RDR2 is such a fantastic ride from beginning to end, it's one of the few video games that would be perfect to adapt into a tv series. Trust me, when you play this game, it feels like you are watching a movie or a tv series, except that you are in full control of the actions of the character, in this case Arthur. Video games have become very big over the years that games have gotten to, if not, surpassed any other media on the amazing and emotional stories they tell. It's definitely one of the best video games I've ever played and it was such a fantastic ride while it lasted, especially with the theme of the game and what you take away from it. Loyalty is such a rare commodity and you never know you have it until it’s truly tested in the fire and the flames.

                                          But in some cases it never truly is over

So that's it for this one. I'll be back once we see if this plan actually works.