{"id":22322,"date":"2018-11-20T22:40:43","date_gmt":"2018-11-20T12:40:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/?p=22322"},"modified":"2018-11-20T22:40:43","modified_gmt":"2018-11-20T12:40:43","slug":"red-dead-redemption-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/?p=22322","title":{"rendered":"Red Dead Redemption 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Developer:\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>Rockstar\u00a0Studios
\nPublisher:\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>Rockstar Games
\nPlatform:\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>Playstation 4 Pro<\/p>\n

R<\/em><\/span>ed Dead Redemption 2\u00a0<\/em>has finally arrived.\u00a0 Rockstar Games’ long anticipated sequel to\u00a0Red Dead Redemption<\/em> is an epic in the truest sense of the word.\u00a0 It has been eight years in the making.\u00a0 It is rumoured to have cost over a quarter of a billion dollars to make and has over three thousand names in the credits.\u00a0 The fruits of this labour is an enormously detailed open world environment the likes of which has never been seen before.\u00a0 Even ignoring the hundreds of activities, side quests and hours of exploration you could do in\u00a0Red Dead<\/em>, the main story will take most players somewhere north of fifty hours to complete.\u00a0 This thing is absolutely gargantuan.<\/p>\n

The player takes on the role of Arthur Morgan, a lieutenant in Dutch Van Der Linde’s gang of outlaws.\u00a0 Although Dutch’s gang are criminals who have robbed and killed scores of people, they follow an honour code that gives them a Robin Hood sort of sensibility.\u00a0 They generally steal from the rich, mostly kill the worst of society and their caravan includes people of colour, migrants and outcast women.\u00a0 Together these misfits are on the run from the law, moving from town to town, looking for the big score that will finally allow them to settle down permanently, away from the long arm of the law.<\/p>\n

Red Dead Redemption 2<\/em> opens in the snowy mountain wilderness of Ambarino.\u00a0 We learn that the gang has been forced to flee from the town of Blackwater after a heist went badly.\u00a0 Desperate for money, the gang stage a dramatic heist of a train carrying the belongings of wealthy oil tycoon Leviticus Cornwall.\u00a0 Enraged at this act, Cornwall hires the ruthless Pinkerton agency to track down Dutch and the gang.\u00a0 This latest development in a string of bad fortune, has some members of the gang beginning to question Dutch’s judgement.\u00a0 But Arthur Morgan, his ever reliable right hand man, remains faithful and resolute.\u00a0 Dutch will see them out of this mess.\u00a0 He always does.<\/p>\n

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The first impressions of\u00a0Red Dead Redemption 2<\/em> can be a little overwhelming.\u00a0 There is\u00a0a lot<\/em> of detail to adsorb in this game.\u00a0 The first two chapters basically serve as a tutorial, introducing the player to the various mechanics including combat, hunting, horse riding, bonding with your gang members and taking care of yourself.<\/p>\n

The attention to detail is like nothing else.\u00a0 Arthur Morgan will need to wear clothing that suits the climate, depending on whether its hot or cold.\u00a0 He needs to shower and keep his hair and beard trimmed if he is to mingle with folk in town.\u00a0 The game is populated with thousands of people and quite literally every single one of them can be conversed with.\u00a0 It’s a mind boggling achievement in the pantheon of open world video games.<\/p>\n

Occasionally, the amount of information Rockstar asks of the player in this onboarding process is a little much.\u00a0 I think they do a poor job explaining how Arthur’s core stats work (relating to his weight, cardio and aiming).\u00a0 The controls also seem needlessly obtuse.\u00a0 The game might ask you to hit square to open a chest of drawers but then you tap triangle to close it.\u00a0 Navigating the weapon and item menus also requires a strange claw-like combination of button presses where you hold down L1, tap R1 to shift between weapons and items, then use left and right on the dpad to choose your desired item.\u00a0 It’s weird but you get used to it.<\/p>\n

After a few hours, you begin to settle into the gameplay loop that Rockstar have set out for the player.\u00a0 You typically begin and end each day at the camp site of your caravan.\u00a0 Here you can relax and chat with your gang members and then set out for the day to either complete a mission or provide support for the camp in the form of providing food (via hunting or fishing) or financial aid (through gambling, robbery or about a dozen other means).\u00a0 The world-building and sense of place that Rockstar have created in\u00a0Red Dead Redemption<\/em>\u00a02<\/em> feels second to none as there is apparently thousands of lines of dialogue recorded (creative lead Dan Houser claims its 300,000) and so your gang members will chat to you each day about what you’ve done and give you their two cents worth.\u00a0 If you’ve gone fishing, they’ll talk about fishing.\u00a0 If you’ve robbed a stagecoach they’ll ask how it went.\u00a0 Its insane how much time and work must have gone into this.\u00a0 Not only is this dialogue context sensitive, there are even options that the player can use to be either friendly or antagonistic in their engagement so the conversation can play out in multiple ways.<\/p>\n

I think one of the biggest accomplishments in\u00a0Red Dead Redemption 2<\/em> is the sense of community Rockstar have created with life at the camp site in the company of nothing but NPCs.\u00a0 Some nights the gang will decide to have a sing-along by the camp fire.\u00a0 Other days you might walk past two of your gang members engaging in a heated conversation about the outcome of a recent heist.\u00a0 The trick is that these moments just happen around you, feel totally organic and build your investment in the outcome of the narrative.\u00a0 You want Arthur, Dutch and the gang to succeed because you\u00a0really become attached to this likeable bunch of outcasts – Charles, Lenny, Abby, Tilly, Uncle, Josea.\u00a0 They’re almost all great.\u00a0 Almost<\/em> all.<\/p>\n

I was very much in awe of\u00a0Red Dead Redemption 2<\/em> in those early chapters.\u00a0 The production values are absolutely astounding.\u00a0 The wide variety of different environments – the snowy mountain peaks, the arid desert, the dense forests, the foggy bayou – all look extremely impressive running on the Playstation 4 Pro.\u00a0 Rockstar Studios are now well versed in creating convincing, cohesive open world environments and\u00a0Red Dead\u00a0<\/em>is no exception.<\/p>\n

Once the game loosens the reigns on the player and lets you begin exploring in Chapter 2, it really is a joy to just get out and immerse yourself in the world.\u00a0 I quickly realized that a lot of the game’s systems – your hygiene, camp morale, bonding with your horse – are generally window dressing features that encourage role-playing life in the Wild West.\u00a0 Nothing in the game will actually break if you decide to completely ignore these trimmings.\u00a0 Its all there to provide the player with a sense of place.\u00a0 When I made that discovery, I found even though they weren’t a necessity, I still enjoyed making time for Arthur to do these optional activities – fishing, gambling, singing around the camp fire – because I so enjoyed that feeling of immersion.<\/p>\n

Once the player turns their focus towards the story,\u00a0Red Dead Redemption 2<\/em> really begins to shine.\u00a0 I think\u00a0Grand Theft Auto IV<\/em> was when the Houser Brothers really began to show off their aspirations to make a crime epic that could be compared to the best works of film and television.\u00a0 Although I think they fell well short with\u00a0GTA IV<\/em>,\u00a0Red Dead Redemption 2<\/em> is a damn sight closer to hitting the mark.\u00a0 Arthur Morgan is one of the most interesting and well rounded protagonists that Rockstar have created and his story arc in\u00a0Red Dead 2<\/em> feels like you’re watching a season of a well made tv show play out.\u00a0 Arthur is a multi-faceted character who has his own qualities and short-comings.\u00a0 He has complicated and distinctive relationships with a variety of men and women in the gang and these shift and evolve several times over the course of the story.<\/p>\n

The writing for the other characters in the Van Der Linde gang is outstanding.\u00a0 Although there are a lot of people in Dutch’s gang to keep track of initially, they quickly make an impression on you.\u00a0 In previous games, Rockstar has generally gone all in on developing the lead character and then reduced the supporting cast to simple stereotypes and caricatures.\u00a0 Not so with\u00a0Red Dead Redemption 2<\/em>.\u00a0 Whether its the strained mentor\/mentee relationship Arthur has with Dutch, or the brotherly affection he shares with John Marston, this game is full of fantastic, memorable characters.\u00a0 Sean, Lenny, Uncle – even these bit part players in the story were a treat to travel around with.\u00a0 No doubt one of the most popular figures in\u00a0Red Dead 2<\/em> will be the\u00a0sharp-shooting bad ass Sadie Adler.\u00a0 I’m sure I won’t be alone in clamouring for Rockstar to make a game with her as a playable lead.<\/p>\n

One of the high points of\u00a0Red Dead Redemption 2<\/em> is that not only does Rockstar have the ambition to tell a meaningful tale with genuine emotional weight and grativas about it, we have arrived at a point with technology that these characters are able to communicate subtle, nuanced expressions to the player.\u00a0 Just look at Arthur’s eyes as it begins to dawn on him the type of man that Dutch Van Der Linde is.\u00a0 Or revisit a scene when\u00a0John and Abigail Marsden exchange verbal spars about his choice to remain an outlaw.\u00a0 We can see they have a heated but loving relationship not because they say so, but in their body language.<\/p>\n

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By virtue of its sheer size, scope and ambition,\u00a0Red Dead Redemption 2<\/em> will challenge some players with design choices that will feel cumbersome or misguided.\u00a0 One particularly divisive choice is to force Arthur to walk at a sedentary pace when in camp (and at some other key narrative moments).\u00a0 This, along with a generally inconvenient fast travel option, is clearly Rockstar putting a firm hand on the player’s shoulder and ensuring they don’t zip through the game and miss the details in the environment which is essentially where the game shines brightest.\u00a0 Whilst I admire the intent and it didn’t bother me for most of my time with Red Dead Redemption 2<\/em>, when I arrived at the closing chapters of the game and quickly wanted to mop up some side quests, Arthur’s snail pace movement began to frustrate.<\/p>\n

The other notable bug bear is Rockstar’s long standing method of delivering exposition.\u00a0 As with the original\u00a0Red Dead Redemption<\/em> and the previous five\u00a0Grand Theft Auto<\/em> games, lots of missions involve a long journey to the quest marker during which the characters will talk endlessly to one another about the plot or maybe particular details about the current objective.\u00a0 It wasn’t a particularly elegant solution when\u00a0Grand Theft Auto: Vice City<\/em> did it in 2002 and it feels positive archaic with\u00a0Red Dead Redemption 2<\/em> in 2018.\u00a0 Rockstar tries to make the best of it by adding a ‘cinematic mode’ camera option but this generally ends up being wide angle shots that capture the back of a stage coach and you don’t get to see any of the body language or facial expressions as the characters communicate significant information to one another.\u00a0 Surely at this point, we would be better suited to simply have a cut scene that employs actual cinematography?\u00a0 The actual ‘gameplay’ in these segments – which generally involves tapping or holding down ‘X’ – wouldn’t be missed at all.<\/p>\n

But these are very minor foibles when examined in the broader context of what Red Dead Redemption 2<\/em>\u00a0achieves.\u00a0\u00a0When this game hits its highs, it is unmatched amongst its contemporaries.\u00a0 Arthur is one of video gaming’s most brilliantly conceived protagonists and the grand adventure that he goes on – which explores themes of greed, corruption, family and of course redemption – is told to the player with a level of cinematic flair and sophistication that is finally beginning to rival its contemporaries in film and television.\u00a0 Maybe this isn’t the video games industry’s\u00a0Gone With The Wind<\/em> but its not far off it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dutch Van Der Linde and his gang are on the run from the Pinkertons in the final days of the Wild West<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":22324,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1702,2799,624,2798],"class_list":["post-22322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gaming","tag-playstation-4","tag-playstation-4-pro","tag-red-dead-redemption","tag-rockstar-games"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22322","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22322"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22322\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22339,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22322\/revisions\/22339"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/22324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}