Easy riding.
Short version: What a great game! I feel the need to just make that darn tootin' clear right now in case any of what follows obscures this verdict in any way.
The Wild West, the Far Future, the Apocalyptic Wasteland and the always classic Ye Olde Fantasy Kingdom. Some settings just lend themselves to video gaming don't they? i'm sure there's a word for the quality that describes this feeling. Like how some character designs in Saturday morning cartoons are described as 'toyetic' because their inherent design makes it easy for them to jump the gap between the screen and the toy store shelf. Of course its quite intentional in the world of toys and cross-promotional targeted advertising. When Hollywood was setting out the stall for some of its most iconic genres however, they weren't making a pitch to the video game industry at the time as there were none to pitch to when most of them were formed.
Zoom forward and whole categories of gaming now owe to their existence to the dream machine of Tinseltown. There was a lag in fidelity of course. We've had sci-fi games since the start of gaming certainly and the first WIld West game that could be described as such was Gun Fight (or Western Gun) released in 1975, the first game to depict human to human combat or so the internet gods tell me. Game makers, like the writers of comic books and pulp novels, got in on the popular genres early as borrowed from Hollywood and it paid off for them in a big way.
May be found at the following website: The Arcade Flyer Archive, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=27981641
Safe to say however, there was an awful lot of filling in the blanks in the imagination for a few decades there. As game makers coloured in the gaps between the pixels, we would get incrementally closer and closer to a vision that approximated the big screen. It would take a good while longer though to get a game that not only looked like a classic Western but sounded like one, that told its story in a way we associate with the very best of the form. Now myself, having played games in some way, shape or form since the disturbingly distant early 90's, I'm not sure if anyone really cracked that nut until the first Red Dead Redemption came along in 2010.
Dear God that was over a decade ago... I mean this was the game that turned heads, got critical plaudits, awards and like all Rockstar Studio games, got all the money of course. A game that still shared a certain crazy energy with their other juggernaut of the game space Grand Theft Auto, but which at the same time was a much quieter game, reflective, contemplative even. A game that saw you gently going about your business on horseback across the great vistas of the American West for much of its runtime. A slower experience to be sure, often punctuated by bouts of violence but never wholly consumed by carnage in a way that we associate with GTA. Red Dead Redemption was a genuine, joyful surprise from its subdued opening to its bittersweet end and one of my favourite all-time games without doubt.
Zoom forward again to 2018 and the inevitable occurs. Of course you know what I mean? Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again hit cinemas, something called Sherlock Gnomes happened and somehow the world got a third Cloverfield film. In gaming, Metal Gear Survive insisted on being foisted upon a public that didn't want it, as did Shaq Fu: A Legend Reborn (now there's a review I should do one of these days) and Fear Effect: Sedna just baffled everyone with a triumphant return minus the triumph. Now I know what you're thinking, you're thinking that this was a classic year and you wouldn't be wrong. You know what else came out this year of course: Red Dead Redemption II. Why it's only taken about half a dozen paragraphs to get here but I felt this is a game worthy of that kind of preamble.
It's good. Very good in fact. Played in 2022, it still looks and feels like the very best of open world gaming. it's a category of game I have mixed feelings on at the best of times, prone as it is to bloat and needless busywork and whilst Red Dead 2 doesn't sidestep all that, it is nonetheless one of the most well made games of its kind. It's a sequel, it's a prequel, it's a... sprequel? If Red Dead Redemption's plot ran adjacent to the very dead end of the American West then Red Dead 2 is very much the beginning of that end. A fall in slow motion that hits many branches on the way down. It looks and feels sumptuous, like you could run your hands down the screen and literally feel the rough edge of every dollar that went into its production.
So there was that one night I chanced upon a gathering of the KKK in the forest see...
The tale of Arthur Morgan and the steady collapse of the Van der Linde gang signpost our travails through the West this time around. What is firmly encroached by the time of the first Redemption is just beginning to creep into the lives of those who would rather live outside the reach of civilisation and all the good and bad that entails. A lowly group of castoffs, ne'er-do-wells and villains making their way in a world that can no longer abide by their way of life. In search of a sacred freedom that forever remains one bank job or train robbery away. It's a fine tale well told through its cast of characters all brought to life with some stellar voice work and motion capture. Graphically it may be the most impressive effort I've seen outside of recent tech demos for the new Unreal Engine.
Their success in the gaming industry speaks for itself but I'd argue Rockstar Games only ever really found their storytelling swagger somewhere around the time of Grand Theft Auto IV. The PS2-era Grand Theft Autos were all fine games and iconic of their generation but i don't think anyone would accuse them of necessarily being the best in terms of crafted storytelling. That would change with the arrival of Niko Bellic but even then I felt he was the right character in the wrong game with GTAIV never really giving the character space to go in some really interesting directions. This would be very much the start of the curve upwards for them as game developers however with improvements galore to be found in GTAV and the first Redemption. Certainly the improvement was definitely there to be seen in the first game, but Red Dead Redemption really feels like a league above most of their output.
I feel like that's probably enough gushing on that point. Where does it fall short you may ask? I mean you may not but let me tell you anyway. There are icons, millions of them all scattered over its massive world map. not unique to Red Dead as its an issue across the entire genre. At some point in gaming over the last decade the standard to-do list became a mammoth undertaking. From collectibles to multiple sets of collectibles and beyond, the time investment required for completists is just absurd at this point. Yes I know its not compulsory but when a chunk of content is locked behind a big time requirement, I feel games are losing their way somewhat. Thankfully it's a less pressing issue in this game than it is in others but its definitely there. There can also be a certainly fiddly frustration with the controls at times, an issue I do sometimes associate with Rockstar's games on the whole but which is nearly always more a momentary frustration than a failing.
I swear it was like that when I got here.
There is the odd pacing issue with the plot where you abruptly catch a boat to a faraway island for a brief bout of civil war before abruptly heading back. Got to love that civil war, anyway other than that its mostly nitpicks I think. My only complaint about the soundtrack is that there isn't more of it. My only complaint about the graphics is that they are downright disconcerting at times, unreal and real in equal measure. Indeed I went away from this game harbouring grave doubts about the frame rate of reality after spending prolonged time with a game that looked this good. Whether it ultimately reaches the highs of its predecessor story-wise is debatable but it gives it its best shot, for my money the original Redemption has one of the finest endings in all of gaming so its no mean feat coming second to it.
So as the game heads full speed into its finale, it just hits you in the feels in a way few games ever really attempt. Keeping the spoilers to a minimum here but the game goes down fighting, dying with its boots on so to speak. As with the first game, you get that sweet hit of badass melancholy to go down with your saloon based shootouts and your horse based collisions. In many ways its an example of AAA gaming done right and a solid attempt to convey something meaningful amidst the chaos of the open world sandbox. Proof that more of a good thing is still sometimes a good thing and doesn't have to be a mindless exercise in going through the motions. Pat yourself on the back Rockstar Games, you did good. Please there's no need to thank me.
Now then, how about that Red Dead Revolver eh? Are we sure it was it an actual video game and not a collective figment of our imagination? Please comment below.
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