28. Red Dead Redemption 2

I love Rockstar games, to me they are the kings of the open world genre they basically invented. No one seems to fill those worlds with so many details or storylines and things to do. They are master craftmen and RDR2 might be their crowning achievement. With RDR2 they went for grounded and real, a game fully commited to making you feel a part of this world. Every action would have an animation, if you gut an animal you will watch Arthur gut an animal. Guns get worn and dirty, horses balls shink in the cold, you have to eat to stay healthy and so on. Parts of this commitment to the simulation of a western can seem pretentious and lead to many many repeated animations but somehow it just works, mainly through the strength of the story and characters which put you the player into the greatest story ever told in this medium.

I was more than ready to crown GoW as my GOTY last year, no way RDR2 gameplay will match the great combat system of GoW. It didn't matter, RDR2 has aspects of its game where I can point to it and say thats the greatest its ever been done. This story is more grand than any movie western, it's more in line with a great bingable TV show, a tale that spreads across 60+ hours of game. It is the story of one Arthur Morgan, a life long criminal that is faced with his own mortality and begins to reflect on what he has done in his life and what his legacy will be. I have never played as a more compelling character, every moment as Arthur Morgan I was infatuated with his story, his attitude toward others which I the player could control somewhat. I began to admire him despite the horrible things he does and the ohhh about 2000 people he kills. Yes there needs to be a slight cognative dissonance with the combat parts as no one human would ever kill so many people, its a game I have never had an issue with this in here or games like Uncharted. Rockstar masterfully pushes the story along through incredible missions that keep the player involved while the most dramatic moments are happening. The turning point in the entire story involves a mission gone wrong and a horse ride back to camp during a dark stormy night and this incredible song starts to play, it has echos of the MGS3 ladder scene, a song perfectly chosen for the moment. I'm not even doing anything, I'm traveling the same road back to camp I did many times but with the weight of this monumental moment in the story, the way the setting fits the moment perfectly and that song hitting the right emotional beats; thats storytelling at its best. There are many moments like it, performances that left me floored, characters that made me feel in ways the best tv shows do. Also they do this while tying it all together with the first game, enhancing that games story through a character that didn't exist when they wrote the first game. TLOU lost its crown when RDR2 came out, Arthur Morgan is the most fleshed out, interesting character I have ever played as and this story, the acting, the directing, all of it is the new bar all other games need to reach.

This is me though, I'm gameplay first guy and RDR2 does not have deep mechanics, its a rather simple game. All gun battles can be finished by just slowing down time and headshoting everyone. So am I giving this game a pass on story alone, not exactly. The value of a game is simply how entertained was I playing it, did it keep my attention and did I feel I was participating in a compelling manner. All those sim like qualities fit into this beautifully constructed world perfectly to make exploring a joy. Hunting is basically an entire game of its own, this game could be Cabela's Hunting game it is so detailed. I spent so many hours trying to find the legendary beasts. As I explored the world I would stumble upon often times disturbing situatuations all unique. There were treasure maps with drawings of locations you had to match to find the gold. Bounties to track each with a cool mission and story that makes all of them a quality diversion. There is the usual slew Rockstar mini games, comedy shows, gambling, and oddities that make this world SO COMPELLING. Some how BOTW bored me when I realized all these mountains dont have shit, oh look its the same korok seed, oh great another combat shrine, but that game had such incredible gameplay but if I don't feel the exploring is leading to anything that world starts to feel like busy work. RDR2 never felt like that, every new location had something to do, had a small story to uncover and it was pretty clear in what was worth looking at and to tell the player when to move on. Whenever I got bored of exploring I always had the next story missions ready to go and these were fun.

Again the story missions are not complex, don't offer much of any choice or strategy; instead they feel like big action setpieces. Imagine a game full of crazy Uncharted action sequences, thats RDR2. I know I am just shooting the same dudes over and over but they dress it up by changing the scenarios constantly and tying them to the story perfectly. So many epic horse chases, a thrilling jail explosion and escape, rading a platation, gunning people down while in a hot air balloon, it just keeps getting wilder and wilder. I love action movies, I love explosions and our characters in dire situations and the best part of this game is that they arent always safe, there are some Game of Thrones level moments in these missions that left me jaw agape. This is how you take relatively simple gameplay and dress it up enough so that it never gets boring.

There is even some online mode I haven't even touched yet. I put well over 100 hours into this game, played it for nights on end for about a month. Some games I feel that fatigue, I want to finish to just move on but RDR2 absorbed me into that world and I did not want to leave.

I really enjoyed RDR2.  It took a few hours to warm up to the game play, but once I did I enjoyed more than the previous game.  It's a series I prefer over Grand Theft Auto.

I really need to get back to RDR2 and finish playing it. I was liking the game very much but got sidetracked with other games.

Star Tropics number one baby!