A Masterpiece that could've been even better
The second Red Dead Redemption might be the hardest game to talk about. Because it's so impressive, the production value, the dept, the performances, the game just looks amazing. But it doesn't have the best controls, or one of the best gameplays, while sometimes is too slow or repetitive. But still, the story of Arthur Morgan is one that will be remembered for the ages.
I love how Rockstar made us feel that the story arc in the game is personal, they give some characters with big personalities, you'll probably finish the game having characters that you really love and some that you really hate. Not to mention that Arthur Morgan is one of the best protagonists of all-time, top 2 for me. Even tho the game makes it feel like each Arthur is different, your Arthur will not have the same clothes, hair, facial hair or make the same decisions as the Arthur I'm playing as. And this feeling of the game being personal is what enhances it, and grabs you to stay put through a long journey.
If you played the first Red Dead Redemption, you have an idea on how the story in this game is gonna pan out. But they cleverly still surprise the player. It was awesome to finally see the arcs of the famous characters from the Van der Linde gang that survived the bad days, as well as get introduced to a few new ones, that ended up being the most iconic in the game. I loved Charles, he's one of the best side characters ever. I didn't care that much for Sadie Adler, didn't like how over the top she was, with that voice of anger, but I can see many people loving her character. I'm not even gonna mention the characters I hate not to spoil it.
It might be the deepest open world game ever made, there's so much detail and an incredible sense of atmosphere. You can create your own story just roaming around, you can find someone looking for help or maybe looking for trouble, and based on your decisions you go from there. Doing the story missions is just a small part of the RDR2 world. The soundtrack gives the game even more life, specially before some big thing is about to happen. And the game might have the best storms and the best animals I've ever seen in any video game.
What I didn't like as much? Well, they over complicated with a few systems, like the Health, Stamina and Dead Eye, I'll bet that 80%+ of people will finish the game and still don't understand what the hell those cores and circle bars meant. The money is kind of unbalanced, in part of the game you feel desperate that you don't have any, but then for most part of the game you have so much and there's nothing to do with it, the game doesn't give you any insentive to become rich and hunt for all the best animals. It doesn't change the economy, the story or your stats. You can just craft some clothes for a visual change. The game also makes you lose weight if you don't eat regularly, but it doesn't have any reminder of that, Arthur never shows he's hungry, or you recover the cores just by sleeping, and suddenly "oh you're at your minimum weight", what!? The mission design could be a bit better also, I think they felt insecure in some parts that they needed to end most of the missions with action, and didn't want to leave any mission to just be a quick story bit, or just an stealth escape or break in. Not sure if the reason is to increase the game time or just don't feel like it wouldn't be a good enough mission, they all need some crazy action I guess. And the number one complain for most people is how slow the game is, sometimes, and they force it on the player, I didn't mind that, just once or twice that I felt it could've been faster, not that big of a deal.
Despite that, RDR2 is probably the most impressive game I've ever seen, with one of the best worlds to live in and have your own story, by your own paths and decisions, and I think the game will be remembered very fondly. As one of the best games ever, but a very divisive one, because not everybody has patience with some of it's flaws.
