The extremely anticipated sequel to arguably the best western game ever made finally released after almost eight years of development. In only eight days, Red Dead Redemption 2 had already sold over 17 million copies worldwide, surpassing the original game’s sales over its eight years since its release. 

The game is a prequel that takes place in five fictitious states in the wild west during a time in which the wild west was becoming not so wild. The player takes the role of Arthur Morgan, a fellow gang member to the protagonist of the former game, John Marston. Throughout the game, the player moves from town to town robbing, cheating and stealing to help the gang build enough money to disappear to a life of luxury and peace.

After playing the game for a multitude of hours, I would say with confidence that the $60 price tag is well worth it because the game presents an immense amount of content. According to the vice president of Rockstar Creative, the game has about 60 hours of content which means that is an hour of content for every dollar spent on it. This seems like a steal to me, especially when the norm of many video games is $60 for 10 or fewer hours of gameplay. 

What makes this game shine even more is the surprisingly high quality of all of the content. In many cases, game developers focus so heavily on creating mass amounts of content, but they don’t take the time to make that content fun and engaging for the player.

Red Dead 2 presents a healthy median of quality and quantity. A player could spend hours simply exploring the massive and beautiful landscape that the game offers while meeting a plethora of interesting strangers who give the player various tasks, ranging from being challenged to shooting contests to chasing down their stolen wagon. 

These seemingly random encounters with strangers throughout the game even offer fairly detailed and meaningful dialogue and stories. For example, Arthur encounters an African-American doctor who had his wagon stolen by racists and Arthur comes to the rescue by tracking down the racist men and getting the doctor’s wagon back.

In the dialogues, Arthur mentions how he didn’t understand how people could treat the doctor so differently based on his skin color. So on top of having meaningful encounters with fairly well-written characters, the game also tackles deep issues like racism and sexism that still create problems in our society today.

The game also builds characters very well through dialogue with the other outlaws in your gang. Arthur has many fairly lengthy conversations with most of the members of the gang, which allows the player to know each character intimately. 

My biggest complaint of the game is that if the player wants access to all the content the game has to offer, they must buy the ultimate edition of the game, which costs around $100. There is also a special edition that acts as the intermediate between the regular game and the ultimate, which seems excessive. On the other hand, the bonus content only includes one mission and the rest of the bonus content is mostly weapons, horses and cosmetic items.

Another downside of the game is the tediousness of the plot and the impact it has on the gameplay. Throughout the game, the player is constantly moving with the gang to new areas, which forces the player to uproot and move somewhere else frequently. The player is really never allowed to stay in one place for too long, which renders many of the luxuries the player can work up to invalid. There also isn’t too much for the player to do with their money, which doesn’t help the scenario. 

This criticism is a double-edged sword because the game is about being an outlaw and, by doing this, the game forces the player to feel the frustrations of being an outlaw and being forced to live on the road. 

The game has also promised a multiplayer that has yet to be released and is supposed to be similar to the original game’s multiplayer and GTA V online. 

Overall, I would give the game an 8.5/10. I think that this game is an excellent step in the right direction for the industry, and I am excited to see the multiplayer unfold.