Not a Review: Red Dead Redemption 2

A series of reflections inspired by and about Rockstar's latest production.

Time-consuming black hole

Have you ever played a game where you turn on your console at 10 am ..., and then suddenly it's 10 pm, you've played for 12 hours straight and your main achievement for the day is - one perfect Baltimore f-ing oriole carcass attained?

To be honest, I had already spent more time than one would like to admit trying to climb all the snowy peaks of Skellige while playing The Witcher 3, but this game was on another level entirely.

Red Dead Redemption 2 is seriously addictive.

I'm writing this as a proud Best in The West with about 150 hours of gameplay in story mode, some 50 of which were spent after the end credits rolled. You don't want to start this game if you have other obligations or, heaven forbid, other games that you want to play sometime soon. If not for the lockdown I would have needed at least half a year to complete Red Dead Redemption 2.

I've lost count of how many times I found myself chasing a 3-star buck or squirrel, or a horse and ending up picking up berries in the forest for no particular reason just to be attacked by a group of bounty hunters and then to remember that I was actually on my way to a story mission on the other side of the map. Oh, but I'm already playing for the 4th hour this evening! I guess that story missions will wait until tomorrow.

A black hole that consumes... no, devours time - this is the best and most precise description of this game. You were warned!

The world

Clichéd as it sounds the world of Red Dead Redemption 2 feels real. It's an open world that's alive and unforgiving. Of course, by the end of the game, the second part tends to becomes less true, as your character inevitably gets somewhat overpowered. Still, there are certain areas you tend to avoid even when approaching that 100 % completion mark.

The only real open-world game I've played before Red Dead Redemption 2 was The Witcher 3. To a point, the world of The Witcher was even more unforgiving. You could have found enemies three times your level just around the corner. Yet it was a generic kind of unforgivingness. As a player, you always had the choice to avoid encounters with enemies above your level.

With Red Dead Redemption 2 I realized I was in for a rude awakening pretty early on - somewhere in the first 2 hours, around the time when I hit a tree while riding my horse full-speed for the first time. Later when I was running too fast through one of the saloons and pushed a guy that then beat the shit out of me together with his friends. Or when a guy started shooting at me simply because I was riding through the forest with my gun drawn. Or when a butcher refused to trade with me for the same reason. This game doesn't offer you a chance to choose. It reacts and reacts to all, and I mean all, the things that you do.

The fact that the world of Red Dead Redemption 2 is so alive and responsive is the main reason beyond the 50 hours I've spent in it after the main story concluded. It doesn't get boring, or at least dead-boring. NPCs keep living their lives, there are still trains to rob and game to hunt, and even some occasional quests that you may have missed during the main story - and all of it continues to exist in a natural manner, where opposed to Berkeley inspired views the world doesn't cease to exist once you look the other way.

A heavy start

I've started this game two times. The first chapter that takes place in the snowy villages and valleys near Colter is, to be honest, a terrible drag. For someone like me, who never played the first game or any game by Rockstar it can also feel painfully clumsy and boring.

The scenery is featureless and bleak in comparison to what's to follow. It's a genuine shame as I can easily imagine people not getting past this first part and as consequence never experiencing the actual breathtaking beauty of the world of Red Dead Redemption 2.

More so, there are too many characters that you know nothing about. Dialogs are too specific and keep focusing on events you as a player have not experienced first-hand and therefore don't care about at that point, so it all feels like an endless blah-blah-blah.

And the worst of them all - the controls.

Now, having played the game as much as I have, I should say that this control-system is pretty effective and enjoyable once you get used to it. Emphasis on "once you get used to it". In the first 10 to 20 hours, I was suffering, to say the least. It's a completely different approach, not at all similar to any game I've played before. In the beginning, I could easily lose 5 to 10 minutes just trying to figure out how to put my f-ing bandana on. Pain. Pure pain!

This being said, the first chapter isn't bad either - it just feels like something one should experience already knowing where the story is heading and what's it about.

It's a paradox of sorts. On your second play through Coulter chapter has all the potential to shine like one of the most unique parts of the story. Yet you can only appreciate its worth once you are familiar with the world.

Western aesthetics

Now, I'm certainly not the one for cowboy hats, horses, sandy streets, and shoot-outs. Westerns have never been my thing. Yes, I've enjoyed the hell out of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly or A Fistful of Dollars, but let's be honest about it - it was not because of western aesthetics, it was because of the aesthetics of young Clint Eastwood.

The same goes for HBO's Westworld that I watched rather despite than because of the western part of it.

On a serious note though, Red Dead Redemption 2 may have done more than all the other pieces of media combined to facilitate my interest and understanding of this part of American culture. The world of the game feels alive not only because of the technical achievements in its basic architecture, but just as much due to its exterior elements - all the tiny details that distinguish the way of life in different cities and areas of the map, yet at the same time maintain the overall unifying feel of it all. It feels like the actual dawn of the world we are living in today.

Western aesthetics at its core are an embodiment of a contradiction. On one hand, you have the new order, the right way of living that you know in your head to be the rational choice because it will lead to a safer world and cooperation with the society that surrounds you. And then, on the other hand, there's this primal way of life, harsh and cruel, but honest. It's far more intuitive, far more synergetic with nature, and you know it to be the right one with your heart rather than your head. But this way of life cannot survive in the new world. So I guess, westerns are about making an impossible choice, and eventually about the refusal to make one.

The philosophical core of these aesthetics is usually somewhat present in every product that's labeled western. It's just that more often than so these ideas are already there and serve as the initial reference point from which every character begins his/her journey. The difference with Red Dead Redemption 2 is that first and foremost it is about the depiction of a world, and this particular world is what gives ground to a reality in which these specific ideas and worldviews can form naturally. And the fact that Rockstar Games have managed exactly this, in my opinion, deserves all the praise in the world!

About music

I have to say when a song merged with the gameplay for the first time I didn't really buy it. It felt strange and somewhat out of place. I also might have accidentally stopped the music halfway through by switching to one of the menus. But it grew on me eventually.

Now, I'm writing this listening to the soundtrack on repeat.

For a story that borders on being profoundly tragic, the soundtrack is genuinely reassuring. There's genuine strength in being fragile, and the whole soundtrack feels like Rains Fall type of wisdom pouring out through the sounds of music.

Also, listening to this soundtrack somehow makes me far more into cowboy hats.

I guess, after all, it's not that westerns aren't my thing. It's more about how its core values are usually implemented. When done right, I'm actually all for hat and boots, and horses, and music and sandy roads.

This being said, I'm still undecided whether this way of using music in games works for me. I keep leaning more towards "no". I guess, what I'm trying to say is that the soundtrack of Red Dead Redemption 2 is just too good per se. It's good enough for risky moves. With a less successful soundtrack though, this had all the changes to end up sounding like some CW TV show.

Is the story any good?

I would lie if I said that I liked Arthur Morgan from the very start of the game. Just as I would lie if I said that I have developed any particular feelings towards the character of John Marston. In Red Dead Redemption 2 characters feel secondary in respect to the world itself, all painted with broad strokes, with details that bear little if any real significance in the bigger picture.

Usually, I tend to look for small and personal narratives. I prefer stories that focus on deeply psychological journeys and fights with inner demons. To a degree, Arthur's story is about that. But then again, it's so deeply interlinked with the fact that he's dying that it feels somewhat contrived. This journey doesn't develop naturally, it is forced upon Arthur by circumstances. Now, this doesn't diminish the experience itself. It's just that I wonder if there was another more subtle way to explore this journey? I wonder if without Mary Linton we would have ever seen the more vulnerable side of Arthur Morgan?

Don't get me wrong, when Arthur eventually passed away I felt sad, and I expected to feel sad about it for a long time. Yet it didn't happen. By the time I got to the mountain where Micah was hiding, I had already let go of Arthur.

So am I saying that the story of Red Dead Redemption 2 is no good?

Yes and no.

If you chose to look at Red Dead Redemption 2 as a story of a guy who wanted to redeem his wrongs before dying (which the title suggests)... well, it's not bad. It's just nothing special. It's polished and well-acted. The technics it's using are obvious, but they still executed just right.

Now, I believe the writing of Red Dead Redemption 2 shines the most when you examine it in broader narratives rather than specific events. The story of the Van der Linde gang's eventual demise unfolds in the background, but it is far more nuanced than Arthur's personal journey that we are experiencing first hand. You can't pinpoint a certain moment when it all begins crashing down. Just like Arthur would, you are clinging to the illusion of stability until it's already far too late. Although we have Micah as the central antagonist towards the end, you can't honestly put all the blame for what happened solely on him.

Just like the world of Red Dead Redemption 2 is inevitably moving towards a new way of life, the future of the Van der Linde gang is doomed. It's not the subtlest of parallelisms, yet it's one that feels far less contrived.