RED DEAD REDEMPTION 2 REVIEW

RED DEAD REDEMPTION 2 REVIEW

The Good The best looking console game there’s ever been Easily the most surprising story in open-world history A ludicrous and lovely number of side distractions The Bad Lack of fast travel makes this one long game The ending isn’t as brave as its predecessor There’s no way to say the following without sounding wildly definitive, so here goes…. Red Dead Redemption 2 is the best looking video game of all time. Yes, EVER. And that includes Uncharted 4. It’s also the best game of the past five years. Compare this Wild West epic to GTA 3’s blocky Liberty City and its cast of fugly thugs you probably kneecapped on a tiny TV 17 years ago, and the evolution is astounding. At times, it’s scarcely believable how good Rockstar’s latest sandbox looks and feels. Not counting GTA 5’s remaster, this is the first game the studio has properly released this console generation. Unsurprisingly, in the years since the Los Santos sensation launched, Rockstar has built up a wealth of things to say. As such, RDR2 is a game of big themes and even bigger ideas. The evils of creeping capitalism. Corrupt regimes. The loss of long-held beliefs. With its contextual conversations, where its outlaw lead can either greet or antagonise hundreds of bespoke NPCs, the game also tries to move open-worlds forward. Here, your main interactions often involve swapping pleasantries (or devastating, old timey disses), while significant portions of the main story involve quiet, peaceful character-building. Compared to the wanton carousel of slaughter so many other sandboxes choose to ride, RDR2’s more thoughtful, less trigger-happy approach feels like a progressive step. Although that said, you still end up shooting hundreds of dudes. Don’t worry, most of ‘em deserve it. Playing on Xbox One X at 4K, this frontier fable isn’t just incredibly sharp, it boasts the most impressive lighting and weather effects around. Wait until you see a soupy morning mist coat the game’s southerly plantation fields or get caught in a screen-shaking thunderstorm, then try to disagree. If you’re lucky enough to own a high-end 4K TV, the visual splendour RDR2 routinely spits out is a match for even the most cutting-edge games on PC; remarkable seeing as this is running on (slightly) ageing consoles, not an insanely expensive graphics card. Even if you’re ‘only’ playing at 1080p on a standard Xbox One or PS4, this supremely pretty open-world is filled with incredible environments and super expressive character models.