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The best story ever told through using free roaming as a narrative tool. And one of the three greatest free roamers ever made.
Absolutely brutal.
Absolutely brutal.
This review contains spoilers
It's pretty good, but nowhere near as good RDR1.
I honestly would heavily dislike the game's story if it weren't for the epilogue. Mostly because the main story really doesn't fit with the narrative of the first game at all.
I think the epilogue nevertheless tied everything together well, because it really exposed that Micah was the true product of the main story. Having Micah as sort of an "Anti-John" in the end was important.
I just wasn't a fan of this game's side missions at all. And I think the entire Rhodes chapter made me bring down the entire score by a whole star by itself. I honestly found myself loathing a good portion of this game's story by comparison to the first one. It's difficult to really talk about it.
In laymans terms:
In the first game, you play as the typical wild west hero, who gets betrayed by a so called "righteous society", all in the name of progress.
This game promised to have the perspective of the outlaw instead. No longer are you a wild west hero, you're a bad man. That's what the game promised and honestly should have been. But Arthur's storyline really just serves to set up the real "bad man" in Micah, the game's main antagonist.
I understand most people wouldn't have wanted to play as a character like Micah, but going into this game, I craved it.
And in the end that's just my opinion really: I think I would have loved the game a lot more if from scene 1 I was playing as Micah, experienced the whole game from Micah's eyes, and in the end get shot by John. I think that would have been much better. Would most people have agreed with me? No. And I understand why for the average person, the average normie, playing from a more neutral character like Arthur's perspective was more palatable, but I think his story only served to distract from the overarching narrative of the series. It distracted from the much darker bigger picture that the first game had masterfully crafted.
Gameplay wise the game is much weaker than the online as well. Your horse doesn't come to you if you get too distant from it, you can end up just stuck in some places that way. The gun repair mechanic was also particularly annoying. Just a lot of decisions that were made for the sake of realism, which don't really serve a fun purpose.
The one real saving grace is the free roaming, which is very in depth, and honestly you can never go wrong with the overall Red Dead design of things. The story just weighs it down.
TLDR:
>Story sucks except for the epilogue
>The side missions are often the worst thing in the game
>The realism sucks in terms of gameplay
>The free roaming is pristine as usual for RDR.
Overall it's a B Tier game that should have been an S Tier. 3/5 is being a bit generous.
I honestly would heavily dislike the game's story if it weren't for the epilogue. Mostly because the main story really doesn't fit with the narrative of the first game at all.
I think the epilogue nevertheless tied everything together well, because it really exposed that Micah was the true product of the main story. Having Micah as sort of an "Anti-John" in the end was important.
I just wasn't a fan of this game's side missions at all. And I think the entire Rhodes chapter made me bring down the entire score by a whole star by itself. I honestly found myself loathing a good portion of this game's story by comparison to the first one. It's difficult to really talk about it.
In laymans terms:
In the first game, you play as the typical wild west hero, who gets betrayed by a so called "righteous society", all in the name of progress.
This game promised to have the perspective of the outlaw instead. No longer are you a wild west hero, you're a bad man. That's what the game promised and honestly should have been. But Arthur's storyline really just serves to set up the real "bad man" in Micah, the game's main antagonist.
I understand most people wouldn't have wanted to play as a character like Micah, but going into this game, I craved it.
And in the end that's just my opinion really: I think I would have loved the game a lot more if from scene 1 I was playing as Micah, experienced the whole game from Micah's eyes, and in the end get shot by John. I think that would have been much better. Would most people have agreed with me? No. And I understand why for the average person, the average normie, playing from a more neutral character like Arthur's perspective was more palatable, but I think his story only served to distract from the overarching narrative of the series. It distracted from the much darker bigger picture that the first game had masterfully crafted.
Gameplay wise the game is much weaker than the online as well. Your horse doesn't come to you if you get too distant from it, you can end up just stuck in some places that way. The gun repair mechanic was also particularly annoying. Just a lot of decisions that were made for the sake of realism, which don't really serve a fun purpose.
The one real saving grace is the free roaming, which is very in depth, and honestly you can never go wrong with the overall Red Dead design of things. The story just weighs it down.
TLDR:
>Story sucks except for the epilogue
>The side missions are often the worst thing in the game
>The realism sucks in terms of gameplay
>The free roaming is pristine as usual for RDR.
Overall it's a B Tier game that should have been an S Tier. 3/5 is being a bit generous.
Red Dead Redemption, as a base, is a rare example of a game that is so well designed that it cannot be ruined, even with the developer's best attempts to ruin it. Red Dead Online is proof of that.
It's real simple. There are five currencies in the game, only three actually matter: XP, Gold, and RDO$ (Money).
You get XP from doing pretty much everything. Just running around and screwing around Red Dead Style will level you up gradually. Doing pretty much anything gets you XP. If you're in a rush for XP doing missions helps. XP will level you up, levels let you unlock the ability to buy things you need: guns, clothes, etc.
Gold is the premium currency of the game. Rockstar tried to implement gold as a method of getting you to buy it, so that way it can be free to play but they can keep milking it like they do GTA V. Gold has three uses: (1.) it is the only way to purchase roles, which give you more missions that have better rewards. (2.) It can be used to purchase any item in the game regardless of level. (3.) it's the only way to buy most cosmetic weapon materials. So if you exclusively use gold for the first usage, never use gold for the second usage, and sparingly use gold for the third usage, then you will never have to worry about gold. Bounty Hunting, the occasional daily challenges, and especially Treasure Maps will get you more gold than you will ever need without having to spend a dime.
Money is probably the easiest thing to get in the game. Beyond just your usual Red Dead activities, some of the roles will give you a boat load of money. So if you spend your gold on roles you'll have more money than you'll ever know what to do with. Different roles fit different playstyles, but my preferred strategy is a fully upgraded Trader since I usually kill every animal I see anyway. I recommend saving Moonshiner for last. Sure it's more money more often, but it only really gets that way once it's fully upgraded, and until then it's one huge investment after another.
All in all, the game functions well, honestly too well for it's own good. It's so easy to actually play the game, have fun, and make progress that I'm pretty sure it's why Rockstar hasn't updated it in over a year. When it comes to raw free roaming, it doesn't get any better than Red Dead Redemption.
4.5/5. Honestly might be the best online multiplayer free roamer ever, and not even intentionally so.
It's real simple. There are five currencies in the game, only three actually matter: XP, Gold, and RDO$ (Money).
You get XP from doing pretty much everything. Just running around and screwing around Red Dead Style will level you up gradually. Doing pretty much anything gets you XP. If you're in a rush for XP doing missions helps. XP will level you up, levels let you unlock the ability to buy things you need: guns, clothes, etc.
Gold is the premium currency of the game. Rockstar tried to implement gold as a method of getting you to buy it, so that way it can be free to play but they can keep milking it like they do GTA V. Gold has three uses: (1.) it is the only way to purchase roles, which give you more missions that have better rewards. (2.) It can be used to purchase any item in the game regardless of level. (3.) it's the only way to buy most cosmetic weapon materials. So if you exclusively use gold for the first usage, never use gold for the second usage, and sparingly use gold for the third usage, then you will never have to worry about gold. Bounty Hunting, the occasional daily challenges, and especially Treasure Maps will get you more gold than you will ever need without having to spend a dime.
Money is probably the easiest thing to get in the game. Beyond just your usual Red Dead activities, some of the roles will give you a boat load of money. So if you spend your gold on roles you'll have more money than you'll ever know what to do with. Different roles fit different playstyles, but my preferred strategy is a fully upgraded Trader since I usually kill every animal I see anyway. I recommend saving Moonshiner for last. Sure it's more money more often, but it only really gets that way once it's fully upgraded, and until then it's one huge investment after another.
All in all, the game functions well, honestly too well for it's own good. It's so easy to actually play the game, have fun, and make progress that I'm pretty sure it's why Rockstar hasn't updated it in over a year. When it comes to raw free roaming, it doesn't get any better than Red Dead Redemption.
4.5/5. Honestly might be the best online multiplayer free roamer ever, and not even intentionally so.