Gamers had Oct. 26 circled on their calendars for months leading up to the release to Red Dead Redemption 2.
Eight years prior, Rockstar Games released the prequel. They produced the first trailer in 2016 on Oct. 20, and proceeded with two-year radio silence about the game and its progress.
Rockstar Games finally broke the vigil during the 2018 E3 gaming convention, where they announced the release date of Oct. 23.
Since its release, reviewers have been crowing about the game’s graphics, plot and overall gameplay. Imagine Game Network (IGN) gave the game a 10 out of 10, citing its rich content.
“The ability of [Red Dead Redemption 2] to keep itself fresh after so many hours is extraordinary,” IGN staff writer Luke Reilly said in his review of Red Dead Redemption 2.
The game received glowing ratings from other game review sites such as GamesRadar, who gave the game a 5 out of 5, Metacritic, who gave the game a 97 percent and Destructoid, who awarded it a 9.5 out of 10.
Red Dead Redemption 2 masters the rustic Wild West tone with its stunning graphics. The developers introduce painstaking detail in all elements of the game, including wildlife, foliage and humans the player may encounter.
The quality of such graphics are groundbreaking, and has never appeared before in any other Wild West-themed game.
It also allows for a wide array of interactions with different players and NPCs, differentiating it from its modern counterpart, the Grand Theft Auto series.
The attention to detail has made it a candidate for game of the year, and sets it apart from other games of its likeness, transporting the player back to the days of Clint Eastwood, John Wayne and Don Knotts.
The plot of Red Dead Redemption 2 is similar to that of a movie. The progression of the plot is based more on the characters than gameplay.
Compare this to the first Red Dead Redemption game, which mostly advanced its plot based on who and what the player shot. Rockstar Games took the shallow, underdeveloped characters from the first game of the series and transformed them into complex, realistic outlaws with deep personalities and traits.
Red Dead Redemption 2 is up for the Best Narrative, Best Direction, Best Score, Best Audio Design, Best Action Adventure and Game of the Year awards on Dec. 6.
The game could potentially win seven awards while only releasing less than two months before the Game Awards, a feat that no game has previously achieved. The latest a Game of the Year recipient launched their game before the Game Awards ceremony was Madden NFL 2004, which released less than three months before the event.
While the graphics and plot of the game are enticing, certain challenges can be extremely frustrating. For instance, one objection requires the player to win five hands of Blackjack, a type of card game. The challenge involves no skill whatsoever and entails as much as ten minutes of just waiting to win hands.
Card game challenges will even frustrate poker enthusiasts, as the coding prevents the usage of strategy, such as counting cards. Poker challenges, such as the Blackjack challenge, are somewhat frequent throughout the game and detract from the gameplay.
2018-11-26