[pullquote]"This is a game that tries to desperately to show its maturity, that it's past the simple morals of fantastical and escapist gunslinger movies, and more along the lines of a "prestige" film."[/pullquote]

It is quite surprising to me that any artist would attempt to make a new Western in the age of HBO's Westworld . In that show by Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy, historical periods such as the Old West, feudal Japan, and colonial India are distilled to technologically-advanced theme parks, where the rich and privileged can enjoy endless leisure and can live out their apparent fantasies with acts of violence and debauchery. One can almost say that the development of Red Dead Redemption 2 and the scenario presented in Westworld are analogous in those regards.

While Rockstar felt the need to provide the player with a quick means of traversing this huge world, they also wanted to keep things a little authentic. As such, you can’t just go warping around willy-nilly like it’s Zelda or something. You must be stationed at that map in your camp every time you fast travel, as you can only do so from th

Those smart enough will be able to track down their man, hogtie him, and take him to the Sheriff, picking up a $20 reward for their effort. Not monumental, but certainly an experience worth undertak

In the early quarter of the game, you assign the help of Nigel West Dickens, a snotty and theatrical man who is literally a snake oil salesperson. West Dickens suggests you connect with his colleagues Irish and Seth to help in your mission to break into Fort Mer

In recent years, just about everyone’s been getting in on the whole open world thing. Titles like Grand Theft Auto V and Skyrim defined what it meant to offer players a huge, sandbox world to explore, and the bar’s been raised repeatedly si

St. Denis has plenty of exciting things to discover, but one of the best has to be the vampire who has a taste for the locals. Searching the area allows players to come across graffiti hinting at the existence of the bloodsucker, but gamers are only able to actually trigger the encounter with the vamp at ni

Red Dead Redemption 2 mods Dead Redemption 2 ticks both of these boxes. It’ll be a little while before you’re able to fast travel, and the ability to do so is hidden away. It’s so obscure, in fact, that many players stumbled upon it purely by accident. Sometimes quite late in the game, to b

I consistently struggled in trying to figure out just what Dan Houser and his co-writers were trying to convey throughout the story in Red Dead Redemption 2 . Whenever it appeared that some allegory was being set up, the scenarios would delve into quirkiness and involve stereotyped characters. Without detailing each one, I played three particular Stranger missions that put me off with that exact formula: the ones involving the characters of Margaret, Bertram, and the pair of Mr. Black and Mr. White. This video game, which is presented with the themes of modern Western stories, comes across more like a subpar attempt at subversion. Houser perhaps wants to satirize the caricatures of old Westerns, but ends up creating caricatures of his own. But hey, this is also coming from the same train of thought that replacing "Metlife" with "Getalife" in Grand Theft Auto IV was brilliant satire.

[pullquote]"Thematically, both Red Dead Redemption 2 and The Assassination of Jesse James focus on a commune of criminals and gang members, led by a charismatic leader who the rest of the gang eventually become disillusioned with." [/pullquote]

With so much to do, you'd be forgiven for not uncovering each and every hidden gem contained within the game (especially so now that attention is being diverted to the brilliant Red Dead Online beta that's currently underway). This is where we step

In short, fast travel is super convenient in Red Dead Redemption 2 , but it could’ve been far more user-friendly. It’s expensive to unlock, it’s unwieldy, and you may not even have known it was there in the first pl

The wise old gunslinger Landon Ricketts becomes a mentor-like buddy for Marston in the Mexico segment. He’s bitter and elusive about his past in the states, satisfied to be living his existence in the dusty bars of Mexico and going on a bunch of adventures with Mars

As we’re enjoying the rich intro with the plot set up, the stakes start to twist to a resoundingly silly moment. After introducing Marston and his quest to take down ex-gang brother Bill Williamson, the ex-gunslinger goes up to Williamson’s uninviting Fort Mercer in plain sight and lets Williamson know his busin

Horizon Zero Dawn , The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and others have advanced these concepts, but Red Dead Redemption 2 presents a world of dizzying scale. It’s set across five fictitious U.S. states (New Austin and West Elizabeth from the original game, plus the all-new Ambarino, Lemoyne and New Hanover), which combine to create a world map you do not want to be constantly charging back and forth across on your horse al