Introduction

Red Dead Redemption II is an immersive open world action adventure game with a great story. This game was released on October 26, 2018 and is a prequel to Red Dead Redemption I released nearly ten years earlier. Red Dead Redemption is published by Rockstar Games, Inc. a publisher that has also released titles such as Grand Theft Auto, Max Payne, Midnight Club, and L.A. Noire. The game has both single-player and multiplayer modes of play. However, only the single-player campaign will be addressed for this analysis. The game was played on the PlayStation 4 (PS4) for over twenty hours with 37 percent completion. The game’s protagonist is Arthur Morgan a gunslinging outlaw who rides along with the Van Der Linde gang including John Marston the protagonist of the preceding title Red Dead Redemption I. As with most Rockstar games, the story is very good and engaging with a craving to finish missions in the game. Once a mission is finished, it is very easy to start the next mission without realizing what you’ve just done.

Story

The game takes place in the wild west of America during the late eighteen hundred. At the beginning of the game, a robbery committed by the Van Der Linde gang goes terribly wrong in Blackwater. However, as the player, we do not play through the robbery scene itself. We only get references to the robbery as the storyline unfolds slowly painting the picture. As the opening screen rolls, we are on the run trekking through blizzard conditions towards an unknown location. We play as the outlaw Arthur Morgan a member of the Van Der Linde gang. Artur Morgan must fight his way through the story to survive and help his fellow gang members commit crimes while hiding from the law lurking behind every corner. The gang must keep their eyes peeled for any signs of bounty hunters or federal lawmen following their trail from Blackwater. If any suspicions arise, they must move to a new location to keep their gang safe. While playing as Arthur, we freely roam the scenic wild west completing missions and making decisions that set up the future storyline. It is a very engaging story which pulls one in early in the game. There are plenty of things to do before boredom is on the list of things to do.

Gameplay

The game is endless with activities that range from taking a boat out on the lake and fishing to drinking moonshine and robbing trains. With such a limitless array of activities and missions to complete the gameplay is very engaging. Ten hours into the game, and it seems like the tutorial never really ended because we just learn how to fish. There are many places to explore, and there are many things to learn before Arthur can be the outlaw gunslinger he is meant to portray. This section will discuss gameplay, playability, and the immensity of side missions/activities.

Red Dead Redemption gameplay is well balanced throughout the game. The learning curve seems more shallow than steep. The learning curve may be related to the flow of the game. Skills are learned slowly resulting in more frustration in the beginning, but then it stays closer to frustration in relation to boredom as new strategies are developed throughout the game. Towards the beginning, it is difficult to kill the easiest of bandits ambushing Arthur. As the story progresses, one realizes certain elements of the game such as dead eye, a very important mechanic, allows for very effective weapon usage. The dead eye trait allows Arthur Morgan to slow down time to pull his weapon and set bullet locations on enemies or even animals. It takes a while to fully grasp how to recharge dead eye as well as other attributes such as health and stamina. Arthurs attributes are marked on the screen by cores for health, stamina, and dead eye. Similarly, Arthur’s horse has a health and stamina core as well. Cores display an overall amount of a particular attribute, but the rings around the core show how much Arthur can use at the moment. If Arthur uses the entire ring around the core, he will start draining the core. Essentially, the core is like the energy reserves, and the ring is the energy Arthur can use at the moment. If the core is filled, the ring will regenerate faster. Arthur must use items such as provisions to restore cores and tonics to refill rings. Tonics have a short-term effect while provisions have a more long-term effect. Different items refill cores and rings varying amounts. Once a core is full, it is will drain after about ninety minutes of play. Upon opening Arthur’s satchel, items are displayed with relative pros and cons. For example, moonshine will refill the dead eye ring for a short period but it will decrease the health core. Sleeping will also refill cores. The refilling of cores and rings is a crucial mechanic during gameplay. If a player chooses not to keep track of core regeneration, the game becomes much harder. Depending on the climate region certain clothes will diminish cores as well. Arthur should not be dressed in a short-sleeved shirt while exploring the northern regions of the map or tripping on a rock can be fatal. The game is mostly skill based with minimal randomness truly affecting the gameplay. Randomness may be present in the spawning of animals and characters, as well as some of the luck-based games such as poker or blackjack. When an enemy or character is killed, that person’s loot may be random to some extent as well. The story and missions are skill based as everything is constant and repeatable when missions are replayed.

The main storyline has a good plot and the side missions/activities can get overwhelming. One never really knows what they may be encounter on a trip from one city to the next. This is one of the things that make the game engaging and realistic, yet it makes it very easy to get sidetracked as well. For example, Arthur may find a blind man wandering rugged terrain asking for money. Or an animal may jump in front of Arthur’s horse to realize that pelt is needed for an upgrade, so Arthur may end up chasing and tracking the animal for a quite a while. Unfortunately, the pelt gets damaged, and Arthur may get really frustrated. Or a tied-up woman on a bounty hunters’ horse may be screaming for help. Her innocence is questionable, but Arthur may decide to help her because she sounds convincing. Or even a gang of bandits may attempt to jump Arthur, but Arthur knows moonshine makes him shoot really well so the bandits have no chance. There is a heap full of characters and side missions one may encounter on a road these are just a few. Encounters such as these make the game much more unexpected and exciting. This keeps the interest at a relatively constant magnitude throughout the game. Hunting is an important activity that is optional, but it is rewarding. Pelts can be sold or they can be used to make upgrades. Animals are always wandering making it mindless to pull out a bow from time to time. Most animals are generally found in specific regions on a map with the exception of rare animals that are generally one of a kind and more difficult to find and track. Some other optional activities include playing poker, blackjack, fishing, riding in trains, driving trains, robbing trains, robbing houses, robbing stagecoaches, going to the bar, taming wild horses, collecting plants, and many more. Nearly all the characters in the game can interact with each with a unique story to tell. This interaction introduces even more activities, freedom, and reality. There are an abundant amount of activities and side missions that will satisfy most people.

With all of these choices brings up decision making in the game. Since this is an open world game, decisions are made frequently without realizing. Just prioritizing between a side mission and story mission could have an affect on how the game may play out. As it has been already mentioned, there are many side missions that may come unexpected or at any time. Arthur may be riding his horse and a stranger may ask for help. For example, a man was bitten by a venomous snake, and you have to decide whether you want to save the individual or let them die. If Arthur decides to help the man, a reward is possible. In addition, a reputation meter is filled for doing good deeds or bad deeds. After doing good deeds the honor meter fills, and once enough is collected certain perks are available such as discounts in stores and new outfits. This reputation meter is similar to a good/evil meter with both sides having its own perks. Looting dead bodies, killing, or robbing, will lower the honor meter and your reputation as well. A player’s morals and judgments drive decisions throughout the game. This allows the player to leave a little bit of themselves in the game through the decisions made.

Audience/Fun

The game does not necessarily cater to one gender or age group in particular. Since the protagonist is a male character, it may be expected that the game will have a more exclusive appeal to males over females. The game has several elements that touch on both gender interests. Things men enjoy that this game provides is violence and an open world experience with no limitations except the boundaries of the map. While women could potentially like the ability to customize the characters’ outfits as well as upgrading the character’s equipment and abilities. The game is not necessarily meant to be only played by men, but it may be more appealing to the general male population over the female population. This game is rated M for mature which gives a good idea of the expected audience in terms of age. The game caters more towards the hardcore gamers who like downloadable content, shallow learning curves, and complex stories. To sum it up, the game may be more appealing to adult men gamers who enjoy hardcore games.

The game has a relatively shallow learning curve so it complements Koster’s theory of fun. It encourages learning new things often. Once the player gets used to a particular location or weapon a new location must be explored or a new weapon is acquired. This forces the player to continuously evolve their strategy to accommodate the changing environment and enemies as well as available weapons. The campaign touches on nearly all but one of Lazzaro’s keys of fun. The game is considered an open world game so it touches on easy fun including exploration and role-playing. Throughout the game, missions must be completed with varying difficulty so it includes hard fun. The game is also serious fun as it has the option to change the player in some way such as upgrading equipment, abilities, and the gang’s camp. The campaign itself does not include people fun. However, the game does have an online option that allows people to interact with one another, but it was not played for this analysis. By applying Bartle’s Taxonomy to this game, a similar trend is present where the campaign does not provide a social experience. However, the game allows players to create drama catering to the killers, missions have varying levels of difficulty satisfying the achievers, and it is an open world satisfying the interests of explorers as well. Red Dead Redemption II touches on nearly all the aspects of fun a game should incorporate to cater to broader groups of people.

Conclusion

Red Dead Redemption II is a very engaging game. Since there is so much to try, it ends up being like a buffet where no matter how much a person eats they are not satisfied. With the number of side missions and unlockable content, it will take an extensive amount of time to reach one hundred percent completion. This game is well worth the anticipation after the release date was prolonged. As we move into the realm of new consoles, this game will likely be played on the next generation consoles. Rockstar has developed another popular game series that rivals Grand Theft Auto. This game would be recommended to anyone who enjoys open-world action adventure games. It received a handful of awards during the 2018 game awards including best narrative, best music/score, best audio design, and best performance for the voice of Arthur Morgan (https://thegameawards.com/awards/). Even though it did not win game of the year, Red Dead Redemption II was still one of the best games released in 2018. With new consoles on the way, we will see how Rockstar decides to up the next generation of games.