Random Stuff

My Thoughts On Red Dead Redemption 2

I know I'm late to the party for this game but I'll explain. One: at the time the game came out, I didn't have a PS4. Two: I hadn't played the first game so I didn't want to play a sequel to a game I hadn't played. But then I heard it is actually a prequel to the first game.

So I found it on sale at a GameStop, bought it and played it. Although I did take a break from playing it as I went and played Cyberpunk 2077, which I thought was a good game. But once I finished Cyberpunk, I went back to playing this game and so for basically two weeks I played this game when I had free time.

And after playing it, I now know why people love this game. I believe this is one of the best games I have played in my life and now I want to play the original game.

But anyway this game has now become one of my favorite games of all time. Top 3 at least. 

Now I do want to say that I mostly focused on the main missions of the game. I'm that kind've player that when I first play the game I mostly focused on the story and if it's good enough for me to play a second time, I'll take my time with it.

I say that cause this game is a large open world type game. There's like alot of side missions I didn't do, that I'm now gonna do on my second playthrough. 

The story of this game is just so, so, so good. I was instantly hooked with the game. Yes, it is a bit slow but I didn't mind as the characters were all interesting. Dutch was a pretty interesting antagonist, who I liked at first and started to hate. John Marston, Sadie Adler and Charles Smith are among my favorite characters as each of them are pretty badass. Sadie, especially, as seeing her go from a grieving widow to a revenge fueled woman.

Hosea Mathews I also liked as he was just a great father like figure to Arthur and was the voice of reason to Dutch. Sucked at what happened to him. Rains Falls was also a very good character that showed Arthur what a good leader looks like.

Also fuck Micha Bell...just...just fuck that bastard.

I know there are other characters but either I can't remember, cause this is just a big cast of characters, or I didn't find them very interesting.

But to me the most interesting and best character of the game is of course Arthur Morgan. His whole story and, of course, redemption was just fascinating. Going from a ruthless outlaw to a remorseful man who is trying to right his wrong by helping out people he cares for.

Now I know this game is a few years old but I still want to give a spoiler warning on what happens in the game, including the ending or endings as I found out there's like four variations of endings.

So spoilers ahead!

Now towards the middle of the game, we find out that Arthur has tuberculosis which he got it from a man, Thomas Downes, that he beat up to collect a debt for Herr Strauss. 

And I'll say I knew Arthur died in this game but I didn't know how and when I got to this part of the game where he gets diagnosed with TB, I was shocked, sad and devastated when I heard that. I felt so bad for the character that I just wanted to hug him.

There's like four different variations to the ending, and it's to deal with how you played as Arthur. You were either a good person or a bad person and then the final decision at the end which is either help John Marston to safety or go back for this money that was hidden in the cave.

The ending I got was I had a high honor and I helped John escape. Mainly as I felt that that ending fit with Arthur's character arc better. I did see the other endings and ill say the high honor and going for the money was also a good ending but damn those low honor endings were just horrible.

For those that don't know, in the low honor endings Micah kills Arthur by either shooting him point blank or stabbing him in the back. The high honor ones is basically TB takes Arthur out and it ends with him watching the sun rise one more time.

And I will say that I cried when he died. I also cried with Arthur's last ride moment where you ride on your horse one last time to the camp and that song plays. It's amazing how I got so attached to Arthur as quickly as I did. The last character I got this attached to was, of course, Joel Miller.

The Epilogue, where you get to play as John, I did feel dragged on a bit too long but I'm sure that this was for people who had played the original Red Dead Redemption as it kinda shows how John ends up in the situation he is in in the first game. Plus it was still kinda cool to see what happened to some of the characters from the camp that are still alive in the game, like Sadie, Charles and Uncle.

But...I missed Arthur incredibly when I got to this section of the game.

The negatives I had were basically I felt the gun play was a bit clunky. The Chapter 5 section I felt was a bit weird and it kinda felt like Tomb Raider/Uncharted but I guess they made this to show Arthur how far and crazy Dutch was starting to become and make him doubt Dutch, but they still could done something better.

I hated the random ambushes these bandits, bounty hunters or the O'Driscoells would do and I tried my best to fight them off but I always ended up dying. I think I've only done like a couple of the ambushes successfully.

There were times I tried to get undercover but Arthur wouldn't do it and just get shot up.

But other than that I really enjoyed this game and I'm already going on a second playthrough of the game. 

I've also had some people ask me to do a fan fic of this game and, honestly, I am thinking about it. And it'll probably be an Arthur Morgan x Reader story but if I do this story, it might not be for awhile as I've got a couple of other stories that I'm working on right now.

So, we will see.

What about you guys? If you played the game, what are y'all's thoughts on the game? Let me know in the comments! Y'all take care!