A ragtag group of men and women waddle their way through a snowstorm deep in the mountains. They are on the run from the law, as the robbery Dutch Van der Linde committed at the city of Blackwater went sour and they were forced to abandon their previous plans. Now all they can do is try and get through the storm, but it seems nature wants them to sit the harsh winter out huddled in an old mining site.
You step in the boots of Arthur Morgan, one of the trustees of Dutch. This first part in the mountains is basically a long tutorial, showing you the ropes of survival at the end of the century United States. The year is 1899 and the wind of change is not a gentle breeze anymore, it's absolutely howling, throwing away the ways of the old, wild country from the way of progress and civilization. But first, Arthur needs to do his best to help his family, as Dutch puts it, to survive the winter, hopefully allowing them to move on due to spring and leave the law behind them for a while.
They do get out from the mountains, lamenting the lost loot from Blackwater. Arthur knows very little of it, as he wasn't a part of the robbery, as he was away when it went down. He's only heard of it second hand and he knows several of the gang members were caught. The charismatic Dutch is planning new ways of getting money, including a train robbery, but it all seems to go wrong. They get the Pinkertons on their trail, sent there by a wealthy industrialist, whose business the gang has been a thorn in.
Near the city of Saint Denise, the gang first gets caught in the rivalry between two old families, a rivalry that has been going on for years and was bloody even before Dutch came in trying to find a way of robbing them. In Saint Denise, they try to rob a bank, a heist that ends up with a couple of core members of the gang dying. By this point, Arthur, as well as some of the other members of the gang, begin to be very disillusioned by Dutch, who seems like a shadow of his former self. It seems the man has left his old ideals behind if he ever truly had any.
Arthur, Dutch, Micah and a couple of others, manage to escape to a small island near Cuba, where they get mixed in a small revolution before they manage to find a way back to the USA. Back home, Dutch loses all trust in Arthur after he decides to rescue John Marston from prison against Dutch's orders. Arthur is now completely disillusioned by Dutch, as he has now thrown away all of his old ideals, becoming murderous and greedy. He's also taken a more ruthless Micah under his confidence.
Arthur on the other hand begins to see matters in another light when he's diagnosed with tuberculosis. He is now fully aware of the fact that the age of prairie roaming outlaws is over. He wants other members of the gang to do better, to have a genuine change. He begins to see some degree of redemption in helping out John and Abigail who has a young son. Arthur thinks, that if he can save even them, it all hasn't been for nought.
In the end, after Dutch stirs up an Indian skirmish, Arthur and John have a standoff with Dutch and Micah, but the impending fight is disrupted by the Pinkertons. Arthus and Micah end up fighting on the cliffs, here the choices you've made have some effect on how Arthur dies. If he's tried being good, he passes on his wounds and tuberculosis while watching his last sunrise. If he's been bad, Micah takes care of him.
The epilogue takes place 8-years later when John and Abigail return in seeking an honest life. After a troubled start, and Abigail leaving John with their son, John decides to build a farm for her. He's aided by old faces from the bast, like the lazy Uncle, Charles and the fierce Sadie Adler, who in the end manages to track down Micah. It's also revealedMicah was an informant for the Pinkertons. Together with Charles and Sadie, John heads to the mountains to kill Micah. After killing Micah's gang they also stumble upon Dutch, who has been roaming with Micah. Surprisingly, Dutch shoots Micah himself and leaves the area for good. John and Abigail are married, Sadie and Charles leave for other pursuits and the ending paves for the beginning of the 1st Red Dead Redemption, where John is forced to take care of the Dutch's gang in Mexico.
I've never played the first Red Dead Redemption, so I can't really say how RDR2 compares to it, but I still, without any hesitation, claim Red Dead Redemption 2 as the best game Rockstar has made. It is, perhaps, one of the greatest games ever made in all, of narrative, worldbuilding and gameplay. The old west environments are meticulously crafted and detailed, and the wilderness is filled with amazing vistas and wildlife for you to hunt if you so choose.
Besides the main story, you can spend time robbing coaches, doing bounty hunting, hunting or fishing or just playing card games or Mahjong. The story itself is long, but with the activities around the world, you can get lost for hundreds of hours in the western world.
Unlike GTA games, the tempo of RDR2 is much slower. Travelling takes time, just as it should considering there are no cars. While horses are your main method of transportation, it is possible to jump on a train or a coach. Both you can also rob if you so choose. Neither train nor a coach is a form of instant travel, as there's a transition period. The same thing goes for camp fast travel.
In the era of the story in the late 19th century, there are quite a few weapons to be acquired. These guns can be found from fallen enemies or bought from gun shops, which also provide means for improving the guns a bit, like adding longer barrels and rifling as well as the possibility of altering their looks, like colours and carvings. Guns also need to be tended in order to keep them in perfect shape. They can be cleaned with gun oil, which can be bought from stores or found in enemy camps. The dirty guns don't become unusable, but they do get penalties in damage and accuracy, so it pays off the keep at least your favourite guns clean.
All in all, Red Dead Redemption 2 is one of the most amazing accomplishments in gaming. It is a long, detailed and immersive experience, with the main story that keeps you pushing it through in order to see what happens to Arthur Morgan. If he gets at least something of redemption, in the end, does depend on how you go through his journey, but however you get to the end, it's well worth it. The epilogue with John Marston is decent enough, but it's clear the story was about Arthur and his final journey.
Unsurprisingly, considering how vast the game world is, there's an online mode as well, just like there's one in GTA5. While it's not as popular as its more contemporary counterpart, it's still a way of sinking a couple of more hours in the game, if you don't mind playing as a silent protagonist, male or female, you get to create at the beginning.
As per usual, there are some narrative-driven missions in the online world as well, but a good chunk of it is meant for all kinds of online activities, even some of the story missions, if not all, require you to team up, but this is mostly automatic progress and communication isn't necessary, so you can play mostly as usual.
Anyhow, Red Dead Redemption is a great game and one of those must-play titles. It really hasn't gotten its praises from nought. For PC, you can get it from Steam.
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