Trotting through the snow in the midst of a blizzard, desperately looking for a place to take shelter, my gang comes across a house with its lights on. However, it is occupied by rival gang members, thus forcing us to eliminate them. This dog-eat-dog world is made prevalent in Rockstar’s newest entry into the Red Dead series, Red Dead Redemption 2 (RDR2). In RDR2, you play as Arthur Morgan, one of the many members of the Dutch Van der Linde gang of outlaws. However, the wild west is becoming tamed, and the law is finally catching up with, and eliminating, the last few gangs of criminals who are in hiding.

Throughout the 60-70 hour main campaign, the threat of the law closing in is always made aware to the player. Whether it is the bounties that have been put on your head, or the interactions you can have with the many NPC’s, or non-player characters,  in the game, the law is always after you. However, Rockstar has added the honor system to RDR2, meaning if you do good things, your honor will go up and the townspeople will reward you for being a high-standing member. On the other end of the spectrum, if you do bad things, the townspeople will be quick to quarrel with you and you will no longer be welcomed almost everywhere you go.

However, this would not be a western game if the gunplay was below par. Fortunately, Rockstar has made the shooting feel like you are handling the weapons of that era. For instance, all guns can not be fired rapidly and must instead be cocked after each round is fired, simulating the effects of a lever action rifle or revolver. Shooting also requires time between each shot to allow Arthur to aim his gun properly. If you fire too quickly, you risk missing and having to wait to chamber the next round and aim again. These gun mechanics help make the game feel more authentic and I appreciate the steps Rockstar has taken to make their game feel like a living, breathing world.

In conclusion, a review for the size and scale of this game could easily require thousands upon thousands of words. However, I truly believe this game is one of the best of this decade and deserves your attention. It is a really long game, but each of the six main chapters are excellently crafted and tell the story of the Van der Linde gang.

Shooting: 9/10 Superb. Very realistic shooting of the era. However, the quick lock system sometimes didn’t lock on to enemies.

Story: 9/10 Superb. The story is intense, dramatic, and each character offers their own uniqueness to the narrative. However, towards the end of the game, the story missions consist mainly of large gun fights that feel unrealistic.

Horse Riding: 7/10 Average. Rockstar did a lot to make the horse a more integral feature of the game. However, I kept finding that my horse would do strange things while riding. These occurrences have happened enough times that I found it very annoying.

Realism: 8/10 Excellent. Rockstar strove to make a realistic western shooter and they succeeded. From watching what you eat to avoid becoming overweight to drinking hair tonics and growing out a beard any man would be jealous of, this game features many mechanics to make Arthur and the world around him seem real. However, there are some unrealistic things added to the game to make it user friendly. Furthermore, the story forces the player into many gunfights, and by the end of the game I found it hard to believe Arthur could survive the amount of gunfights he has been in.