A piece of work that is truly memorable can paradoxically leave someone so intellectually provoked and speechless at the same time. Games like Rockstar’s latest Red Dead Redemption II usually come around once a console generation. The original Metal Gear Solid, Shadow of Colossus, and David Cage’s Heavy Rain just to name a few of it’s highest echelon siblings. Games that would surely be unanimous entries into the gaming hall of fame, if such a thing were to come around (please make it happen Cliff Bleszinski).
Surely a work so provocative and critically loved has bound to have some artistic chops to it. Without getting too stuffy, let’s dive into what some of those merits might be.
Visuals
Getting the obvious out of the way, the game is absolutely gorgeous, honestly the best looking game I’ve seen yet, on console. So PC master racists please calm down with your “Can it play Crysis” memes. When I go through a game for my first play-through I often go through the main story as genuinely quickly as I can, never stopping to sniff a pixelated posey or two. However, with Red Dead I couldn’t help but absolutely ogle at some of this games visual achievements. Rockstar has always strived to make their game worlds vast as well as articulate and detailed, fixating their polish on both the macro and the minutia.
A simple ride through a forest clearing had me bearing witness to calm creeks, gradually gain foam as they touched the pebbles and rocks of it’s banks, and arresting rays of sunlight that looked like they shared a zip code with Saint Peter. Off in the farthest, but impressively explorable, mountain ranges the finger tips of Gaia were blanketed by permafrost.
The visual fidelity was not just environmental but also in the visual design accomplishments of the character animators. Jackets and dresses were spattered with dust and mud, while top hats looked realistically eschewed upon the heads of those who live in a world of true gravity. The game had a day and night cycle that produced gorgeous shades of orange and purple during it’s transition hours. The night time in particular did take a few artistic liberties on the behalf of the player, making sure it was never truly so dark that one could not play comfortably.
The combat screamed with visceral visual pop. Gun smoke would linger and slowly dissipate long after your numerous victims drew their last. Shell casings would pop out of the side of your rifle and bounce slightly on the ground. Slugs and buckshot impacted hard, absolutely crushing bits of skull and ejecting brain matter frequently depicted up close in some of the most satisfying slow motion since the Wachowski sister’s dial up dystopia.
Sound/Music
I will be the first to admit it, while I am a passionate nerd of music, I am by far no audiophile, so you will have to bear with me and take my interpretations of the sound design with a grain of layman salt.
Starting things off the games sound effect work is phenomenal and yet another example of Rockstar Studios almost pathological, but all the same impressive, obsession with detail. Environmental changes will alter your footsteps from mud, to water, to snow. Leaves and sand whisper through the leaves of stoic trees, a noose often hanging from one of its branches.
What I found more compelling was how the game compiled a haunting soundtrack, guitars strum at molasses-like bpms sounding akin to a sonic snowfall. There are also sing along songs when you and your gang take a scenic carriage ride to replace the radio from grand theft auto. These songs are lyrically bleak and snotty, dripping with more nihilism than a Gaspar Noe film. One particular song about a john who decides to rape a prostitute when he finds he’s low on funds was absolutely chilling to say the least.
Writing
Now for the section that I found to be the games strongest point, at least, most of the time. It’s nothing new that Rockstar include very human albeit cynical penmanship to everything they do. In all honesty I must say they are so story centered that they make their games far too easy, making sure you can fully absorb what they want to tell you.
The dialogue in Red Dead II is utterly arresting, leaving me all at once laughing, contemplating, and livid at the statements of every central character. One of my favorite lines which comes from the games non-playable main character Dutch Van-der-linde, being, “This is America, you can always cut a deal”. This really resonated with me and impressed me with it’s linguistic efficiency, and genuinely sounded like a statement that would dance off the ophidian lips of Saul Goodman.
As strong as the dialogue was, unfortunately the same can not be said for it’s narrative. It as not that I didn’t enjoy it, I found it to be an exhilarating sojourn with enthralling character development. However, the games pacing is criminally slow throughout the lengthy introduction chapter, and it was evident to me looking back that the plot structure and playable events were practically copy and pasted from Grand Theft Auto 5. A decision which in my eyes and thumbs was an act of lazy storytelling to say the least. The other, and biggest, failure features a certain “twist” at the end which I guarantee every single person will see coming.
The most compelling aspect however was the philosophical depth of the writing which was where it really shined in my eyes and ears. Salesmen complain about “yeller belly city sales men, tambout a horseless carriage” and numerous omens of paradigm shifting. Arthur seems to be the only character in the gang that has a bit of prescience about the situation, often journaling about what he really thinks of his future and how can’t see himself having one. It drips with more nihilism than a Gaspar Noe film, culminating in an ending that was so powerful and endearing that someone started sautéing onions right in the room.
Game Design/Gameplay
Now on to what, in my opinion, is the most important part of any game’s quality. The game having enthralling depth while simultaneously being extremely digestible was seriously impressive. The controls are just as intuitive, doing what every great control scheme does, which is make you completely forget your holding a controller in the first place.
The game’s core mechanic is, funny enough, the core system. Essentially the player is given cores which dictate the drain rate and recovery rate of your health and stamina allowing the player a little sliver of status left when the bar drains, ala Halo’s system. The weaker your core is the slower you recover your bar. I will admit it took me a very long time to grasp this but made total sense after I did. The core system dictating your status bar causes players to be more tactical and incentivizes slower combat and rewards players who are diligent about status management. Eating food and drinking tonics restore your cores and can even give them a temporary surplus, although I must admit pulling out a can of beans in the middle of a heated gun fight is just down right silly.
Another mechanic is the horse bonding system. The more you adventure with your loyal steed and maintain their food supply, they will eventually grow more attached to you and have improved stats and even un-lockable tricks from level one to four. This is a beautiful idea in the regard that it uses gaming’s unique storytelling ability of interaction to get across an emotional and artistic message. This is something books and music and movies can never do and I want to see more, much more, of it in the future of this evolving art form.
Conclusion
Red Dead 2 gets a……
8,5 out of 10
-Nick
Critical Hits 