I’ve recently finished RDR2 for the first time, and, well, I’m a fan now. I became a fan from a second when I as Arthur shot his first bullet, and the great music kicked in at the same moment. It was my first impression, and the cinematography, the dialogues, the music — everything game me a feeling this was my type of game.

Immersion

I played many games, but this one got me entirely. I was thinking why, and seems like I understood: it lacks many common game mechanics like levels, damage numbers and many more. On the other hand, interactive movies still exist: Detroit: Become Human, Until Dawn, all this stuff. RDR2 is neither of them. You have full control over Arthur, you can go whenever you want and do whatever you want, and there are also numerous directed cutscenes. Somehow, it reaches the perfect middle between full control and no control.

The immersion is the main part here. It doesn’t try to be realistic for the sake of it, it includes a few mechanics here and there to create immersion, so you live like Arthur. It has just enough so you don’t feel bored or overwhelmed. You take a bath, and you cook, and you talk to your horse, and you set up camp…

When he travels through a dense forest during a severe storm and hugs himself because he’s cold and wet, you feel his loneliness. When he travels through sunny snowy mountains and sees the beautiful landscape, it’s you who travels.

Little fun fact: when I went to the snowy area on my second playthrough, I found a drawer in a ruined cabin. I opened it, and there was writing inside “You flourish before you die” or something like this. The sun is bright, the sky is clear, the weather is quiet, animals are running in the distance, and here I am, looking at this eerie message in the drawer.

The nature

It’s one of the few games which uses your experience as a player to make the story better. The beautiful landscape is here not just because, it’s here so you know that Arthur saw it. Fast travel is not easily accessible for a reason, you must see the nature, and Arthur must too. Of course, I didn’t realize it at the beginning, but when the tuberculosis is revealed and you realize — and Arthur realizes — he is dying, the nature becomes a new character in his journey that was always there but nobody noticed. Doubts in what kind of a man he was and thoughts of death make you look at the world differently. Horses, hunting, fishing; Arthur is always close to nature. And when a deer appears in his dreams, you know Arthur thinks of death. Interestingly, the first time we see the deer is when Arthur was kidnapped and tortured and had a near death experience. It’s probably the moment he started turning towards something beautiful that he’s never been a part of, but, philosophically speaking, was always a part of. In the end, he (and all of us) will inevitably reunite with nature.

You have been riding a horse all this time. You have been looking at the beauty and the life. In a way, the lack of fast travel forces you to see this. And when Arthur sees the deer images, you feel what he feels.

Gamification

I mentioned it before, let us take a closer look now. RDR2 only has horse trust, dead eye and stamina levels. Just three parameters out of a game that huge. There are so few map markers, and they never warn you about random encounters because, well, they’re supposed to be random.

If you saw a question mark on the map, you would be able to choose whether you want to start a side mission or not, but side missions in RDR2 are made by smarter people. When you ride from A to B, you (almost always) will meet a person who asks for help. It might be a genuine ask for help, or it might be a trap, you don’t know. If you help the stranger, you might get money, or a free weapon (if you go to a city and they will see you), or an entire side mission with a plot. But if it was a trap and you stopped to help, you will get robbed or killed. It’s unpredictable and makes you be careful and prepared. Because of this, random encounters never becomes a routine, and you have to think fast if you want to stop or keep going. See how much it’s better than having a question mark indicating another NPC quest!

(There are still NPC marks, but they’re rare and you still don’t know where their story will take you)

No enemies’ health bars, no enemy levels, no character levels, no damage numbers, no % boosts, no exclamation marks floating above NPCs’ heads… The world is so realistic, because there are no foreign elements breaking the immersion. You don’t need to think about typical game details like leveling up, nothing distracts you from riding and shooting and exploring.

The vibe

I’m not sure how to name it. I’m talking about moments that happen during your playthrough, mostly with story missions.

The first interesting moment that caught my eye was the gun tutorial. It happens in 15 minutes after you launch the game, and of course, Rockstar could’ve said ‘Press this, and then press that, don’t forget to click twice’.

I like the approach they took instead. When you know you need to say some information, and there is no way to avoid info dump, better make it memorable as in great experience. Many games treat tutorials as necessary evil, but RDR2 have chosen to make a cinema moment out of it.

So when the time to learn how to use your gun comes, it looks like a great scene from a great movie. The moment you start shooting, the music kicks in (I highly recommend to open the link to get the idea), and not just any generic fight music, but a masterpiece. It makes the vibe so much deeper and more personal.

And then somebody yells that one of the outlaws is running away, and we chase him through the snow and shoot him down. It’s a small detail, but somehow it feels even more cinematic because of this.

I was so into this game because of this scene. The tutorial!

And there are so much more in the game. Train robberies, bank robberies, shooting, chasing… Every action scene is just perfect. Arthur looks badass when shooting already (considering the sound design of the guns… Oh boy), but the music just makes it somehow even cooler.

Just look at the first train robbery which is still in the tutorial (yeah, I praise the tutorial a lot, and I personally consider it one of the best tutorials and one of the best first impressions).

It just makes me feel feelings. RDR2 is great at making you feel cool, but at the same time this badass Arthur character is not flat. The guy is surprisingly smart and deep, and it’s impossible not to like him.

Conclusion

On top of the great gameplay, great vibes and great music, RDR2 offers you a great story. I didn’t use Dead Eye at all (except necessary moments when you don’t have a choice) just because I wanted to appreciate the vibes and not ruin them with slow-mo and muted sound.

Everybody cried at the end, so did I. Red Dead Redemption 2 is and will be my favorite game for a long time. I didn’t know I would say it, but this game is pure art.