One of the most anticipated video games of recent years has been on sale since last Friday, Red Dead Redemption 2 (RDR2), the third chapter of a popular western saga that began in 2004 with Red Dead Revolver and continued in 2010 with Red Dead Redemption. It is one of the main titles of Rockstar Games, the US company de facto creator of open world games, those in which you move in first or third person in a universe where you can do more or less whatever you want. (and always better). For now, the main title of Rockstar's open world video games remains Grand Theft Auto V, released five years ago and become one of the best-selling and profitable video games ever: but over the years Rockstar has always raised the quality of its most relevant products. – which he brings out after several years of each other working with great confidentiality – often ending up creating world phenomena.
It seems that he did it again this time.
Unlike GTA V – set in our years in a more or less faithful reproduction of the city of Los Angeles and some areas of California – Red Dead Redemption 2 is set in the Old West between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries (precisely in the 1899). The protagonist of the game is Arthur Morgan, a member of a gang of outlaws – the same as in the second chapter of the game – whose lifestyle is getting closer and closer to the end, squeezed by the rapid advance of civilization towards the east coast of the American continent. You can play RDR2 without having played the previous titles of the saga: you don't lose anything.
Arthur Morgan's life is closely linked to his gang, with which the game begins in a prologue of about an hour that introduces the main aspects of the world. The progress of the main story depends on the various members of the band, but you can also move on your own, independently, and do what you want. There is a map of enormous dimensions made up of cities and villages under construction, forests, deserts, canyons, mountains, prairies and swamps, the real size of which is perhaps enlarged by the perception given by the style of the game: you move mostly on foot or horse and the pace is therefore slower. It is potentially a game that can be played for years: the main story alone takes about fifty hours to complete, but then there is everything else to discover. The landscape is changing and at the same point you can live many different experiences, from the request for help from a person in difficulty to attempted robberies and ambushes. The gunfights are as raw and violent as they really could have been at that time.
Graphics and realism have taken a step forward. Compared to the previous Rockstar games there are some notable improvements, mainly due to the evolution of the graphic engine – the Rockstar Advanced Game Engine – and to the presence inside it of two advanced physics engines, those that cause a stone to be thrown into a puddle. generates the same effect as a stone thrown into a puddle in reality (to sum it up a bit). A few days after launch, the game still has some bugs due to the complexity of graphics and physics, which should disappear with the first corrective updates.
Rockstar's open world games are divided between a main story – held up by a real script, made up of pre-established missions and tasks with which you advance towards the end in tens of hours of play – and a free mode, where the player is in fact free to move around the map without constraints of any kind, shooting at whoever he wants (and bearing the consequences), stealing, traveling, trading, etc. In Red Dead Redemption 2 the development of artificial intelligence has made the line between these two things more subtle, so much so that every choice made by the player, both in the story and in free mode, determines the gaming experience in an even more fluid way. without forced pauses.
It is also possible to interact quickly and realistically with any character you meet, through verbal approaches or actions that can be decided from time to time. Rockstar used over a thousand actors to create the game's uncontrollable characters, which therefore present an enormous variety of tones, gestures and appearances.
Your behavior in the game will have consequences. The “Honor” system takes into account all the honorable and dishonorable actions committed by the player. This will affect the reputation of the protagonist, but no longer in the rigid way applied to previous games: if a crime is committed, only the presence of witnesses can lead to an investigation, which depending on the seriousness of the actions will result in a bounty and a consequent bad. reputation. However, it will be possible to pay the bill at the court by paying the bounty out of one's own pocket at the post offices; or you can get arrested, but in that case you will lose almost everything.
The main means of movement are horses, of various breeds, with different qualities, whose behavior depends on the use and care with which they are managed. Spending more time riding a horse will increase the bond you have with him, for example, structured in four different levels, each of which will allow you to maneuver him in more effective ways. The horse must be fed and medicated and it is essential to keep all the weapons in the game – about fifty reproductions faithful to those of the time, as well as many other objects – and to transport goods and carcasses of hunted animals, whose skins can be sold in the emporiums to earn money or used to create everyday objects. Hunting is one of the most complex aspects of the game: there are dozens of species, and the specimens of each of these vary in size and quality. It is recommended to use a bow and arrow to hunt without damaging them, and must be used quickly to prevent them from decaying.
The Eurogamer website reviewed it as follows: «It is the great work of Rockstar, the culmination of a creative philosophy adopted since 1999, a product that dwarfs the artistic value of triple A half industry. It is not a hotbed of transcendental innovation, and those encountered will escape most, it is not a triumph of research: it is simply a world ». Then the review goes on to say: “All the characters, from the first to the last, have the spark of human ingenuity, passion and emotion. All the locations have credibility, they are changeable, fascinating and concrete ». The Guardian instead wrote: “Total immersion in an incredibly realistic world – whether you are facing enemies or skinning animals – makes the adventure of an outlaw an epochal game.” On the Metacritic website, which collects the criticisms of the major international newspapers, the average of expert opinions on the game is 97/100.
Red Dead Redemption 2 is on sale from October 26 for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, while the release for PC has not yet been announced. You can buy it on Amazon at 68.42 euros for PlayStation 4 and 69.99 for Xbox One. It is also on sale on ePrice at 69.99 euros for PS4 and at the same price for Xbox One.
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