Red Dead Redemption 2 Playstation 4

The storyline here is a prequel to the last Red Dead game, which I had thoroughly enjoyed, but that's pretty much where any similarities end. Know that this game and story goes long and deep. And I just loved it. The characters have a real depth and backstory that evolves at a perfectly timed pace. I got emotionally invested in them quickly both loving and hating them. And in the end, the story, or let's say stories, because Red Dead is so long and there are so many entirely different kinds of storytelling in all the chapters, the story is about the gangs' relationships with each other, in particular the leader of the gang Dutch, your character Arthur, and the young outlaw that Arthur takes under his wing, John (your character in the previous Red Dead Redemption, which is quite interesting in an of itself), who by keeping John's family safe and trying to get them to seek a different life, Arthur seeks to find his redemption. Though we are never really sure if Arthur knows that or not. He, like all the characters are, well, complicated to say the least. And of course being Old West outlaws, they are all clearly flawed people living on the edge of their sanity knowing that the law is looking for them Dead or Alive, and that they could well be found at any moment. You just feel the intensity of their situations. And Arthur is constantly faced with moral dilemmas, wanting to be an outlaw, wanting to be loyal to his friends, but also very much wanting to become a good man and do the right thing. Of which his leader and mentor Dutch, very much does not like, wanting the ruthless killer that he basically raised from a child to be the super-outlaw loyal partner that he had raised him to be. And the supporting characters all have a story depth too, like no video game I've ever played before. You'll love and hate them all, and you don't want to trust anybody. But in order to succeed in the game, sometimes you must. Betrayal is a central theme in this story and it will have you questioning what exactly that word entails and means. The game constantly challenges your sense of what's right and wrong. Many kudos to the the writers, and there certainly were a gaggle of them. This is truly a masterpiece.Now, it's a Western in every sense folks. And I mean a classic one, very much influenced by The Oxbow Incident. And like those classic western novels, it takes its time to develop the the story. If you like space games, if you like fantasy games or super heroes, this might not be your cup of tea. There are some tap, tap tap parts, but it's not constant like a fighting game or something. But there is a lot of fighting and shooting. And Red Dead tries to make that as realistic as they can. The fighting is more about strategy than how fast you can hit the circle button. But I believe you'll love the actual gameplay no matter what kind of games you have been playing. I don't see how anybody wouldn't. And there is a lot of open world stuff, I mean a lot, for those of you like myself who are fans of that. One important skill that Arthur has to develop and teach is herbalism, which is fun, but it does slows things down for those of you who get nervous whenever you aren't hitting a button. And there's hunting and fishing which are also important at times. Arthur has to stop and eat, or his health stats drop. And the food he cooks will provide the most health. He can purchase food at grocery stores too, but they aren't as a replenishing. Still, you want to keep some in his saddle bags just in case you run into a long mission out in the mountains.So, you have to learn to cook and use good sense in hunting. If you do, you will find several hunting grounds that are chucked full of docile game. It's best not to over hunt any one at a time because that way you know where the food is, if you do over hunt it, the game will seriously slow down the time it takes to replenish the animals. Herbs are used for all sorts of things, including making what you cook more replenishing, and especially making medicine. You will definitely need that at several junctions of the game too. So there is a lot more strategy and thinking required here than games that just go action sequence, cut scene, action sequence, cut scene, repeat. The open world stuff is stuff you actually have to do. And of course, cash is quite important too, which you mostly get by completing side missions where Arthur rides into town and is enlisted to help kill a man-eating bear, take out an evil outlaw, find a lost child, or the like. And there's always more to these missions than meets the eye. It's great stuff, right out of Kurosawa and the sixties saddle operas folks. And your main missions are going to take you everywhere form the turn of the twentieth century Dakotas to New York, to Kentucky, to New Orleans, to Florida, and all around the country. So it's definitely not all just robbing trains and outlaw camps all the time.Now let's talk graphics. And I can wrap that up in one word. Wow!!! The characters and backgrounds look so real, especially the landscape and pastoral scenes in the mountains. I mean I really feel like I am fishing when I fish in the game. I believe these are the best graphics in any video game ever, bar none.Red Dead Redemption 2 utilizes the most complex gaming engines available to date in the gaming universe. Top to bottom, you will continually do things that were impossible before and they have utilized the technology to come up with some just plain thrilling action sequence gaming, and the great thing is the action all fits perfectly within the story. You will want to succeed. And difficulty wise, they did a good job at setting the levels. I played it at normal and found that challenging at times, but it did allow me to really enjoy the story the first time with a good sense of being challenged. You set it at difficult, and things get even more real, you can't get shot and live. But you can take one or two hits on normal if they aren't point blank. And you alway have to be on the lookout for snipers. They can take you down with one shot on normal. You just always have to mind your surroundings. There are copperheads and rattlesnakes everywhere too, be careful lifting rocks or searching for herbs in tall grass.Horses are very important too. You'll have to upgrade your horse as the game goes on to complete missions, though you will develop a relationship with some of them, particularly your first, and not want to sell or let them go. And yes you can drive a horse too hard and kill it. You actually have to treat the virtual horse like a real one. You feed it, brush it, and talk to it in order to calm its stress level, just like a real horse.Oh and the music in Red Dead Redemption Two is memorable and just perfect for the game. A lot of care was taken to make this game sound good. So if you have some kind of speaker system hooked up to your monitor, you will get an enhanced gaming experience, I can guarantee that.So I loved this game, the best I've ever played, but then I am and have always been a fan of Westerns. It was actually kind of hard to leave this world. There's plenty to do after you've completed everything to just keep up your homestead a make it thrive. I highly recommend this one.

Rated M for MATURE!To all parents out there looking to buy their pre-pubescent children a game this Christmas, give this a big ol' skip!With a beautiful soundtrack, excellent cast of characters and voice actors, stunning graphics, realistic gamepaly and a throught-provoking and tear-jerking story, this game definitely belongs in the top best video games of all time. I will try to be as unbiased as possible throughout the review.Story: 9.8/10Red Dead Redemption II is actually the PREQUEL to Red Dead Redemption, despite the numbering. However, you don't need to play the first game to understand this one, but it does help to catch a few references here and there. The story is told through the eyes of Arthur Morgan, an outlaw living in the "old" west. The west that's slowly fading away and with it, Arthur and his gang's identity. As the century of the Old West comes to a close and a new era is brought in, Arthur and his gang must race against time and Federal agents to find their new place in the world.What seems like a simple story at first, takes a HUGE loop-de-loop and turns into a roller-coaster of thrills and emotions. While not as deep as Silent Hill 2's story, Red Dead Redemption 2 does make you think about quite a lot of things. From the sins of the past, to what it means to be good, and so on, this game just keeps hitting you with the feels and philosophical thinking and satire that's expected of a Rockstar game. If this game was just about Arthur's story, I'd still pre-order the game again and recommend it to everyone I know who enjoys a good video game story.Characters: 10/10Great cast of characters with returning voice actors from the first game which helps to cement its authenticity and the dedication of the people at Rockstar studios! This game has a full cast of colorful main and side characters that's typical of Rockstar game and it shows. Really, if you buy this game, just go out exploring, you'll find TONS of interesting people worth talking with!Graphics: 8.9/10The graphics aren't the BEST graphics of this gen, but they really are something special. The graphics seem to be a step above GTA V but still a bit behind games like Uncharted 4, Star Wars Battlefront 1 & 2, Witcher 3, etc but it's up there. Best experienced on a 4K display.Gameplay: 8.3/10Another open-world game by Rockstar games, another 100,000 side and miscellaneous quests and activities to partake in! This game is packed full of things to do, from fishing to hunting, helping a Circus man get his tiger back, breaking wild horses, shooting random people, robbing trains and what-not! Honestly, on paper you should never, ever get bored again. Unless, of course, you get fed-up with the wild west theme of the game. The problem with the gameplay lies in the amount of things to do. Rockstar tried their very best to make sure you could do almost ANYTHING in this game (except hire hookers and blow up trains) that they forgot to fully flesh-out some things. There's the typical bounty/5-star law system that's in GTA games and the first Red Dead Redemption. The only difference is now you can rob stores and trains without having to be online! (Looking at you GTAV). Of course there's some things in Red Dead Online that's not available in the campaign but still. I digress. The bounty system is a bit wonky in this game. You can tell they had an idea but it just doesn't work for some reason. For example, if you rob a train without a mask, any witnesses will report you to the police and they'll chase you from one end of the map to the other or simply place a bounty on you in that particular state. The problem with this is: A. You can wear a full potato sack on your head and, for some reason, you'll STILL be recognized! B. You can kill every sign of life within 100 miles of the crime scene and you'll STILL be recognized. How does this happen? I don't know, but there are a few YouTube videos that go into explaining the nuts and bolts behind this so check those out if it really gets to you.Aside from the bounty/law systems, there are a wide range of activities for you to partake in that should keep you glued to a chair or bed for the next year or so.Overall: 9.5/10Highly recommend for any avid gamer out there. Especially recommend for those fond of the wild west setting or just a fan of Rockstar or Red Dead Redemption.