I was not planning on getting RDR2. Friends of mine were awesome enough to get it for me for my birthday, something I will be eternally grateful for.

There are a number of reasons I can't recommend this game.

I can't separate the product from the company that made it.

This leads me to the first and foremost reason I was never going to purchase this game.


The reports that were coming out prior to RDR2's release were damning to say the least.
Say what you want about mainstream gaming media, each outlet has journalists that are doing God's work. Jason Schreier was one such person for Kotaku (now he has moved on to Bloomberg). In a 40 minute long article, he goes over the state of Rockstar and the crunch that went into making this game.
There are companies that are notorious for crunch culture. Rockstar, Naughty Dog, CD Projekt Red, Hello Games to name a few. None more prolific that Rockstar.
Every industry, particularly creative ones it seems, has some sort of crunch. It's the way the artistic/technological process works. There's a certain level of polish that some companies put into their games that simply elevate them. Call it pride if you will. RDR2 is one such game.
Don't get me wrong, this is a technological masterpiece, one whose innovations are light years ahead of the competition.
The list of what it does right is too long, but to name a few, acting, music, and world design are some of the best I've ever seen. That still doesn't sway my opinion though...


Comparing it to RDR1, there has been a definite expansion of the game's systems and mechanics. More emphasis was given to realism, which is a double edged sword. Many of the activities become boring and repetitive. I'm looking at you, hunting and cooking.

Now I hear you saying, "you've spent almost 100 hours, what gives?" Simply put, I became enthralled with the world and characters, eventually feeling the need to see the story's conclusion. Put me in an open world, and I'll want to explore every inch of it. But hunger and stamina metres, as odd as it seems, detracts from my immersion, not because it has to be done, but because you have to interface and go through menus. Over, and over, and over again.

One of the most immersive games I've ever played was Shadow of the Colossus, a game predominantly spent on a horse. The lack of interfacing adds to the experience. Same for Dead Space. Nothing breaks immersion more than prompts. There's a really good behind the scenes instance for Monty Python's: Search for the Holy Grail. In the scene with the Black Knight, one of the Pythons, who was also directing, insisted on using more fog. It just wasn't working. I believe they were losing natural light and had to wrap up. John Cleese intervened and asked one simple and fundamental question. "Is this fun?" Does adding something make the scene more fun? Games are supposed to be fun, not an exercise in patience.

You might enjoy this style of game, power to you my friend. This simply isn't my cup of tea.

Story wise, I loved the exploration of what is family, camaraderie, blind faith in a goal, and the taming of the wild west. I did feel as though it was tonally inconsistent throughout. Started off light-hearted, gradually getting darker. During these darker moments, there wasn't anything to really anything to alleviate the pressure that was building up. It just got worse and worse for the characters, something that left me with a sense of dread, which didn't particularly leave me even after the ending. This game had better motion capture, voice acting, and all round higher production value, but I consider RDR1's story a lot more engaging and well-balanced.


There are so many great things to be said about RDR2, that I would love to touch on, but I feel as though I have wasted enough of your time already.

It's a fantastic game tarred by developmental drama that is inexcusable. Such behaviour should not be tolerated or encouraged.

Thank you for your time.