He Had A Plan!
Red Dead Redemption 2 despite its name is actually a prequel to Red Dead Redemption, which come to think of it is one of the main reasons in which we decided to purchase the game, as we have never played any of the Red Dead Redemption titles, prior to this one of course. It is a Western style action game that has the main protagonist living life as a typical Outlaw in a rather vast open world.
Whilst the story is rather fun and unique, it does however take a while to get interesting and for the most part we unfortunately found a lot of it boring.
A lot of the start of the story requires you to fetch certain items and the more fun missions are very few and far between. However, once the story does pick up the game overall does become much more fun to play.
We enjoyed the whole mechanic of having to look after your horse allowing you to care for its health cores and making sure it remains in top condition, there is also a Horse 'Trust' meter which unlocks more abilities for your trusty steed as the level increases.
There are many different optional side missions that can be completed too, alongside different mini-games and a challenge system for extra replayability.
However, just as a word of warning there are several miss-able quests and other opportunities, unfortunately we where not aware of this and it did end up becoming rather frustrating to later realise this when it was too late.
So if your the type to enjoy trying to complete everything in a game be sure to be well clued up on certain things before hand.
We also enjoyed the ability to hunt and track down different animals which can then be used to either sell or cook.
The whole having to keep low and making sure that our prey was not going to escape added great realism to the game and helped in our overall enjoyment.
The combat system is rather fun and easy enough to understand, there are also many different weapons to chose from and all have their unique benefits whilst out in combat.
As well as that every weapon has been deemed customisable too, from adding different handles, colours and many other nice features to make you feel like that complete ultimate outlaw!
A lot of the different features that are often seen in Western style shows are also seen in this game, such as the ability to heard animals as well as capture them. As well as the style of clothing and particular accents that are often seen and heard.
The overall realism makes for a very positive experience. In fact the realism is what makes us really enjoy this title, as the amount of detail is beyond anything I ever expected to find in a game.
OVERALL:
If your looking for a good Western style Cowboy game with a ton of realistic features and more side content than you could ever possible dream of, then this game is probably the one for you!
However, as a word of warning the game does start of really slow and for anyone new to the series, the mechanics and controls may be somewhat confusing too, but with patience you will probably get used to it and realise just how good of a game this one really is!
Also, unfortunately we cannot comment on the online play as it sadly does not interest us. However, going from word of friends it doesn't seem that great anyway at present, their words being that it features a system where other players can run and gun you down without any real issue and there is a lack of content compared to the offline mode. So with that take their word as you will.
PROS:
+ Western style games are very rare in the gaming world and thus it made for a rather unique and different experience.
+ There are many different optional content to complete if one wishes to do so.
+ The realism makes for a great overall experience and manages to capture the whole Cowboy Western feeling very well.
+ The ability to care for your horse was a nice feature, allowing for more abilities to be unlocked helped in the overall replayability.
+ The ability to chose different dialogue options during certain conversations was a nice added feature too.
CONS:
+ The story took a while to become interesting, often plagued with too many missions that felt very similar to the last.
+ Apart from one or two of the characters, for the most part the cast just seemed uninteresting and we never found ourselves caring for them.
+ In order to get 100% in the game you need to complete various different tasks in Online play, which is not for everyone.
+ A lot of the story left us with more questions than answers, the story overall was very average.
+ Some of the content in order to achieve 100% is miss-able, thus frustrating if you did not know this prior to playing the game.
+ Also, on a personal note. There was no option to romance Dutch, a fangirl needs her husbandos even if it looked rather different in-game.
Main Story Length: 50 - 60 Hours
Platinum Trophy Length: 80 - 100 Hours
