Hands-on with the year’s most anticipated game, Red Dead Redemption II
THE sequel to Red Dead Redemption is only a few weeks away but will it live up to all the hype? Here’s our first impression.
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ONCE upon a time there was a video game about the Wild West called Red Dead Redemption.
Developed by Rockstar games and released for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in 2010, the ambitious open-world game told the story of reformed outlaw John Marston at the end of the Old West era in a way no-one had ever done before in a game.
Basically summed up as Grand Theft Equestrian, the game was hugely popular and to this day is one of only a handful of computer games set in the Old West.
Eight years later, Rockstar are following up with a sequel, Red Dead Redemption II, which is set in 1899 and casts you as Arthur Morgan, an outlaw who is part of the Van Der Linde game along with some familiar faces from Red Dead Redemption — including that game’s protagonist John Marston.
The hype around the game has been enormous, and expectations are high, so when Rockstar asked me to come to Sydney earlier this week and play a hands-on demo of the game there was a Royce-shaped cloud of dust in front of my keyboard as I headed to the airport with my laptop and notebook.
After spending a few hours with the game, I can safely say that a lot of people may be calling in sick to work or booking annual leave on October 26 when Red Dead Redemption II launches on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One — and they will have a good reason to want to do so.
The demo opened with the gang holed up for the winter following a disastrous bank raid gone wrong, arguing over whether to lay low and hope for the best or rob a train for money and supplies. Robbing the train won out and after managing to stop the train and blowing the safe open, Arthur was left to make a choice: Kill the surviving guards, leave them in the middle of nowhere, or take them with him on the train as he returned it to civilisation (trains being somewhat hard to sell or eat).
While Arthur is an unrepentant outlaw, you can still decide whether he’s an honourable man or a black-hatted bandit, with your choices affecting how the world reacts to you, rewards from bounty missions, and other aspects of the game.
After exploring the huge world — it really is massive and superbly detailed, appearing larger than GTA V — and visiting the town of Valentine to stock up on supplies and visit the gun shop. From there, it was off to raid an enemy camp, with the combination of stealth and gunplay proving especially satisfying.
The game is fully playable in first or third-person modes and the attention to detail in what I played was amazing — not just graphically, but in the world as well. Horse hooves leave imprints in the snow and mud, hats fall off in fights, horse tails swat flies away, clothes get stained from rolling in the dirt, and even the menu to buy things in shops was presented as an old-timey mail-order catalogue.
Hunting has been given more focus too, with Arthur able to track animals via their scent, skin them, and take the carcasses back to camp to feed the gang — or sell them to butchers in towns for money.
Revolvers and rifles must be manually re-cocked between shots, so after shooting you need to use the trigger command again to re-cock the gun. Guns also require oiling and maintenance and will rust if left uncleaned — all realistic touches that really added to the experience and feel of the era. For those who like to work a bit more quietly there are stealth weapons including throwing knives and a bow and arrow as well. The “Deadeye” feature is back, and yes, you can dual wield handguns too. A Fallout-style ‘kill cam’ will activate randomly too, giving the player a slow-motion view of an opponent’s demise.
Arthur’s horse is a more important part of the game as well, with Arthur bonding with his horse via brushing it, patting it, and riding it to unlock abilities including skid turns and even dressage manoeuvres.
There are various cosmetic upgrades, including blankets and saddles, for the horse and if it gets killed, it’s gone — so Arthur has to bond with a new horse.
If you thought Grand Theft Auto V was a big game with a lot to do, Red Dead Redemption II is shaping up to be bigger and even more epic in scope. I only saw a small area but it absolutely nailed the feel of an Old West Epic. Everything I loved about Red Dead Redemption was there, or expanded on, and Rockstar appear to have built on their experience from Grand Theft Auto V to create something that’s looking to have been well worth the wait. Rockstar tell me the game has been rated MA15+ as well, meaning it’s going to be accessible to a pretty wide gaming audience as a result.
Dust off your Stetson, saddle up your horse, and cue the music, because Red Dead Redemption II is on its way — and I’ll be doing a full review when it arrives.
- Royce Wilson attended the press event in Sydney as a guest of Rockstar Games.
- Are you looking forward to Red Dead Redemption II? Continue the conversation on Twitter @RoyceWilsonAU
Originally published as Hands-on with the year’s most anticipated game, Red Dead Redemption II