My Love and Hate Letter to Rockstar’s Finest Piece
Reading Time: 6 minutesRed Dead Redemption 2 has my heart. But it also suffers from the wrath of my curses.
My Love and Hate Letter to Red Dead Redemption 2
Released before the fall of 2018 on PlayStation and Xbox and almost a year later for Windows, the latest iteration from the famed game-development company broke many consecutive records. The game took a step further and cemented its presence as the second-biggest launch of all time within the gaming industry.
Development took a course for eight years after the launch of its successful predecessor – Red Dead Redemption 1.
It reportedly cost a staggering payment of 170 million dollars in production, and Rockstar Games had to accumulate workers from several of its layered studios to build one core development team for the game.
The Grand Success of the Game
The game has gathered quite a sense of accomplishment for itself as it collected 25 awards and 72 nominations and sold over 46 million copies worldwide. My exposure to this magnificent piece of art came around late 2020, a long time past its release date.
Much of my life was devoted to work, and the pandemic ushered by COVID-19 arrived like a dirty blessing after confining me to work from home. I booted up the game in my free time and got lost inside its vast world for endless hours, absorbed in a strange, newfound sense of addiction I never thought I harbored in the first place.
However, after ending my first play-through and the credits came to a dramatic roll over the screen, a sense of warmth and a pint of frustration clouded my thoughts in equal measure.
To address one's concerns, I have never been able to enjoy another game with the same level of dedication after playing Rockstar's finest piece. Yet, multiple issues plaguing the former did not escape the scrutiny of my criticism either.
In This Extract, You Will Know
- Why I Love the Game
- Why I Hate It Too.
Here Are Five Reasons Why I Love the Game
01. The Graphical Achievements Are a Delicious Treat
People have wasted thousands of hours on YouTube discussing the visual breakthroughs delivered in Rockstar's finest product. When it launched, the game introduced itself to a string of unstable bugs and crashes, an inevitable issue prevalent with current releases. Users suffered inconsistent frame drops in the gameplay, and the two different APIs (DirectX 12 and Vulkan) provided contrasting results for every second person.
Over one year, Rockstar provided the game with continuous patches to stabilize its performance, leading to a hefty portion of the gaming society finally having a stable experience with the product.
Every object in the player's vicinity is a work of extreme detail, from the lush variations of high-quality foliage moving in the wind's direction to waking up under the blinding god rays of the sun. Different towns in different parts of the world are lively and vivid to incomparable excellence.
No single point of interest looks similar to another location on the map. Rockstar's team orchestrated the game's world design with insane hard work and dedication rather than sticking to a copy-paste formula.
02. The Protagonist Is a Charming Devil
Ah, Arthur Morgan.
Public opinion bred two different camps when the new protagonist of the Red Dead franchise appeared for the first time in the game's teaser trailers. Divided views of Arthur were legit and understandable, considering how a large section of the game's fan base had nurtured a strong sense of affection and respect for the previous protagonist – the tragic hero of the West, John Marston.
John takes a backseat in the successive game, and Arthur introduces his persona to the limelight. The game rolls on through the latter's interactions, and when his story reaches its decisive end, the public suffers the ignominy of his redemption arc.
It is safe to assume now that Arthur Morgan cements his position as one of the most endearing video game protagonists in the history of the gaming industry.
03. The Player Is Responsible for His Actions
The game compels one to evaluate his beliefs. Shooting an innocent in the middle of the street, believing there will be no consequences since it's a game at the end of the day, one could not be more wrong. Passers-by will promptly report vindictive actions to the nearest police station. Stealing is not an offense only if no one's watching or the player faces the inevitable vigilance of the law.
In contrast, it is possible to greet people doing their daily morning chores or help a random citizen get home whose horse fell dead outside of town. All intended actions contribute to the honor system, which plays a big part in deciding how the story ends.
04. The Slow Pacing of the Game Helps With Relaxation
Sometimes, away from all the high-paced action, the bullets flying over the player's head, and the dynamite exploding under the ears, the game offers unparalleled satisfaction in sightseeing at a lenient pace. There are no hard-coded rules to adopt a ritual of moving through a play-through at an alarming rate.
I spend most of my time in the game hunting, snooping at distant locations and strangers through binoculars, and enjoying the authentic aura emanating from the game's environment.
05. The Stellar Acting Is a Bonus.
When the game's characters engage in conversation, I find their personalities reflect real-life people. Well, that is because they are real-life people, considering the characters comprise an enormous team of performers and professional artists who collaborated for years to deliver the final piece of art.
Every individual is a treat to the eye, and the voices are music to the ears. Their emotions rally with that of actual people, and their problems parade as a testament to the original world's trials and situations.
Now for the Other Part …
With the positives dusted out of the way, the game is not a steady ship on smooth, sailing waters. It may be a marvel in thought, execution, and visuals, but certain technical limitations divert the game from scoring a perfect number on my chart.
Here Are Five Reasons Why I Hate the Game
01. The Honor System Does Not Feel Real
Good and evil are like the two sides of the same coin. However, in real-life scenarios, it is impossible to murder a whole town and apply ointment to the crime by greeting every person the perpetrator notices on the street. Genocidal actions will lead to catastrophic consequences. Understandably, we're playing a game here, and Rockstar wanted to provide more freedom to its base of players in navigating through their campaign the way they desire.
02. The Law Is Broken in the Game
If Arthur tackles an NPC in town by accident, there is a witness, and the police arrive in seconds to initiate an arrest. But when an NPC punches Arthur's consciousness to death in front of the police station, the local sheriff does not move a muscle to arrest the offender.
It's a common trend in Rockstar's portfolio of titles. The game's code is to work against the player rather than maintain a neutral balance with the NPCs.
03. The Controls Are Clunky for PC Players
The previous reason further escalates when the player attempts to run through the middle of a busy town, only to end up plummeting a nearby person into the mud. The game has an indefinite number of key binds for keyboard players, which can come across as clunky and overburdened while on the learning curve.
04. The Story’s Pacing Is Not Steady
This is a personal point of view, but I needed to rant.
Guarma is a beautiful addition to the game but an unnecessary point in the story's overall development. The remote island caught amid a civil war between two factions looks aesthetic, yet it does not resonate with what the game attempts to personify. There are sequences in the gameplay as well when one mission overlaps over the other without an ounce of an interval between the two. Rockstar wanted to progress time throughout the game's world, and this execution must have been their primary method of preference.
05. The Climax of the Story
Arthur Morgan's fate parallels that of iconic, tragic heroes found in various forms of folklore. The game elevates his story to an emotional climax and makes the watcher harbor illusions of watching a nerve-wracking movie ending rather than playing a game.
His younger brother, albeit in name and blood, John Marston, manages to pay the former's debt to a proper farewell by holding the people accountable for all the mishaps responsible in their lives. However, how the story folds into a bitter ending strikes inconsolable pain in the admirer's heart.
My Final Thoughts …
I have not attempted a second play-through of Rockstar's magnificent piece of art. I do not have the strength to bear the sadness all over again. Someday, in the distant future, I will reboot the game and enjoy it for its cinematic brilliance. But I will already know how the story ends.
This content reflects the personal opinions of the author. It is accurate and true to the best of the author’s knowledge and should not be substituted for impartial fact or advice in legal, political, or personal matters.
© 2023 Rupam Talukdar
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