As we’re enjoying the rich intro with the plot set up, the stakes start to twist to a resoundingly silly moment. After introducing Marston and his quest to take down ex-gang brother Bill Williamson, the ex-gunslinger goes up to Williamson’s uninviting Fort Mercer in plain sight and lets Williamson know his busin

I kept thinking back to Andrew Dominik's 2007 film The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford , which I've been presuming was the most prominent visual inspiration for Red Dead Redemption 2 for a few reasons. For the most overt example, look no further than the major train robbery sequence from early on in the story, and compare it to one of the first scenes in Dominik's film . From the foreboding music, the light in-between the trees as the gang members await the train, and the point man standing on the track to stop the train, the two scenes are nearly the same beat-by-beat.

He even calls it a paradise on earth—so what happens when you finally make it over the border? Irish up and leaves back to the US never to be seen again. It's a weird move considering his existence in the States is beyond miserable, plus the trip has been one arduous and dangerous ride—yet for no specific reason, he heads back ag

It’s a rare and in-depth look that can be entirely ignored. This handwritten journal makes Arthur feel like a real man and breaks down the illusion of minute choices in Red Dead ’s world: Arthur’s character is predetermined. The honor system becomes a mechanic more so than a narrative pathway, unlike Mass Effect ’s infamous narrative decisions.

At first, you will notice the house is boarded up, but if you head up to the second floor you can enter the house. You will be greeted with a discount Frankenstein and other strange things in the house. If you explore more it will reveal more about the owner of the house which many people believe is Dr. Frankenste

The thematic discrepancies of this game couldn't be more evident to me every time that goddamn deer showed up in Arthur Morgan's dreams. These are brief sequences that felt like a fetishization of the frontier—they recall not just nostalgia for the Old West, but for the first Red Dead Redemption game, with the basic melody of the theme playing in the background. It can be debated for hours what the English-class level metaphor that the deer is meant to represent, but I had this feeling that by showing us Arthur trying to remember the "glory" of the West, the game is trying to invoke the same feeling in the player. Think of the way that Kingsman: The Secret Service attempted to argue in favor of bringing back the camp and irony of old spy films, which undid its own argument when the movie ended with an homage to sex scenes of James Bond films past, reminding viewers of how problematic that era was.

While at present Red Dead Redemption 2 is all the hype—not surprising, considering it was a cumulative effort by Rockstar Games over eight long years—let's not forget about its predecessor, 2010's Red Dead Redempti

A character that players will run into throughout the game is a blind old man that begs for money on the side of the road. If you actually comply and give him the money he will act as a fortune teller and tell you a tidbit about your character. The prophet part comes in when he accurately predicts things that will happen to Arthur Morgan, like predicting the betrayal of Micah and ultimately Arthur's passing. Even later in the game when playing as John Marston the blind prophet accurately tells John things that happened to him in the first Red Dead Redempti

In-game journals or logs in other games often have the appearance of life, thanks to talented teams, but none feel like living, breathing books like Arthur’s does. Drake’s notes in the Uncharted series are filled with doodles and charm that is signature to Drake’s personality, but its in-game purpose is usually to solve simple puzzles more than to flesh out the characters. During my brief time with Mass Effect , the Codex was easily my favorite bit since it filled out the history of the galaxy, but it lacked a personal anchor point.

While Rockstar felt the need to provide the player with a quick means of traversing this huge world, they also wanted to keep things a little authentic. As such, you can’t just go warping around willy-nilly like it’s Zelda or something. You must be stationed at that map in your camp every time you fast travel, as you can only do so from th

For every can of beans you feed your virtual avatar, you’re throwing away precious money that can be placed into your wallet. Sell your food, don’t eat them. Sometimes you might need to eat in order to actually survive, but… don’t. It’s counterintuitive, but it’s an easy way to make money. If you want to eat, get ready to be poor. Online’s weirdly realistic, isn’t

At this point, Red Dead Redemption 2 money guide Dead Redemption 2 feels like a video game attempting to tell a story with modern sensibilities about trying to keep the past alive. There is a fear from the characters that their way of life will be eradicated, and similarly, some creative forces behind this game could very well be afraid that their opportunity to tell a story in this genre is under danger. Like Dutch himself, Red Dead Redemption 2 is afraid of being forgotten and irrelevant and fights to justify the existence of its story and characters.