When you first arrive into Red Dead Redemption 2′s open world, the moment is almost overwhelming. You and your gang are coming out of frigid, snow-covered mountains to arrive at the Horseshow Overlook, a little outcropping the game’s “Heartlands” territory, an expanse of grassy plains punctuated by dramatic rock formations, dry riverbeds, frolicking wildlife and a massive, overpowering sky. One of the main characters gestures out at creation with awe, as if to say: we’ve arrived. And we have. The open world in Red Dead Redemption 2 is nothing short of beautiful, and it stays that way through most of the game.
The problem? This moment happens 4-5 hours into the story, and you’ve spent the entirety of that time in an on-rails experience that feels less like an open world game and more like an Uncharted game with worse controls. This will set the tone for most of the rest of your time with Red Dead Redemption 2: a staggering open world that the developers want you to experience exactly as they please.
Red Dead Redemption 2 is many things, as noted by the fact that I just can’t stop thinking and writing about it. But there are two concepts that dominate, both of which spend the game’s 60+ hour runtime in constant conflict: a gorgeous world begging to be explored and a depressing, endless story that seems to actively work against that idea. The story is a well-told, endless downer, and more often than not it had me wanting to get it done with more than anything else.
Even now that I’m finished I feel the weight of that story still resting on the shoulders of my character, and I’m ready to be done with it. I want to hit a character creation screen, choose a hat that suits my face and just ride. That won’t happen in Red Dead Redemption 2, but I’m excited to see it happen soon in Red Dead Online, a mode we still know next-to-nothing about save the fact that it takes place in this world and it takes place online. That’s enough for me, honestly. I just want to spend a day hunting deer and selling the skins in town without worrying that the frontier is closed and everything is horrible. Both might still be true, but I at least want them to be a little less present.
I felt a similar way about GTA 5: another shockingly-rendered world saddled by unlikable characters and a meandering story without much sense of progress or structure. GTA Online, on the other hand, leans into everything that makes that series so great, fully committing to filling this bombastic anarchic playground with explosions and absurdity.
Rockstar are unparalleled open-world builders, that much is obvious. And they’re excellent at the basic craft of telling stories: things like believable characters, natural dialogue and some of the best music in the business. But they more often than not fail at the grand strokes of storytelling, particularly in their chosen context. They pick oddly-structured stories at odds with the games they’re trying to build and then commit to them at the exclusion of the rest of their work. The original Red Dead Redemption didn’t have this problem, but it’s only been getting worse as Rockstar’s stories have gotten more baroque.
Which is why I can’t wait to leave it all behind. The world is the accomplishment here, and I’m hoping that Red Dead Online gives me the opportunity to actually live in it.
