Red Dead Redemption 2 is a prequel to the well-known first game, Red Dead Redemption. The first game is about an outlaw named John Marston, voiced by Rob Wiethoff, whose family is taken by the law. In return for them, he has to hunt down his ex-gang members. Red Dead Redemption 2 is set back before that time, starting in 1899 before it was just John. In this one you play another character, Arthur Morgan, voiced by Roger Clark. He was the third to join the Van Der Linde gang, soon followed by John.
The game itself is known for its realistic design. Not only is there detail within the characters’ development, but the map is detailed to the point one may think a picture from the game was real. From the animals to NPCs, there’s hardly anything about the game that could be seen as boring to players. You’re always active in one mission or another. Whether it be a main part of the story, or a background character needing help, it makes a difference in your status of honor.
The play-through is said to take over 50 hours just to get to the end of the game. That includes main, side and NPC missions. That alone shows the dedication it took to make this game experience phenomenal and immersible to players. The main story is all about an outlawed gang known as the Van der Linde gang. They start off strong, trying to build up enough money and power to outrun the law and Pinkertons to live a free life. The gang’s relationship could be described as a found family, but it only seems to last that way through half of the play-through. The theme is to protect your family, even if they aren’t by blood or you may lose them.
RDR2 had many characters that were never mentioned in the first game. That caused those characters to either be killed off or go off on their own so the story was lined up properly. Many players had even grown to like said characters, finding their disappearances a little disappointing, especially when it involved death.
Arthur Morgan was technically the most well-known character that wasn’t in the first game since he’s the character you play in the prequel. People who were new to the games, and had decided to play the second game first may have not realized Arthur would not be in the first game at all.
Arthur’s story is incredibly heartbreaking to a lot of players. He had joined the gang as a teen delinquent, following the outlaw path that Dutch, the leader of the gang, had started. They started gaining more people as it went on. This wasn’t a problem for a while until a certain rat had joined causing the downfall of not only the gang, but also Arthur’s life. Arthur’s ending crushes the player’s view of everything with a beautifully tragic scene. The game was so realistic with emotion that it caused actual grief among streamers and YouTubers who did a playthrough for a video.
After the main story had ended, there was then an epilogue that added to the hours within the game. Now that Arthur was no longer present, you were to play as John Marston, one of the main characters of RDR1. After that heavy-hearted ending, it would now be 1907, years after the Van Der Linde Gang had departed. This part of the story gives a different perspective of how RDR1 started. With most characters gone, there now only held the theme of family and trying to forget the past. Thankfully this time it ends how players would describe it as a well-earned and deserved ending to the whole game of RDR2.
A lot of players were already suspicious of the way things seemed too good to be true, especially with a certain character who was easily found out to be the antagonist, Micah Bell. It was no secret with the way he acted. He was one of the newest members at the time and was already making enemies with the others who had been there longer than him. Many players absolutely despised Micah because of his personality. He was such a good antagonist that people had actually sent death threats to the voice actor, Peter Blomquist, which obviously is too far.
The main missions within the chapters were seen as simple to pretty dramatic and head-on. They were powerful in expressing true emotions of how things were back then. The soundtrack practically made this experience more alive, matching whatever was about to happen in the moment. It could be a quiet tune that showed the mission wasn’t going to be hectic, or in the opposite case, the background music could be dramatic, stating something big was to come. Not only that, but your actions quite literally had consequences. There was high honor and low honor. This showcases whether you did good or bad, it decides how others interact with you and how your game ends. It’s a really good strategy to show players that you can’t just run around and expect the things you do to always end the way you want.
Although this game is fiction, there are many lessons thrown into it to show the realities of how America was back in the late 1800s. There were many missions that involved racism, sexism, assaults and protests. Many players have complained about some parts of the game being too graphic, or supposedly shouldn’t even be in the game. RDR2 wasn’t created to be fatous and fun, but to illustrate themes of literal redemption and how we as people actually treat this world.
