Red Dead Redemption 2. 8 games with brilliant ideas for narrative
Table of Contents
- Genre: third-person action game set in the Wild West
- Year: 2018
- Platforms: PC, PS4, XOne
- Developer: Rockstar Games
The final position on the list is the only game that I would give a 10/10 - both for the overall experience and the way in which its individual elements are implemented. This also applies to the narrative trick employed by Rockstar Games. It influenced me even more, because I beat Red Dead Redemption II without having played the first game, which - contrary to the numbering - takes place after the sequel.
So I got to know Dutch van der Linde's gang without having any idea what would happen to it or which of its members would die and who would survive. As a result, I expected the gang to grow in strength like the characters in any of the GTA games, while hoping that I, the player, would gradually gain access to more and more advanced types of weapons, options and functions. This was indeed the case, at least up to a certain point in the adventure. However, in the fourth chapter of the game, when the gang started camping at Shady Belle, I realized that this isn't the classic zero-to-hero storyline at all, and that a happy ending is rather unlikely.
Unfortunately, that's what happened - after Shady Belle, there was an unplanned visit to Guarma, and then the scant camp at Beaver Hollow. The latter name quite accurately reflected the situation of the gang - it was chased into a corner, and its members were divided and the trust they shared was broken. The story was clearly drawing to a close and the gameplay partly reflected that. When I returned to the camp in previous chapters of the game, I enjoyed playing poker, dominoes or five fingers with the gang members. In Beaver Hollow, fun wasn't on anyone's mind; no wonder - everyone was worried about their lives.
When compared to earlier stages, it was quite a regression. Of course, you could still do these activities outside of the camp - I just want to picture the how Rockstar crafted the atmosphere and immersion in Read Dead Redemption 2. After all, it's difficult to play gwent when the world is headed for destruction. As a result, the gameplay was subordinated to the story and the latter benefited from this arrangement. It's a pity that game developers so rarely make this "sacrifice".
