I first played Red Dead Redemption 2 in late December of 2018, not long after it came out. At the time, I didn’t really get the hype. After the first mission or two, I actually thought the story was kinda boring. It was slow, and nothing about it really pulled me in. So I ditched the story and just played the online with friends for a while. We would run around hog tying random players and getting into big shootouts between our posse and a rival posse. But then after hours of doing this, I finally decided to give the story another try.
Before this, I had put hundreds of hours into GTA 5, so I was already a big fan of Rockstar games. But I never played the first Red Dead Redemption, and to be honest, I didn’t even know what it was about. I went into this one basically blind. What finally made me realize this game might be something different was just how much content and detail it had. It wasn’t just a big open world. There were all these little missions, random events, and side stories that felt like they were actually part of the world, not just filler. It was like GTA 5 random events times 50. It didn’t hit me right away. But sometime in the middle of Chapter 2, it finally clicked. I started caring about the characters, I got more into the world, and I found myself wanting to see what would happen next. That’s when it stopped feeling like just another game and started becoming something else entirely.
*Spoiler Warning*
Red Dead Redemption 2 takes place in 1899, at the tail end of the Wild West. You play as Arthur Morgan, a member of the Van der Linde gang, which is led by Dutch Van der Linde. The gang is constantly on the run, trying to stay one step ahead of the law after a botched job in Blackwater. They move from place to place, trying to survive and find one last big score that will set them all free. But things slowly start to fall apart, both inside and outside the gang. Early on, it feels like Arthur is just another outlaw doing what he’s told. He’s loyal to Dutch, who he sees as a father figure, and he mostly goes along with whatever the gang needs. But over time, things start to shift. Dutch becomes more reckless, more obsessed with running, and more influenced by Micah, a newer member of the gang who’s shady from the start. Meanwhile, Arthur starts to question everything. After he finds out he has tuberculosis, he begins to see the gang, and his role in it, a lot differently.
What really stuck with me in this story was how Arthur and Dutch both change, but in opposite ways. Arthur starts trying to be a better person. He goes out of his way to help people, protect the people who still matter to him, and make peace with the things he’s done. Dutch, on the other hand, just gets worse. He stops listening to reason, lets Micah influence him way too much, and completely loses who he used to be. There are a lot of strong moments in the story, but two turning points stood out to me the most. One was when Arthur kicks Strauss out of the camp. That moment said a lot without needing to say much at all. It was Arthur choosing to cut off someone who represented everything bad about the gang. He realized the true evil of what him and Strauss were doing, and decided it needed to end. That showed a true change for his character. The other big one was when Dutch abandons Arthur at the factory. That moment where it’s clear he’s beyond saving, and too far under Micah’s control, was one of the most frustrating and powerful scenes in the game. I really got engrossed, just waiting to see how the final few missions would pan out.
Arthur’s story might be the best character arc I’ve ever seen in a video game. He starts out as a no-good outlaw, but by the end he’s kind of a pillar of the camp. He’s still not a good man, but he’s a good person, if that makes sense. He tries to do right, especially after his diagnosis, and he helps others even when he knows he’s running out of time. He goes from beating up sick people for their debts, to rescuing slaves and helping out nuns. The way his story ends is perfect. He makes sure John gets away and dies doing something selfless. It feels earned and right for who Arthur became. The final scene with Arthur laying on the mountain watching the sunrise moved me to tears. It is still the only time a game has made me cry.
There were a bunch of other characters that had great arcs too. Sadie went from a scared widow, afraid to do anything, to a total gunslinging, bounty-hunting badass who could hold her own with anyone. John became way more involved as well. He wasn’t just some background guy anymore. He started acting like a real husband, father, and friend. Dutch, meanwhile, kept spiraling, getting more and more twisted by Micah. Charles also had a great arc, staying loyal to the gang but also helping the Native American tribes and standing up for what was right. Every one of them grew or fell in a way that made sense and hit hard.
Then there’s the epilogue. A lot of games kind of fall apart after the main story ends, but Red Dead 2 actually makes the epilogue worth playing. It was cool to see how John became who he was in the first game, and to get a look at what life looked like after all the chaos. It tied everything together in a way that felt full and satisfying, even though Arthur’s story was already finished.
What Makes the Game Stand Out
What really makes Red Dead Redemption 2 stand out for me is how much effort went into the missions and the world itself. A lot of open world games get repetitive or start to feel like filler, but this game never really did. The missions were always different. They never dragged on too long or ended too fast, and more importantly, they felt like they actually mattered. Everything you did felt like it had some kind of weight behind it, like it was pushing the story or the characters forward. The world design is probably the best I’ve ever seen in a game. The map felt big, but not so huge that it was overwhelming. It brought back part of the original Red Dead 1 map, but added so much more to it. The towns and cities felt alive. You’d see people walking around, shopping, begging for money, or just hanging out and going about their day. It didn’t feel like a game world, it felt like a place that actually existed. The fact that NPCs had their own routines and would even remember you if you messed with them earlier just made it feel even more real.
My favorite mission in the game, without a doubt, is the one where the whole gang shows up at Braithwaite Manor to get Jack back. It’s such a powerful moment. You can really feel how much the gang means to each other in that scene. Everyone is locked in and ready to go to war if they have to. It just hits so hard, and it’s one of those moments where you realize these characters aren’t just criminals, they’re a family, and they’ll do anything to protect each other. It was also just a straight up badass mission.
There were a bunch of smaller details that impressed me too. One that stuck with me was the construction site early in the game. You can see workers working on a building in Valentine, and if you come back later, they’ve actually made some progress. It’s such a small thing, but it makes the world feel like it’s actually changing as time goes on. Another one was the Civil War veteran NPC. He actually remembers you if you run into him again. Stuff like that makes the world feel reactive, like what you do matters, and the world remembers it. I probably spent the most time around Rhodes and Saint Denis. There was always something going on in those areas. Saint Denis especially felt packed with things to do. It was noisy, crowded, and busy in a way that made it feel completely different from the rest of the map. Rhodes had a cool balance of being small but still eventful. Those two spots were where I ended up hanging around the most.
The atmosphere in this game is pretty much perfect. The visuals are insane. I still don’t get how they made a game that looks this good on a PS4. The soundtrack was great too. The music always fit what was happening and added a lot of emotion to certain scenes. I thought the pacing was good overall, though I’ll be honest, the Guarma section felt like it dragged a little. It looked cool and had its moments, but I kind of just wanted to get back to the main story. Other than that, the game nailed the feeling of the world from start to finish.
My Platinum Journey
I did end up getting the Platinum trophy for Red Dead Redemption 2, and it took almost 200 hours to do it. It’s one of those games where the more you try to complete, the more you realize how much is actually packed into it. The most annoying parts by far were the hunting requests and the exotics. Trying to get certain birds to spawn in the swamps of Lemoyne was a nightmare. The game actually lowers the spawn rates for the animals you need, which honestly just felt like a weird choice. I don’t mind tracking down rare animals, but making them even harder to find just for the sake of it got frustrating fast. Skinning and studying every animal was kind of annoying too, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as those two.
That said, I actually enjoyed doing most of the challenges. It was cool to feel like I was doing a little bit of everything the game had to offer, hunting, fishing, shooting, riding, all of it. The only challenge that really sucked was the gambler one. Having to win three games of dominoes in a row was a pain, and trying to win at blackjack after drawing three times was probably the worst part of the entire challenge section. It felt less like a challenge and more like waiting for luck to finally go your way.
Going for the Platinum made me appreciate how much thought Rockstar put into this game. When you actually sit there and look through the 100 percent checklist, you realize how much stuff they packed into every part of the map. There’s always something to find, something to do, or some little hidden detail you missed the first time. It forced me to slow down and look at the game in a different way, and it made the world feel even bigger and more alive. It took a long time to get everything done, but it never felt like wasted time. Even when I was hunting down birds that barely existed, I still felt like I was in a world that mattered.
🧠Final Thoughts🧠
I’ve played through Red Dead Redemption 2 start to finish about five times now. Every single time I go back to it, I fall in love with it all over again. It never gets old. I already know I’ll end up replaying it at least five more times. There’s just something about it that pulls me in no matter how many hours I’ve put into it. What makes this my favorite game of all time is how everything comes together, the story, the insane amount of detail, and the characters. Those three things on their own are already impressive, but when they’re all working together like they are in this game, nothing else really compares. I’ve played a lot of games over the years, and nothing has hit me the way this one did.
If there’s one thing I still don’t like about Red Dead 2, it’s the multiplayer. Even with all the updates and the different roles they added, it’s still just boring. There’s not enough to do, and everything is locked behind these gold paywalls that make it feel like Rockstar got extra greedy with it. It’s clear the online mode didn’t get the same amount of love and care the single player did, which is a shame.
But honestly, the single player is so good it doesn’t even matter. The world, the writing, the moments, it all still holds up, and I don’t see that changing anytime soon. This is the best game I’ve ever played. That’s why I’m giving it an:
S 🏆 Instant Classic