This one is actually a prequel, taking place in 1899 (12 years before the previous game) and focused on the waning days of an outlaw gang led by Dutch van der Linde from the perspective of Dutch's protege, Arthur Morgan. Following a botched robbery in the town of Blackwater, the gang is forced to lead a nomadic lifestyle while continuing to pull off robberies to support themselves. As time passes, they find themselves facing conflict on multiple fronts: the bounty hunters who pursue them from Blackwater; a rival outlaw gang led by Colm O'Driscoll; Leviticus Cornwall, an oil magnate who has the Pinkerton Detective Agency in his service; highly volatile new gang member Micah Bell; heists which carry greater risks and lesser rewards; and Dutch's gradually eroding sanity.
The story seems reminiscent of films like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid or The Wild Bunch. However, I think they really stretched things out. It's about halfway through the game when all the internal conflict happens. But I love the characters who make up the gang, including characters who would go on to appear in the first game presented in a different light. I also like a lot of the new characters they introduced, such as Lenny and Charles, and Sadie Adler. When the story does kick off, it gets really poignant.
The open world is a lot bigger than the first one, and they tried to make the game a lot more realistic, utilising RPG elements similar to those used in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. You can have meals in towns, sleep and bathe in hotels, get drunk, and even visit barbers. You also have to take greater care of your horse, and could be stranded if it dies in the wilderness. You can also hunt for provisions to keep the gang fed. This is optional, but they do look on you more favourably if you ride into camp with a deer carcass on the back of your horse.
However, the realism sometimes adds a little tedium. Travelling takes a while, and you never know what you'll run into in the wilderness. The "core" system can take a bit of getting used to. You have metres for health, stamina, "dead-eye", horse health, and horse stamina, but these also have cores which are maintained by eating and sleeping regularly. If the cores are low, the stats regenerate slower. There's also the fact that weapons have to be primed before they can be fired again, which I sometimes forget to do in a firefight.
OK, I'm starting to nitpick a bit. Despite those relatively minor issues, it's a great game, and I kill a lot of time when playing it. I finished the main story in a week, but I'm trying to avoid free-roam for the sake of my upcoming assignments.
There is one thing I do wish to talk about, but it involves major spoilers. Highlight the text below to read on.
The end of the game involves a prolonged epilogue in which you play as John Marston, the protagonist of the first Red Dead Redemption, as he tries to get out of the outlaw life and sets up a farm. During this time, he does a few jobs with Sadie Adler, who now works as a bounty hunter, and you continue to play as him in the free-roam after all the story missions are completed. Personally, I think it would be more fitting to do the post-game free-roam as Sadie, as she is still bounty hunting while John has settled down with his family and waiting for the FBI to pick him up to initiate the events of the previous game. It's not a major issue, but I think it was a missed opportunity.
All in all, I think it was worth the wait, and I recommend the game. In fact, when I go home for Christmas, I think I'll play through the first one again.
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