There have been many great games. There have been masterpieces. Unforgettable experiences. We have nostalgia sprinkled with memories that will last a lifetime. Then we have Red Dead Redemption 2. A game, some would argue, that has set a standard no other game has done.
Arthur Morgan is a character with a vast background. It’s a background we don’t see a lot of, but we hear about through interactions with NPCs. It’s peak storytelling for his character, not even discussing the prospect of the actual overall story, just Arthur’s perfected character building.
This isn’t a one-dimensional story. The player decides. Do you want to go through being the world’s possible person in existence? Robbing people for the fun of it, hogtie a man, and throw him off a train? You can do some pretty despicable things as Arthur Morgan when you go through a low-honor playthrough.
You have the other angle of it. The high-honor playthrough. The true redemption story. For me, this is canon. Arthur has done some terrible things, but he’s also seen some terrible things and had some terrible things done to him. He has an excuse, but rarely uses it. A high-honor playthrough sees Arthur Morgan come full circle. Again, though, this is the choice of the players themselves as to how they wish to play through the game.
Regardless of the route you take, Rockstar takes you on a journey, I believe, that no other game has managed to do in terms of the story. It’s emotional, it’s complex, it’s cinema, but the controller is in your hands. It doesn’t get much better than that. When Arthur’s horse dies, my throat gulps. When he died, I’m not afraid to admit I cried. It was heartwrenching. There haven’t been many video games that have gripped me in the way Red Dead Redemption 2 did.
The journey feels personal. I am sometimes able to immerse myself so much that I forget about my own stresses, the things I am currently going through in my personal life. Even though I’m suffering a bereavement at present, this game allows me to take my mind off that. It’s comforting in a way.
Take one look at the world around you, the next time you load the game up. It feels alive at times. The random encounters, ambient conversations, camp life, wildlife, and the weather dynamics all make it so it doesn’t feel scripted. I’ve been doing challenges before where I’ve saved the game and reloaded back in. There are times when everything is completely different when I load back in.
You can play the story the same way. I’m on my 4th playthrough, and there are sections I haven’t witnessed before this current playthrough. That’s how vast the world is.
I have seen complaints about the clunky gameplay. The thing is, Rockstar Games has always played like this. Even Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas was fairly clunky for its time, but it’s how Rockstar games play. It sometimes feels a little too real. Red Dead Redemption 2 is no different. Maybe I’m just used to it, as I feel like, since GTA IV, it’s felt similar, I’m okay with that.
I feel like it’s intentional. I recall listening to a podcast a lot of years ago of Roger Clark, the man who voices Arthur Morgan. I can’t remember the podcast name, so I do apologize, as it was a long time ago. I do remember him saying specifically in the snowy sections that they put weights on the actor’s feet so it felt genuine when you traverse through the snow. It’s these little bits that sell the weight of the world.
The game was released in 2018, yet it still holds up extremely well against every single AAA title that has come out in 2025. The same can be said about GTA V, that it still holds its technical brilliance up so many years later. The graphics are impeccable at times, and the attention to detail can sometimes be a little creepy as well. I didn’t even notice my horse taking a giant poo until a couple of days ago. I almost felt rude jumping on the horse when it was in the middle of it. It’s these little details that still astound me so many years later.
Don’t get me wrong, I know people will have their own opinions. There have been 10s of thousands of video games. There are some exceptional games with huge merit. Skyrim, Fallout: New Vegas, take your pick on the Final Fantasy series, Gears of War, Halo, or something else.
The sentiment remains the same. Red Dead Redemption 2 is the best game I have ever played. It’s number 1 by a long shot. I adored the Fallout games, Expedition, the Jedi games, Skyrim, and others. RDR2 hits different. It’s a game that understands grief, humanity, loyalty, anger, hope, and the quiet moments, painful moments in between. I’m happy to have been alive to witness greatness. It’s proof that video games can be an art, comfort, and emotional connections all at once, and that’s beautiful. If that’s not greatness, then I don’t know what is.
