Red Dead Redemption 2

To start, Red Dead Redemption 2 is a game that not everyone would enjoy gameplay wise. The story and characters are truly fleshed out and well written. It has amazing graphics on pc (even on console they are still good for the time period), a beautifully large map to explore, jam packed with details amidst a mostly open world. It's more like playing through Arthur Morgan's story and adventure in the wild west.

Gameplay wise it is slow and there some flaws. Such as a flawed cop system, having to re-equip your weapons from your horse every so often, having to sit through sometimes long animations of Arthur doing actions, etc etc. Furthermore it has an open world portion where you can do almost anything you want, however it has very little impact on the actual story due to the story missions being pretty much linear. The story missions are only meant to played a certain way which is certainly a downside within a mostly open world game with story. The game itself is supposed to be more immersive, but often times that immersion can be broken when you realize how much money you acquire from missions, camps teleporting you to a pre-determined spot, and the temperature system for the player having very little impact other than in the coldest climates.

With its flaws being said, it truly is something special experiencing the story for the first time. The story and game itself basically wants to make you feel, rather than think. And it does so masterfully when its given a proper chance. After all, it is more of a "stop and smell the roses" type of game. The whole atmosphere, the music (especially music in my opinion) and the graphics cannot be understated when it comes to feeling the story and characters. You are basically playing through Arthur's story in the tail end of the wild west days. Which is mostly likely why the player can't do much to change the structure of the main story missions. Regardless, you are intended to play through's Arthur story and get invested into his character and the many others and take things more slowly. The open world portion is still fun since you can do various activities such as hunting, fishing, crafting, doing side quests, finding horses, getting into shootouts, robbing trains, finding loot and collectibles, etc.

Overall, Red Dead Redemption 2 is a very well crafted game and experience that unfortunately has some shortcomings in the game design department. It's a game that is trying to be both an open world game and movie that you play through, but despite that, it truly is an amazing experience that's worth playing at least once.