Red Dead Redemption 2, the second iteration of Rockstar games' Red Dead Redemption, was launched on 26 October 2018 to a huge opening weekend. The game has raked in over $725 million worldwide in its opening weekend, making it the second highest-grossing game launch of all time after the GTA V.
Red Dead Redemption 2 took about seven years to develop. During those seven years, about 2,000 people were involved in making the game possible. Now, although there is no official figure from Rockstar games on the cost of making the game, VentureBeat did an estimate themselves, coming up with a calculation of $644.2 million over the couse of seven years (this is a Venturebeat estimate and should not be considered as the actual cost of making the game.)
Set up in 1899, Red Dead Redemption 2 is Rockstar Games's attempt to recreate the late 1800s. The time when the age of outlaws was ending and the modern world was being set up in the United States.
The open world game, according to Rockstar, is more attractive and deeper than any of their previous games.
The main character, Arthur Morgan is a senior gun in a notorious outlaw gang led by one Dutch Van Der Linde. The game is about encounters with con men, rival gangs and is focused on the Van der Linde gang and the relationships within and around it.
This is the game where Rockstar studio has made the most intuitive open world ever. Everything within the game responds to the player. From interacting with passing humans to hunting any animal that crosses, this is an actual open world.
The game has been improved in terms of combat, interaction and overall detail.
Right Up There with GTA V as One of the Greatest Modern Games: IGN
IGN has said that Red Dead Redemption 2 "stands shoulder-to-shoulder with Grand Theft Auto V as one of the greatest games of modern history”.
It says that the game's "gorgeous" depiction of an ugly period is a huge amount of fun to play – with Rockstar's best storytelling to date. Tall claims, these are.
The number of things to do and the number of places to explore are just overwhelming, IGN said.
"It's a game so lacking in compromise it’s tough to know where best to start discussing it."
The Most Convincing Open World Game Ever Made: The Verge
Red Dead Redemption is a greatly detailed and expertly crafted game, according to The Verge.
Rockstar has aimed to make experiences that are massive and lifelike. The game does give you an idea of the developer's long-sought-after ambitions, The Verge review of RDR2 said.
Apart from The Verge writer's fascination over the morning coffee experience within the game, it is a basically a fighting and killing game that also explores topics like racism and urbanisation in a way that feels both natural and thoughtful. The Verge has called it a Western take of GTA and a bit more than that.
Too Big for Just One Review: WIRED
WIRED, in its review of the game, focused more on the Kotaku expose that went into the making of the game. The WIRED story focuses on the hard labour and the bad working conditions the coders had to go through to come out with this masterpiece.
"Long, brutal work weeks; limited time off; an abiding pressure to participate in a culture of overwork that people in games call "crunch." There's no need to mince words about this: Red Dead Redemption 2 was built on the suffering and exhaustion of many of the people who created it."
However, in another review, the website said that Red Dead Redemption 2 is going the GTA way, only set in a different time.
Incredible Western That'll Deliver Months of Open-World Adventure: CNet
The CNet review says that Red Dead Redemption 2 treats every 'missionable element with the same amount of meaningful importance'.
"Red Dead Redemption 2 introduces a world that feels complex, deep and varied. It does a remarkable job at injecting a tangible weight throughout, giving purpose and consequence to nearly every action you commit," CNet said.
The CNet review also lauded the detailed micromechanics of the game. Rockstar games gives a lot of focus on the attention to detail and production value. "But these details are so much more important in Red Dead 2 because a lot of those details have micromechanics attached to them."
Gripping Western a Near Miracle: The Guardian
The Guardian, in its review of Red Dead Redemption 2, has said that this is a landmark game, a new high water-mark for lifelike video game worlds.
The Guardian has said that every one of the 2,000 people involved in making the game should be proud of themselves.
The many stories that Rockstar’s writers have set out to tell about this group of outlaws land perfectly, the enjoyable twists and turns of individual missions and chapters feeding into an exciting, sophisticated and absorbing larger narrative – and the stories that you discover yourself within its world are no less compelling.The Guardian
However, the review also says that you end up spending about 60 percent of your time simply riding around the American wilderness.
Were it not so astonishing to look at, Red Dead Redemption 2 expects you to spend enjoying the scenery might be intolerably boring.
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