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I do not know where to begin, when it comes to talking about such a grand, epic and devastating game. For those that played the game and for those that had to endure the excessive ‘crunch’ that led to the completion of this cowboy-western.

Red Dead Redemption 2 is perhaps the best game Rockstar Games has ever made.

But as I grow older. I think a lot about the human cost. The human touch that made such a beloved game, despite all the chaos within Rockstar’s development cycle and endemic of the video games industry as a whole, the end result was nothing short of being a technical and narrative accomplishment that pushes the medium of what video games can be.

That does not mean that the ends justify the means. And Rockstar Games is not immune from criticism regardless of making what I view as a once-in-a-lifetime video game.

Rockstar Games gets a lot of praise and understandably so for being the developers that try and reach new levels of ‘perfection’ in each new game they make.

However, I am not a particular fan of the actual gameplay of a Rockstar Game and Red Dead Redemption 2 really brings the best and worst of Rockstar’s design decisions. I find that the gameplay can get rather tedious and clunky at times. In truth, I fell out of this game and was convinced by a good friend to ’embrace the imperfections’ and give this game a second shot.

I am glad I did.

The Missions get rather repetitive as time goes on and what I find grating is having to do ‘X and Y’ to progress the mission in a specified order, and having very little personal agency, in how I approach a mission being very constrained. I understand that Rockstar want a narrative-focused experience, but at times I find that I unintentionally break the game by doing things faster than the instructions on screen, which then just creates jarring end results as you are having to sort of repeat the previous actions to progress the mission.

And then this is where it really hit me. People who like films will more often than not gravitate towards a Rockstar game. The gameplay itself for Read Dead Redemption 2 is what I call serviceable and what you are really playing for is to see the story unfold.

You are a bunch of outlaws on the run at the end of the Wild West era, with you playing as the flawed and charismatic Arthur Morgan who is the reliable anchor to this group of mercenaries with the gang being spearheaded by Dutch Van Der Linde- the leader who has a cult like personality and silver tongue.

This is where Rockstar shines in crafting a compelling story and the attention to detail in having characters with their own special dialogue and learning about each member of the gang in the camp makes for an immersive and engaging world. There are aspects of my the narrative that get a little worn out and exhausting in terms of focus and pacing, but after rolling the credits, I can get behind most of the narrative decisions even if the road itself got a little bumpy.

And this is another amazing quality. The actual world you inhibit is bustling with different inhabitants and wildlife. Every location has its own distinct feeling and lasting impression as the game contrasts the beauty of nature against the violence of mankind alongside the rise of industrialisation. Each NPC has its own dialogue which gives this game that extra level of personality. This is a beautiful game that has aged remarkably.

I did get somewhat ‘fatigued’ by how long the story was. Yet, by pushing through I am happy that I persevered with this game, as the characters made the whole journey worthwhile and unforgettable.

Red Dead Redemption 2 is the game that makes me re-evaluate how I see video games and is also the game that made me really take notice of the ‘human cost’ of such an ambitious, arduous game to have been made in the first place.

This an aside, but it is a shame hearing new stories about some Rockstar employees losing their jobs in what seems like union-busting efforts from Rockstar Games. I hope things change within Rockstar Games for the better and that we should all remind ourselves that it is the people putting their heart and soul into making games, that made a studio like Rockstar Games successful in the first place.