thrillingdetectivetales | Fuck Yeah Friday! [2020-03-20] (Reply)

FUCK YEAH FRIDAY!

Hey everyone! There hasn't been a ton to be excited about these past few weeks, but I want to take a second to introduce you to a thing that's been bringing me joy in this uncertain time:

Red Dead Redemption II is a Western action-adventure game, created by Rockstar Games as a follow-up to the previous Red Dead Redemption, which in turn was created as a "spiritual successor" to the original Red Dead Revolver. I do not own and have never played the first Red Dead Redemption or Red Dead Revolver, but RDR2 (as it's affectionately nicknamed) lured me in by virtue of its stunning graphics and its main protagonist, a taciturn and dry-humored cowboy known for his brusque manner and notorious sour temper: one Arthur Morgan.

Before we start, have a couple more Arthurs to whet your appetite:

Arthur is essentially the right-hand man in a gang of outlaws led by the charismatic Dutch van der Linde, all of whom we meet in the beginning of RDR2 having just fled a disastrous shootout with a group of Pinkertons in a place called Blackwater. Much of RDR2's narrative is set up as Arthur trying his best to help the gang get back on its collective feet, with other members of the gang stepping up to lend a hand (to occasionally disastrous ends) and not altogether much success despite his ceaseless efforts.

These tasks include everything from hunting for food to make sure the camp doesn't starve—complete with graphically real but very impressive scenes where Arthur skins whatever he catches—and running errands to build goodwill in nearby towns, to robbing trains and lighting tobacco fields on fire. One of the coolest (and saddest) aspects of the game, and the one that piqued my initial interest is that Arthur contracts tuberculosis while on a money-gathering errand for a member of the gang who acts as a loan shark, and the team at Rockstar turn that into a really fun mechanic with slow-burn effects that can alter your performance in the latter half of the game's story.

Aside from Arthur himself, RDR2 is populated with a whole host of eclectic characters, from charming and mercurial gang leader Dutch and his even-tempered and paternal co-captain, Hosea Matthews, to wild and unstable Micah Bell and hard-edged Sadie Adler, who joins up after her husband is murdered by the Van Der Linde Gang's rivals, the O'Driscolls. There are loads and loads of side characters you can meet and interact with to pick up minor tasks, like interviewing a host of famous gunslingers or hunting down a serial killer.

Overall the writing in the game is phenomenal and really encapsulates the feeling of a diminishing American frontier through the lens of a band of outlaws who are torn between clinging to the old ways with the last of their strength or adapting as the world evolves around them. If that's not enough for you, it's also one of the few games where the scenery is beautiful enough that I rarely, if ever, fast travel or skip the opportunity to wander about on my horse.

Anyway, it's an amazing and beautiful game full of delightful characters with a really great balance between shoot-em-up and skill-based missions, and I highly recommend it if you're looking for something to keep yourself occupied for any length of time whatsoever.