Red Dead Redemption 2

 PlayStation 4
User Score
8.7

Generally favorable reviews- based on 21344 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 18,146 out of 21344
  2. Mixed: 1,261 out of 21344
  3. Negative: 1,937 out of 21344
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  1. OVLange
    Oct 26, 2018
    10
    You know if a game goes as far as detail to make you brew coffee via campfire before drinking it, or getting your weapons from a horse's satchel, or literally watching it's testicles shrink in cold weather, that this is game of the decade material.
  2. Apsilon
    Oct 30, 2018
    6
    I liked the first RDR. Despite the fact it didn’t grip or didn't thrill me as GTA did, it certainly had a personality all of its own and western plains never looked so good. I could look past the clunkiness of the controls and the hassle of the fast travel system and enjoy what it offered – a sprawling western adventure – albeit a rather shallow one.

    Fast forward a decade and finally,    I liked the first RDR. Despite the fact it didn’t grip or didn't thrill me as GTA did, it certainly had a personality all of its own and western plains never looked so good. I could look past the clunkiness of the controls and the hassle of the fast travel system and enjoy what it offered – a sprawling western adventure – albeit a rather shallow one.

    Fast forward a decade and finally, we’ve been given the sequel (prequel?) and my hopes for this game were that Rockstar would hopefully improve on the negatives of the first game to bring us another sprawling western but, this time alive with a living breathing world full of adventure and action because – it’s a game, right?

    10-12 hours in on chapter 3 and I have to admit that it’s been a grind to get this far. Of those 10-12 hours, I would wager that only an hour of that has been actual action. The rest has been horse riding, performing menial tasks, walking around aimlessly (and slowly) and cut-scenes.
    Not only that but, they have not addressed the two biggest issues from the first game. The controls and fast travel. As I said higher up, I could overlook the issues in the first game because it was last gen and what they achieved irrespective of issues, was marvellous. They don’t have that crutch this time and for the length of time this has been in development, these issues which are central to the playability of the game should have been addressed.

    1) The Controls – The controls are reminiscent of Resident Evil. A slow-burning horror game where they work by creating tension. They don’t work in a western where you need to move, sometimes very quickly, in reaction to events. They are cumbersome and unintuitive and as someone else has posted, they make Arthur appear arthritic in his movements. The buttons you have to manipulate to perform the most mundane task is ridiculous and far too many times, I have shot people in the face because the R2 button which is used for shooting from the hip is also used for performing actions.

    2) Fast Travel – if I thought fast travel in the first game was a ballache to use, the fact they have hidden it in RDR2 is a monumental mistake. Rockstar in trying to create a sense of immersion want gamers to ride their horse across the plains to get from A to B – every time. That’s fine if the ride is 5 or even 10 minutes, but, we’re talking upwards of an hour in some cases. This is a game remember. It’s for enjoyment. I do not want to simulate the life of a cowboy down the nth degree. I want to cut out the real-time inconsequentiality to get to the meat of the task. I don’t like travelling anywhere as it is, so why the f**k would I want to travel in real-time in a game. It’s a colossal waste of time and is the main issue of boredom.

    3) Cut-scenes – I get it; they drive the story or give background. However, they start to jar when they are 15 minutes long and I don’t want to see a cut-scene every time I perform a menial action.

    4) Stats – I mean come on; a sense of reality is one thing – total immersion is entirely another. Like in GTA SA, I now have to look after myself by eating, drinking, wearing the right clothes and not pushing myself too hard. Not only that, but I also have to take care of my horse! Cue more cut-scenes, more time wasting and more banality. It didn’t work in GTA SA and it doesn’t work here. Again, this is a game and I don’t want to have to have to worry about my characters well-being. It should be a given that he looks after himself.

    There are many more issues I could list but, those four are primary for me. Reading between the lines of reviews and gamer comments, some appear to be in clear denial and I think that is simply because it’s Rockstar and Red Dead Redemption 2. They are refusing to acknowledge its genuine shortcomings preferring instead to regale its beautiful environment. However, many games have beautiful environments such as; The Witcher 3, Horizon, ACO etc, and all these games incorporate stellar gameplay mechanics and do not burden the player with unnecessary faff that detracts from the adventure.

    Would ACO be a better game if you had to travel the length and breadth of Greece by horse and boat? Nope. In fact, do people who are raving about RDR2 play any open world games without using fast travel? I doubt it and that in itself is a contradiction by those proclaiming RDR2’s realism as the defacto reason for its immersion. A game is an escape for fun but, when that fun is duller than ditchwater, then it’s no longer a game. RDR2 is less an action game and more a simulation of life as a cowboy but, it’s not a particularly interesting one because too much needless nonsense bogs it down making it a chore to play.

    RDR2 is quite simply, a glorious looking world saddled with a shallow and monotonous gaming experience made worse by mechanics that are a decade old.    … Expand
  3. Yozakura
    Nov 6, 2018
    6
    I really wanted to love it. The over-world is beautiful and detailed, but my God do the controls suck the fun out of the game. Arthur moves like he has a refrigerator stuck to his back, and don't get me started on the no-fun-allowed law system, not to mention being punished for acting evil to a certain extent. The fishing and hunting are nicely done, however, and for those who enjoyI really wanted to love it. The over-world is beautiful and detailed, but my God do the controls suck the fun out of the game. Arthur moves like he has a refrigerator stuck to his back, and don't get me started on the no-fun-allowed law system, not to mention being punished for acting evil to a certain extent. The fishing and hunting are nicely done, however, and for those who enjoy interactive movies this is a fine "game".… Expand
  4. pongkrit03
    Nov 12, 2018
    8
    The 10 score reviews here must be some hardcore fanboys or Rockstar employee themselves since most of their accounts are only review RDR2 game. On the other hand, those who give 0-3 must be troll PC gamers. Anyway, I myself have played the game for 10 hrs+. Still early, but I do agree with most helpful user reviews here. This game is overrated, the score should be around 7-8. However, IThe 10 score reviews here must be some hardcore fanboys or Rockstar employee themselves since most of their accounts are only review RDR2 game. On the other hand, those who give 0-3 must be troll PC gamers. Anyway, I myself have played the game for 10 hrs+. Still early, but I do agree with most helpful user reviews here. This game is overrated, the score should be around 7-8. However, I give a 8 because I respect the sheer amazing detail Rockstar has put in this game. I will keep short here since many most helpful reviews did a great job of criticizing the bad things. Besides, I might revise my review later once I am done with the game.

    Major Pros
    - Amazing Detailed World
    - NPCs feel like real persons. Many different dialogues.
    - Hunting feels fantastic
    - Side activities are good, I love hunting down wanted criminals.
    - Various mini games. (I like poker game)

    Major Cons
    - Control is weird and need a lot of memorizing (But become less problem once you get used to it). You may need to check online for clearer explanation of control since ingame does not give you a controller mapping. (why ?)
    - No Fast travel in early game ( You need to upgrade camp to get fast travel ability but it costs a lot)
    - Law is too restrict. Bumping someone can easily lead to gunfight and you get a fine for murderer. This is not right. In real life situation, you should be able to apologize
    - Chores - can't skip taking a bath.
    - Lack of freedom in term of choices. Most of the times, you will have only 2 choices, good or bad, nothing in between. For example, there was a main mission that I had to talk with the priests, I could only talked politely with them, like I was interested in their religion, or choked their leader to dead. This felt wrong to me. I should have been able to aim my gun and threaten them to go away.
    - No quick save
    - Main character attitude is unlikable for me. I personally don't like his voice as well.

    In Sum, RDR2 is great in detailed world but not as great in gameplay. It is still a good fun game if you have patience but the realistic should be optional. For people who want fast paced game, devs should give a choice to skip chore scenes and allow fast travel at the beginning of the game.. For those who hasn't played the game yet, I would advise to wait and see if Rockstar will have a patch to tone down the wanted system or not. I love its realistic though but as it stands now my Witcher 3 is much better game in comparison.    … Expand
  5. NoBodysGamer
    Oct 28, 2018
    5
    The realism and depth. The game is realistic, so realistic that it is boring because it is so like real life. You have to cook, you have to dress accordingly, you have to brush your horse, the list goes on and on and on. I'm surprised they didn't make you take your turn to wash the dishes in camp in order to keep harmony. I understand realism and why it is important in games like thisThe realism and depth. The game is realistic, so realistic that it is boring because it is so like real life. You have to cook, you have to dress accordingly, you have to brush your horse, the list goes on and on and on. I'm surprised they didn't make you take your turn to wash the dishes in camp in order to keep harmony. I understand realism and why it is important in games like this (large, cinematic games) but the depth here doesn't add anything to the game except excess hours spent by the player doing these chores instead of actually engaging in the game. 'Depth' is fast becoming a code word in the gaming world for 'needlessly tedious tasks' but is defended with the 'realism' mantle. Realism and realistic are not the same things - I want the game to give me a sense of a real world, I do not want it to mimic my actual life. I play games to have fun, not to cook herbs I found.

    The bounty system is just horrible. Anything bad you do results in a bounty being put on your head (which increases if you do more bad things) - you have no choice put to pay off the bounty. If you do not bounty hunters randomly spawn and will shoot you to death. They will shoot you to death because 1) The computer has a very good shot and 2) because the shooting mechanic is so badly implemented that you will really struggle to fend off more than 2 of them. There is also an issue that NPC's assault you with abandon but, as soon as you defend yourself, you have a bounty marked on you. This, combined with the poor shooting system, means you spend most of your time avoiding combat - it's so weird because I was expecting to be able to cause havoc, instead I can't risk it because money is scarce and the bounty's so frequent. A stifling game mechanic.

    Flawed features. The hunting system works to a degree but has a number of issues. The rewards for hunting are pitiful and, given the time it takes to hunt, as well as the lack of space to store hunted animals, it is pretty much a redundant feature.
    The poker game in-game is nothing short of a joke. Don't even bother playing it as you will lose money if you play more than, say, 20 hands against the AI.
    Travel. By far the biggest problem. It takes ages to navigate this map - not because it is so big - but because you pretty much have to travel with your horse the whole time. Oh, and you cannot even follow set paths, so you have to control the giddy bastard for the entire time.
    Shooting system. Poor, very twitchy and inaccurate - not at all fun to use.
    Crafting. Requires hunting stuff. Hunting stuff is very time-consuming and, by an large, boring.

    Controls. They are awkward. It does not feel smooth nor intuitive. They aren't game breaking by any means but they could be a damn sight better.

    It is another game that equates quantity with quality, a trend in the gaming world whereby if you have massive crafting menu's and the ability to brush your teeth manually you're somehow revolutionising the industry. Maybe I'm the only gamer who wants the games to be, first and foremost, fun? I suspect there will be patches changing certain aspects of the game and, until they happen, I'd avoid buying the game. I'm playing now and wondering why I continue to do so because, after getting out of the snow section (the very first part of the story), everything has become a lot more tedious and dull. 10 out of 10 is honestly a joke score - that indicates perfection, and this game comes nowhere near that.

    Bugs: A random civilian started a fistfight with me and I was wanted for unarmed assault after I defended myself. The next time a man spontaneously attacked me, I decided to keep blocking just to see what would happen. Another random civilian shot him in the back and I was then wanted for murder. I steered my truck of a character to the outskirts of town only to find myself under investigation AGAIN because another random civilian was mauled by a mountain lion or something.

    I stopped hunting after my legendary bear pelt disappeared from the back of my main horse. I stopped riding my main horse entirely after I got tired of the game unequipped my weapons every time I made contact with it. The game is incapable of remembering that I put weapons in holsters, but it knows exactly when that horse is in need of grooming. Because you know what every video-game needs more of? Chores.

    But none of that matters because the graphics are nice. Hoof prints stay in the mud and horse testicles shrink in the cold.    … Expand
  6. Chiefmate7
    Oct 29, 2018
    6
    Для любителей жить в игре может и понравится. А так игра на шестерку. Нету русской локализации такого огромного проекта в 2018 - огромный минус. Нет оптимизации на PS4Pro, никакого выбора между производительностью и качеством, да и качество там графики, скажем так, не очень. В общем, очень проработанное кинцо. Кто любит драйвовые игры, RDR2 не зайдет. Можно запустить поиграть, подивитсяДля любителей жить в игре может и понравится. А так игра на шестерку. Нету русской локализации такого огромного проекта в 2018 - огромный минус. Нет оптимизации на PS4Pro, никакого выбора между производительностью и качеством, да и качество там графики, скажем так, не очень. В общем, очень проработанное кинцо. Кто любит драйвовые игры, RDR2 не зайдет. Можно запустить поиграть, подивится качеству проработки мира и... нет, не удалять, оставить, чтобы периодически туда возвращаться.… Expand
  7. MisterLupus
    Nov 10, 2018
    7
    I'll start off by saying it's impossible to take game reviewers serious these days. Who are these people? A game rated at 97 should be so groundbreaking and awesome - so flawless and polished - whoever made it deserves to be deified. At that rating we're talking wonders of the world - something only the gods could do better - an event of historical proportions.

    And let's face it - Red    I'll start off by saying it's impossible to take game reviewers serious these days. Who are these people? A game rated at 97 should be so groundbreaking and awesome - so flawless and polished - whoever made it deserves to be deified. At that rating we're talking wonders of the world - something only the gods could do better - an event of historical proportions.

    And let's face it - Red Dead Redemption 2 does not deliver that quality. It's neither groundbraking, flawless or polished - and even though certain aspects of it does cross the border to what should be considered awesome others again falls miserably short of even seeing that border.

    Graphics are stunning, world is rich on content and the general atmosphere really sucked me in. Attention to details is almost unparalleled. The story is predictable and feels a bit forced - some turn of events simply doesn't make sense and the characters turn either dumb or genius according to what's convenient in furthering the storyline - and it's also quite quite static.

    All in all it's not very "organic" nor does it allow for the player to interact with it in any profound ways.

    But despite not being the pinnacle of penmanship nor deeply influenced by the player's decisions - it did entertain me and in addition to falling in love with the world itself I also ended up becoming invested in the characters and even sad to see some of them go.

    Rockstar is - as always - brilliant in creating the framework of a truly inspired game. Rockstar is also however - as always and unfortunately - mediocre at best when it comes to everything else.

    Gameplay suffers profoundly in this game. The controls are clumsy and bad - needlessly hard to navigate, often unresponsive - and both movement as well as combat are clunky to say the least and altso unimaginative. Something youd expect from a game made ten years ago - not a more recent AAA-Production.

    It lacks anything even resembling flow and also falls short in terms of user friendliness. Gunplay is pretty much autoaim and instant headshot - melee is simply mashing two buttons in accordance to animation and the mechanics for fishing actually made my hands go numb.

    And even though the story is good enough (though not as brilliant as many would argue) - the missions are unrewarding tours. In fact - the way they're played out - you hardly get to influence them at all as the game itself pushes you down certain paths and makes most decisions for you.

    They're so overly-scripted your actions and options constantly gets limited to a point where you might as well put the controller on the table and simply watch a movie. Most of the time you just follow character X through points A-Z then either click the objects he tells you to click or kill whomever he needs you to kill before being rewarded with a cutscene. It feels more like a tutorial that never ends than an actual game - and often it even dictates where you're allowed to move and at which pace or whether or not you're allowed to have your guns ready.

    Even your weapon setup is affected. Went through a lot of trouble choosing and prepping the desired weapons pre-mission? Tough luck as this game will revert your choices to what it wants you to use during the first cutscene (even though the weapons it forces upon you are of the same type as the ones you'd prefer).

    This to me was maybe my biggest nuisance - as I felt this game was treating me like an idiot. Some unwanted parasite in need of restraints. "Shut up and let me get on with my awesome story won't you? No ofc I won't let you influence it - I tell it best as it is - I am in charge this experience not you!!"

    As for fishing and hunting and doing bounties plus experiencing random world events - as well as crafting - they've actually done a good job. But like it always is with these things they do get repetitive after a while and starts to feel grindy. It doesn't help either that the world is so littered with animals you can almost aim the rifle randomly and still hit something nor that you'll catch a fish pretty much every time you throw your line in. It would have been better if wilderness encounters reaped higher rewards but were less frequent I feel - but it's nothing gamebreaking.

    All in all Red Dead Redemption 2 has all the ingredients to be the epic experience most reviewers make it out to be - but doesn't really come close in terms of execution. Gameplay is outdated and user-unfriendly - it lacks both polish and innovation - balance is a bit off here and there and the game fails miserably all across the line in terms of player interaction. The story and the missions are pretty much set in stone - and it refuses you to equip the chisel.

    Most of the time you're not really playing a game - merely watching events unfold the way the developers intended them to - practically sidelined and incapable of influencing anything at all.

    This game treats you more like a spectator than a participant.    … Expand
  8. NuSix3
    Nov 12, 2018
    6
    The game looks good, but the controls are convoluted and it feels very slow and clunky.

    I think it's obvious that the developers didn't consider the player at all. The game is in bad need of a quality of life patch, but honestly, I'm gonna be done with it for good by the time they get to making any change patches. So I wouldn't bother. EDIT: After playing the game for a week, merely    The game looks good, but the controls are convoluted and it feels very slow and clunky.

    I think it's obvious that the developers didn't consider the player at all. The game is in bad need of a quality of life patch, but honestly, I'm gonna be done with it for good by the time they get to making any change patches. So I wouldn't bother.

    EDIT: After playing the game for a week, merely because I spent almost $90 (do not buy this version, get the lowest price copy. The items are good for a time, but not unique enough to pay actual money for) on the middle version, my score is remaining at a 6. Every 6-8 review on here hits the nail on the head. The game feels more like a movie and never gets truly fun. I'm halfway through chapter 4, ignoring everything in the open world trying to force my way through missions on hopes that it gets better.

    The story isn't really all that good either, aside from character originality and voice acting, the gang gets into trouble in a new area and is forced to move. Rinse and repeat.

    The controls still feel awkward after getting used to them. The inventory is miserable. I never know what gun it's going to pull when I hit L1. What weapons I choose don't seem to matter as the game frequently unequips everything except my pistols when I get off my horse. And you can't drop or sell weapons you don't use or want anymore. You're stuck with them, and it will annoy you to the point where you are looking for methods to get rid of them, including letting an alligator bite your arm so you drop the equipped weapon.

    The only outside activity is hunting. And if it was more like the bear hunting quest in the beginning of the game, it could actually be pretty fun. But it's not. Tracking system won't help you track anything you haven't seen first. So hunting is reduced to, "Oh hey, there's a bear! Do I have time to kill it?" So much for survival.    … Expand
  9. pvliesdonk
    Nov 7, 2018
    5
    Agree with all the other negative reviews. Stopped playing after approx 8 hours as I couldn't be bothered to continue through all the glitches and control mess. I really hope Rockstar will patch these issues, as the game looks and sounds fantastic.
  10. Belius
    Oct 31, 2018
    6
    If you don't have ONE hour in front of you, you can do nothing in this game...
    Illegal activities are almost mandatory to enjoy the game.
    You spend most of your time riding.
    The inventory .... scroll over 50 weapons each time ...
    And the realism... Your horse don't appears next to you if you whistle him. But it can be teleport in a stable or carrying a hundred weapon...
  11. jj350
    Oct 27, 2018
    5
    This game is a good example of why "professional" video game critics cannot be trusted in 2018. Here they are trying to sell this game as perfection and it is a flawed gem at best. Does it look great? Yes. Does it do a good job of presenting it's story and characters? Definitely. Is it fun to play? Not really. Is the gameplay perfect? Very far from it.

    What we have here is a beautifully    This game is a good example of why "professional" video game critics cannot be trusted in 2018. Here they are trying to sell this game as perfection and it is a flawed gem at best. Does it look great? Yes. Does it do a good job of presenting it's story and characters? Definitely. Is it fun to play? Not really. Is the gameplay perfect? Very far from it.

    What we have here is a beautifully presented example of how overrated and overhyped a video game can be. No matter how good looking a game is, and no matter how well they present the story and characters, if the gameplay isn't fun the game just isn't fun. That is the problem here, a distinct lack of fun. There are way too many chores, way too much time is spent on tedious and drawn out actions, and the controls are just a complete mess. I honestly find it amazing how a game can get so highly rated with controls this awful. Everything feels slow to react and sloppy, the movement, the gunplay, the interaction, everything. It is also ridiculously frustrating to interact with the world as you seem to do unintended actions with incredible ease and due to the lack of easy access to manual saves you will find yourself getting in situations where you are facing unintended consequences making it unnecessarily difficult to play the game as anything besides a notorious bad-guy.

    Simply put I am having a hard time enjoying this game and I am very disappointed with the results.    … Expand
  12. NikolayG
    Nov 13, 2018
    5
    The pro reviewers giving 10s are either being dishonest or aren't paying attention. Red Dead Redemption 2 has a LOT of serious problems. Realistic it is at times, sprinkled liberally with jarring, frustrating, unrealistic, inappropriate gamey mechanics.

    If you shoot up a gang's hideout in the woods and kill them all, then go into the hideout and take something from a drawer, you will be    The pro reviewers giving 10s are either being dishonest or aren't paying attention. Red Dead Redemption 2 has a LOT of serious problems. Realistic it is at times, sprinkled liberally with jarring, frustrating, unrealistic, inappropriate gamey mechanics.

    If you shoot up a gang's hideout in the woods and kill them all, then go into the hideout and take something from a drawer, you will be marked as a thief and the law will, in less than a minute, ride up and come after you --- even though you were in the hideout without witnesses when you took something from the drawer, even though you're in the middle of the woods far from town. The law show up out of nowhere like magic. On top of all this, the law doesn't seem to care that you shot a bunch of people and that there are bodies everywhere, only that you stole a bottle of liquor.

    The game has other serious issues that also make it too 'gamey' and not realistic enough. In mission 1, you cannot open a certain locked trunk you must open to complete the mission, and the guy you're with will just freeze in place until ... you eat something. That's right. The one has got nothing to do with the other, but you have to eat at least a cracker or that trunk will never open and your comrade will never take another step. The same thing happened in a mission much later when a guy took me bear hunting. All of a sudden he just stopped on his horse. Wouldn't move. Frozen. No matter what I did. Five minutes, ten minutes, 15 minutes passed. Still frozen. I never found the answer to that one. But I assume the game wanted me to engage in some random action utterly unrelated to what we were doing to trigger the game to move forward.

    In mission 2 if you stray too far from the enemy camp the mission ends in failure. Therefore, if you shoot a fleeing bad guy off his horse, then go to collect stuff off the body (as you are required to do for the mission) the mission will end in "failure" if the body fell too far from the main camp. How's that for "open world"? In mission 3, as you chase a man on his horse to lasso him, you have to cross a stream to get behind him. But if you cross that stream too soon, by which I mean before the game arbitrarily wants you to, that mission also ends in "failure". How's THAT for open world??? When your fellow gang member is held as a human shield by a train conductor on the roof of a train, you want to shoot the train conductor, right? But if try, you won't hit him, and you won't accidentally hit your fellow gang member either. Even though they are, at that moment, closer than any other target you've had in the game so far. All of your bullets magically become blanks ... because the game wants you to go up to him and hit him with your fists. All of these artificial, unnecessary, extremely frustrating and anti-immersive moments broke the game's momentum and pushed me out of the fictional universe.

    When shooting, if you don't want to use a reticle (and I don't) you can turn off the reticle in the options menu. You can still hit targets just fine because there is a command that lines the barrel right up with your sightline -- except ..... not when you're using a bow. Even though in real life you line the arrow right up with your line of sight while aiming, this is not permitted in the game. Even though it's permitted with guns. So it is IMPOSSIBLE to hit a deer or other animal with an arrow unless you go into options and turn the reticle back on. So it's back and forth as I play because I do NOT want a reticle, but have to use one when using a bow. Why in the world the game doesn't let you line your bow up with your line of sight is beyond me. It makes zero sense. These are the reasons I say the game is marred by bizarre limitations that render it not truly open world (in the way, for example, Skyrim is truly open world. In Skyrim you can go anywhere at any time, even mid-mission if you want to, you can take off and go hunting or fishing and just head for the other side of the continent. Not in Read Dead Redemption 2. You have to do arbitrary things - eat a cracker - before you can complete missions and you have to stay within very narrowly defined areas during missions.

    Side note. The dialog in the game is also laced with expressions that did not exist until my lifetime, some not even until I was an adult. It is strange to watch as people in 1899 use lingo that did not even exist yet when I was in elementary school. The team really dropped the ball on this. They should have had an older person reviewing the script. It is jarring in places and really puts me out of the game here and there. And it would have been so simple to avoid.    … Expand
  13. CyberRobotnix
    Nov 8, 2018
    7
    For short, Red Dead Redemption 1 was the better Red Dead Redemption.

    For the long version, I liked this game quite a bit, but the gameplay is extremely sluggish and the controls are stiff, it's really what ruins the fun of the game as a whole. To be fair though, I liked most of the things in the game, but again you should look for something else if you like extremely vivid and fast gameplay.
  14. LastHokage
    Nov 1, 2018
    5
    Summary: Beautiful but tedious.

    I didn't finish the game, didn't have the patience to do so. Having seen the professional reviews averaging 97.. I thought I was in for a treat. I enjoyed RDR and GTA games since PS2 era but this..this game.. its not RDR or GTA it is something else. Call it a wild west simulation, but please don't call this RDR. The game is tedious..not at some point.. it    Summary: Beautiful but tedious.

    I didn't finish the game, didn't have the patience to do so. Having seen the professional reviews averaging 97.. I thought I was in for a treat. I enjoyed RDR and GTA games since PS2 era but this..this game.. its not RDR or GTA it is something else. Call it a wild west simulation, but please don't call this RDR. The game is tedious..not at some point.. it was tedious from the very beginning till I stopped. I kept telling myself it will get better! It must! But then I start to read other user reviews and it sunk on me.. It won't get better. RENT before buying, if you don't like the first 5-10 hours, you will not like the next 50 hours.    … Expand
  15. gnadenlos
    Nov 1, 2018
    7
    The main problem is, that it's not a real open world game. If you focus on the main story, like many reviewers and some users do, you will experience a linear and scripted game with almost no freedom. Every time you try something different the missions will fail.

    Controls aren't very good, so it's also hard to recommend the game for that linear story experience. The separate and real    The main problem is, that it's not a real open world game. If you focus on the main story, like many reviewers and some users do, you will experience a linear and scripted game with almost no freedom. Every time you try something different the missions will fail.

    Controls aren't very good, so it's also hard to recommend the game for that linear story experience.

    The separate and real open world part is done quite well, but it doesn't have enough interesting and coherent/interlocking elements to keep you motivated very long. If you remove the linear story and high production value, it's the usual open world stuff, we've known for years, mixed with light survival elements.

    So what you will get is an average to good open world sandbox for maybe 15-20 hours of random fun and a separate, very scripted and cinematic game with high production value. Both parts have average gameplay and problematic controls. The only highlights and reasons to play the game are its great graphics, atmosphere and story.    … Expand
  16. Sillence
    Nov 10, 2018
    5
    I didn't know what to expect getting into this, having never played the first. I was, however, quite hyped up based on the concept as well as footage, and being a big fan of GTA since GTA 2 (don't know how I missed red dead 1 thinking back on it..). Because I was hyped, I really wanted to like it. So when, in the first hour of gameplay I felt as though something was missing, and that thisI didn't know what to expect getting into this, having never played the first. I was, however, quite hyped up based on the concept as well as footage, and being a big fan of GTA since GTA 2 (don't know how I missed red dead 1 thinking back on it..). Because I was hyped, I really wanted to like it. So when, in the first hour of gameplay I felt as though something was missing, and that this game might actually be... not good, I pushed that feeling back because I knew it must get better. I played for another 6 hours or so, and it didn't. Don't get me wrong, the environment is absolutely beautiful, and the physics engine, and the cinematic camera are both terrific elements. Then there's the story, which is actually quite compelling even though I've never needed a good story to enjoy a game, but there's just one gigantic issue with this game...

    It's BORING. Sooooo boring. The gameplay really is complete **** by modern standards. Gunplay is terrible, controls are clunky as can be, nothing feels natural, you spend far too much time traveling and not enough playing. The 6 hours I've put in felt so forced. Part of me wants to see the rest of this beautiful world, and play out the story that will no doubt be excellent, but I just can't bring myself to play it. To me, it feels like a TV show, a passive sort of entertainment, and that is a problem. I find myself considering playing but instead turning on netflix because it doesn't require I hold a controller. And it honestly is heartbreaking because I really was itching for a big open world game like this to hop into, but this just doesn't do it for me.

    I suppose you could say it is highly realistic what with having to brush your horse, shave, eat, feed your horse, grab weapons from the saddle every damn time, ride long distances of mostly empty land. It's all very much like the Wild West we know from stories and shows and movies. The key difference though - movies don't follow every hour of every day of a cowboy. They highlight the exciting parts which are few and far between. They know the rest is just boring AF. This game seems to have forgotten that. I respect the realism while pointing out that it makes for garbage gameplay and enjoyment.

    I spent $100 for the Deluxe Edition, and I regret every dollar of it. Save your money and watch a stream, it's about as engaging as actually playing the game. What a sad state.    … Expand
  17. Nrm01
    Oct 28, 2018
    6
    All of the 10/10 and high critics reviews seem to be completely overlooking the broken bounty system and poor game play design in some facets of the game. If someone starts a fist fight with you and you defend yourself? That's assault. Someone tries to rob or shoot at you and you kill them? Murder. Accidentally get on the wrong horse because it is right next to yours? Horse theft. I can goAll of the 10/10 and high critics reviews seem to be completely overlooking the broken bounty system and poor game play design in some facets of the game. If someone starts a fist fight with you and you defend yourself? That's assault. Someone tries to rob or shoot at you and you kill them? Murder. Accidentally get on the wrong horse because it is right next to yours? Horse theft. I can go on. The new dueling system is kinda frustrating amid in consistent. God forbid your R2 is slightly worn out because dueling won't work at all. Do you like your weapon loadout? Well it will reset every time you get on a horse and your equiped gun will change arbitrarily causing you to have to scramble to change weapons.
    The horse controls seem to have taken a downgrade. It has been a long while since I played the last Red Dead, but i seem to remember horses being able to follow the path by themselves. Now if you turn to shoot pursuers, you risk for horse running face first into a tree. For a game that seems to have a love affair with realism, when it is convenient of course (taking 20 bullets in a gun fight is just a flesh wound) , I find a horse running head long into a tree just because you didn't tell it not to a little hard to swallow.    … Expand
  18. theTRUTHson
    Nov 8, 2018
    7
    All the good things you've heard about this game are true. But here's the problem. Most reviews didn't even mention it's flaws.

    Red dead 2 has terrible aiming and bad controls overall. It is a slow game with lots of waiting and little action. It is a very very easy game. You might not die more than a couple of times throughout the 50 hour playthrough. Why the press failed to inform    All the good things you've heard about this game are true. But here's the problem. Most reviews didn't even mention it's flaws.

    Red dead 2 has terrible aiming and bad controls overall. It is a slow game with lots of waiting and little action. It is a very very easy game. You might not die more than a couple of times throughout the 50 hour playthrough.

    Why the press failed to inform buyers about these flaws is something we should all ask ourselves. But these flaws are there and RDR2 is not the ten out of ten they told you it is.    … Expand
  19. MaDMaN_26
    Oct 31, 2018
    5
    I WANTED TO LOVE THIS GAME. I can't and that sucks. This is a beautiful game. Maybe the best graphics ever to date in video games. The animations are incredibly detailed. Visually judged alone it would be a great game sadly, it is just a OK game, it suffers from bad controls, nagging issues - the controls are very unintuitive. To me things just seem randomly assigned as they went. This isI WANTED TO LOVE THIS GAME. I can't and that sucks. This is a beautiful game. Maybe the best graphics ever to date in video games. The animations are incredibly detailed. Visually judged alone it would be a great game sadly, it is just a OK game, it suffers from bad controls, nagging issues - the controls are very unintuitive. To me things just seem randomly assigned as they went. This is hardly the biggest issue, but a couple of examples are: on a PS4 controller - buying saddles is X with no confirmation or delay. Drilling down into the saddle menu is also X. Click X too many times and bam saddle bought, money gone - you will buy one by accident - the only question is how long ago did you save and can you afford the mistake. Yet buying stuff from the store is Square and it must be held for a second or two, a timer thingy happens before it is done, giving you a chance to release and cancel. Often pre-viewing an item at the store is X, like spurs - so think you’re going to preview a saddle? nope. There is no buy back or undo option anywhere - selling or buying. Example #2 - Triangle is used to a) mount your horse b) loot dead bodies and c) sit by a fire. 90% of the bodies in the world you loot are going to be shot by a fire. Once looted you no longer can hit triangle to loot again... so you'd think priority of this conflict would go to looting, take it out of the equation - then all that’s left for triangle is are you at a horse or a fire. This is not what they did instead you unintentionally will sit by a fire over and over instead of looting the body next to the fire - this includes the long assed sitting down animation and then the long assed standing up animation before you accidentally, yet inevitably, sit again.
    The game is so detailed... and soo “#realism brah”. To its detriment... you can't just have a health, stamina and dead eye meter, no you have to have "cores" that drain and fill differently and make little sense - and there are 400 foods, cigarettes, and booze that all do slightly the same thing yet different. You can't sleep to a specified time, no early rising for you – Morning, noon, evening or night but not 4 or 6 am. Crafting is horribly slow and boring yet pretty core to the game mechanics and so needed – cool bullets/arrows no one will ever use because its one at a freaking time! There are just SO many small frustrating bits that take away from the overall enjoyment. Saving - the autosave will scumbag you sooner or later if you rely on it. If you are mid mission and want to save to maybe go back and try something different or try another approach – nope not allowed because reasons. I turned off autosave and fully rely on being uber diligent with manual saves and every time I see a thing to go check out, go near people/towns, hear “Hey mister” or “HELP” - I save - because my fault or not (more often not), something will go wrong. Be it bugs, glitches or just B.S. If I hit R1 to take cover behind a rock in combat; for god knows what reason I often end up standing on top of the rock eating bullets. Bump - not ram or run down - but nudge a person while on your horse in town and 40 cops and a massive bounty for that evil deed. To add to that fun - NPC’s will constantly be in your way. Crowded market or street, they will be mad at you for following them (regardless of your “good” reputation) as they slowly walk down the only narrow path. They will walk out into the street in front of your horse constantly. There is a Cinematic mode that in theory could be considered an auto-travel so you don't have to do it yourself (tapping X over and over and over) - if you go to the bathroom and come back you will be dead, wanted or your horse will have died. There is no fast travel. From camp after a while but nothing BACK to camp. Stages and trains cost money and you still must get to one to travel to another. On foot Arthur moves just a tad slower than he should until he runs and then you run just a bit faster than the controls really work with. Hunting can be fun and yet it can be the most frustrating thing I've ever voluntarily done to myself. My list goes on and on. For every amazing moment there are 30 little crappy ones sucking the fun out of this game. Just so disappointed. If there was QA that play tested their feedback was ignored, they were awful at their jobs or they hired children who "want to work in video games" for pennies a day instead of QA professionals - standard for the gaming industry and it shows. I am terribly disappointed and all these "Professional" reviewers that gave it “Game of the century” and “10/10” should be ashamed - I will forever come look at a review sites score here before I take anything they say seriously again. I will know if they are just hype reviewers or actually gamers. The hype for this disappointing game was the only 10/10 it deserved. I’m ~30 hours in and just SO DISAPPOINTED.    … Expand
  20. Wolfinthefable
    Nov 6, 2018
    7
    This game is really overrated.
    The amazing environment is the only thing that really stands out if you ask me. Controls are bad and every interaction looks slow and clumsy. The menus are outdated. Missions lack variety: most of them consist of several tedious minutes of horse riding and some trivial gunfight... without the rides each mission would probably lasts 5 minutes or less. Game    This game is really overrated.
    The amazing environment is the only thing that really stands out if you ask me. Controls are bad and every interaction looks slow and clumsy. The menus are outdated. Missions lack variety: most of them consist of several tedious minutes of horse riding and some trivial gunfight... without the rides each mission would probably lasts 5 minutes or less. Game progression/difficulty WANTED.
    The plot becomes interesting halfway through while in the first chapters you have that "nothing important happened today" feeling. The second part of the story and the dialogues are nice.
    The soundtrack is ok, moving sometimes but only good as a whole.
    Details as growing hair, dirty clothes and other stuff like that are cool but Rockstar should have spend more time improving gameplay mechanics and controls.    … Expand
  21. GrumpyReviewer
    Nov 2, 2018
    6
    Before you start throwing rocks, please just hear me out.

    I am not saying this is a bad, mediocre game. It is not. It has that "Rockstar seal of quality" all over the place. The graphics are gorgeous, the setting is beautiful, the atmosphere feels real, the characters talk and behave as real people. All these elements combined really help create a true western story. Now. To the    Before you start throwing rocks, please just hear me out.

    I am not saying this is a bad, mediocre game. It is not. It has that "Rockstar seal of quality" all over the place. The graphics are gorgeous, the setting is beautiful, the atmosphere feels real, the characters talk and behave as real people. All these elements combined really help create a true western story.

    Now. To the actual game part. That's the main issue for me. The controls are clunky AF, the pacing is slow and most of the time you feel bored while you travel the place looking for something to do. The character walks as fast as snail when he is not in the wilderness, and most of the time I feel as if I am playing for a couple of hours without getting much done. Then I do a quest or two, get bored and stop playing it.

    But the main problem in my opinion are the controls... they seem outdated, weird, almost broken sometimes. Everything about the game feels bureaucratic and slow. You never quite know exactly what you are doing most of the time because everything is so poorly explained.

    At this point, I am playing it to see how this story ends and because RDR 1 is one of my favorite games. This 2nd game seems to be all smoke and mirrors, all hype and not much else. I actually cannot believe this is how I feel about this game.

    But the truth is that, for me, playing Red Dead Redemption 2 has been a chore.    … Expand
  22. thehoneyman
    Oct 31, 2018
    7
    Beautiful graphics, excellent voice acting, lots to do.

    Terrible gameplay. I've wasted too much time in this game riding a horse. 60 hours of gameplay is nothing when 75% of it will be on the back of a horse tapping x and steering.
  23. Kirkkh1
    Nov 1, 2018
    5
    A clunky slow 90's sim masquerading as a Western game from 2018. Rockstar must have spent a fortune on reviewer swag.
  24. colinsmall34
    Nov 3, 2018
    7
    Fair review of RDR2

    I'm almost 15% finished the game overall, which might be a little premature to review, but I just don't know if I can be bothered finishing the game, in all honesty. The things that are bothering me about this game are things that are fundamental to the gameplay anyway, and won't change no matter how much longer I play it. How to sum up RDR2: It's really not that    Fair review of RDR2

    I'm almost 15% finished the game overall, which might be a little premature to review, but I just don't know if I can be bothered finishing the game, in all honesty. The things that are bothering me about this game are things that are fundamental to the gameplay anyway, and won't change no matter how much longer I play it.

    How to sum up RDR2: It's really not that much fun to play, sadly. Considering I paid a fair sum for it, and am a big RDR, and was waiting ages in anticipation of this game's release, then I ask myself why my PS4 is switched off and I'd rather surf the net instead? I should be glued to the game during any free hours that are available, chomping at the bit to get back from work to get back into the fray , but instead I'm kind of sighing like ok, I'll give it another shot, it's going to get better. The game feels like it's had a lot of love invested in it, but it's unbalanced love, focused too much on unnecessary details and a plethora of tedious tasks/chores and not enough on fun gameplay. You can still communicate an artistic and meticulously-crafted experience, but the game still has to be fun!

    Obviously, the users giving it 0/10 are clearly wrong, there's no way it's a 0/10, but, at the same time, the critics giving it 10/10 seem deluded? There's no way a game this flawed is a masterpiece/GOTY candidate. Absolutely no way near it. Horizon Zero Dawn was a 9/10 for me, and it was a pleasure to play. You found yourself struggling to put the controller down. Not so in this case. Regarding the critics reviews of RDR2: is there something more sinister at play...?

    Pros:
    - When out and about in the open world, the graphics are really nice, the world feels very real and alive, with weather changes, wildlife, nice scenery etc. The storms that come in look really beautiful.
    - There's clearly been an investment of time in covering details which make the towns look like real old west towns.
    - The option to kill/spare some side characters that you meet adds an element of Telltale to the game, giving you the impression you're making your own story to some extent.

    Cons:
    - The control system really saps the fun out of the gameplay. It's convoluted, confusing, and very difficult to use, especially during the times when you need to retrieve items fast from your inventory, or switch guns. What were Rockstar thinking, in making the control system this way??
    - The movements of Arthur Morgan are clunky and don't feel smooth. He's either sauntering at a snail's pace or running full out. No in between. The playable cut scenes restrict you in many ways, but its' not always clear you're in one. It's frustrating. Gun fighting, running from cover to cover is awkward and doesn't flow well. Fist fighting is mostly just mashing one button and requires very little skill. It's not fun. It's certainly no Batman Arkham.
    - It's too much hassle to commit any crimes. I defended myself against an O'Driscoll, beat him up, then the law was called on me. It wasn't clear what the sheriff wanted me to do? It seemed like he was telling me to 'go on, git' (as in get out of here) but when I tried to run he started shooting. I then had to fight off a neverending spawn of deputies and run in my clunky run/swim style for about 15 minutes. The bounty system means its much. much more convenient to just pay off your bounties than continue to be an outlaw, as your crimes never go away.
    - The graphics of close up faces aren't anything special for PS4. Detroit Become Human set the bar on graphics and RDR2 is nowhere even close.
    - There are just too many tasks/chores to remember! Brush your horse, feed your horse, shave your face, clean your guns, earn money for the camp, hunt food for the camp, wear the right warm/light clothing, take this tonic, eat this food, and so on and so on. The tasks/chores actually do feel like chores, and I want to play a video game, not do chores.

    My advice would be if you are a RDR fan and want to give it a shot (no pun intended) then wait until the price goes down, and maybe during that time the game will be patched a bit.

    Hopefully Rockstar will read some fan reviews and take note for their next endeavour, as if RDR3 continues along this path, I won't be buying it.    … Expand
  25. AlaPhenom
    Oct 29, 2018
    6
    The game is easily 60 hours:

    *10 hours of actual engaging gameplay *10 hours cut scenes *15 hours horse simulator with repeatedly pressing X over and over again *25 hours of chores: so much chores in this games for the sake of realism: cooking, eating, camping, picking your weapons, wearing clothes proper to the temperature, searching closet, taking item, looting, mounting the horse,    The game is easily 60 hours:

    *10 hours of actual engaging gameplay
    *10 hours cut scenes
    *15 hours horse simulator with repeatedly pressing X over and over again
    *25 hours of chores: so much chores in this games for the sake of realism: cooking, eating, camping, picking your weapons, wearing clothes proper to the temperature, searching closet, taking item, looting, mounting the horse, dismounting the horse and even 200 other chores actions that each one one of them has an animation that lasts for a few seconds, it is easily maybe half your time in this game is waiting for the fuking animation of every single action action you do to end so you can do the next one.

    The reality in game should have a limit, I don't pick the controller and start a game to do the same stupid chores I do or can do in real life, to explain how bad realism in video game can be, imagine if Red Dead Redemption 3 in 2026 makes you go to hospital if you got shot in the leg and cuts you from the action and story of the game to take a medicine and sleep and do recovering exercises, wasting half an hour of your time in a healing process simulation before coming back to the story of the game!!! WTF you will say, well; I think RDR3 will definitely do something like that.    … Expand
  26. Linx_13
    Nov 7, 2018
    7
    Clumsy controls, buggy gameplay and questionable mechanics keep Rockstar’s prequel to the excellent western Red Dead Redemption far from being a perfect game, but its characters and story still make up for a memorable experience.
  27. shaman7207
    Oct 29, 2018
    5
    Я поражен, как Рокстар умудрились потратить 8 лет на Sims в декорациях Дикого Запада. С реализмом они явно переборщили. Играть ппц скучно, все медленно, куча ненужных элементов, какой-то нафиг не сдавшийся гринд. Это точно игра от Рокстар, а не очередной выживастик?Я поражен, как Рокстар умудрились потратить 8 лет на Sims в декорациях Дикого Запада. С реализмом они явно переборщили. Играть ппц скучно, все медленно, куча ненужных элементов, какой-то нафиг не сдавшийся гринд. Это точно игра от Рокстар, а не очередной выживастик?
  28. dannygards
    Nov 9, 2018
    7
    Overall its what I expected. A huge cash cow of a world for there online services... with a medicore single player game thrown in it.

    Pros - great world, quirky characters.

    Cons - basic gameplay, sluggish movement, inventory system awful, rpg elements worthless, lack of weapons, ultimately I found it boring.
  29. Polarcrest
    Oct 27, 2018
    6
    Honest Review:

    *It's a good game for sure but it's not great. There is nothing new here. *The stories are actually interesting but the gameplay within them isn't. The guns aren't special, the aiming system isn't special, it's in fact very stiff and hard to control. You have to rely on auto aim. *The graphics are amazing. Once again, nothing special though. I have seen good    Honest Review:

    *It's a good game for sure but it's not great. There is nothing new here.

    *The stories are actually interesting but the gameplay within them isn't. The guns aren't special, the aiming system isn't special, it's in fact very stiff and hard to control. You have to rely on auto aim.

    *The graphics are amazing. Once again, nothing special though. I have seen good graphics plenty before. Sure the physics are amazing but I don't get enjoyment from seeing my footprint in mud.

    *The map is very large and that is not a good thing. You will spend most of your time riding around on your horse. You will ride for 10-15 minutes to do a mission that takes maybe 2 minutes to then ride back for 10-15 minutes.

    *The controls are bad. They are very bad. They are stiff and clunky. Just trying to loot a body can be such a chore. When you are in your camp...it is beyond frustrating how slow you move. It actually makes more sense to mount your horse...go outside of camp, ride at full speed to the other side of the camp then just walking across it. You can say "Well that is for realism. You wouldn't run everywhere in real life." You are correct, but this isn't real life. It's a video game.

    So in conclusion: This isn't a 10/10. It's not a 0/10. People with either of those ratings are just silly. This game is somewhere between a 6 and a 7 out of 10. Once again, it's not a bad game. No where near it. But this also isn't anything grand. I'd like to say I will do everything there is to do in the game but I highly doubt it. I have played for about 10 hours so far and I am forcing it at this point.    … Expand
  30. MetaMind
    Oct 31, 2018
    5
    DULL, DULL... is Arthur... he is a dullard... noting interesting about him whatsoever... well into Chapter 2 and NOTHING memorable has happened other then excessive horseback riding and accidental shooting of folks because the "interact with folks" button is the SAME BUTTON as shoot... what-the-heck??? Very, very disappointed. I was killed, failed a mission, returned to camp, and MY TENTDULL, DULL... is Arthur... he is a dullard... noting interesting about him whatsoever... well into Chapter 2 and NOTHING memorable has happened other then excessive horseback riding and accidental shooting of folks because the "interact with folks" button is the SAME BUTTON as shoot... what-the-heck??? Very, very disappointed. I was killed, failed a mission, returned to camp, and MY TENT WAS GONE... what-the-heck? and what a miserable way to get access to the map... some menus you'll need to back out with 4-5 button pushes just to return to the game... ugh!... and can I PLEASE skip the overlong skinning scenes... I simply don't want to hunt because I know it just slows down the slow tempo even more. there doesn't seem to be a way to brake my horse, which results in me running over or past folks... went from a 6 to a 5. absolutely nothing wow.
    ==========
    BORING... I played about 8 hours (after the initial 2 hour mostly QuickTime session) and found nothing interesting or compelling. You end of at a camp and stroll around looking for something to do. Go into town, have a little scuffle, go to the stores where you don't have nearly enough money to buy anything useful, go back to camp, stroll around. Doesn't come close to Horizon Zero Dawn, God of War, and even Shadow of the Tomb Raider in terms of intriguing. Not looking for crazy action, just something that engages me to want to play... will try for a little longer to see if something interesting happens that is more than just running errands.    … Expand
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Awards & Rankings

1
#1 Best PS4 Game of 2018
2
#2 Most Discussed PS4 Game of 2018
2
#2 Most Shared PS4 Game of 2018

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
97

Universal acclaim - based on 99 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 98 out of 99
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 99
  3. Negative: 0 out of 99
  1. CD-Action
    Nov 14, 2019
    95
    It’s an huge, outstanding piece of art – worth the hard-earned cash as well as countless hours that are needed to get to know at least some of the attractions of Rockstar’s rendition of Wild West. For those who put story first – the biggest virtue of Red Dead Redemption 2 is that it sets the stage for RDR 1 and does it wonderfully. [13/2018, p.40]
  2. LEVEL (Czech Republic)
    Dec 31, 2018
    100
    Amazing not only for Western lovers. No other game has probably offered so many options to express yourself in the open world, and at the same time did not have such an interesting, rough and moving story. A magnificent experience, with a slightly slower start. [Issue#291]
  3. TrueGaming
    Nov 30, 2018
    95
    The first new game from Rockstar for this generation of consoles doesn't disappoint, it is as impressive as you hoped it to be.
    Read full review
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