Rockstar Games' Red Dead Redemption 2 was the landmark game of 2018. It set various records and gave gamers one of the most detailed open world environments that they had ever seen before. For that reason, some critics claim that it is one of the greatest video games of all time. That doesn't mean that Red Dead Redemption 2 is perfect, however.
Many critics like to point out that Red Dead Redemption 2 is an incredibly slow-paced game. They're right. Although everyone is in universal agreement that the western shoot-em-up is a technical masterpiece of a game, most would also agree that the story does crawl at times.
So why, exactly, was this installment in the Red Dead series so slow at times? There are various reasons. Although critics would say that these aspects of the game should have been removed to make the gameplay more streamlined with traditional AAA games, true fans of the franchise know that the slowness of Red Dead Redemption 2 is actually what makes it so great.
RDR2's Emphasis on Realism
The emphasis that Red Dead Redemption 2 puts on realism is one of the reasons why the game feels so slow. Every location in Red Dead Redemption 2 has to be walked or ridden to until RDR2's fast-travel is unlocked. Even then, travel at times can feel incredibly painstaking. In order to buy items at stores, players are forced to leaf through store catalogs. All of these processes, along with many others, are lavishly animated, and this is partly what makes the game feel slow. However, all of this emphasis on realism also serves to further immerse the player into the world of Red Dead Redemption 2. The longer a player spends out in the wilderness of RDR2, the more attached they become to both the character they play as and the world they inhabit.
RDR2 Is A Character Study
In addition to the detailed environment, the developers at Rockstar Games made a concerted effort to put an equal amount of detail into each of the game's characters. Every member of Dutch's gang has a unique personality and a storied history. This makes it more than worth the player's time to talk to each character in their camp between every story mission to learn more about them. Over the course of Red Dead Redemption 2's story, players will go on various missions with each of these characters. Many of those missions are optional, while many others are mandatory to complete the story. In addition to the main gang, every town within the open world has a whole slew of characters Arthur (and later John) can get to know. It can take quite some time to talk to everyone, and at times it can make the game seem slow but, in the end, it's all worth it.
Critics of Red Dead Redemption 2 are right: the game can feel slow at times. This will no doubt turn many gamers off from truly enjoying the title. However, anyone who takes the time to smell the roses in Red Dead Redemption 2 will come to know that the slowness of Rockstar's latest hit game is what makes it special.