Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart offers a much shorter, more concentrated experience, but I’d put it as second to RDR2 in ‘most technically impressive game’ given how well it uses the power of the PS5. To not celebrate what Red Dead Redemption 2 did feels insulting to this effort, but to pretend the game did not come about through crushing, unsustainable team management is to deny reality. I just don’t think anyone should be forcing their team to work 11-hour days, six or seven days a week, to ensure the grass sway is as authentic as possible. Sure, everyone at Rockstar loves their job and it’s a team effort and it’s all worth it in the end… I know the spiel. Rockstar has a notorious crunch culture, and as a result it’s difficult to celebrate these technical feats when you think of the blood, sweat, and cricked necks from sleeping under the desk that went into them. There is a rather large elephant in the room, and this elephant’s testicles shrink when it gets cold. Arthur leaves his mark on the world in a variety of ways, both subtle and obvious, but he never feels like the world’s only protagonist. In my most recent playthrough, I even fell in love with the snow. It’s not just photorealistic - it has an incredibly clean open world with few bugs or hiccups you would expect in a game this size, as well as a huge range of environments to explore. Red Dead Redemption 2 isn’t impressive because it’s so big, but because it’s so full. Even doing the same missions in a new order with Arthur at a different point in his life changes the tone. I still haven’t finished them all - I’m never going to collect those dinosaur bones, sorry - and yet every time I return to Saint Denis I’ve found something fresh. Some Strangers are impossible to miss, but others rely on chance and good timing. In my second, I happened upon them and smirked from the bushes as they set themselves on fire.
I spent a good chunk of my first playthrough trying to find the KKK to no avail. That’s because, unlike a lot of games where choice-based mechanics offer us the potential to have different playthroughs, RDR2’s world is so vibrant and bursting with stories that it’s impossible to tell it the same way twice. Yet I’ve had completely different experiences each time. While there’s a morality system, I’ve always played the game the same way: Arthur is an honorable man right up to the end. I’ve played the game three times - four if you count a current playthrough I’ll get back to eventually. Related: It's Time For Grand Theft Auto To Grow Up And Be More Like Red Dead Redemption 2The sheer scale of the game is spectacular, but unlike most big open games, Red Dead Redemption 2 never feels empty.
But when we look at what games are capable of, how they tell their stories, how they build their worlds, how they construct a tactile reality in front of us, it’s hard not to be impressed by Red Dead Redemption 2. The amount of times I’ve tried to show my partner something impressive from the worlds of sports, gaming, or the Terminally Online parts of the internet just to have her smile and nod attests to that. Even the word ‘impressive’ is subjective - what impresses you might not impress me. Of course, few facts are black and white. When I say Red Dead Redemption 2 is the most impressive game I’ve ever played, I don’t think I am being subjective. There are several games from my childhood I’m more fond of, but can anyone really compare Pokemon Blue to Red Dead Redemption 2? Most of the things we discuss in games are similarly relative, similarly subjective, similarly rooted in opinion and feeling and intangible vibes. Red Dead Redemption 2 turns three years old today, and it remains the most impressive game I’ve ever played.
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