The GOTY, GOTG, and GOAT turns 3 years old

[daltontigerboy]

 

 

Red Dead Redemption 2, the latest masterpiece title from Rockstar Games, turns 3 years old today.

 

By my count, that's 7 universally acclaimed masterpiece titles from the company to date, a resume unmatched by any other single development studio in the industry - and while the Rockstar of late has some question marks hovering over them in regards to management departures, lack of output, and just overall complacency these last few years since this game released - nobody can deny the legendary 17 year run they had from 2001-2018. There’s simply no other company in the industry that’s come close to them when you consider the quality, cultural impact, industry influence, and boundaries that Rockstar pushed in the medium during that window, starting with GTA III.

 

This is not a post to jerk off Rockstar, nobody is more displeased with them in the last 3 years than myself - however I am here to give credit where it's due. And frankly, they deserve a lot of credit not only for this game, but also the prior masterpieces that shaped Rockstar into who they eventually became in order to make a game like RDR2 possible.

 

Rockstar has set the benchmark for what's possible in interactive entertainment for a very long time - and RDR2, in my opinion at least, is one of the shining examples of that. This game is still unmatched in so many ways, a full 3 years on from release. Hell, GTAIV is still unmatched in a lot of those same ways. To personify them, Rockstar is that individual who doesn't use social media. They've never looked at what anyone else was doing or compared themselves to others. They are a quiet company who marches to the beat of their own drum and doesn't walk alongside the footsteps of mediocrity or whatever is meta within the industry.

 

There are no towers in Rockstar games - no difficulty settings, skill trees, ePiC bOsS fiGhTs, procedurally generated terrain, or maps cluttered with icons to go and mindlessly collect. They aren't trying to compete with the rest of the industry, only themselves. They repeatedly try to out-do the previous benchmark, the one that they themselves set, and thus far they've been very successful with this approach.

 

Red Dead Redemption 2 was showered with impossibly high universal praise when it released 3 years ago in 2018 - and in the modern age of divisiveness, political correctness, and whininess in journalism - this feat might be more impressive than the identical, yet equally deserved praise earned by their previous titles. This was no easy task, even for the best and most prestigious developer in the world, who's reputation is constantly at higher stake and under more scrutiny with each new release. The insanity of being this high at the top for this long goes over the heads of many, I think.

 

Most might not realize it, but this is a niche game backed by a half-billion dollar budget - that under normal circumstances, would only be granted to a surefire hit like GTAV - but GTAV, this game is not.  This was an incredibly risky game to make. It doesn't have the mainstream appeal of GTA, no cars, no cities, no jets or planes.  This game is all about the world, the detail, and the sheer level of fidelity and interactivity within it - and it isn’t for everyone. A lot of people, especially in this day and age of distractions and instant gratification simply do not give a rats ass about sitting down at the fire with a tin cup of coffee, listening to the rustle of the trees, and admiring the view. That is the essence of RDR2.

 

That all said, this game is well on its way to being a top 10 sold video game of all time, which only makes Rockstar's accomplishment here that much more impressive given the nature of this game as I described above. This game wasn't supposed to be nearly as successful as it is, and it shows that players still care about the bliss of simply existing in a believable world with a great story and interesting characters.

 

Happy anniversary RDR2. You're still the best, even 3 years later. And credit to Rockstar for making the games no one else can. The industry still hasn’t even caught up to GTAIV.

Edited October 26, 2021 by daltontigerboy

[subvod]

 

[Sean800]

Best story mode, even better than GTA IV's in my opinion. Sadly R* doesn't give a damn about it now... but it's still a masterpiece.

[MaddenedGhost]

I remember playing this for the first time 3 years ago, I couldn't believe my eyes, I think it is the best game I have ever played, I wish I could experience it again for the first time.

[Buddy Hightower]

 

Edited October 28, 2021 by Buddy Hightower

[jje1000]

Still wish they did at least some DLC for single-player. 

There are more stories worth telling in this world, IMO.

[Nutduster]

Will echo others' disappointment with lack of any DLC at all. I've just recently started another playthrough though, and intend to get lost in it for months again. An amazing game that didn't deserve to be abandoned for the online mode.

[Jabalous]

It's the game that exceeded my expectations the most, especially in terms of graphics and sound design. It's a once-in-a-decade experience, unfortunately ( I wish can get more similar games in terms of pacing and production values). Its success will pave the way for a successor/sequel, but that one is definitely many, many years away from announcement let alone release.

[daltontigerboy]

I see and understand the comments about a lack of story DLC.

 

A few points on that.

 

The only 2 Rockstar games to receive major story DLC were GTAIV and RDR1. 
In the case of GTAIV, those 2 Episodes were planned and developed alongside GTAIV the whole time, 3 stories that were interwoven and intersected with each other throughout their campaigns.

 

Peter Moore even alluded to the Episodes during the GTAIV announcement at Microsoft’s E3 2006 press conference, which was nearly 2 full years prior to GTAIV’s release.

 

 

The point being, that these days expansions were planned & developed in conjunction with GTAIV - not after - so they were always going to come out. Many games during that era were developed this way. The Last of Us: Left Behind is another example of this. 

 

The other point I wanted to make about this topic in relation to RDR2 is that, when we think about the length of a game like RDR2, it’s pretty difficult to imagine Rockstar feeling that it was necessary to create additional story content for a game that is 60-80 hours long on average.

 

One could very much make an argument that chapters 1-6 could pass as a complete video game, and the 2 epilogues could have been a pretty sizable story DLC sold later in 2019, titled “Red Dead Redemption 2: The Story of Jim Milton”.

 

We all know that the epilogue of RDR2 bridges the gap between it and RDR1, and I can totally see how it could have been held back as a DLC, just like one of the GTAIV Episodes.

 

GTAIV and RDR1 were the exceptions, not the rule - and to me, it just seems that some people are still holding onto that and expecting something as if there’s some major precedent set for it, which there isn’t.

 

Rockstar’s open world games are much, much longer than most other single player games in terms of authored content, yet a small sliver of the player base continues to expect more - as if the base game isn’t enough - and like I said, I think it all stems back to what Rockstar did with IV and RDR1.

 

If those 2 games never received those expansions - nobody, absolutely nobody - would be sitting here today wondering why we didn’t get story DLC for RDR2.

 

I love the Episodes and Undead Nightmare just as much as any of you, but I’m not going to continue holding Rockstar to that as a standard. Those were just the times we were living in.

The PS360 era was all about story DLC. Today, that is more an antiquated practice. There are a few recent outliers, like Horizon Zero Dawn: The Frozen Wilds - but for the most part, very few single player games still receive major (keyword major) story DLC in this day and age.

 

It’s just not realistic to continue expecting that especially for an 80 hour campaign that Rockstar threw everything + the kitchen sink at.

 

Edit:
And the notion that the game was “abandoned for Online” is ridiculous. It’s not an either/or situation. RDO was always going to be a thing. RDR2 story DLC never was.

 

And I’m not sure if some of you have noticed (likely not since many of you don’t pay any attention to RDO), but RDO is a flaming hot pile of garbage pretty much since day 1 in terms of Rockstar’s effort being put into it.

If they’ve “abandoned” anything, it’s RDO.

 

Using Online as a scapegoat for the lack of story DLC is a ridiculous and invalid argument.

 

RDR2 will be remembered for its lengthy, meticulously crafted masterpiece story mode, not the piss-soaked corpse that is Online - and this is coming from someone who’s put a lot of time into Online.

Edited November 17, 2021 by daltontigerboy

[jje1000]

5 hours ago, daltontigerboy said:

We all know that the epilogue of RDR2 bridges the gap between it and RDR1, and I can totally see how it could have been held back as a DLC, just like one of the GTAIV Episodes.

Honestly would not have minded that if the Epilogue + 1907 world could have gotten more polish as a result.

I think it could have been interesting if we got three epilogue DLCs based on what happened to John, Sadie, and Charles.

 

Of course, the issue is that it does leave the post-game a bit unresolved until the DLCs were released, but I could have seen some 1899-1900 Marston post-game being possible.

 

Edited November 16, 2021 by jje1000