Rockstar's 2018 prequel is about a gang that has already lost and refuses to say so. Arthur Morgan rides for Dutch van der Linde in 1899, the frontier is closing, and the campaign is a slow accounting of what that costs, told across a map that runs from swamp to snowline. Its defining quality is friction: horses have to be bonded with, weapons degrade and need oiling, animals are skinned in real time, and Arthur eats, shaves and gets muddy. Some players find that unbearable and some find it the whole point. The systemic detail is the deepest Rockstar has built - NPCs remember you, witnesses have to be dealt with, and honour tracks small decisions rather than mission outcomes. Chapter six and the epilogue are among the strongest sustained sequences in the medium, and Roger Clark's performance carries them. Red Dead Online was supported for a few years and then effectively abandoned. The single-player game is the reason it still sells.
Overall
Metacritic
“Red Dead Redemption 2 is a landmark achievement in interactive storytelling, delivering a world so rich and a narrative so powerful that it redefines what open-world games can be.”
