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Blog entry by Iola Leppert

Red Dead Redemption 2 Forces You to Slow Down and It's For the Better

Red Dead Redemption 2 Forces You to Slow Down and It's For the Better

Let's be honest, life can be pretty boring at times. In fact, more often than not, what you do in a given week is lame. Sure, there are highlights and moments in everyone's life that you think back on frequently but most of the time, what you do in a day isn't exciting. Think about it: Xenolord Raid guide every morning you surely wake up, take a shower, go to work, eat some food, come home and go to bed.

Grand Theft Auto V is out on PS4, Xbox One, PS3, and Xbox 360, and the PC version launches in January. With that out of the way its time to head back to the old west. Rumors concerning one of 2010s best games have been circulating for a while now, and its about time Rockstar reveals Red Dead Redemption 2. We know its happening, and with all versions of Grand Theft Auto V out in the wild the time has never been more right. We may be waiting years for the game to finally hit store shelves, but better knowing now then being left in the dark.

cherry-tomatoes-tomatoes-ripe-red-food-healthy-fresh-vegetable-green-thumbnail.jpgUncharted 4, Halo 5 and The Legend of Zelda will be the poster-children for the PS4, Xbox One and Wii U throughout 2015. All three will launch in time for the Holiday, and you bet people will be trying to tear them down. PS4 lovers will attack Halo and Zelda, Xbox lovers will attack Uncharted and Zelda and Wii U lovers will attack Uncharted and Halo. Why? There’s no benefit to tearing down any of the three games. All three games are going to be amazing, and if there was any year to try and get all three consoles then 2015 is that year.

One of the spookier finds thus far has been the discovery of a woman chained inside of an outhouse. She's been disfigured and continues, with apparent difficulty, chanting off numbers in a specific order. If you'd like to see or hear her for yourself, you can head to the Braithwaite Estate. On the outer edge is the outhouse with the inmate in question. What's her story? What do the numbers lead to? Is she locked in there for good reason? Or is it simply because she's differ

In a time where open-world games are a dime a dozen, my problem with most titles in the genre is that they rarely force you to engage with the world that has been laid out. Instead, developers just use the confines of an open-world to place the structure of their game inside of, because it's the normal thing to do more often than not nowadays. Simply existing in an open-world though isn't enough when you don't feel any sort of connection to the environment that you're within. Forcing you to explore and take your time in the world allows you to get to know the area which you find yourself in. This is something that I think The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild did so perfectly last year , and it's something that I think finds success here in Red Dead Redemption 2 as well.

Red Dead Redemption 2 is a long game and there’s a lot to do in it. The main campaign alone, along with a good number of Stranger missions, took us just under fifty hours to complete, which is exponentially longer than its predecessor. That’s barely even participating in the various other activities, such as hunting, gambling, bounty hunting and more. The Stranger missions are one of the bigger draws as they are once again whacky, over-the-top scenarios that fill out the world. Arthur may not have the sarcastic, comical timing of John Marston, but he still lends to each situation with his confusion. Sadly, I never saw a damsel tied up on a railroad track that needed saving. Speaking of Stranger missions, you're also able to make choices that may affect scenes in the main story. For example, I met one woman earlier in the campaign and she appeared as a prostitute later on, which lead to a bounty immediately put on my head. Another was a surprisingly lengthy scene with a nun who I randomly bumped into once, and Arthur opened up to her. Your choices through the campaign do hold some weight as they can affect where specific people end up in the future and might even expand upon Arthur’s character more.

The same can be said for Arthur Morgan. Are there moments of intense excitement in his life such as when he's robbing a train or watching the sunset over the plains? Absolutely. But even in the life of an outlaw on the run, you still have to make small decisions about whether or not you should take a bath or shave your face.

Calling Red Dead Redemption Grand Theft Equine is a dumb joke, even by my standards, but the GTA influence is as visible as the scars on John's face. The game is played in a large open world map that spans part of Mexico and part of the western American frontier, divided into three regions that are unlocked as the story progresses. John's actions can influence his fame and honor which have an impact on how townspeople react to him. Helping innocent people fight off bandits may improve his reputation but gunning down those same innocent townsfolk will have the opposite effect. Like GTA titles there is a wanted system, where if John decides to commit crimes he can attract the attention of the law and depending on how far he wants to take it this may escalate into military involvement. John can surrender to the law men, kill them all or simply high tail it out of there until the heat dies down. The problem with the last two options is the law might give up on John but that just means they've decided to send a bounty hunter after him so they don't have to deal with him themselves.

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