BY ISRAEL MALDONADO

Developed and published by Rockstar Games, Red Dead Redemption ll is a highly praised westernized action-adventure prequel, that was released to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on October 26, 2018. Set in 1898, this story follows the origins of a member from the Van der Linde gang, Arthur Morgan, and also touching on the original protagonist from the original game, John Marston.

Though a prequel, this latest installment in the franchise thoroughly repolishes and refines mechanics from the previous game, including the honor system, close combat, and the gunplay. Not to mention, its new additions, such as hunting, swimming, and dual-wielding weapons. Hunting allows players to collect materials, food, and income. When hunting down an animal, players need to act as if they were hunting one in person, stealthy, otherwise the prey will be alerted. If you manage to successfully hunt your prey down, you may skin, butcher, or carry the whole animal. Moreover, players are now even able to interact with any AI inside the game. In such dynamic ways, whether it’s to have a friendly chat with them, to threaten them, or to simply kill them and take their items. Your player also seems to be as realistic as can be, ranging from getting haircuts based off of real-time hair growth, may either gain or lose weight depending on how much you eat, having sets of clothes for different weather conditions, and can regularly take showers.

Moreover, Red Dead Redemption ll takes the style of a free roam game and seems to focus massively on player choice for the missions and story. In the story, the player will be given certain options to either accept or decline extra missions spanning out to 5 fictional states in the United States of America. These 5 include Ambarino, Lemoyne, New Hanover, and two returning states from the original, New Austin and West Elizabeth. Roaming these states, will be the protagonist, Arthur Morgan, a lieutenant and veteran member of the Van der Linde gang. This particular gang is led by Dutch van der Linde, hence the name. This gang’s criminals acts bring them into serious conflicts with many different opposing forces, creating many different rivals during the process.

This highly anticipated video game has been in the works for quite some time, though critics and fans can definitely say it was worth the wait. It has been rated a solid 10/10 by IGN. Not to mention, it has already won the “Critics Choice Award”, and has been nominated for “Most Wanted Game”, “Most Anticipated Game”, and “Ultimate Game of the Year.” It even has the potential to be nominated for 8 other awards, being that this has been one of the most successful video games to date, reeling in roughly seven hundred twenty-five million dollars just from its opening weekend. So what are you thinking, are you going to go skin a grizzly bear first, or an alligator.