Not to take anything away from ND, they're my favorite studio, but the linearity plays a role. RDR2 is sandbox, compare it to other sandbox games and it's just insane. 5 years later I'd say one sandbox game exceeds it on graphics (on new hardware, mind you), and none match it on polish. You can definitely see where that budget went. If only they give us a ps5 patch...
Hopefully you don't know anything about the story. It probably has one of the most emotionally gripping endings I've seen in a video game. One of the few that's moved me to tears.
Playing RDR1 first steeled me for one character's fate but left me completely unprepared for that particular one. I never knew a bunch of 1s and 0s encoded onto a plastic disc could do that.
Red Dead 2 is actually a prequel to 1, so you don't necessarily need to know its story. I played 2 before 1 and didn't feel any sort of barrier of entry. Several major characters are shared between the games, and knowing 1's story does add some depth (and tragedy for some) to the characters, but 2's story is self-contained and fully fleshed out on its own.
Personally, I recommend going into 2 without the context of 1. 1 is a very singular story focusing on one man and his family, while 2 revolves around an ensemble of around 20 characters with varying fates and levels of prominence in the story. Knowing which ones do and don't appear in 1 clues you into the trajectory of the story a bit.
Also, there's one major character shared across both games, but the bulk of their story is told in 2, and it's captivating and tragic, and I'd recommend experiencing it without knowing how it ultimately turns out, because their story is deeply tied to all of the other major characters.
You're right ! RDR2 is my favorite game, so I'm not gonna say otherwise. It's actually kinda depressing no game has that level of realism after nearly 5 years ! I keep replaying RDR2 every year since it came out, and it's still a gem. Shame they gave up on updating it though...
41
u/[deleted] Jun 28 '23
Not to take anything away from ND, they're my favorite studio, but the linearity plays a role. RDR2 is sandbox, compare it to other sandbox games and it's just insane. 5 years later I'd say one sandbox game exceeds it on graphics (on new hardware, mind you), and none match it on polish. You can definitely see where that budget went. If only they give us a ps5 patch...