Rockstar Games never ceases to amaze its loyal player base. Whether it be the Grand Theft Auto series or Red Dead Redemption, Rockstar always finds a way to include new features that most players are not expecting.

Like its prestigious predecessor, Red Dead 2 is set in the wild west era on the frontier. It is a visually beautiful game using the landscape and the stereotypical outlines of its characters to help emphasize the grim and wild life people of that time lived in.

Individually, each character is just about tolerable in terms of archetype, but the central characters are cardboard caricatures who do exactly what you’d expect. Its difficult to find a character that has not been done better. You have a stereotypical long-face, racist antagonist and a host of generic minor characters. Take Leopold Strauss for example, he is a sinister money lender brought together by a distinct German accent.

Because of the explosive success of Fortnite and PUBG, Rockstar has added a Battle Royale game mode like so many other games in recent years. However, unlike the more fast paced madness of Call of Duty’s Blackout mode, Red Dead offers a slower more tense search for players and action. Overshadowing this great game mode is the stress to just survive in the multiplayer mode. Whether it be stealthy opponents using bows to the boldest opposition using a double barrel, there are many ways that you can die.

Although the main appeal of Red Dead is the single-player story mode, Red Dead online hopes to diversify its already diverse game, which features sneaky hunters in a bush, revolvers, shotguns and an impressive amount of melee weapons too numerous to count, like clubs or knives.

One of the coolest features is the ability to lasso an NPC (Non-player character) or tie a player to a horse and drag them across the wide open western plains. As it is a free roam environment, there is so much room for creativity and plenty of side activities to accomplish.

Red Dead 2 takes place in a time not widely explored in a realistic sense by big name game developers, and it sets the stage possibly for other companies to do the same and expand on that idea. It is a pleasant experience and if Rockstar can churn out more games like this, I’d be happy to play them.