Red Dead Redemption 2, or RDR2 as we’ll be calling it, is a visual masterpiece released in late 2018. It begins in 1899, 12 years before the events of RDR1 would occur.

You control Arthur Morgan, a seasoned bandit and outlaw who lives for the cause. You and the rest of your gang are on the run and need money, that gang being the Van der Linde gang run by their charismatic leader Dutch Van der Linde. You are tasked to go around and get money for your gang and deal with problems with any means necessary.

First things first — gameplay. The gameplay of RDR2 is just absolutely filled to the brim with side content and I’m not talking about the “follow this person for 10 minutes” or “collect this thing” side content that companies like ubisoft are famous for having in their games. RDR2’s side content is all unique and almost personal in a way.

You’ll come across many strangers with stranger missions that will task you with various things like finding dinosaur fossils, interviewing famous outlaws, and teaching a widow some survival skills so she can make it on her own. Simply comparing RDR2’s gameplay to other known open world games would be like comparing a nice seasoned prime wagyu to an unseasoned well done flank steak.

RDR2’s main storyline is developed so well, throwing you in the middle of being in the gang without having too much information, somewhat making that a part of the story to outline Dutch’s mysterious nature. If you like fishing, hunting, or treasure hunting this game is 100% for you as it has some of the most detailed yet simplistic game mechanics for those activities.

There are all of the regular animals that you can kill and skin them for money or use them in crafting, and there are also legendary animals used to craft special clothing items along with making a good amount of cash for finding it. RDR2 is an emotional roller coaster. Following these characters around, having full blown conversations with them, and doing small monotonous tasks to help them or out of necessity causes an attachment I’ve never felt in any game before.

RDR2 is in short a story driven masterpiece, and in my eyes is a 10/10 in every way.