The O'Driscoll Gang, Leviticus Cornwall, Agent Milton, and Angelo Bronte are supposed to be some of the antagonists in the game, but they are used very sparsely and certainly not enough to leave an impression. I could also write a whole essay on why Micah is a terrible character that adds nothing to the story, but all I will say for now is that the conflict is most interesting between Arthur and Dutch. Micah seemingly only exists to remind players that Dutch is bad actually, damaging the existing subtleties of his character. In general, Micah being as cartoonishly evil as he is makes for a strange addition to the cast of (mostly) well-rounded, nuanced characters in Dutch's gang.
The other issue I have with the story is how the gameplay feels at odds with the story that is being told. This is a game about redemption, yet even by early Chapter 6, Arthur is still going along with Dutch's kooky plans, getting tons of people killed for dubious reasons. It was kind of funny that Arthur was portrayed as having a righteous anger towards Strauss in booting him from the group during chapter 6, as if usury was a substantially worse sin than Arthur's murders. I don't have a problem with excessive amounts of violence and death in "grounded" stories like this, nor am I one to whine about ludonarrative dissonance. But in this game, it feels like Arthur's character progression is antithetical to the cookie cutter shooting galleries that serve as the core gameplay until the game's very end. Even though the reasons for that violence change from aggression to defending himself and his community, some sequences, like the killing of Leviticus Cornwall, still rubbed me the wrong way.
Whatever the reasons, I know I can't be the only one who feels this way about RDR2's initial acclaim versus the post-release perception. Red Dead Redemption 2 did not go on to be the unanimous game of the year after all. God of War was not my personal GOTY that year either, but I think it being picked over RDR2 highlights just how quickly public perception changed in only a few months.
I don't want to end this post on a negative note, so I will say that RDR2 is an achievement in many other areas. As mentioned before, the performances are incredible. On a technical level, this is the most impressive game I've played in my life. Despite being a game for the 8th generation of consoles, I don't anticipate games with this level of detail and fidelity to be normalized for a while.
So what do you think of Red Dead Redemption 2 these days, Era? I'd be interested in hearing what others have to say, especially if you do love RDR2 the way it was initially reviewed.
