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Rockstar goes about development with the stately confidence of the Vatican, each new game annunciated the same way a new pope is. The release of Red Dead Redemption II, currently set for October 26, is an all-consuming cultural maw with a gravitational pull so fierce it bends light. Its success seems so assured that we can surely only be setting ourselves up for disappointment. Delving into what we’ve seen so far, it’s time we all started asking the difficult questions.
What about Brexit?
Red Dead Redemption 2 features one of the most beautiful landscapes we’ve ever seen in a game. To see the crystalline blue of frontier skies shift to oily, moonlit swamps is a wonder, but what of our own riven land? What can Red Dead Redemption do to soothe the pains of Brexit? Ours is a country as indecisive as Joe Strummer, and a game this important is surely expected to have some unifying impact on Brexit Britain? If it fails in this regard, expect it to get marked down.
What about the Economy?
Those wooden border towns, with their coalmine glow, look like fairground attractions: theatres, boardwalks, saloons, and sundry shops. It looks like a bustling portrayal of the turn of the century American economy, but what about the turn of this century American economy? The effects of the 2008 financial crash can still be felt in many sectors of industry, and what can Rockstar’s juggernaut hope to accomplish with regard to responsible lending and congressional regulation. Let’s not let our critical and economic edges get dulled, people!
What about the Trains?
The prospect of those train robberies looks enticing, those bandana-clad thieves and terrific clattering wooden trains all glass and brass. They bring to mind the trundling service of East Midlands Trains, TFL, and of course the stuttering boxes of Southern Railway. If a project as long-awaited, as finely crafted and tuned as RDR2 can’t deliver any improvement to Britain’s rail infrastructure, then we should all be brave enough not to give it a free pass.
What about Climate Change?
One of the many pleasures of a well-crafted open world is a collection of ecosystems to play around with – think Far Cry, Assassin’s Creed, and Breath of the Wild. The Old West of the frontier is teeming with multifarious wildlife. Buzzards, desert-dwelling lizards, wolves, bears, and elk: all of these stand gravely threatened by climate change in reality – as do we all. We need to start expecting more from Red Dead Redemption II, and affecting change on the most important level isn’t below a publisher as influential as Rockstar. Yet there’s been nothing in the trailers to indicate anything on this front, and you would think they would be forthcoming with something like that – likely mark down.
What about Home?
Worthy of special attention in that trailer was the notion of Arthur Morgan’s camp. It looked a marvellous, roving homestead – a collection of brigands laughing, playing cards, hunting, and gathered round a campfire like a family. Personally, this reminds me of my parents’ divorce, and of the notion that my own sense of home, as it once was before I moved away to London, doesn’t exist anymore. I didn’t expect to be confronted with this in Red Dead Redemption II, and, actually, I don’t care for it.
What about the Human Condition?
The sight of Arthur Morgan slotting bullets one by one into the cylinder of what looked like a Colt Single Action Army was a joy. Seeing him unleash a volcanic broadside from both barrels of a shotgun was a shivery thrill. The announcer informs us that we haven’t even *gotten* to the Dead Eye system yet, and I feel I should keep tight rein on my horses until the next video. I can’t help but wonder though: can the gunplay in Red Dead Redemption II do anything to combat the sense of malaise and existential fear that’s dropped on me like an anvil, in my twenties?
What about Horses?
There are – in and amongst the gambling, the shooting, the carnage, and the savage natural beauty on display – moments of exquisite equine companionship in the trailer. We see horses being fed, tamed, ridden, the dust brushed from their coats. We are informed, by the wonderful voice over woman, ‘The bond with your horse is crucial and changes over time,’ and there are all manner of different breeds for us to get to know. At one point, Morgan seems to actually drift a steed as though it were a muscle car – fantastic stuff. There’s just one problem: When I was eleven, I fell off a horse and dislocated my shoulder, and the sight of these stallions galavanting all over the frontier gives me flashbacks of that fateful day. Has Rockstar thought of all the other horse-unfortunates with this aspect of Red Dead Redemption 2? For this reason, the game has sunk in my estimation.
Ultimately, Red Dead Redemption II is sure to be a fantastic game, but we mustn’t – as players and critics – let our scrutiny go soft. A game as colossal as this one requires the sharpest edge of our honesty, and these issues highlighted here should help to sober us all, as we start asking more of the medium we love.
