INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Open worlds have been a staple of gaming for a long time, but recent titles like Breath of the Wild and Horizon: Zero Dawn have
significantly pushed the boundaries of what players expect from their environments
Rockstar, of Grand Theft Auto fame, is looking to make them all look like toys with Red Dead Redemption 2 and its wild west frontier that
looks to be not just huge, but refreshingly real.
Rockstar is certainly best known for the immensely popular GTA series; but it arguable its
most beloved game is actually 2010 Red Dead Redemption, which, though a sequel, so spectacularly transplanted the run-and-gun outlaw freedom
of GTA to the American West that gamers have been clamoring for a sequel for years.
RDR2 was teased back in late 2016, but only recently
have we seen hints of what it will actually look like
And today brings the first of a series of videos from the developer detailing the world, character and gameplay systems.
The natural beauty
of the frontier is, of course, simply amazing to see rendered in such fidelity, and Rockstar artists are to be commended
And it is realism that seems to be defining the project as a whole — which makes it a departure from other games whose creators bruit a
living, breathing open world to explore.
Take Far Cry 5, which came out last year to mixed reviews: The natural landscape of fictional Hope
County in Montana was roundly agreed to be breathtaking, but the gameplay and story were criticized as artificially and(strange
juxtaposition) monotonously intense
It clear that Far Cry 5, like other Ubisoft games, was a sandbox in which interesting but unrealistic situations were bred by the developers
— a helicopter crashing on the person you&re rescuing from bandits, and then a cougar mauling the pilot.
Horizon: Zero Dawn and Breath of
the Wild were both praised for the depth and extent of their worlds and gameplay, but they both had the significant advantage of being
A mechanical dinosaur or ancient killing machine (same thing) arrests the eye and imagination, but because one can''t really compare them to
reality, they can stay definitively unrealistic
Creating a compelling sci-fi or fantasy world has its own significant challenges, but on the whole it considerably easier than creating a
convincing replica of the real world.
RDR2seems to be attempting real realism in its game, to the extent that it possible
Take for example the fact that your items and cargo actually take up space on your horse
Your horse isn''t 20 more grid spaces of inventory — you can tie a deer you hunted on top, but then it can''t run
There are loops for two long guns but not three, and you can''t carry an arsenal yourself.
The flora and fauna are real frontier flora and
fauna; they&ll react realistically
Encounters can be approached in multiple ways, peaceful or violent
Your fabulous hide coat gets dirty when you fall in the mud
You get new things to do by getting to know people in your gang.
Many of these have been seen before in various games, but what Rockstar is
going for appears — and for now only appears — to be taking them to a new level
It will of course have the expected cartoonish violence and occasionally eye-roll-worthy dialogue of any game, but the attempt to
realistically, and at this level of fidelity, represent such a major and well-known portion of history is an undertaking of gargantuan
proportions.
Will the game be as good as the amount of work that has clearly been put into it We&ll find out later this year when it comes
