Rockstar Red Dead Redemption 2

Last updated date: January 13, 2020

DWYM Score

9.7

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Overall Take

In our analysis of 28 expert reviews, the Rockstar Rockstar Red Dead Redemption 2 placed 1st when we looked at the top 2 products in the category. For the full ranking, see below.

Editor's Note June 26, 2019:
Checkout The Best Action Game for a detailed review of all the top action games.

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Expert Summarized Score

9.8

9 expert reviews

User Summarized Score

9.4

4,891 user reviews

Our Favorite Video Reviews

What experts liked

The ability of this game to keep itself fresh after so many hours is extraordinary, and not entirely due to just the size and diversity of the world; it’s how alive all of those places feel.

- IGN Southeast Asia

October 25, 2018 | Full review

A positive, meta side effect of Dutch’s strategic messiness is how failure makes for memorable and unpredictable missions. In previous Rockstar games, a series of missions anticipated a big heist. In Red Dead Redemption 2, a conversation at camp can be interrupted as Arthur is given a gun and a mask and a plan with little notice and less foresight.

- Polygon

October 26, 2018 | Full review

Story-wise, this is perhaps the boldest triple-A game ever made. Arthur’s tale undergoes the least predictable, most ambitious twists you could ever imagine.

- Games Radar

| Full review

It's a stunning return to the Wild West for the developer, and proves once more that it is just as capable outside the world of modern-day crime and supercar capers.

- Pocket-lint

February 15, 2019 | Full review

There’s a clear devotion on display, both to a type of storytelling that doesn’t cut corners and a style that puts the player into the role of a morally conflicted outlaw.

- Game Rant

| Full review

Its world is a collage of capsule versions of real American landscapes: the crisp cold of the mountains; mesa-studded plains that offer views for miles; foggy, humid mornings in the bayou in the fictional Southern state of Lemoyne.

- The Guardian

| Full review

Technically astonishing audio-visual production

- Kotaku

October 25, 2018 | Full review

The story has incredible weight as a prequel with the anticipation that comes from knowing how it all ends

- GameSpot

| Full review

Red Dead Redemption 2 is among the most ambitious open-world games ever produced, packing an extraordinary amount of content into an equally enormous world.

- CNET

October 25, 2018 | Full review

What experts didn't like

About my only major logistical gripe is that the weapons I was previously carrying are regularly swapped out for others. Oftentimes it’s clearly mission-related to ensure you go into a task with a scoped rifle or bow when required, which is fine. More irksome are the times I end up with mismatching pistols for dual wielding, with the game trading out my preference.

- IGN Southeast Asia

October 25, 2018 | Full review

The trouble with presenting a fully interactive world is that, when the internal logic fails, the unrealistic reaction is all the more jarring.

- Polygon

October 26, 2018 | Full review

If there is a deficiency for Red Dead Redemption 2 mechanically, it’s the gunplay. Once again Rockstar has relied on its lock-on-based cover shooting with an option to go into first person outside of cutscenes. The lock on makes the gunplay serviceable but is hardly an ideal situation. Turning the lock-on off, however, feels even more clunky.

- Games Radar

| Full review

Its pace can feel very slow for those reared on action-centric titles

- Pocket-lint

February 15, 2019 | Full review

Its story has weight but it is paced in such a way that the focus isn’t always on the central plot.

- Game Rant

| Full review

Fudgy controls and animation-based interactions can be frustrating

- Kotaku

October 25, 2018 | Full review

Elements of semi-realism take you out of the experience rather than draw you into it

- GameSpot

| Full review

Cowboy life is slow and sometimes Red Dead 2 can drag, especially early on. Infrequent graphical bugs and glitches can pop up.

- CNET

October 25, 2018 | Full review

From The Manufacturer

With the gameplay of Red Dead Redemption 2 as its foundation, Red Dead Online transforms the vast and deeply detailed landscapes, cities, towns and habitats of Red Dead Redemption 2 into a new, living online world ready to be shared by multiple players. Create and customize your character, tailor your abilities to suit your play style and head out into a new frontier full of things to experience. What is Remote Play? Remote Play enables you to stream and play PlayStation 4 games directly from your PS4 to a Windows PC or Mac computer. Local multiplayer is not available using two DS4 controllers on PC/Mac, but you can play local multiplayer if one person is playing on PC while another plays on the linked PS4. If your PC or Mac has a built in microphone or supports the mic on your headset, remote play can send the signal to your PS4 so you can join in with voice chat. Switch the mic on or mute it by clicking the onscreen mic icon.