Red Dead Redemption 2 review – gripping western is a near miracle

PlayStation 4, Xbox One; Rockstar Games
Total immersion in an astonishingly lifelike world - whether you're outgunning rivals or skinning animals - makes this outlaw adventure a landmark game

Anybody coming to Red Dead Redemption 2 expecting Grand Theft Auto with horses will be rather baffled by this slow-paced, sumptuous, character-driven Old West historical drama, in which you spend probably 60% of your time simply riding around the American wilderness. There's action too, in the form of shootouts, train robberies and frequent thrilling escapes on horseback, but these flashes of excitement punctuate a game that is largely about just being somewhere; about hunting, fishing and having long conversations on cross-country rides or around a campfire. In a mad fit of indulgence, Rockstar Games - the creators of Grand Theft Auto and one of the most successful game developers in the world - appears to have spent seven years and hundreds of millions creating the video game equivalent of Deadwood.

This is a story - a collection of stories, really - about the decline of a way of life, as a small gang of outlaws tries ever harder to outrun the inexorable advance of American modernity, as well as the enemies and lawmen they have antagonised along the way. The player's character, Arthur Morgan, is one of a small central cast assembled around gang leader Dutch Van der Linde, a classic western outlaw who fancies himself as a freedom fighter rather than a base criminal. The game takes in encounters with con men, warring Southern estates, rival gangs and a vivid array of incidental characters shaping turn-of-the-century America, touching upon race and women's suffrage, but keeping the overarching narrative focused on the Van der Linde band and the relationships within it.