It’s finally happened, friends! The big boys up at Rockstar Games have dropped a hot gameplay trailer for Red Dead Redemption 2 on the world’s collective laps and said, “Hey, here’s a hot gameplay trailer for Red Dead Redemption 2”. Made up entirely of in-game footage and chockers with new info and beautiful visuals, the trailer is obviously making waves on the internet. Given that I’ve had time to watch through it about a million times now, I decided I’d slap together a little gallery of some of my favourite moments, and why they’re making me all kinds of hyped to enter Rockstar’s vision of the wild, wild west once again.
Peep the full trailer here and then see if you agree with me on the highlights below:
All We Had To Do Was Follow The Damn Train!
Rockstar’s open-world games tend to have a pretty recognisable formula, and successful concepts from one game will usually make their way into the next. Something that people loved in Grand Theft Auto V was the heists. Long, multi-faceted missions where players had some degree of control in setting up and executing elaborate robberies. I fully expect something similar to appear in Red Dead Redemption 2 (although I could easily be wrong) and this small snippet from the new trailer seems to support that theory, at least as much as we’ll probably be able to rob trains. Imagine though, if the train robbery was just one small part of a grand scheme involving banks, shootouts, maybe tying the odd hostage to a track, all orchestrated by the player. You know where else that would be fun? Online.
Historical(ish) Figures
Excuse me for bringing up another open-world video game franchise for a moment, but one of my favourite things about the Assassin’s Creed games and their historical settings is the chance to meet and interact with prominent figures from times long past. For some reason, it never dawned on me to expect that here as well, but who do we spot in this new trailer? Why, it’s a guy that looks eerily similar to one Nikola Tesla! The slightly different facial hair would perhaps indicate that Rockstar are continuing their tradition of presenting real-world people and places as parodied versions of themselves, so this guy’s name will probably be something like Nikolaj Vespa. Eagle-eyed fans have spotted what looks like famous photographer Carleton Watkins in the footage, too.
Camp Rock(star)
Base camps look to play a big role in Red Dead Redemption 2, acting not only as a hub and a safe haven but as a consistent indicator of your progress in the game. It’s hard to gauge the ins and outs without more information, but no doubt the more you progress in the game and the more resources and allies you accrue, the bigger and more useful your camp and its inhabitants will be. The world in the game looks absolutely massive, so at the end of the day it’s just nice to know I’ll have somewhere to call home at… the end of the day.
We’ll Be Riding On The Horses, Yeah
Horses! Everyone knows a good video game needs good horse companions, and where would a Wild West sim be without them? Bit bloody stupid, it’d be. Thankfully, Rockstar have remembered to put horses in the game, and they’ve even gone four hoof-ed steps further and made horseplay an important factor in just about everything. Not just a means of transportation, your horse will act as personal storage for your loot and dead animals/live hostages. Plus there are different breeds with their own quirks and you’ll have to break them in, Breath of the Wild-style. Also, you can brush them! Yeehaw!
Howdy, Partner!
I don’t know about the rest of you but this was probably my favourite part of the trailer. Red Dead Redemption 2 features contextual prompts when near to or interacting with NPCs in the world that dictate how you respond to them and whether it’s hostile or friendly. It’s really refreshing to see a game that’s predominantly a shooter offer the opportunity to interact with other humans in ways that don’t involve shooting them. Honestly, I’m just really excited about waving a friendly “hello!” to everyone I pass by on horseback. (=ﾟωﾟ)ﾉ
Red Dead Redemption 2 releases worldwide on October 26th, 2018 for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One
Kieron's been gaming ever since he could first speak the words "Blast Processing" and hasn't lost his love for platformers and JRPGs since. A connoisseur of avant-garde indie experiences and underground cult classics, Kieron is a devout worshipper at the churches of Double Fine and Annapurna Interactive, to drop just a couple of names.
