Rockstarhas cemented itself as a giant in the game developing world, with games likeGrand Theft Auto(GTA)andRed Dead Redemption(RDR) giving the team a reputation of grand open worlds, rich stories, and innovation.
Easily,GTAis their most popular franchise – but that being said, that doesn’t mean it’s their best work. On the contrary,Red Dead Redemptionis far superior by a landslide.
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While both games do an amazing job at depictingdistinct eras of Americana, when comparing the two games on their own,RDRends up taking home the crown from essentially every single angle.
That’s not to sayGTAis bad, quite the opposite, but it definitely isn’t Rockstar’s magnum opus. Of course, ifGTAis your preferred franchise, more power to you – but there’s something (several things, as a matter of fact) aboutRDRthat just can’t be beat.
10The Combat is More Fun
Forget Cars, Rob a Train!
When you load up anyGTAgame, players already know what kind of gameplay they’re going to get themselves into – stealing cars, killing civilians, driving around like a maniac until you get the full five stars, and avoiding law enforcement, whatever that results in.
However, robbery inRDRis much more fun andeconomically rewarding, with multiple different targets to steal from: everyday people, coaches, banks, andbest of all, trains.
The combat is fast-paced and a pure adrenaline rush, rather than the guilty pleasure thatGTAtends to emit. Not to mention, you have to actually put thought into your theft, trying to avoid being spotted and becoming wanted in the area.
InGTA,you can literally just hide from the police enough until the stars go away, clearing players of their wanted status as if nothing happened at all. I don’t know about you, but real-life cops definitely wouldn’t just let that go – especially if players were on a rampage.
Meanwhile, you have to actually be quick and careful in theRDRgames because even if you escape, you’re still wanted, reflective of the reality of what the situation would be.
9The Details and Graphics are Unreal
GTA6 Has to Live Up to a Standard
While graphics tend to be something that never really mattered to me (I grew up withfixed camera anglesurvival horror games of thePS1era), it does matter to a lot of other gamers.
After all, it’s natural to like pretty things, so if a game tends to be prettier and look better, there’s no shame in appreciating the eye candy.
The graphics in theGTAgames aren’t bad, but the amount of detail that’s in theRDRgames is larger than the whole map.
After all these years,players are still finding new, undiscovered detailsthat make the world so much more realistic – something that’s not as easily common withGTA.
Needless to say,Grand Theft Auto VIhas an insane standard to live up to, but we won’t find out until we end up revisitingVice Citywhen the game is released.
8The Music is Simply Better
Plus an Incredible Usage of Leitmotifs
When I started playingRed Dead Redemption 2for the first time, I actually had a hard time getting into it – however, when it came time to rob the bank in Valentine, with one of the most creative uses of a leitmotif as a flashback, that immediately changed.
The soundtrack is absolutely inspired, with the first game being incredibly moody and stylish, matching the Old West vibe that it was definitely going for.
The prequel, however, just completely envelops you intoArthur Morgan’sinner thoughts in the dying Wild West – and it’s spectacular.
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It has such a unique sound thatGTAcannot compare to, asGTA’ssoundtrack is supposed to be reflective of music that we hear every day.
It’ll even incorporate actual songs from our radios into the digital ones, but it’s nothing new. There’s nothing genuinely unique about the music.
Listen, you may not care about a video game’s soundtrack, but it’s crucial for me, andRDRjust knocks it out of the park.
I’m not the only one who thinks so, either, since The Game Awards in 2018 made it adamantly clear how excellent the music and sound ofRDR2is.
And More Memorable Side Quests
TheUndead NightmareDLC was way better than it had any right to be, a genuine surprise to players that, tragically, we’ve never had another since. It’s like Rockstar saw how beloved it was and said, “perfect, now blacklist it.”
Undead Nightmarefollows a simple premise: take theRDRgame, setting and characters and all, and suddenly drop a zombie apocalypse on them. It’s absolutely indulgent, but it ended up surprisingly working magnificently.
Unfortunately,GTAtechnically doesn’t have any DLCs, much less any that are essentially fanfiction at its best. That is if you’re not including theGrand Theft Auto Onlineupdates, which are called DLCs, but there’s nothing for the games themselves.
Everything regardingRDRwas so strikingly memorable, especially with this DLC and the sidequests to uplift the story. It’s not to say thatGTAdoesn’t have any good side quests – but many players tend to be hit with someunfortunate flashbacks about Flying Rats.
6The Voice Acting Isn’t Corny
There’s Weight in Every Line
I know the voice acting inGrand Theft Auto: San Andreasisn’t meant to be taken the most seriously, but it’s genuinely impossible to even have moments of sincerity – and, unfortunately, that carries over for the entire series.
Sure, listening to these characters talk sounds identical to conversations I’ve overheard before, but most of it is so exaggerated it ends up crossing the realistic line. In the end, it just ends up sounding corny.
Now, compare that to the absolutely harrowing performances you’ll see inRDR2,it’s an absolute no-brainer why Roger Clark won Best Performance at The Game Awards. Every single line in the script is deliberate, and delivered to perfection.
It’s incredibly easy to take the voice acting seriously in theRDRfranchise, and with the constant quality line delivery, players will do more than take it seriously – they’ll become fully invested.
Gaming’s Most Creative (and Cinematic) Mechanic
It’s hard to make a unique mechanic in a video game, especially with how many ideas have been made in the past. So, when thinking about the Wild West, how can you introduce a mechanic that immerses players into the genre?
The answer is painfully simple:Dead Eye.
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Dead Eye allows players to feel like a cowboy in all the best ways, replicating the old-fashioned duels that Clint Eastwood would squint through. It slows time, illustrating how fast of a shot John and Arthur actually are, while allowing players to be lethal in their aim.
When thinking about unique mechanics in video games, I can’t think of a more perfect example; simply put, Dead Eye alone is automatically a point inRed Dead’sfavor.
4It’s Far More Immersive
Nailing Historical Fiction Right on the Head
Historical fictionisn’t everyone’s cup of tea, and that’s fine – but it’s one of my many cups, and the amount of care and accuracy that was put intoRDRis insane. When combined with a rich open world, players end up far more immersed than they would in aGTAgame.
Not to mention, Rockstar goes above and beyond with the UX/UI, with everything being in theme with the time period. About the only thing that wasn’t the most accurate was the women’s outfits of the time period – but let’s be real, we aren’t playingRDRbecause of the outfits.
This ends up creating a world that’s not just immersive, but consuming, enveloping players in what life was like in such a tumultuous time period for America. It’s one thing to learn about it in school, but it’s another to experience it.
When players have to remind themselves that the story wasn’t based on true events and is, in fact, completely fictional, that’s when you know you have an impeccable level of immersion in your game.
3The World is Open and Alive
Go Literally Anywhere
When you compare the worlds inGTAandRDR,the difference is outright staggering, since the world ofRed Deadis so much more alive – and explorable.
InRed Dead Redemption,literally every single building you see is explorable. There are no static doors, nothing that prevents John from his travels in any capacity. You see a building, you can enter it, simple as that.
That’s a level of openness that many pureopen worldgames don’t even do. Especially when you consider the limitations of thePlayStation 3, a world this open (and relatively glitch-free) is just plain impressive.
On a funny note, I want to put the developer behind this open concept in a room with the developer behindall the locked doorsinSilent Hill 2,just to see what chaos unfolds from there.
2The Characters are Likeable and Fleshed Out
They’re Real, Not Charicatures
One of my biggest complaints aboutGrand Theft Auto Vwas the characters and how they were handled in-game – sure,have insane charactersand key quirks/traits, but the characters in GTA areonlyquirks.
They don’t end up feeling like real people at the end of the day, becoming caricatures of their traits.
While the firstRDRgame is a bit more guilty of exaggeration, the characters are still wholly developed, feeling like a living being rather than someone fictional. InRDR2,however, the characters are simplyreal.
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That’s what makes the fallout of theVan Der Lindegang all the more heartbreaking, because you end up becoming so attached to these characters, each death is a heavier tear-jerker. It’s tragic in every sense of the word.
Again, not to say that the characters inGTAare bad (I think Trevor is hilarious), they just don’t hold a candle to the characters in theRDRgames.
1The Story Remains Far Superior
Some of the Most Emotional Depth in Gaming
There is no beating around the bush here:Red Dead Redemption 2winning Best Narrative at The Game Awards was unfair to all other candidates, becauseRDR2was honestly the only proper option.
Their stories weren’t terrible, the lineup was absolutely solid, but there’s no way that any of the narratives were as rich and investing asRDR2.
Compared toGTA,the emotional depth in theRDRis literally night and day, withRDRtaking home the trophy of emotional complexity.
Red Dead’sstories end up moving players in ways thatGTAcouldn’t even fathom. The range and absolute journey that we end up going through while taking in the story ends up turning you into a mess by the time it’s over. It’s just absolutely well done.
I promise you,Red Deadmay look like a silly cowboy game, but by the time the credits are rolling, you end upwishingthat that was simply the case.
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Red Dead Redemption
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The year is 1911, and the railroad is bringing civilization to the American Old West. Retired outlaw John Marston gets forced back into a life of crime to hunt down his old gang, in an open-world epic spanning both sides of the US-Mexico border.
