‘Red Dead Redemption 2’ is a smash hit

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In-game photo of “Red Dead Redemption 2”

Paul McLaughlin and Bryce Kent-Lozano

Rockstar Games’ Red Dead Redemption 2 sold $725 million in its first three days – an astounding feat. This even beats the best opening weekend in box office history: Avengers: Infinity War, which made $640 million in its respective opening weekend. This blockbuster behemoth has fans everywhere going crazy – which is well-deserved. It’s predecessor, Red Dead Redemption, came out over eight years ago and was hugely beloved so this turn out was not unexpected. To top it all off, these sales are all before the highly anticipated Red Dead Online, a massive multiplayer game mode, which is launching for all players on November 30. This mode will do nothing but help the sales continue to grow.

“There are not many other games on this scale of both the world and the things to do,” senior Matthew Becerra said. “There are limitless options in the open-world as well, you can really do anything you want to.”

The game consists of 96 main story missions, 13 side mission chains, and over 100 different random encounters. On top of that, there are 200+ different species of animals, 49 points of interest, and 267 collectibles, among many other things to enjoy spread across the entirety of the map. This puts hours of diverse content on the table, with you being in total charge of choosing what you want to do. Would you like to progress the main story? Help out some strangers in the Old West? Or maybe you want to distance yourself from society and spend your time hunting in the woods? In Red Dead Redemption 2, all of those things are possible.

“The story has to be the best part. The depth that the characters have is unparalleled to many other forms of media,” senior Blake Musso said. “It tells a really good story, it’s like playing through an interactive movie.”

Recurring characters such as John Marston, Dutch van der Linde, Javier Escuela, and Bill Williamson make appearances in this prequel. But Red Redemption 2’s main protagonist, Arthur Morgan, is a new sight among fans of the original. The game dives deep into Arthur’s personality and his relationships, showing him along the way as one of the most complex characters a game has ever seen. The story is truly a ride that anyone could enjoy.

“It’s really one of the greatest games of this generation,”  senior Osiris Williams said. “I can’t think of any other games like this in a long time, it’s graphically beautiful with a great theme and setting to match.”