10 Things Red Dead Redemption 2 Must Learn From GTA V

3. Immersive, Memorable Side Activities

As mentioned before it's the likes of the Stranger Missions that give extra flavour to an already very well-realised world and make it truly come to life. However as well as this in GTA V we had the option to buy a whole host of extra properties, with additional missions sprouting up to make sure you took care of them. It was a build on the fantastic system featured in the PSP's Vice City Stories which saw you manage and maintain properties in a mode called 'Empire Building' (Walter White would be proud). It wasn't a fantastically well fleshed-out system as it mostly required you to re-do the San Andreas 'turf war' missions, except you were taking on a building full of goons rather than a couple of streets-worth. As we don't know who we're playing as in Red Dead it's easy to assume a protagonist could be of an entrepreneurial sort, buying up bars and converting shanties as he simultaneously unleashes the slow-motion Deadeye on any squatters who fail to cough up payment. As in the first game we mainly found ourselves either exploring for the sake of it, doing the main missions, or those of the Strangers, but a better way to up the level of immersion in the world would be to give us something of an ecosystem to build and maintain throughout.