15 Best Open-World Video Games Of The Decade

7. Red Dead Redemption

Though there had been a couple of Western games before Rockstar tried their hand at one, each one felt like a trial run for Red Dead Redemption to properly realise the genre in video game form. It wasn't simply a love letter to the Wild West, it was a vital addition to the canon: a stunning, gripping gunslinger tale told with the same finesse and attention to detail you'd expect from the makers of Grand Theft Auto.

That heritage is perhaps why it's such a special game though. This could have very easily become 'GTA with horses', but while the developers transferred over elements from their other series, Red Dead was a major step forward, and marked a shift from the player-driven anarchy of the studio's previous titles to the authored role-playing that would define the series going forward.

The storytelling was a mature step up as well, defined primarily by restraint and the desire to let the characters breathe in this gorgeous representation of the dying west.