Red Dead Redemption 2: 8 Reasons You Should Be Worried 

The hype train for Red Dead Redemption 2 is barrelling full steam ahead, ready for the game's release in the Spring 2018.

However, with anticipation high, it's easy to let seven years of buildup and some gorgeous trailer visuals blind us from being realistic about how well the game is actually shaping up. Because despite being less than six months away from release, what Rockstar has unveiled hasn't been anything Earth-shattering.

In fact, it's mostly just been more of the same Red Dead goodness that fans enjoyed seven years ago. That might not have been a bad thing had the sequel released a few years after the original, but with such a long wait between instalments, fans are expecting more than a retread of the series' greatest hits.

Unlike RDR 2, when GTA V was unveiled it came out swinging with confident trailers that got players pumped about where Rockstar was taking the series. Pitching itself as a departure from the overly-serious fourth game, V never rested on its laurels or love of the franchise to coast through - something Red Dead seems to be content on doing.

Rockstar hasn't released a dud yet, but there's no reason why Red Dead Redemption won't be its first.

Perhaps because they come with too much baggage, prequels to popular properties have a tendency to suffocate under the weight of their own narratives, unable to defy the audience's expectations without undoing or contradicting the major beats of the original.

Consequently, there's already a lot we know about how Red Dead Redemption 2 needs to play out going into the game, and Rockstar would need to rock the boat in a massive way to give players a story they won't be able to map out from the get go.

The fate of Dutch's gang is already known to fans of the original game, and so Rockstar will need to find another way to create tension going into the sequel.

They've clearly already attempted to do this by introducing a new main character called Arthur Morgan, but his conspicuous absence from the first game means he's the only one who could be put in proper peril; but then killing him off would be too obvious because he's the only expendable one in the group.