Red Dead Redemption 2 Is About The Death Of Rockstar

I'm not talking about the multi-million dollar selling, refined product of a GTA that is part five, but the messy, punk rock, garage band feel of the originals.

I hazard to say that the response to that question - when taken through the lens of its ageing creators who've put these days behind them - is "No". GTA V is every bit the GTA of old in terms of base features and overblown car chases, but it lacks the rougher energy of that original run.

It almost feels like Dan Houser and the team made a purposeful decision to "get the franchise back on track" after the divisively received GTA IV, and that came with the realisation that Grand Theft Auto does have limits as a creative outlet.

Enter Red Dead Redemption 2 - a game Dan Houser was lead writer on - and you have the swansong of a veteran writer for gaming's most notorious studio putting all his thoughts on the page.

2018's game is a huge, weighty, painful extrapolation on the death of lawlessness; of those who made their living dancing between moralities and exploring wanton nihilism. Arthur Morgan's journey is one of maturity and in many ways spiritualism, as he writes in his journal about a new world of regulations being bizarre and off-putting.

As America changed its ways to incorporate judicial systems and a clearer cut notion of "right and wrong", so to has the gaming industry moved away from the likes of Carmageddon, State of Emergency, Postal or Manhunt.

Red Dead 2 is one last hurrah for the cowboys, the rule-breakers and those who play Rockstar games to rack up wanted levels and cause chaos. Pre-tuberculosis Arthur Morgan routinely beats people up for money, robs trains or throws a few punches down the local saloon before ending the night three towns over with a killer hangover.

He's the embodiment of reckless youthful abandon in a world that doesn't provide any penalty, and in many ways, it's the last time we'll see that old school Rockstar spirit made playable.

Cont.