Red Dead Redemption 2: Ranking Every Town From Worst To Best

Even though you don't get to visit Blackwater until the epilogue, it's nice to revisit the first game's "big city". The streets haven't been paved, the bank is under construction, and the new police station hasn't been built. It's nice to see it before it was completely modernized.

Much like Armadillo, Blackwater means a lot to those who played the first game. It was the first "big city" we visited in the franchise (please hold Saint Denis's beer), and in the first game, it's where the third act finally kicked into gear.

Unlike Armadillo, Blackwater doesn't suck in the second game. There's no plague, no pile of bodies, and no burning mounds of rubble. On the contrary, the capital city of West Elizabeth is on the up, with new buildings - including a modern bank and a new police station (which will also serve as the headquarters for the Bureau of Investigation) - already under construction by the time John Marston makes his home in Beecher's Hope in 1907.

The streets haven't been paved yet, so there's still an air of Wild West rawness here, and it's cool to see Blackwater before it became the obligatory "city" of the first game.