Author
John Wills

Red Dead Redemption 2, a new video game about an outlaw gang on the American frontier in 1899, has been met with huge adoration. Journalists have lauded it as a “landmark” title, a “technological masterpiece”, even a “watershed moment” in entertainment. Much of the praise has focused on how developer Rockstar Games has coded a “living” game world that oozes character and aesthetic richness.

However, now that the digital dust has started to settle, that same world has come in for criticism. Gamers have dubbed the title “boring” and “slow,” with their enjoyment of the game noticeably impeded by “clunky controls” and the lack of easy “fast travel” between destinations. Matt Reynolds for Wired recently complained how Red Dead Redemption 2 ultimately “feels like a chore.” The ability to kill a life-like female suffragette in the game also courted controversy, with YouTube first banning then restricting the gratuitous footage.