In 2005, when Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas released on the original Xbox, I remember playing it and thinking ‘well, this is as good as games are going to get on this system’. By ‘good’, I suppose, I really meant ‘big’; San Andreas isn’t necessarily the best game on the system, but it was the…
In 2005, when Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas released on the original Xbox, I remember playing it and thinking ‘well, this is as good as games are going to get on this system’. By ‘good’, I suppose, I really meant ‘big’; San Andreas isn’t necessarily the best game on the system, but it was the first one that made me really start to think about what the next generation of systems would be like. How could they push these boundaries out further?
Years later, when Grand Theft Auto 5 miraculously loaded up onto my Xbox 360, I thought the same thing. ‘Here’s the limit of what these systems can do’, I said to myself. Again, not my favourite game on the system – honestly, it’s not even my favourite GTA on there (I will defend Grand Theft Auto 4 forever) – but it’s the game that made me question how the next generation of consoles would be able to top it.
Now, of course, the phone in my pocket can play San Andreas. GTA 5 was, predictably, eclipsed by its next-gen port, which further highlighted how extraordinary it was that Rockstar managed to get the game running so well on Xbox 360 and PS3. These games are still amazing, but no longer cutting edge.
Now Red Dead Redemption 2 – a game that I played through using a standard PS4, plugged into my aging 46 inch Sony Bravia – has once again got me thinking about the limits of the system I’ve played it on. It’s a visual stunner, of course, but its appeal goes far beyond that. When you awaken from a campfire in Red Dead Redemption and the sun is cresting on the horizon, the wind softly rustling through the trees, and you walk over to watch deer drinking from a spring, it’s engrossing. I found that I was less likely to think ‘oh, this looks good’, and more inclined to say to myself ‘oh, what a nice day this is’.
“The constant drive to go bigger and better means that technological milestones can feel fleeting, and we don’t remain amazed by anything for long”
When I left my house to do some grocery shopping after exploring a bayou in the rain in Red Dead, I was genuinely taken aback when I discovered that it was a nice day outside. There was a point in the week after the game’s release where I realised that I was now thinking most of my thoughts in Arthur’s voice. I was obsessed.
Red Dead Redemption 2 is astonishing. I’m amazed by how cohesive and reactive its world is, how compelling its stranger missions and random events can be, how around every corner there can be a new vista to marvel at, through every door a new detail to appreciate, in every conversation a piece of writing that hits the exact right note.
