Red Dead Redemption 2 is shaping up to be a greatest hits of gameplay ideas for Rockstar Games. For years now the studio has crafted large, engrossing worlds and ensured the characters you meet and the things you do within them leave a lasting impression. Whether that's the doing missions for the many weirdos in the Grand Theft Auto games, the school-is-cruel vibe of Bully, or the fever dream mayhem of Max Payne 3, each of its games delivers something memorable.
In our brief hands-ons with Red Dead Redemption 2 we noticed these ideas were cogs in the larger mechanical machine powering Rockstar's sequel, which provided the perfect opportunity to delve into the studio's history.
In the first episode of Quickdraw, GameSpot's new weekly series dedicated to Red Dead Redemption 2, we take a look at some of Rockstar's biggest games up until this point, analysing the key gameplay ideas, mechanics, and systems that they introduced, and the world-building techniques used, and exploring how they contribute to Red Dead Redemption 2.
Once you're done watching the video, you can see us discuss our experience with the game in our Red Dead Redemption 2 preview and reflect on the strange encounters we had while playing it. We also learned more about how Red Dead Redemption 2's health and Core systems work.
Red Dead Redemption 2 launches on October 26, 2018 for PS4 and Xbox One. Pre-orders are available now at a number of in-store and online retailers, and there's some extra content tied to specific platforms. You can find out about all that in this Red Dead Redemption 2 pre-order guide and see the timed exclusive DLC here.