When I first played “Red Dead Redemption 2,” I was expecting a sort of Wild West “Grand Theft Auto.” But the world I was thrown into was much more than a game where going around on killing sprees is fun. 

Don’t get me wrong — evading the law and seeing how many kills you can get without dying is super fun. But the “Red Dead” world almost feels too real to not get lost in it. The graphics and landscapes in the game are so immersive.

When my parents saw me playing the game, they initially thought it was a movie. The graphics are so real. The game is genuinely beautiful. I sometimes walk around in the game and just admire the landscape, cities, and how the people interact. I feel like the creators of the game made a perfect 1899 America. The world feels so lived in. There are so many different cultures across the map, and the game depicts all of them so beautifully. There is just so much depth to everything on the map.

For example, the big city has extremely nice areas, and it also has slums. In the richer areas, your character is treated like a dirty low-life. In the poorer areas, people ask for money and for help. There is a city based in the Deep South, where racial prejudices are prevalent, where people of color are the only ones working in the fields. The game is so accurate to how America was during these times that it’s scary. While traveling across the map on horseback, everything feels real. The landscapes are dotted with settlements, and there’s evidence of past wars and the westward migration of civilization. There are also some of the most beautiful locations that you will ever see in a game; sprawling prairies and fields, snowy and rocky mountains, and hazardous deserts devoid of life apart from a few small towns. There are even swamps filled with crocodiles. There is something for everyone in this game.

The factor that makes the game such a pleasure to play is the protagonist, Arthur Morgan. This is the character that we are introduced to right away, and the character we make moral decisions for throughout the story. I grew so attached to this character throughout the almost 50 hours it takes to complete. When the main story finally ended, I genuinely felt sadness. It’s almost as if the game knew this and began playing a sorrowful tune that just went perfectly with how I felt. The game felt so real, and seeing a character who has problems like a real person, but tries their hardest to right all the wrongs they’ve done in the past, is super sad.

This is truly the best video game I’ve ever played, and I don’t know if I’ll ever play a game again that will make me so emotionally attached to a character and to the world. I played the game again the other day and it was just as good as I remembered it. The game comes at the standard price of $60 and has a wide range of difficulties. If you’re a casual player or a hardcore gamer, this game will fit your needs.