Isaiah: Hello everyone, and welcome to my podcast for Talon Marks. (Hand sounds) My name is Isaiah Lonvelin, I am one of the staff writers for the college, and what I am going to talk about is my favorite video game of all time which are the two Red Dead Redemption games. The games been out awhile but if you never played them and want to, Warning spoilers ahead.

Isaiah: I have played these two games since they came out, and I do not think I will ever enjoy another game like I did like this for a long while. Unless they make Red Dead Redemption 3.

Isaiah: Either way… when Rockstar came out with the first game of RDR it was a hit, and I think that the reason it was a hit is because of the storyline. I mena Rockstar has always come with a great storyline for their games, but something about this was different.

Isaiah: If you never played this game, you play a character by the name of John Marston, who ran with a gang called ‘Van Der Linde Gang’ but left to pursue a better life with his family. (Breathes) But eventually the law finds you and you are told by a villain of the game ‘agent Ross’ that you need to kill your former remaining gang members in order to live free again, but if not then you will be killed.

Isaiah– So like I said for the game you have to find three of your former gang members Bill Williamson, Javier Escuella, and leader Dutch Van Der Linde.

Isaiah– Sounds simple right, but Rockstar made this.. this game a free roam game where you choose to do anything you want, and have NPCs and other characters take you on adventures and have you do favors for their service to help you catch them.

Isaiah– Also with this game the scenery is just beautiful for the time they made it, and could say the graphics still hold up to this day. Along with having side missions that you enjoyed and were not boring,,,, well instead of ranch work. You get saved in the first half of the game by a character Bonnie MacFarlane, and you do ranching stuff to repay your debt which is extremely boring.

Isaiah– But when you’re going along in the game it feels like you are actually John Marston, hopefully you get what I mean, but you feel for the character. He tries to leave the gang life he was born into to just be with his family, but the gang life can’t leave him. You are hoping he can just be back with his family, and are trying to help the guy.

Isaiah– He eventually get the two members Javier and Bill and you choose whether to kill or capture them. But through the story you hear John talk about his life with the gang, and how it was more of a family and how their leader Dutch was a father figure to all, but soon turned mad and lost his mind and decided to go rogue.

Isaiah– You eventually catch up with Dutch, and again great writing from Rockstar as even though you see him a only a couple times, the amount John talks about him, and stories for the NPCs you see Dutch as that leader and see how much of a influencer he was, but you capture him and Dutch has this monulage which is great but he jumps off the cliff and dies. You done your mission.

Isaiah– Rockstar puts in music for their games and sound effects that fit so well with the game. When you ride with your horse music plays when going on a mission or anything and it makes you feel like you are in a movie. When you get Dutch, you ride back to go to your family again.

Isaiah– The song that plays is fitting in the moment, and you just become overwhelmed because you’ve been playing to get to getting back to John family, and going through the adventure that it just fits. The song called ‘Compass’ and it fits really well.

Isaiah– In the end Agent Ross breaks his promise and goes to John ranch to kill him, and you are trying to fight them off to save your family, and in the end John sacrifices himself to allow his family to escape.

Isaiah– The story is sad in a way because you did all that work just to be betrayed by the law, but you play his son Jack Marston in getting revenge and the game end killing Agent Ross in a duel. But that game was fun to play not only for the gameplay but for the storyline, the music, different characters, and gameplay with the movement and old western guns used. It was again a fun game to play.

Isaiah– Then Fast forward to 2018 and Rockstar presents us the prequel story of Red Dead Redemption. Where we go back to the days of the Van Der Linde gang, and play a new character Arthur Morgan. The right hand man to Dutch.

Isaiah– The way this game was developed is a chef’s kiss. The whole scenery is taken into a bigger world than you were in the first game, and that world was already big enough. You have animals hunting other animals, NPC’s by the 100 doing different things and having different dialects.

Isaiah– Rockstar improved this game by a lot, even giving players more weapons and having the ability to customize your weapons, customize your clothing style, and hunting animals to craft clothes and other stuff like having carpets for campsite and trophies.

Isaiah– But the game is the prequel giving the origins of the gang and introduce to new characters other than the ones we know in the first game. Arthur Morgan is who we play, and this character in my opinion was written very well.

Isaiah– Arthur is kind of like a anti-hero. He is a good guy, but can be the bad guy in a instant and someone you do not want to mess around with, and honestly can say I liked playing him more than John Marston.

Isaiah– But playing this game is alot of fun, and you can tell why it took them eight years to make with all the small details to scenes like fire, and snow melting, to shadows, and when day turns to night.

Isaiah-But again what sold me was the story being told, on how this gang who really wasn’t a gang but a family trying to live the american dream, but to live that they need to rob and steal in order to survive. They have a leader who we all know and is promising to get them there.

Isaiah– Going on missions and side quests is different from other games as it’s not boring traveling from one side to the other, and is like you can be robbed or have to help someone being kidnapped, helping a pedestrian, or even seeing someone getting robbed of their horse.

Isaiah– You get to see all the translation from the gang being this tight group to later having a falling out, and through this game your grow close with the characters to just end up like a bad breakup.

Isaiah-You see the good side of the gang members but when progressing to the story you see characters becoming more aggressive, and wanting to follow in the footsteps of Dutch going crazy for power.

Isaiah– Playing Arthur he is a mysterious man, but playing the game more you figure out who is, how he grew up, and why he is the way he is. He grew up like John, and in the game Arthur gets diagnosed with Tuberculosis and doesn’t have long to live.

Isaiah– He tries to make amends with all the people he wronged, and in the end when the gang splits up he helps John and his family get out because he believes he could still do something good in his life. He sacrifices himself for John and in the end dies fighting one of the protagonist Micha.

Isaiah– This game is the best I have played, and its something that a lot of people can play even if you’re not that into video games. It’s like that show you never want to end but has too.

Isaiah-The way the production team made this game like you’ve known the characters for so long is just insane because you actually feel for these videogame characters. People love these characters like their actors but in reality it’s a videogame with voice actors.

Isaiah: I wish that I could have this game erased in my memory so I can play it again for the first time because after finishing both it was a like finishing a show you been watching forever.

Isaiah-These two titles are the best games in my opinion, I know their are plenty out their but this is my opinion.

Isaiah– If you’re still listening, thank you for letting me rant to you guys about this game, this is Isaiah Lonvelin from Talon Marks. Have a good day and hopefully till next time bye.