Introduction

Red Dead Redemption 2, or RDR2, is the third entry in the feverishly popular franchise of the open-world, story-driven action-adventure series from Rockstar Games, the same people who brought us Grand Theft Auto. A prequel to the events of the original Red Dead Redemption, RDR2 has an 1899 period setting spread across locations inspired by parts of the Western, Midwestern, and Southern United States that hadn't yet seen the urbanization or industrialization of the coasts. It is at the turn of the century that Modernization swept through the continent, to the disdain of free-raging bandits and gangs.

Playable both as a third-person shooter with elements of FPS, you are Arthur Morgan, a gunslinger and lieutenant of a gang of outlaws, playing a pivotal role in the gang's survival and flourishing through missions that span across shootouts, heists, hunting, and some RPG elements involving non-playable characters. You will face threats from an oil magnate and his mercenaries, an Italian crime lord who's just moved in from the city, a local satrap, and a rival gang. The game spans across a vast open-world with dozens of main, factional. and side missions as you look to build a reputation through your acts and moral choices in the game.



Based on an advanced version of RAGE (Rockstar Advanced Game Engine, not id Software), Red Dead Redemption 2 takes advantage of Vulkan by default, although it also supports DirectX 12. Originally launched as a console exclusive, the PC version of RDR2 has added fidelity through higher-resolution textures, more geometry, and other features exclusive to PCs. In this review, we test a broad selection of contemporary graphics cards across three popular resolutions, in both the APIs.