With the increasing improvement of hardware performance and the rapid development of development technology since the beginning of this century, the graphics, gameplay, and immersion of video games have made great progress, and video games have gradually begun to become the "ninth art" that can be on a par with art forms such as literature, and movies.
However, many players should have a feeling that today's game works can be called "art", in fact, there are still relatively few games, and most games pay more attention to the gameplay and entertainment of the work; Of course, this is not a bad thing, playing games is for entertainment and relaxation.
But there will always be people who are curious, and they all say that games are the ninth art, so is there a game work that can really be called "art"?
If you have thought about this problem, then Lao Mo is here to tell you for sure - there is!
That is Rockstar Games' 2018 game Red Dead Redemption 2, which has received high reviews and excellent reputation since its release, and has been called one of the best "open world games" by many players.
Red Dead Redemption 2 is a 2018 game that is in its sixth year of release, but its graphics are still outdated to this day, and even its graphics can amaze many players.
The picture is the first impression of the game to the player, many times even if the game is played well, the picture is worse will also cause a bad experience for the player, and the picture quality of "Red Dead Redemption 2" is definitely the top in today's games.
Of course, if you only talk about picture quality, then there is no need to say that art is not art. One of the things that Red Dead Redemption 2 can call "art" the most is that its game characters are so well portrayed!
Many people talk about the excellent portrayal of the characters in "Red Dead Redemption 2", and they like to talk about the tragic story ending of the protagonist Arthur Morgan, or the stories of some other characters.
However, as a highly interactive art form such as video games, whether the characters in the game are portrayed well enough, in addition to having a good story, is more important to test whether the game manufacturer can show these excellent stories well.
As a stand-alone game, the immersion and immersion of the game are designed by every game manufacturer, and each step requires a lot of design for character setting, plot performance, and plot promotion, so that players can devote themselves to those excellent stories.
Of course, the game industry has been developing for so many years, and most of today's games have done a very good job of immersion and immersion. But even so, I still have to say that there are really few people who can make the immersion and immersion of the game as good as "Red Dead Redemption 2".
When developing Red Dead Redemption 2, R Star should have borrowed some excellent designs from its golden signature "Give Him Love 5", that is, to make an "open world game" that is not so open.
Nowadays, there are more and more "open world games", and they are becoming more and more popular, and many game manufacturers make games that give players a great degree of freedom, and players can also do other things at the same time after receiving a task, such as taking on several tasks at the same time, and doing some exploratory side quests at the same time, with almost no restrictions.
This is also the most basic difference between "open world games" and "linear world games", such an open design is of course beneficial, players can choose freely, players who like the plot can enjoy the plot, and players who like to enjoy exploration games can freely explore the game.
However, with the increasing number of "open world games", some manufacturers have begun to follow the assembly line and template production mode when developing games, and the template is to give players a bunch of exploration points covered with maps in addition to the main line of the game, so that players can explore by themselves, which can be called "open world games". And players who always play this kind of template-style "open world game" will gradually become aesthetically fatigued, and they will also be distracted by those exploration points when they are carrying out the main story.
And R star is different, R star began to do semi-linear, semi-open design in "Give Her Love 5", and in "Red Dead Redemption 2" is extremely good, after you pick up a task in the game and start, R star forces players to follow the task process, and if you don't follow the process, the task will fail, and you have to start the task again.
Players who like to play "open world games" may think that this sounds too open-ended, so what's the point of linear games?
If you happen to have this concern, then don't worry, although R Star will force you to follow the mission process, R Star will provide you with superb background**, plot performance camera movement and amazing details in the process, providing you with a strong sense of immersion and substitution, so that you can truly experience what is the "ninth art" in the mission process.
Interested players can take a look at some of the actual or live events of Red Dead Redemption 2, and you will find that the plot performance and background of Red Dead Redemption 2 are almost cinematic, or even cooler than the movie, because you can manipulate the characters to participate in it.
And the most commendable thing is the meticulous and almost terrifying details in Red Dead Redemption 2, especially some seemingly dispensable details, such as the snow on the snow character will slowly melt indoors, the blood stains of the prey will stick to the character's horse when hunting, the fog exhaled by the character in cold weather, the real muscle lines when the horse is moving, and so on.
The existence of these details does not affect the plot and gameplay of the game, and even many people will not notice it very much, and R Star will not emphasize in the game to let players discover these details, it is naturally designed there, and when you suddenly discover these details yourself, there will be a unique surprise, and then you can't help but marvel at the quality of R Star's production. And these are all in order to give players the ultimate sense of immersion and substitution.
After talking about the semi-linear main line of "Red Dead Redemption 2", for players who really like "open world games", R Star has also made a good balance.
The missions in Red Dead Redemption 2 are indeed linear after they start, and can only be followed by a process. However, its quest is phased, and at the end of the stage quest, the player can choose to take on the next stage of the quest, or explore the map without the quest, or pick it up again after a while, or retain the openness of the "open world game".
Although this sounds like nothing, isn't it just to enter the linear game mode after starting the mission, in fact, the essence is still an "open world game", but it is not easy to make an excellent "open world".
In terms of the design of side quests and exploration missions, R Star does not simply cover the map to let players know what tasks are there, but through clever trigger conditions, players will naturally trigger when they wander around the map.
For example, if you walk to the side of the road and meet a passer-by NPC who has been bitten by a snake and asks you for help, you can choose to save him with or without medicine when you talk to him, but R Star does not tell you what the difference will be if you save him or not, if you don't save him with medicine, then you just met a tragic passerby NPC, and you may not have any reward for saving him with medicine, it may be that you save him with a good heart and it will be over. The first time you play, you may not be able to tell if this is a side quest or a simple NPC interaction.
Of course, this is just a very simple example, there are countless exploration missions and side quests in "Red Dead Redemption 2", although there are many but they are all cleverly designed, and sometimes they are associated with the main story, which is an expansion of the main story, so that you can better immerse yourself in this huge and detailed game world in the subsequent games.
Do you want to say that Red Dead Redemption 2 has any special cross-era technology and concepts in the game? No, in fact, some of the techniques and concepts of Red Dead Redemption 2 are available in most games, but R Star has been carefully developed and polished enough to make these elements present in the most appropriate and acceptable way.
And Red Dead Redemption 2, a game made with such care, is absolutely worthy of its name as a model of the "ninth art".