There is so much beauty in Red Dead Redemption 2, it’s easy to take some of the more amazing sequences and scenes for granted. One segment that takes place early in the game involves a pack of blood-thirsty wolves.
Attacking animals always draw a rise out of me in video games, and the last time I was this spooked by a virtual attack by animals was in the original Resident Evil. There is a scene in that game where two infected dogs jump through a window.
That was a little scarier than seeing the first three wolves amble down the snowy mountain in RDR 2.
As a matter of fact, there is something beautiful about the animals–at least until they began to attack you. At that point, things get very ugly. Tangling with and killing the wolves is all a part of a rescue mission early on in the story (no spoilers), but it is the first memorable battle you have with nature in RDR 2. The size and lifelike movements of the furry beasts put you on pause. The sounds they make as you fire self-defense shots is startling. The sight of the wolves lying in the knee-high snow is just one of the breathtakingly raw images I’ve come across in my first few hours with the game.
As visually appealing as the mountains, snow and water are, the wildlife that you interact with is perhaps the most impressive. There are more than 200 species in the game, and of course, there is a wide array of horses.
While my colleague Dave Thier is already decided on the game, as you can read for yourself by taking in his detailed review, I’m still deciding how I feel about the entire game.
As I power my way through this massive virtual world, expect to see more observations.
