Video Game Theory Red Dead Redemption

When I tried replaying it last year, I neglected to consider - or maybe just forgot about - the impact that HBO's Westworld series has on revisiting Red Dead Redemption.

It's oddly reciprocal, since the show is so up-front with its videogame inspirations -- when the incoming guests talk matter-of-factly about the freedom of Westworld's sandbox, and the fun of playing it "straight evil."

(I recently started re-watching it; season 2 is coming up!)

Everything about Westworld's starter town of Sweetwater, from the train-ride prologue to the NPC quest-givers, is evocative of the same kind of destiny-manifesting experience that Red Dead strives to deliver.

And what's kind of amazing is ... the show does it better.

RDR, pretty early on, makes it clear that this is John Marston's story. There is some freedom in its grandiose wilderness, but the fetch-quests and bandit-hunts are ultimately just distractions from John's true path. A path which includes chatting about Ms. MacFarlane's family history, and some poorly-controlled cattle herding.

And it would be unrealistic to expect different from Red Dead Redemption 2. Character-driven campaigns are Rockstar's "thing."

But the promise of Westworld is a more Bethesda-styled sandbox, where you never know what might be waiting for you at the end of a particular trail. The world is seeded by its designers, and has its own tales to tell, but still feels personal and emergent when you stumble across an outlaw gang and talk your way into joining them.

It's hard not to look at RDR and yearn for that architected-yet-free frontier. HBO's depiction of a western open-world just makes it harder to go back to John Marston's.