Ways Red Dead Redemption 2 Perfected the Wild West Genre
Gunsmoke and Shootouts
An epic shootout is part and parcel of any self-respecting western, and Red Dead Redemption 2 certainly doesn’t disappoint in that regard. Each and every encounter in Red Dead Redemption 2 feels like a classic western shootout, thanks to the extreme attention to detail Rockstar has poured into every inch of it. Smoke trails waft up from pistols and rifles after they’re fired, and bullets make dull thuds as they hit wood and a sharp twang as they ricochet off metal or stone.
There’s a great amount of care put into the audio design during combat and the sounds guns make when they fire feel like they’re directly ripped from an old spaghetti western. Just for comparison’s sake, take a listen to the gun sounds in this scene from a Fistful of Dollars, and compare that to an early shootout from the game. Even though Red Dead Redemption 2 might not have the tightest shooting out there, every encounter feels like a pitched scene from a western, helping add to the immersion even more.
