Grab a comfy saddle — ‘Red Dead Redemption 2’ campaign clocks in at 60 hours

By Steven Petite October 15, 2018

Image used with permission by copyright holder

Lengthy stories should come as no surprise to anyone who has played an open world Rockstar Games title, but Red Dead Redemption 2 will set some crazy records. In an interview with Vulture, Rockstar co-founder and head writer Dan Houser said players can expect a 60-hour campaign.

In an era when open world games typically throw everything at the player but the kitchen sink, it’s easy to feel skeptical of long runtimes. According to Houser, “superfluous” content has been removed from the story. Recently, Rockstar shaved five hours from the game by eliminating one of Arthur Morgan’s love interests. On top of that, Rockstar cut entire missions that it felt weren’t up to snuff.

Judging by some of the eye-popping stats provided in the interview, players will find and experience new things even as they get deep into the Red Dead Redemption 2 story. Rockstar brought in a staggering 1,200 actors for motion capture and voiceover sessions (700 actors have lines). Every person you come across in the game went through motion capture. All told, there are 300,000 unique animations and 500,000 lines of dialogue. Given those figures, it’s no surprise the game’s script clocked in around 2,000 pages, and that only encompasses the main campaign.

In the interview, Rockstar said it’s currently shooting motion capture sections for Red Dead Online ahead of its arrival in beta form in November. Houser also touched on the possibility for a “Red Dead Redemption 3.” Yes, we know RDR 2 hasn’t even arrived yet, but hey, it’s not far off. Houser said a third game would be possible “if this one does well enough and we think we have other interesting things to say.”

It’s been more than eight years since the first Red Dead Redemption and five years since the launch of Rockstar’s last release, Grand Theft Auto V. Basically, what we’re saying here, is that if a third game happens, don’t expect it any time soon.

Thankfully, we won’t have to wait much longer to play a new Rockstar game. Red Dead Redemption 2 launches October 26 on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. For an in-depth look at Red Dead Redemption 2, check out our complete news roundup.

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Steven is a writer from Northeast Ohio currently based in Louisiana. He writes about video games and books, and consumes…

Gaming

Dead Island 2’s Amazon Alexa voice commands are novel, but limited

Dani lights a cigarette as zombies attack her from behind in Dead Island 2 key art.

I’ve always found myself interested in new technologies that could possibly enhance how we play or experience games. Whether it’s a computing innovation like cloud gaming or new controller features like the DualSense’s Haptic Feedback and Adaptive Triggers, I love testing those things out. That’s why I jumped at the opportunity to try Alexa Game Control during my recent hands-on preview experience with Dead Island 2.
When Dambuster Studios and Deep Silver’s Dead Island 2 finally launches on April 21, it will be the first game to support Alexa Game Control. By connecting one’s Amazon account to the game, players can use the voice-recognition capabilities of Amazon’s virtual assistant Alexa to perform in-game actions like taunting zombies or equipping their best weapons. I was curious to see just how deep this went, but after some hands-on time, this first implementation of it proved to be little more than a novelty.

Hey, Alexa
Dead Island 2 players can toggle Alexa Game Control on when they first show up in Bel-Air after the game’s opening. It has a dedicated tab in the Options Menu where players can choose to enable or disable it, choose whether they want it to work automatically or with push to talk, set the voice capture threshold, and decide which microphone they wish to use.
After enabling Alexa Game Control, I immediately noticed a ring at the bottom-left corner of the screen. When I spoke, this lit up with blue and teal colors, like the top ring on an Alexa device, and text confirming whether it could do the action or not would appear. Not having to say “Hey, Alexa” also means it implemented itself into the game smoothly. At first, I tried to see if voice commands would work for basic things like walking, jumping, and dodging, to no avail. After this, I hopped to a save I had placed later in the game and opened its tutorial menu to see what Alexa Game Control could really do.
Reading its tutorials and lists of commands, the limits of Alexa Game Control became clear. It mainly provides quick shortcuts to save you a button press or two in the middle of playing. In Dead Island 2, Alexa Game Control has four main uses: setting waypoints, taunting enemies, triggering emotes, and switching weapons. The tutorial menus give a complete list of commands that work, although each wildly varies in its usefulness.
Oi, zombie!
The funniest use of this voice technology in Dead Island 2 is taunting zombies. Shouting something like “Hey, dude” or “Oi, zombie” to get the attention of enemies that hadn’t detected me always made me chuckle. It’s also occasionally useful; at one point, I got a bunch of zombies to walk into a large pool of acid and die after taunting them. While it takes the same amount of time as walking up to the zombie to get their attention, I see the potential in voice technology that lets you interact with the world like this.

Gaming

Dead Island 2: release date, trailers, gameplay, and more

soak sunshine slaughter first dead island 2 gameplay screenshot 3

Believe it or not, Dead Island 2 is not only still real, but it's actually coming out. For those who've been following the troubled trajectory this title has had, you know this is a story almost 10 years in the making. Originally revealed in 2014, Dead Island 2 has died and been resurrected no less than twice, with a new development team taking up the project each time. The average person probably assumed the game was scrapped years ago, but for those who never gave up hope, your faith has been rewarded.

Leaks did take some of the excitement out of Dead Island 2's big re-reveal during Gamescom 2022, but it couldn't stifle what looks to be a game far better than its beleaguered history would lead you to believe. Since so much has changed over the course of development, let alone with the entire gaming landscape, plenty of people may be wondering what all the excitement over this zombie game is all about. Grab yourself a blunt object and get ready to smash some zombie skulls as we run through everything we know about Dead Island 2.
Release date

Gaming

How to pre-order Dead Island 2: retailers, editions, and bonuses

Dead Island 2.

Some of us out there have been waiting on Dead Island 2 since 2014, when it was first revealed with a cinematic trailer. Little did we know at the time that the game would not only be delayed but that the original developers would leave the project. And then, the second team picking up where they left off would also be removed, and the game would finally land with its final team at Dambuster Studios. There are few games that can survive this long of a development cycle, and even fewer that can somehow still make it to market after passing hands so many times, and yet Dead Island 2 refuses to die.

With its re-reveal at Gamescom 2022, Dead Island 2 was quick to slap a solid release date of February 3, 2023, on the game to build some goodwill and trust among fans who have been waiting for close to a decade already. Not long after, pre-orders were launched, further cementing the fact that, yes, this game is actually coming out. Whether you've been waiting since 2014 or are just hearing about the franchise now, here are all the details on how to pre-order Dead Island 2 and what each edition comes with.