There's going to be a little crevice, eventually leading to a cave. In there, you'll find stone statues, seven in total. Taking another look at the cave paintings, you'll find that the statues in the painting are accompanied by eagles with varying numbers of tail feathers. The feathers correspond with fingers on the statues, the winning combination being: 2, 7, 5, 8, 3, 4, 6. Once the combination is put in, you'll be rewarded with three gold b

There is a linear story path to follow, but there are plenty of side opportunities to engage in. Each region has a few forts that need to be taken over, much like the same style as the battle at Fort Mercer. There are many characters that require assistance from John and these quests are usually entertaining. One quest involves a man with an undying love for his woman and another series of events from a quest giver involves a man who really gets under John's skin in the last quest he gives. Random events happen throughout the Open World Game Guide such as highway robberies, hangings and other random encounters with strangers, making the game world feel alive. Rockstar games are known for their sense of humor and some of their dark humor naturally crept into Red Dead Redemption. One of my favorite achievements I ever unlocked happened in this game. A few years ago my girlfriend was hanging out at my apartment and I decided to show her this game (she may have bought it for me for a birthday present but I can't remember). I thought it would be funny to lasso a girl and leave her on the train tracks, like a mustache twirling silent film villain. As the locomotive turned the damsel in distress into a much gooier state of existence, an achievement popped up on screen. It's good to know that my sociopathic tendencies aren't so unusual that the developers weren't able to anticipate my behavior.

Outside of that, Rockstar has created an engaging system that allows you to rob shops, stagecoaches and even trains full of people at any time. All you need to do is put on mask (if you don’t want to get caught) and start demanding the goods. If you do most of the story, you won’t need to do this all that often as you’ll be rolling in dough, but it’s a fun way to de-stress. The Wanted system is also back, as the more heinous of crimes you commit and people witness, the higher the bounty is put on your head. You can change your disguise or grow your hair and facial hair out to avoid being recognized, but you’ll probably want to pay it off the fee to avoid bounty hunters coming at you in the wild. Alternatively, if you catch up to a witness, you can threaten them, or if a police officer sees it taking place, you can defuse the situation if it’s not too damaging of a crime. Occasionally it can be a confusing why you’re immediately pinpointed as the perpetrator, though, as we’ve had a number of instances where we killed someone, a pedestrian comes across the body while we’re nowhere to be found, and yet a bounty is set on our character. Overall, though, the system works fine and can even be entertaining to chase witnesses down as they plead for their lives.

Red Dead Redemption 2 is a long game and there’s a lot to do in it. The main campaign alone, along with a good number of Stranger missions, took us just under fifty hours to complete, which is exponentially longer than its predecessor. That’s barely even participating in the various other activities, such as hunting, gambling, bounty hunting and more. The Stranger missions are one of the bigger draws as they are once again whacky, over-the-top scenarios that fill out the world. Arthur may not have the sarcastic, comical timing of John Marston, but he still lends to each situation with his confusion. Sadly, I never saw a damsel tied up on a railroad track that needed saving. Speaking of Stranger missions, you're also able to make choices that may affect scenes in the main story. For example, I met one woman earlier in the campaign and she appeared as a prostitute later on, which lead to a bounty immediately put on my head. Another was a surprisingly lengthy scene with a nun who I randomly bumped into once, and Arthur opened up to her. Your choices through the campaign do hold some weight as they can affect where specific people end up in the future and might even expand upon Arthur’s character more.

Until Rockstar reveals more, though, I will keep being nervous over just what Red Dead Redemption 2 is. A lot of rumors are floating around that it’s a prequel. If it is, they could knock it out of the park, I just don’t want them relying on The Magnificent Seven to do it. Give us an American classic, something steeped in our own mythos, while keeping it fresh. Running and gunning is fun in games, but you can get that anywhere ( GTAV /any shooter ever). Let’s see a western tale more in truth with reality than Hollywood. There are so many other stories out there that get overlooked. If it is a prequel, the fall of John Marston's gang could be done with style. How cool would it be to build up a bandit posse only to have it all ripped away (or in Marstons case, walking away)? Usually in games where the player must form a crew ( Mafia III /GTAV), it’s to set out on some serious mayhem and succeed. To have a game where the player forms their crew only to have it taken away would be the ultimate middle finger to that style of storytelling in gaming. Especially coming from Rockstar. Not only would it flip the script, but it would show Rockstar can even go against their own grain, while not borrowing from Hollywood.