I have a problem with the GTA games, and I can pin it entirely on one emblematic aspect of GTA 5: Trevor Phillips. It's nothing to do with the performance of Trevor, well-performed by Steven Ogg, it's more that Rockstar took what players do in GTA-games and made it central to his character. He's a one-man wrecking crew focused on destruction and violence at all costs, unable to approach things in any other way. Unhinged, sexually violent, and just a drag to be around. I hate playing as Trevor, because it just feels dull – too much of anything becomes tedious, even GTA's wanton violence.
At the other end of this two-dimensional see-saw is Jimmy. Jimmy, Michael's son, is a little shit. He's a stupid, loud-mouthed moronic Gamer of the worst stripe. We've all known a Jimmy. The problem with Jimmy isn't these negative qualities. It's that he is used as a representation of people who play games. Rockstar holds up a funhouse mirror in front of us, as a collective, and says "see, this is who you people are!". But I'm not, am I, Rockstar? I'm just sitting here waiting for you to continue telling the story.
Redeemed
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These characters are so one-note and flat that it was with a certain sense of doubt that I went into Red Dead Redemption 2. I needn't have worried, it turns out. Red Dead Redemption 2 is, as far as I'm concerned, one of the very best stories in video games, and one of the best westerns ever made. It wouldn't be any of these without Arthur Morgan, the ying to Trevor Phillips' yang.
Where Trevor is an idiotic boob, a kind of gestalt entity of the worst aspects of GTA, Arthur represents the best aspects of not only Rockstar games', but all games writing. The fact that there are two Arthur Morgans in play depending on your choices, one far more good-hearted than the other but both fantastically written and performed, is a real testament to the game. When I think of Arthur, I don't and can't liken him to simple caricatures of the western genre. He isn't a bigot like John Wayne, nor is he a copy of The Man With No Name. He is simply Arthur Morgan, a concatenation of his own life experiences, which we gradually learn about through Red Dead 2's story.
Comparing Red Dead Redemption 2's world to other videogame westerns is almost laughable. Think about what we had prior to this: Gun and Call of Juarez, mostly. The first Red Dead Redemption is a great game in its own right, but one that still has a bit of that corny Rockstar writing where characters are one-dimensional oddballs with no redeeming features – notably in the shape of Seth Briars, a dirty graverobbing weirdo.
"I straight up do not want to spend 100 hours or more ambling around a Florida that feels like a Universal Studios ride"
The supporting characters in Red Dead Redemption 2 are almost as vital to my feelings on the game itself as Arthur. If Arthur were transplanted into a GTA game, he just wouldn't work as a character. It'd be like dropping him into Idiocracy. Instead, the supporting cast are all as deeply nuanced as he is. Consider how Dutch hides his narcissistic nature behind his anarchist philosophy, Hosea's genuine warmth that plays into his skills as a conman, how Sadie is forced to become a monster purely due to the stacked plate of misery the world hands her.
Compare this to the main trio of GTA 5, whose characters and motivations can be summed up in cliches. Michael is back for one last job, Franklin wants to get out of the hood, Trevor is a meth-addled businessman ripped straight from a Breaking Bad bit.
Red Dead Redemption 2 is as much a character piece about Arthur as it is a prequel to the original game, and it is all the richer for it, while still being fun, often genuinely funny, and a superb example of this medium that we love so dearly.
With the news that GTA 6 is set to be both enormous and enormously expensive, I can but hope that Rockstar is able to give us a story that is more than gangster cliches wrapped around satire. I straight up do not want to spend 100 hours or more ambling around a Florida that feels like a Universal Studios ride. I want characters who have more dimensions, more resonance, and that feel original. It's a lot to ask, but Rockstar has proven that it is capable. I just hope that Red Dead Redemption 2 was more than a flash in the pan.
