Red Dead Redemption 2 fans don't want Horizon Forbidden West to get all the attention for pretty clouds

Red Dead Redemption 2 clouds
(Image credit: Rockstar / @SynthPotato)

Red Dead Redemption 2 players have started highlighting the game's clouds as the Horizon Forbidden West DLC continues to get heaps of praise over its own. 

It all started when Twitter user and Rockstar games fan SynthPotato tweeted about Horizon Forbidden West's clouds and pointed out that despite all the praise developer Guerrilla is getting - it wasn't the first game to allow players to traverse through 3D clouds. 

"'Burning Shores lets you fly through 3D clouds, So innovative! This could never be done on the PS4!!'" the tweet reads, "Rockstar games casually in RDR2 almost five years ago," it continues followed by four breathtaking shots of the clouds in Read Dead Redemption 2.  

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There's no arguing that the clouds in SynthPotato's tweet are gorgeous, and incredibly impressive considering they were developed for previous-gen consoles. If you didn't know, Horizon Forbidden West developer Guerrilla decided to develop Burning Shores for the PS5 only, despite the main game also releasing on PS4. This is because the studio wanted to add even more detail to the DLC's environments, which was only possible thanks to the technology found in the PS5.

In a follow-up tweet, SynthPotato explains: "The clouds in RDR2 are ALWAYS fully 3D rendered but RDR2 has no flight outside of one mission so you never can see them without mods." This basically means Rockstar put a lot of effort into developing its clouds but players rarely get to really appreciate them. As for Horizon, a lot of Aloy's follow-up adventure takes place in the skies and sees the player gliding through literal clouds on the back of a flying machine, so it's no surprise that Guerrilla wanted to make them look the best that it possibly could. 

When comparing the two, Horizon Forbidden West's clouds are clearly more technologically advanced, but it's interesting to see how much this technology has improved in just five years. I can't wait to see just how fluffy the clouds get once we're a few more years into the PS5's life cycle. 

Wondering what we've got to look forward to? Take a look at our upcoming PS5 games list. 

Hope Bellingham
News Writer

After studying Film Studies and Creative Writing at university, I was lucky enough to land a job as an intern at Player Two PR where I helped to release a number of indie titles. I then got even luckier when I became a Trainee News Writer at GamesRadar+ before being promoted to a fully-fledged News Writer after a year and a half of training.  My expertise lies in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, cozy indies, and The Last of Us, but especially in the Kingdom Hearts series. I'm also known to write about the odd Korean drama for the Entertainment team every now and then.