Open World Structure

One of the ways Crimson Desert shines is in its overall variety of environments. Not only are there forests and plains that channel The Witcher 3, but it’s mixed with the sheer verticality of something like Breath of the Wild, and that’s only the starting area. Delesyia feels more elegant yet mysterious; the titular Crimson Desert – far from its sandstorms and desolate flats – is packed with technological developments, and the Abyss itself defies description with its various floating islands. Red Dead Redemption 2 offers many of the same environmental conditions and biomes, but with much less verticality or imaginative surroundings, so we’ll give the nod to Crimson Desert for this one. The latter also feels more like a “journey” in terms of how you’re gradually progressing, going from outright nothing to grander scenarios.

World Cohesion vs Abundance

However, there’s a dilenation between the two that’s difficult to ignore. Pywel is absolutely packed with activities and sights, mixing high fantasy with medieval times and steampunk technology. Red Dead Redemption 2’s environments are fictional, but they’re influenced by real-world locations at the dawn of the 20th century, where technology is slowly yet surely developing, and civilization is snuffing out the outlaws. One is more extensive and voluminous; the other feels more cohesive and grounded. It’s ultimately up to the player, although I would go for Red Dead Redemption 2. That cohesion is important, and the realism intertwines with the reactivity and characters to make it feel all the more alive.

Immersion vs Friction

Each game has its own kind of friction – something that pushes back against the player for different purposes. In the case of Red Dead Redemption 2, it’s getting to the more methodical controls and various systems that define Arthur’s life. It takes some time to fully acclimate to because it’s all in service of a different way of life that no longer exists. Yet everything is gradually rolled out while still feeling immersive, gradually drawing the player into its world and storytelling. Unfortunately, despite the strong opening cutscenes, Crimson Desert feels awkward in its sudden transition to Pywel while constantly dumping new systems and complex controls on the player. There is still friction in understanding how the world works, but you feel less immersed when having to remember all the controls and their different scenarios.

Exploration Payoff and Progression

If you enjoy discovering new things at an organic pace, both games are recommended, but as you’d guess, there is a catch. For Crimson Desert, it’s in finding potential new mechanics, advancing faction quests, maybe happening upon bizarre puzzles, or engaging in combat for the sake of Abyss Artifacts, resources, and potential loot. Red Dead Redemption 2, on the other hand, is more about the various stories inherent throughout the world. There are mysteries to unravel, characters with their own detailed backstories and needs, and multiple steps that either advance that subplot or lead to unique scenarios. Throughout all of this, the writing is top-notch – something which Crimson Desert lacks in spades, and the fact that some quests or discoveries don’t always feel as rewarding relative to the effort required is also annoying. I would go with Red Dead Redemption 2 in this case but it can honestly depend.

However, in terms of actual progression, Crimson Desert falters due to the sheer stinginess in certain resources. The fact that you need to spend Abyss Artifacts to upgrade gear and weapons at a fairly early point also dampens one’s excitement, especially when obtaining new items and trying to level them up enough to obtain some numerical advantage.

Combat Philosophy

Controls aside, combat really is where Crimson Desert shines, between its combos, weapon transitions, elemental enhancements and plethora of gear with unique effects. Despite significant overlap in skills, Oongka and Damiane also offer their own intriguing playstyles, whether you prefer a berserker or a melee caster hybrid. And though there are some quirks that I didn’t like – the camera during boss fights, for instance – the overall responsiveness and feel is enough to have you wanting another skirmish as soon as possible. Red Dead Redemption 2 is more down-to-earth, both in terms of weaponry and actual mechanics. It’s visceral up close and tactical from afar, which suits the era and the story it’s trying to tell. But even if it isn’t as complex as Crimson Desert, it takes significantly less time to feel comfortable with the controls.

Mission Design and Player Freedom

As mentioned previously, Red Dead Redemption 2 offers a vast spread of memorable tales. There are plenty of instances in the main missions where you have to stick to the objective or risk instant failure, but the freedom in approaching other content is pretty surprising. Even more so is how the game reacts if you do things differently – simply because the development team had the foresight to anticipate that. Outside of combat expression – like pummeling a boss with broken pillars – and maybe basic traversal, Crimson Desert doesn’t really offer much freedom in terms of its objectives or side content. Perhaps if there was more room for nuance in their objectives or interesting tales that facilitated multiple approaches. At least there’s very little restriction on where you can go, and being able to back out of boss battles whenever you want is a nice touch.

Story and Characters

No debate here: Red Dead Redemption 2 is the clear choice. The story of the Van der Linde gang, particularly of the bond between Arthur and Dutch, is so masterfully crafted that it remains one of gaming’s best. And that’s without getting into all the other memorable characters interwoven throughout, including that whippersnapper John Marston and the indomitable Sadie Adler. There’s an emotional pull throughout that’s backed by incredible writing, even if the pacing can be a little too gradual for some.

Crimson Desert lacks all of this, sadly. Sure, there are flashes throughout, but Kliff is as bland and mostly unexpressive as they come, and the actual plot feels rudimentary and lacking in any emotional weight.

AI and NPC Design

In the same vein, the non-playable characters inhabiting the world of Red Dead Redemption 2 feel alive. Almost all of them have a full 24-hour schedule, and while they might be as super-nuanced as you’d expect, it goes a long way towards convincing you that they’re actual people. Meanwhile, in Crimson Desert, despite how the AI can behave in combat (archers constantly trying to maintain distance and melee fighters not waiting their turn to attack), its characters are nowhere near as believable. Maybe if the majority had more than one line to spout while doing anything.

Traversal Mechanics

You’ll spend a good chunk of time on horseback through Pywel but it’s not the only option by far. Kliff can glide, unlock different kinds of mounts with unique properties – including the much-touted dragon – and even use a mech to wreak havoc on his surroundings. The fact that Damiane and Oongka have their own unique ways to traverse environments is also notable. Red Dead Redemption 2’s more grounded approach means that Arthur will rely on horseback, stage coaches and trains to get around. It’s more grounded, yes, but Crimson Desert wins in terms of sheer options.

Visual Fidelity

Despite its age, Rockstar’s magnum opus is still one of the best-looking games of today. Environments radiate with details while character models animate realistically, both in movement and facial expressions. The fact that it goes beyond what’s immediately apparent, incorporating various subtleties and nuances, is also a key element of its appeal, whether you’re in the middle of a heist or simply taking in the sights on horseback. Crimson Desert also looks quite good, especially with its environments, weather conditions and sheer variety. Those long rendering distances and level of detail are also nothing to sneeze at, but it falls short when it comes to animations, especially in cutscenes and dialogue interactions.

System Depth vs Elegance

At the time of its release, Red Dead Redemption 2 received significant attention for the sheer number of things that players could do. However, it was all for immersion: Shaving Arthur’s beard and maintaining his appearance to garner the respect of townsfolk, the drawn-out process of skinning prey for that more rustic feel, the list goes on. Crimson Desert offers a much more extensive feature set with its MMO-lite systems, reputation that serves as currency, sieges, expeditions, camp development, and whatnot. The problem? Not all of it feels as rich or coherent. Heck, some features feel like they’re just there to be there – see the fact that you can steal stuff and commit crimes, but it has no actual effect on Kliff’s morality or character or even on how the world views him.

There’s enough to like, but in terms of overall well-roundedness and polish, Red Dead Redemption 2 gets the nod once more.

Conclusion

When analyzed individually, Rockstar’s masterpiece remains as strong as ever. Crimson Desert does stand out in certain aspects, and others can feel a lot more subjective, especially when it comes to the kind of world that players want to explore. Competing against a legend like Red Dead Redemption 2 is no easy feat. However, at least the developers behind Crimson Desert tried their hardest while cramming a dozen other influences.

You might think that the Wild West in its final stages has nothing to do with a land that’s been conjured entirely out of a fantasy. But there are structural similarities if you look deep enough beneath the surface of the two games. Klyff and Aurthur’s respective journeys are a core part of the experience, their destinations serving as bookmarks between chapters before another long trip begins.

At their surface, Crimson Desert and RDR2 are games in which the most enjoyable parts of the experience are the memories that you make along the way.

Exploring New Places

Pywel’s five main areas are a nice touch, each coming with its own distinct theme, such as the one where technological advancements give a distinct touch to the world and the lives of people living in it. It’s a great way to segment the map into more manageable chunks while introducing a bit of variety into the mix. RDR2 might not have segmented its world in such a fashion, but there’s no denying that there was so much variety and beauty in its take on the Wild West.

From swampy marshes where your gang makes camp to melancholically beautiful plains, abandoned settlements, vibrant towns, and peaceful plantations, there was always something to stop and marvel at, the view being as important as your reason for being there. There seems to be a lot of that in Pywel, too.

Crimson Desert logically recontextualizes the inclusion of varied landscapes, allowing it to mimic RDR2 whilst maintaining its own distinct identity and approach to the design of its open world. It also suits the exploratory framework it’s bringing to the table, just as RDR2‘s approach suited the story it was trying to tell and the experience it intended to present.

The Greymane base of operations is another common factor that’s handled a tad differently in RDR2. In both games, your base acts as a sort of hub where you meet and interact with important characters in the story and side content. It’s also where you can acquire resources you may need as you go about your adventures and don’t want to purchase them or farm them out in the open world. It’s a sort of safe space for when your character gets a tad weary of the long roads they take, and wants a place to call home where they get to kick back and relax before they set off again.

When they do set off, both Pywel and the Wild West are places where you just pick a direction and hop onto your horse, secure in the knowledge that the road is going to take you to something new, be it a human settlement or another mystery. The map acts as a mere guideline rather than a tool in which you simply mark places to tick items of a checklist in other titles, an approach that has its merits but doesn’t allow for a more creative approach to exploration.

Both Crimson Desert and RDR2 feature worlds that are designed to have you investing time and effort into experiencing all that they have to offer, and that’s a good thing for those among you who want an experience over a video game. But any open world also depends, not just on the places it takes you to, but on the people you meet along the way.

Building Bonds With The World’s Inhabitants

A crucial part of Crimson Desert is Klyff’s effort to rebuild the Greymanes after their ranks are drastically thinned by their rivals, the Black Bears. But restoring the beleaguered mercenary gang to its former glory is going to be an uphill task, as you’re going to have to seek out surviving members and potentially try to recruit new ones to your cause.

It’s an interesting contrast to Arthur’s desperate effort to hold the Van der Linde gang together in the face of Dutch’s paranoia and Micah’s betrayal. But both narratives lend a layer of emotional investment into the open world and your path through it, as you never know when a lead to an old friend or a new one is going to pop up.

Aside from friends, there is also the scope to meet enemies along the way in Pywel and the Wild West. Rival gangs like the Pinkertons in RDR2 were never too far away, and conflict was an inevitable part of the experience, as it was a chance for you to enjoy the excellent combat mechanics on offer.

That’s the same in Crimson Desert, with the Black Bears being a constant threat to your Greymanes and the world at large, their power-hungry nature requiring a hero to properly counter it. That’s you, and you’re going to be facing a lot of skilled warriors in Pywel, based on the glimpses of it we’ve seen.

But it isn’t all about friends and enemies. An open world is a massive place, and there are going to be people to assist or engage with in other ways. Again, both titles feature a world that feels alive, although we’re going to have to wait for the full game to see if Crimson Desert manages to emulate RDR2 well enough on that front.

But what’s certain is that engaging with the locals in any given area is going to give you a plethora of things to discover, with activities ranging from life-changing to mundane, based on who you talk to. And even when you’re feeling a little low on your social battery, just keeping your ears open could let you overhear interesting things about the world around you, and give you more reasons to get on your horse and track them down.

Both games shine on that front, as they do in terms of how illegal actions are similarly structured to draw attention to your character and have the legal system try to intervene. The people of Pywel and the Wild West are certainly a part of the charm that both their respective games bring to the table.

A factor we’re interested in evaluating is whether Pywel is able to function outside of its relationship to Klyff, akin to how the Wild West was steadily on the path to a more modern way of life, irrespective of Aurthur’s place in it. You only have to look at the gradual building of railroads to know what we mean. Could Pywel feature structures under construction that gradually get completed even if Klyff is halfway across the map? Could NPCs have actual lives like the mad scientist in RDR2? We’re very eager to find out.

But while we wait, there’s another point of intersection between Crimson Desert and RDR2: the stuff you get to do in the open world.

Keeping A Hero Busy

What do an outlaw in the Wild West and a mercenary in Pywel have in common? A lot of what they do can be counted as busy work, but it is essential to their success.

Klyff’s fate seems inextricably tied to Pywel and the Greymanes. The narrative does a good job of weaving him into the open world’s very fabric, while the open world has you treading its vast landscapes in his shoes to the extent that it’s going to be unlikely to find a place he hasn’t visited once you have a sufficient amount of time with the game. He is invested in its prosperity not because he’s programmed to be, but because the game gives us as many reasons as it can to feel an emotional connection with the land and its people.

Arthur’s story was similarly woven into RDR2’s world, making his travels feel not only immersive but authentic. The morality system and its impact on how you approached the world subtly influenced how things would turn out with your gang in the end. We hope that there’s a hint of that in Crimson Desert, with the chance to do what’s right by the Greymanes clashing with more immediate problems, but that’s just speculation at this point.

There’s also the way in-game economics makes you engage with the world around you to gather resources or go after hard cash to either purchase them, or perhaps find ways to produce them with suitable investments into skills or unlocks. Self-sufficiency is very much a possibility, with both games sharing systems that allow you to find ways to make anything you need, such as hunting, fishing, and, through good old-fashioned farming, via exploration.

A feature in Crimson Desert that’s there in RDR2 but is relegated to the story in Arthur’s world is the ability to send out Greymanes on missions. Arthur was only joined by his fellow gang members in scripted stories, but Crimson Desert builds on that beat to make you truly feel like you’re leading the Greymanes, a facet of the experience that adds to how immersive it can get.

An undercurrent to all these features is that engaging with either Pywel or the Wild West is never going to feel like a chore, or perhaps as fatiguing as some open worlds out there. You’re actively a part of the world in ways that are both personal and professional, and the narrative framework you’re given takes care of having you invested emotionally.

The activities might repeat themselves from time to time, but the reasons you do them all remain the same.

Similar Worlds, Differing Perspectives

While life in the Wild West was about the entropy of a way of life and its effects on the people who followed it, Pywel takes a focus on rebuilding and a future that’s markedly better than the past. They are worlds that are better savored than rushed through, more than just checklists of activities that you’re going to have to tick off one by one.

They aren’t just stories, but are actual adventures that no two players are going to experience in exactly the same way because they are built to be unique to you. Pywel may not be a reflection of actual history like RDR2’s take on the Wild West, but the design pillars propping it up are very real and are looking mighty similar to modern gaming’s best open world.

We’re hoping that Crimson Desert is able to be as effective in their use to let it emulate the size and scope that Pywel needs to make Klyff rise to prominence, and hopefully join Authur on the other side of a very attractive open world coin that would mean great news for those of you, and us, who love to get lost in our video games.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

Though there was no release window at the time, he alleged in a new tweet that, “As far as I know, RDR2 is this year.” When asked if this rumor was different from last year, he responded, “Same info as last year. I don’t have any update to suggest it won’t be this year.”

Of course, as he mentioned before, release timings can (and often) change, and Rockstar pretty much does its own thing. The company has already delayed Grand Theft Auto 6 several times, but it’s seemingly on track for this year, with Summer marking the start of launch marketing. How that will affect Red Dead Redemption 2: Enhanced Edition really remains to be seen.

However, if it had to release at some point, one would think it’s sometime this Summer, even as late as September, to ensure it doesn’t conflict with Grand Theft Auto 6. As always, time will tell, so stay tuned for more updates.

Widely considered one of the greatest games ever made, Red Dead Redemption 2 is available for Xbox One, PS4, and PC. It sold in over 82 million units as of December 31st, 2025.

Taking a closer look at software sales for the month of December, Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 took the lead, with Battlefield 6 being ranked third. Other titles in the best-seller charts for the month are a mix of newer games like Donkey Kong Bananza and older titles like Grand Theft Auto 5, Minecraft and Red Dead Redemption 2.

While other console makers might have started struggling with console sales last year, Nintendo has been doing quite well with the release of the Switch 2. Piscatella had confirmed, the Switch 2 ended up being the best-selling console of the year in the US, with the country accounting for 4.4 million units. Along with this, the new console is also noted as selling faster than the original Switch from back in 2017.

As he noted, the Switch 2’s hardware sales single-handedly managed to offset industry-wide downward trends in console hardware sales. Sony’s PS5 ranked second for the period. The Switch 2 has also been described by Piscatella as being the “fastest selling video game console hardware platform” in history so far.

While things might be going well for Nintendo for the time being, research firm Niko Partners has predicted that the company will end up raising the price of the Switch 2 thanks to the worldwide memory shortages affecting manufacturing. The firm noted that, while the Switch 2 is priced competitively when compared to PS5 and Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo might have to bring its latest console in line with its competitors to maintain profitability.

In the meantime, Battlefield Studios has been working hard on creating and testing more content for the upcoming second season of Battlefield 6. While it hasn’t yet revealed too many details aside from its February 17 launch date, the developers provided a few hints about what kind of content we can expect when Season 2 of Battlefield 6 is kicked off.

Among the new content coming to the game is a brand new map, dubbed Contagion, that will also feature its own unique gameplay mechanics. No details have been provided about these mechanics, aside from vague hints about players needing to use equipment to interact with them, a soldier wearing a gas mask in the teaser trailer, and the fact that the map’s name implies some sort of contagious infection will be involved.

Battlefield 6 is available on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. For more details, check out our review from back when it first came out.

2025 Top 20 Best-Selling Premium Games – U.S. (Dollar Sales, Physical and Digital from digital data sharing publishers, excludes add-on content)

— Mat Piscatella (@matpiscatella.bsky.social) 2026-01-22T14:00:07.506Z

December 2025 Top 20 Best-Selling Premium Games – U.S. (Dollar Sales, Physical and Digital from digital data sharing publishers, excludes add-on content)

— Mat Piscatella (@matpiscatella.bsky.social) 2026-01-22T14:00:07.505Z

“Absolutely wild people have found this,” he wrote. “I remember hearing about this and thinking it would never be discovered.”

Butterworth’s post also reiterated the fact that these clues have been in Red Dead Redemption 2 since its 2018 release. While Rockstar Games hasn’t made any major updates to the open-world title that would indicate that it was a recent addition, the studio has also been quiet about the ongoing scavenger hunt, allowing the community to find and solve these hidden puzzles on their own.

The scavenger hunt started just last month when players discovered a mysterious spider symbol that had been carved into one of several telegraph poles all over the in-game map. This symbol was discovered to then sit quite nicely on top of the Red Dead Redemption 2 map, with its appendages pointing to the locations for more clues throughout Lemoyne and New Hanover. Players would eventually discover spider webs on many telegraph poles, each of which also had red and white bird feathers stuck to them. The point where the center of the spider carving intersected with the map was also discovered to have a well-hidden, large spider web that had strands spelling out the letter “N” and forming a glyph to denote a telegraph pole.

The secret-finding community of Red Dead Redemption 2 would then leap into action to discover more telegraph poles that had well-hidden carvings that could only be seen when the poles were shot. The carvings would give players more varied directions before eventually sending them to Fort Wallace with a carved-out glyph of an acoustic guitar. The fort itself was home to a few of these guitars that were laid out to point in different directions, which would culminate with players heading to the roof of one of the fort’s towers. On this roof, players discovered a pair of crude carvings in the shape of birds with their wings outstretched. At this point, the community is still working on what it could mean, with some pointing to the direction of the carvings pointing towards Calumet Ravine, which is also home to the Giant’s cave.

Red Dead Redemption 2 is available on PC, PS4 and Xbox One. Players with current-gen consoles can use backwards compatibility if they want to join in on the scavenger hunt. In the meantime, there have been rumours about a remastered release coming to PS5 and Xbox Series X/S, though Rockstar Games hasn’t yet made any official announcement.

Not only that, but it’s “at least” twice the size of the playable open world of The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim. Of course, size isn’t everything, as Pearl Abyss has been working to make Pywel incredibly interactive. There’s still plenty that the development team hasn’t showcased, from the crafting system to houses. Even things it has showcased, like the Sky Isles and their puzzles, are still shrouded in mystery.

Interestingly, Powers noted that while players could indeed fight dragons (that’s plural), it’s unconfirmed whether you can slay them. Does the giant mecha dragon Golden Star count?

Time will certainly tell, but with Crimson Desert launching on March 19th for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC, it’s not much longer until we can explore Pywel first-hand. Head here for more details about the various mounts that players can use. It’s also worth adding that despite the presence of dozens and dozens of factions, none of them will affect the ending.

While initially thought to be little more than visual glitches, the carvings were confirmed as intentional thanks to data mining. Unfortunately, there haven’t been many discoveries since these carvings were found, with Strange Man even noting that the clues have become more vague as time went on. One possible theory by the YouTuber is that the carvings are pointing towards a large body of water in the northern part of Red Dead Redemption 2‘s map in the Calumet Ravine. This body of water also happens to be in the vague shape of a bird with its wings outstretched. The location, interestingly enough, is close to the Giant’s cave, which also happens to have a flock of birds living close to it.

With the trail having gone cold once more at this point, the majority of the video offers a recap of the scavenger hunt so far. The hunt began when players discovered a spider symbol carved into one of the many telegraph poles in Red Dead Redemption 2. This spider symbol, when overlaid on the game’s map, hinted at several different locations throughout Lemoyne and New Hanover that could be hiding more clues. Eventually, players discovered spider webs on various telegraph poles, each of which had bird feathers dangling off them.

The central point where the carving and the map intersect also has a massive spider web that is cleverly hidden amongst the branches of some trees. The web itself featured shapes in the form of the letter ‘N’, and a symbol that denotes a telegraph pole. This led players to investigate one such pole north of the central spider web. Shooting it revealed carvings in the shape of the letter ‘W’ along with glyphs for five poles.

This new location similarly hid another carving, this time around with the letters ‘NW’ and a glyph in the shape of an acoustic guitar. This was the clue that led players to travel north-west to Fort Wallace, where a guitar was found pointing towards one of the fort’s towers. This tower was home to another guitar, which was pointing to the roof where the bird carvings were discovered.

The mystery has been an interesting one to follow, and Rockstar Games, for its part, has been quiet about it, giving the the community the freedom to lead its own investigations. If you’re interested in following along with the mystery, keep in mind that there might be spoilers in some of the clues. Red Dead Redemption 2 is available on PC, PS4 and Xbox One. PS5 and Xbox Series X/S owners can experience the masterpiece through backwards compatibility while they wait for the rumoured current-gen remaster. Check out our review of Red Dead Redemption 2 while you’re at it.

As outlined by YouTuber Strange Man (with assistance from the community), there’s a telegraph pole in the Heartland Oil Fields where, between 3 AM and 4 AM, a spider symbol and web with a feather is visible. Fans would subsequently discover similar poles throughout the world with the same symbols and spiderwebs. All of these connect to an even larger “web”, but what makes it so intriguing is that the letter “N” is visible.

Upon heading North, players found another pole that, when shot, revealed the letter “W,” doubtless pointing West. It led to – you guessed it – another telegraph pole revealing the letter “NW” and a guitar symbol when shot. Leading to Fort Wallace, where a guitar is pointing West, eventually leading to a card of Emmet Granger, last seen in the mission, “The Noblest of Men, and a Woman.”

While this would all eventually lead to Dodd’s Bluff, it seems the trail has gone cold with the community scrounging for more clues. But remember that feather at the first pole? Each of the other seven also has a feather, with the total falling under two colors: Red and white. Perhaps this is a larger clue to something else (including a mission that takes place in Fort Wallace).

Whatever it ends up being, the mystery is a testament to the massive scale of Red Dead Redemption 2 and the secrets that still lie buried. Now, how about that current-gen remaster, Rockstar?

Mass Effect 1 – Mako Segments

Mass Effect’s first outing laid the foundation for what would end up becoming one of the most beloved sci-fi RPG trilogies of all time, but even those who swear by the franchise will tell you that the Mako segments are easily the game’s most off-putting mandatory sections. On paper, cruising across alien planets in a six-wheeled all-terrain tank sounds like a thrilling opportunity to explore strange landscapes and uncover hidden secrets. But in execution, the driving experience turns into a bumpy nightmare in the face of weird controls and awkward handling. The Mako handles like a bouncy toy through and through, ricocheting off the slightest hill and sliding around at every slope. It also doesn’t help that most planets you explore are barren with little variety between them and the enemy encounters presnet within. And when mission objectives force you into these segments repeatedly, it becomes painfully clear they were more ambitious than polished. They can break the narrative flow, drag the pacing down, and leave anyone dreading the next time the game says, “Time to deploy the Mako.”

Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty

Metal Gear Solid 2’s first mission aboard the tanker firmly establishes Solid Snake as the ongoing hero of the series, coaxing players into a sense of familiarity. But an hour into the game, things change. There’s a fast-forward of two years and Snake is presumed dead. The rest of the game is played through the lens of Raiden, a newer recruit who, though lacks the expertise and wit of Snake, demonstrates greater agility and a good amount of skill. The biggest gameplay difference between Raiden and Snake is the quick roll between cover that can be pulled off when controlling Raiden. Besides his agility in combat, he lacks the charismatic banter and iconic gravelly voice of Snake, resulting in many frustrated and disappointed players at the time of MGS2’s release. Imagine your favorite character getting sidelined for an entire game with little confidence in his return. In hindsight, we appreciate Raiden for his future, and badass, appearance in MGS Rising Revengeance but in 2001, there was no surefire guarantee Solid Snake would take the spotlight again.

Prey (2017)

Prey’s opening is a masterclass on how to build intrigue while completely immersing the player in the game world. Arkane’s Prey builds off of 2006’s Prey with a similar slice of life intro that gets upended and warped into a sci-fi nightmare, though the two titles aren’t connected. Morgan wakes up to get ready for work in a highrise apartment in what looks like a futuristic San Francisco. The game’s physics engine allows any object to be picked up and thrown, and there’s a slew of emails and notes to read around the apartment, providing some context and lore. Players can’t be blamed for spending some time admiring the highrise views and exploring the interactable elements. After a nice helicopter ride to Morgan’s job site, a horrific Typhon creature attacks one of the scientists and Morgan blacks out. What comes next flips the status quo completely on its head. Morgan wakes up more or less like nothing ever happened, to an alarm in the same apartment building as before, but things aren’t quite right. After some exploration, it’s revealed the entire building is just a simulation aboard a space station. Nothing was as it seemed and the remainder of the game is spent trying to survive onboard the isolated and dangerous Talos I station.

The Last of Us Part 1

The core of The Last of Us’ gameplay doesn’t emerge until an hour into the game. And it’s not due to clumsy tutorials wasting the player’s time. No, the first hour is spent setting up the world state that would characterize the award-winning series. You don’t start the game busting zombies’ heads open as a hardened badass, but instead wake up in the shoes of Joel’s daughter, Sarah. The game lets the player explore Joel’s house, which contains a fair amount of mementos and bits of backstory into who these characters were before the zombie outbreak. An evacuation and car crash later and we’re playing as Joel, carrying Sarah in a desperate attempt to outrun the infected hordes. After one of the more tragic scenes in gaming, there’s a pretty substantial time skip as we finally control the hardened Joel that encapsulates the rest of the game. It’s the perfect intro to a zombie game and it didn’t even need to give the player a weapon to feel the tension and anxiety of the setting.

Red Dead Redemption 2

Rockstar Games typically lets players loose in their game world pretty early on. That’s not at all the case with Red Dead Redemption 2. It takes around an hour or so for the on-rails story missions to ease up. Players who just want to live out their wild west fantasies in an immersive open world have to wait it out and experience the story set-up first. Of course, that isn’t to say the opening hours aren’t action-packed or interesting in their own right. The game introduces the over-the-shoulder shooting mechanics and melee combat with some battles against a rival gang. But it’s true that a majority of the game’s opening hours involve slowly riding horseback along some snowy mountains listening to character banter. RDR2 has even more open-world freedom than the first game, but it takes a bit longer to reach that point this time around.

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

Speaking of slow burns, there’s perhaps no better example than 2006’s The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. The game starts out with a Harvest Moon-esque sequence of Link talking to villagers and doing a series of chores on the farm. Ordon is a peaceful village and all is idyllic during these moments. Sure, you get a slingshot tutorial, but there’s pretty much no need for combat when things are this peaceful. Obviously, Link gets thrust onto the hero’s journey eventually, but it takes a good bit of time to reach. Twilight Princess is one of the darkest games in the series, featuring some horror elements with the villain, Zant, and the eerie ghosts within the Twilight realm. It’s also one of the more fast-paced and action-packed games in the series, but the idyllic opener wouldn’t give that impression. The greatness of Twilight Princess’s opening is just how effective it sets up the stakes at play. It establishes that a peaceful and idyllic village like Ordon can be erased at the hands of evil. In a way, Ordon fulfills a similar role as The Shire from Lord of the Rings.

Death Stranding

While Death Stranding’s opening does a good job giving players a taste of what the game’s about, nothing could prepare people for the craziness that occurs in the middle and end of the game. The game begins like a vague dream, with tons of bizarre terms and lore that still make our head spin today. The exposition-heavy prologue features roughly 40 minutes of cinematics and 20 minutes of gameplay. The precious few moments that you are given some control, you’re tasked with picking up some dropped cargo and transporting it through some mountainous terrain in the rain before getting sidelined by the threat of some BDs. It’s a nice tutorial of what you’ll be doing in the core game but with none of the open-ended freedom. It would be another hour or so until the game’s core features open up. Much of Death Stranding’s charm is in its bizarrely beautiful open-world, touting varied terrain to overcome and breathtaking vistas to admire. Players don’t truly get to experience the core ‘strand-like’ gameplay until the ability to build infrastructure such as bridges and walkways for other real-life players becomes available later. And while there’s plenty of protracted cinematics throughout the rest of the game, there’s usually large swaths of open-ended delivery gameplay to offset it, unlike the exposition-heavy opening.

Kingdom Hearts 2

Kingdom Hearts 2 really threw fans for a loop with the opening’s focus on Roxas rather than Sora. What’s more, the location of this game’s intro wasn’t explored in past games, making the whole sequence feel like some Twilight Zone episode. Roxas’ summer vacation with his friends in Twilight Town functioned more or less as a gameplay tutorial as well, though the magic system and gummi ship stuff doesn’t come into play until Sora finally enters the picture. Millions of players asked the same questions during KH2’s opening hours: “Where is Sora, Donald, and Goofy? And who the heck is Roxas?” Part of the brilliance of KH2 is how those questions get explored throughout the course of the game.

The Stanley Parable

There’s not many games that sell based on intrigue alone, but The Stanley Parable is one of them. It’s very much an experiment on what it means to be a game. As soon as players boot it up from the start menu, a charming narrator describes a typical day at the office for Stanley. This is where player agency comes into question. Should I continue following the narrator’s ques, or do I completely avert expectations? And so, one of thousands of different routes begins. The first hour of The Stanley Parable is much different from the rest of the game because of how branching the choices are. Not to mention how much more of the narrator’s own personality gets exposed the more the player disobeys.

Control

Control is another game on this list that subverts expectations with its bizarre setting and story. The entire game takes place within a fluidly changing skyscraper called ‘The Oldest House’. The interior of this building is labyrinthine, boasting an ever shifting space that is much larger than its exterior would suggest. The first hour of the game is strange enough, with its introduction of the The Oldest House and some of the abilities you’ll be engaging with. But the game doesn’t reveal its true structure until later on after you gain more supernatural abilities and unravel more of the bizarre story.

Firewatch

Firewatch is one of the more fascinating narrative games I’ve played. It follows the daily life of a fire lookout worker over the course of a month. You’d think this would get boring, but it only gets more interesting as the days progress. This is because Firewatch is a slowly unraveling mystery with little bread crumbs hinting that something isn’t quite right. From a gameplay perspective, things don’t really progress too much past the first hour. You’re walking around and doing basic tasks like using a flashlight and walkie-talkie to communicate with your distant partner Delilah from beginning to end. But where the game ends is such a change from where it began that it warrants a place on this list.