Amazing Saddles

Oxm Gets Exclusive Hands-on Time WithRockstars Long-awaited Open-World Western Prequel Red Dead Redemption II

- Chris Burke

It ain’t no secret I didn’t get these scars falling over in church,” John Marston memorably says in Red Dead Redemption. After eight years of waiting to find out just how he did get his facial disfigurement, we’re about to find out. And as OXM begins its exclusive hands-on preview at Rockstar HQ, we’re as excited as a small child, all of whose Christmases have come at once, and who’s definitely getting a puppy.

OXM’s time with the game actually begins with Marston, his face extensively bandaged and covered in fresh blood, eager to join in his gang’s latest escapade but berated by his future wife, Abigail, and told to take it easy by gang leader Dutch. It’s 12 years earlier, and – following a bodged robbery in Blackwater that has forced the gang of outlaws to flee into the wilderness – John’s got those characterful scars. But he’s very much on the sidelines as we take control of senior Van der Linde gun, Arthur Morgan.

Back on the Xbox, 2004’s Red Dead Revolver laid the foundations for Rockstar San Diego’s telling of epic Wild West tales, with a ton of stylistic nods to classic Westerns and the innovative Dead Eye shooting mechanic. On 360, Rockstar did not want for ambition with Red Dead Redemption. By then, Rockstar’s proprietary RAGE engine was able to create the kind of huge, openworld sandbox that blew our minds. Even now, with the help of 4K visual updates on Xbox One, that game rocks. But John Marston’s tale of archetypal Western revenge on his former gang-mates was ripe for a deeper exploration of his and the gang’s backstory, and here we’re getting that and so much more.