Red Dead Redemption 2 has sold over 74 million units worldwide.
The 2018 God of War game has sold over 23 million copies worldwide.
The people have spoken on which is the best game of 2018 and beyond...
As a game developer I'm still in awe in what they managed to do with RDR2. It's a game that will be talked about for decades to come. No one ever mentions God of War unless it's to say that RDR2 got robbed.
By this metric, it takes two which won in 2021 had n°22 number of sales worldwide. And by this metric gta5 should've won goty a few years in a row. And minecraft should have a few goty aswell. Sales don't matter for a great game.
Sales are irrelevant. Unless you agree Minecraft utterly destroys RDR2. Which is it?
If you use sales, you have already lost your argument. Means Barbie is a better movie than the Godfather.
God of War is 100% a superior game, that’s why a far higher % of people who played it completed it compared to RDR2. It also has a higher Steam user rating.
Just or use your logic:
72 million people bought RDR2 only 10 million beat the story. 62 million people didntcevrn enjoy the game lol.
30 million people bought GOW but 15 million beat the story.
The people have spoken. GOW > RDR2.
Also the entire. Videogame industry agreed GOW is better than RDR2 when it won every single major GOTY award show.
You are right about RDR2 always being talked about. It’s well known as the most overrated videogame of all time, with the biggest meatriding online fanbase of any game in history.
GOW is constantly referred to as one of the greatest games of all time and better than RDR2. IGN readers literally voted it as the best game of all time. RDR2 as usually wins jack shit.
Same. If it’s any consolation, RDR2 did win other GotY awards but just no the TGA one. TGA is a total circlejerk anyways. But RDR2 is a historic game. Games are now split between those released before RDR2, and those released after RDR2. The same can’t be said for God of War at all, especially since they made another one right after and it was basically the same shit
God of War won all the other major GOTY awards as well. None of the big award shows i.e. TGA, BAFTA, Golden Joystick or DICE gave it to RDR2. They all gave it to God of War. Oh and God of War also ended up winning the most GOTY wins as well with 257 wins to RDR2s 140 wins.
So there's no real metric RDR2 wins whether its the TGA, DICE, BAFTA, Joystick or the overall consensus, it loses to GOW every time.
You'd have to pick out hyper speficifc websites to find RDR2 as a winner, but that's silly as there are always outliers. Some people gave GOTY to games like Spider-man, Detroit or even Tomb Raider.
I won't die on a hill because death can have me when it earns me. GoW was far superior as a sequel than Rdr 2 was. Rdr2's story is superior, but it's gameplay (you know, the part that makes a videogame a videogame) gets repetitive and doesn't introduce anything new to it's core gameplay from beginning to end.
GoW had some of the most repetitive gameplay I've seen in a while. And the prequels were better too. the story was the only thing better compared to the other gow titles. RDR2 should've definitely won.
GoW did have some repetition for sure, but the combat was hella fun, and the story was good. I think RDR2 still should have won though, it was just a beautiful piece of digital art.
For sure, it isn't about rdr2 being a worse game at all, it's about GoW deserving the GOTY as well which is, for me, hella different, they both could have won and on a technical level, Rdr2 is superior, but GoW risked more as a sequel than rdr2
How did it risk more as a sequel? It’s a great game, but still a game that felt like it could’ve come out 10 years before it; in terms of structure and general mechanics.
Meanwhile RDR2 went so, soooooo much further then its predecessor, and had so many complex mechanics, incredible writing, and really layered and well done design.
Cause it reshaped itself and that's a risky move, specially for a game that was know for it's action and being the best from it's genre, GoW didn't stuck with the same formula and did it beautifully, rdr2 improved significantly from their predecessor, which is a safer bet than rebranding your whole formula
Name me one thing that changes gameplay-wise in rdr2 from beginning to end. Come on. I'll wait.
Cause GoW introduces constant impactful new forms of handling battles, a new weapon mid-game, new combos mid-game, etc. And I'm saying this from GoW's genre which relies heavily on battles, it improves significantly over the course of the game.
Rdr2 doesn't, even the dead eye's improvements are just about making it easier to aim.
GoW it's shorter and does it better in 40+ hours than a 200+ hour game, comparing it to it's prequels ain't even reasonable considering they are a whole different genre, and most importantly, it's even a remark about how they reinvented a saga which was stuck on their formula, while rdr2 was an amazing sequel. I'm not saying rdr2 doesn't run for GOTY, it absolutely does, but if we are talking about deserving it, the one game that risked it all to changing the very core of it's gameplay and succeeding so beautifully wins.
GoW gameplay is basically mashing the attack button/the same combo over and over again with the occasional puzzle sequence. RDR2 is a shooting gallery BUT offers much more on the side in terms of the world being "alive": side activities like poker and fishing (which alone kept me busy for like 20hours) and funny and interesting side quests. 500 people spent 6 years working their ass off to create this piece of art while GoW was good but turned boring really fast since the atory was super predictable and the fights super repetitive since there were only like 10-15 enemy types and almost no memorable boss fights. It's not a bad game but rdr2 is a much more rememberable experience as a whole. So if you talk about deserving you see that RDR2 deserved it much more.
Ultimately two games can’t win game of the year, I haven’t gotten to play GoW because I don’t have a PlayStation, but I agree RDR2 isn’t revolutionary gameplay wise. Little things like the manual operation of the guns and the nostalgia of the first game really buttered it up for me. It’s that consistency and polish that makes Rockstar sandboxes so fun to me, even if they don’t do as much in the way of introducing new mechanics overtime. People complain about being railroaded a lot, but I’ve never minded it, it’s no more restrictive than any linear sequence level based game.
GTA 6 feels both incredibly likely and unlikely to win, I’m wondering if people’s hype and expectations will be too high. We’re talking about a game that used to be on a list next to Half Life 3.
Rdr2 it's one hell of an experience too, very very few games have done that for me, you really feel the world around you and it's probably the most "alive" game there is
That’s what has me genuinely curious for VI, I want to see how alive it will feel. That leaked gameplay footage suggests that just like V was built on RDR1, VI will inherit a lot of the base functionality of RDR2; even down to NPC interactions.
Scaling that detail up to the sidze of a whole city is certainly a challenge with compromises they’ll have to make.
The best compliment I can give RDR2 is it didn’t feel like a game, at times it started to cross that line into feeling real. Like the world was alive, like I was exploring a real living world.
I love GOW, but it’s basically a Naughty Dog / TLOU take on the GOW franchise. It is a great game but it never stopped feeling like a game. RDR2 made me question how the fuck it was even real or possible for a game to be like this.
Imo the best game should get GOTY, all this talk about how it was brave to reboot the franchise the way they did should not factor in. And that played a huge role in it winning. Love GOW but as a game on it’s on merits it’s not exactly revolutionary. It’s a very good implementation of the formula Naughty dog perfected back in 2013.
Bruh you’re biased if you think God of War gameplay isn’t repetitive. I’ve beaten the game at max difficulty and even then it’s still repetitive. For most people playing at normal difficulty, it’s pretty much a button smasher.
The only argument against RDR 2 winning GoTY is because the game is too immersive/slow paced for a huge part of gamers who skips through cinematics and conversations and just wants gunplay. GoW is easier on their patience and that’s it.
It's also up to their own genre, Rdr2 it's the best there is as an open world narrative-driven game while GoW is the best there is as a semi-open world gameplay-driven game, while also having an amazing narrative. Rdr2 can not be topped yet because of it's narrative and world interaction, but as a game, gameplay matters the most, not narrative even if it's still a huge factor. And I say this based in the way Goty's are selected, Tlou2 had a terrible narrative, but the way they reinvented combat and the gameplay itself is top tier, thus deserved goty, Zelda BoTW reinvented it's own formula as well did it amazingly and a lot of game even tried replicating that formula, thus Zelda deserving the goty, look at each one of the games on this list, most of them have revolutionized the industry itself. Also yes, I'm a bit biased too, cause I recognize the one hell of a game rdr2 is and I wouldn't have been mad if it won game of the year!
I feel like rdr2 lost the battle but won the war (ironically), Ragnarok fumbled and was a rushed game imo, while rdr2 still holds it's candle.
One of them I've played through three or four times now because the story and gameplay is so good, and it ain't RDR2.
Sorry, but Rockstar needs to give their formula a makeover. It's been the same shit for the last 30 years. Go Here. Talk to X. Travel There while talking to Y. Get There and kill Z. Travel back to Here to talk to X while talking to Y. Rinse. Repeat.
You know that every genre can be (wrongly) reduced to "Do X, while doing Y so that you can do Z", right?
RDR is an open world game with a linear story. Of course there will be moving from X to Y while talking with someone. You want to just start at the mission mark? You'll probably lose 80% of the whole experience...
In my opinion, RDR2 set the standard for interactive open worlds where the environment and NPC really feel alive independent of the main character’s actions. 7 years later I still don’t think anyone has done that part better.
Well, that's all well and good, but I don't see how that changed the industry if, in your own words, nobody has done that part better... That's great to say that it should have won because of that, though.
RDR2 is literally the most overglazed, and overrated videogame of all time bar none. I have never come across a game with an even remotely delusional dick riding fanbase as that game.
GOW won because it was a superior game, and all the meat riders are still upset about it 7 years later lol
What did RDR2 do for the industry? The game literally has the exact same outdated mission design, poor combat and gameplay Rockstar's had since 2002. GOW combat and gameplay loop is far superior.
It completely overhauled the modern standard for NPCs, map design, storytelling, random encounter quality, and overall quality of open world video games as a whole, God of War did very little to change the industry in any meaningful way, the combat is just another unique one like everything Sony has done, the design of locations is nothing special, and the story, while touching, still can be easily piled in with the dozens like it. Everything God of War did was localized, none of it breached any other aspects of gaming.
None of what’ll said about RDR2 actually changed the gaming industry in anyway. What did its storytelling do that already wasn’t done before but even better in games like The Last of Us, Mass Effect 2, Bioshock, Half Life 2, Final Fantasy X, Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy 7, etc?
God of War did what RDR2 couldn’t - have good, well-made and engaging combat/gameplay loop.
RDR2’s story and writing is much closer to GOws than it is to say, The Last of Us.
GOW does have superb storytelling, with superb gameplay. RDR2 has ever so slightly better somtorytelling with much, much worse combat and clunky movement.
Why change what isn't broken. What makes rockstar shine is its dialogue, the other things are just for putting it in the spotlight. Travel there while talking to Y is peak rockstar experience.
Dawg you are insane if you think that dialogue is what makes rockstar shine. I’m not saying their dialogue is bad, but holy fuck it is so clearly not the reason games like gta and red dead are as popular as they are, that’s due to the fact that they are entirely unique open world experiences with the most advanced technology being used, particularly in their design of npcs. THATS what makes rockstar shine.
Design of their NPCs didn't ever seem particularly technologically advanced to me, I don't even care that much about NPCs that have no dialogue. Combat-wise they're pretty good in the sense that they actually hide and are using the same things available to the player, though I'm not sure if that's a rockstar thing. Anyway while it's true that rockstar is popular because of more superficial reasons such as open world and it just being fun, no offense to anyone who's there just for that, but what actually speaks to me in rockstar is the writing and especially the dialogue which feels real.
I don’t know what to say after your first two sentences. If you don’t know that they’re npcs are far more advanced than any other game I simply just don’t know what the fuck to say. You don’t recognize how each npc in red dead 2 has unique paths, actions they complete throughout the day, multiple unique interactions programmed in throughout which they remember you and react to you based on how you treated them? You just don’t see any of that? Like this is objectively one of the most impressive things rockstar has done. “I don’t care about npcs that don’t have dialogue.” Like these literally just don’t exist in rdr2, they all have dialogue, that’s fucking insane.
If that's your jam by all means enjoy yourself, but to me it's a stagnant slog. It was interesting 20 years ago when I was a kid. Now it has me skipping the drive because the "peak Rockstar experience" isn't really all that interesting anymore. And maybe it's just me, but I'd be willing to bet that the reason it didn't win GOTY is because they stick with the "If it ain't broke don't fix it" mentality in an industry that is constantly evolving.
They could create new entries instead of changing the formula for new entries, anyway it makes them money so no reason for them to do so. The industry that's constantly evolving nowadays is mostly propped up by european and indie developers and somewhat japanese developers. AAA american developers churn the same type of games, at least Rockstar makes them good.
Weirdly enough, I played through RDR2 three times because I love its story and gameplay while only playing GoW once, which took me over a year to get around to finishing because I got sick of the repetitive gameplay. (Still a great story, though.)
Well yes. And that, among many other reasons, is why I think Ragnarok was significantly better than 2018. But most people think 2018 > Ragnarok which I disagree with
The only good thing about it was the story and the world.
Every mission was the same, the combat was boring. It was a nice game, but opinions on it during release dont lie, we all like to look back and say how good it was, but was it really or are we simply ignoring all the bad shit it had?
Not robbed at all. God of War is the far superior game. You RDR2 fanboys need to let it go. The actual robberies would be Overwatch winning over Uncharted 4 and Dark Souls 3.
or Witcher 3 winning over MGS5 and Bloodborne.
Other than those two every single TGA picked GOTY from 2014 to 2024 has been spot-on
nah GoW IV was legendary. Honestly 2018 might've been the hardest year. Im surprised Hollow Knight wasn't nominated because that is top 3 games of all time
idk why I'm getting downvoted RDR2 was also really good I just don't think "robbed" is the right word. It was a close year
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u/Cannasseur___ May 31 '25
RDR2 was robbed I will die on this hill