10 Games You Should Play If You Like Red Dead Redemption 2
Games Like Red Dead Redemption
Are you getting a kick out of Rockstar’s Red Dead Redemption 2?
Are you enjoying roaming the West as outlaw Arthur Morgan, robbing everyone blind? Maybe you’ve chosen a more honourable path, lending aid to those who need it.
Or perhaps you’re just watching that mysterious patch of road that sets fire to anything that attempts to cross it. Whatever your choice, there are plenty of other games that are worth checking out if you’re looking to scratch that frontier itch. Here are ten games that you should try if you like Red Dead Redemption 2.
Call of Juarez: Gunslinger
Available on: Xbox 360/Xbox One/PC
While it’s been delisted from the PlayStation store, Call of Juarez: Gunslinger is still available on PC and Xbox.
It may lack Red Dead Redemption 2’s open world but this excellent FPS, taking place entirely in flashback, nails the Wild West experience. The game name checks all manner of villains, throwing in a splash of bullet time, a healthy dose of tomato ketchup as your gun-toting bounty hunter sets out for revenge.
Mad Dog McCree
Available on: Wii/3DS/3DO/Sega CD/PlayStation 3/PC
No, we’re not kidding. True, Mad Dog McCree is utterly ridiculous but there’s something strangely endearing about this FMV shoot-em-up’s cheesy acting and dodgy sets.
Resembling nothing so much as those shaky black-and-white public-domain Westerns you can stumble across while channel surfing, this oddly bloodless game is worth a blast if only for the comedy factor.
Showdown at Willow Creek
Available on: PC/iOS/Android
Showdown at Willow Creek from Choice of Games does away with button-pressing gameplay, and instead takes a purely narrative approach.
This text-based interactive storybook has your gunslinger dishing out justice in a small Wild West town. While the story’s relatively linear, the ability to define your character’s gender, sexuality, outlook and so forth makes for an immersive experience.
Outlaws
Available on: PC
Once upon a time there was a company called Lucasarts who, as a subdivision of Lucasfilm, were responsible for creating Star Wars games that weren’t awful. Sadly, the company is no longer in operation, but they were responsible for creating one of the first few Western themed shoot-em-ups.
It may not look particularly pretty by today’s standards, but it still holds its own in terms of gameplay and is faithful to the old Old West movies.
Sunset Riders
Available on: Arcade/SNES/Genesis
An old-school arcade title, Sunset Riders is every bit as daft as Mad Dog McCree, to the point where the game has you running across the backs of stampeding cattle.
It is, or perhaps was, since it’s a bit long in the tooth, old-school arcade entertainment if you play it solo. But rope in another three players and you’re in for some ridiculously multicoloured western mayhem.
Fallout: New Vegas
Available on: PC/Xbox 360/PS3
It doesn’t share Red Dead Redemption 2’s semi-historical bent, but this post-apocalyptic action RPG gives of more of a Western vibe than any other game in the Fallout series.
Fallout: New Vegas’s is the New Frontier, with people struggling to survive in this radioactive pock-marked landscape. There’s settlers, marshals, bounty-hunters and rogue gangs a plenty and while you can mould your own character, playing the game as a morally-questionable gunslinger is especially satisfying.
Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare
Available on: PS3/Xbox 360/Xbox One
Chances are you’ve played the original Red Dead Redemption but it’s easy to overlook Undead Nightmare, the expansion pack which transformed the game into a cowboys vs zombies gore-fest.
The creators of the game stated that, if the original Red Dead Redemption was a cowboy movie, Undead Nightmare was the product of a horror director who rolled in at night to use the same sets. It’s questionable whether the expansion pack is canon or not, but roaming around on an undead horse, lassoing the living dead is an experience that you’d be mad to miss.
Horizon Zero Dawn
Available on: PS4
Another post-apocalyptic entry, Horizon Zero Dawn’s frontier is… oh, who am I kidding.. YOU CAN RIDE A ROBOT HORSE! What other possible reason could you need to play this?
Darkwatch
Available on: Xbox/PS2
Darkwatch, like Undead Nightmare, mashes up the horror and cowboy genres. But now you’re taking on vampires and other nasties as a gunslinger who has joined the ranks of the bloodsucking undead.
Wonderfully over-the-top, and utterly aware of its own absurdity, this Weird Western shoot-em-up is well worth tracking down.
Westerado
Available on: PC
A bizarre blend of shoot-em-up and detective game, Westerado has you hunting down the villain who wronged you, the twist being that you’ve no idea who they are.
Can you, as this cowboy Columbo, gain justice for your family? Even if you can’t, there’s fun to be had just blasting your way through the pixellated frontier.
