Red Dead Redemption 2 is quite possibly one of the best games of its generation. The game developed by the wizards at Rockstar North has become one of the many swan songs sung for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One – a truly epic adventure set in an open world filled with content.
RDR 2 invites the player to a painstakingly recreated world of the dying wild west, with the shadow of civilization looming in the once vast and empty horizon. If you’re interested in games that offer a similar experience to that of Red Dead Redemption 2, then check out our list of games similar to Rockstar’s opus magnum.
| Name | Release | Genre | Developer | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Assassin's Creed III: Remastered | 2019-03-29 | Adventure | Ubisoft |
 | Grand Theft Auto V | 2015-04-14 | Adventure | Rockstar |
 | Grand Theft Auto V | 2015-04-14 | Adventure | Rockstar North |
 | Fallout: New Vegas Ultimate Edition | 2010-10-21 | Adventure | Obsidian Entertainment |
 | Fallout New Vegas | 2010-10-21 | Action & Shooter | Obsidian Entertainment |
 | GUN | 2005-11-17 | Action & Shooter | Neversoft Entertainment |
 | Call of Juarez: Gunslinger | 2013-05-22 | Action & Shooter | Techland |
 | Red Dead Redemption | 2010-05-18 | Adventure | Rockstar Studios |
 | Red Dead Redemption 2 | 2019-11-05 | Action-adventure | Rockstar Studios |
Assassin's Creed III
| Release year: | 20 November 2012 (PC), 29 March 2019 (PS4, XONE), 21 May 2019 (Switch) |
| Genre: | Adventure |
| Developer: | Ubisoft Montreal |
Released initially on PS3, Xbox 360, and PC, Assassin’s Creed III was the first major shakeup in the franchise’s history. Not only did the game offer one of the largest open-world maps at the time (the frontier measured 1.41 km/squared), but it also introduced various new mechanics, such as firearms (flintlock pistols and muskets), dual-wielding of certain weapons, and naval combat. Many of these aspects would be improved upon in further installments of the series.
But what does AC III have to offer for the fans of Red Dead Redemption 2? Definitely the spirit of the American frontier. The game is set during the War of Independence and features places and characters important to that period. As a Mohawk warrior Connor, the player will explore the vast forests of New England, visiting the cities of New York and Boston, and participate in the events that helped shape American history while carrying out the Assassin’s quest against the Templar Order.
Desperados III
| Release year: | 16 June 2020 |
| Genre: | Strategy |
| Developer: | Mimimi Games |
The first title on our list of games like Red Dead Redemption 2 set in the actual Wild West. Desperados III is the prequel to Desperados: Wanted Dead or Alive, a classic real-time tactics game. In Desperados III, the players will learn the origins of the protagonist of the series, John Cooper. The player will meet other characters who will join their party throughout the game, including a hired gun Doc McCoy, a trapper Hector Mendoza, femme fatale Kate O’Hara, and Isabelle Moreau, a voodoo priestess.
Desperados III makes full use of its real-time tactics genre, equipping each character with the skills necessary to overpower or outsmart the enemies. As the game features stealth elements, the player is encouraged to use their wits to sneak past enemies or go in guns-blazing, chaining each character’s skill for a powerful combo. Some could say that Desperados III is a far cry from the open-world adventure of RDR 2, but in our opinion, the game deserves a place on the list due to its atmosphere and solid mechanics.
L.A. Noire
| Release year: | 8 November 2011 (PC), 14 November 2017 (PS4, XONE, Switch) |
| Genre: | Adventure |
| Developer: | Rockstar Leeds |
You can stop scratching your heads. We know that L.A. Noire doesn’t have much to do with RDR 2’s Wild West setting. But don’t worry, there’s a reason we decided to put Team Bondi’s game on our list. In L.A. Noire, a WWII veteran Cole Phelps joins the LAPD force. After he successfully solves a murder case, Phelps is promoted to a detective and sent on the streets of the City of Angels to work on the most notorious criminal cases.
We said that there was a reason this particular game was on our list of titles similar to RDR 2. Actually, there are two – open-world setting and realism. While the game is less sandbox-y than Red Dead Redemption 2, it allows the player to explore Los Angeles circa 1947 and take in the climate of the city. The game’s realism comes from the stunning for its time graphics and various crime-solving mechanics that required the player to read the expression on other people’s faces to ascertain the truthfulness of their testimony. Spending some time in L.A. Noire solving crimes is a nice respite after hours spent on bank-robbing in murdering in Red Dead Redemption 2.
Marvel's Spider-Man
| Release year: | 7 September 2018 (PS4), 12 November 2020 (PS5) |
| Genre: | action |
| Developer: | Insomniac Games |
If you want to experience the open-world setting but hate riding horses from place to place, we have the perfect game for you. 2018’s Spider-Man, developed by Insomniac Games, allows you to feel the wind in your hair while swinging hundreds of feet in the air.
The game is set in a faithful replica of New York’s Manhattan, where Peter Parker works as a lab assistant to Doctor Otto Octavius and fights crime as the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. The game offers plenty of content, including hundreds of collectibles, plenty of side-missions to kill time in between story quests, and more. Experience the thrill of high altitude superheroics in Marvel’s Spider-Man.
Grand Theft Auto V
| Release year: | 14 April 2015 (PC), 18 November 2014 (PS4, XONE) |
| Genre: | Adventure |
| Developer: | Rockstar North |
GTA V is a quintessential open-world sandbox game, which all the Red Dead Redemption series fans should play. In the fifth installment of Rockstar North’s series, the player controls three characters – a washed-up bank robber, an up-and-coming gangbanger, and a lunatic drug dealer – completing missions located on the largest map in the series history.
The game is filled with optional content, with side-missions, random encounters, scattered collectibles, etc., littered all over the map of Los Santos and Blaine County. And if you get bored in the single-player, you can join the crazy world of GTA online, where you’re always two steps away from being blown up with a rocket launcher.
Fallout: New Vegas
| Release year: | 19 October 2019 |
| Genre: | Adventure |
| Developer: | Obsidian Entertainment |
Fallout: New Vegas takes the player for a trip into the future, where the United States of America have been turned into a post-nuclear wasteland. As a member of a courier company working around the Mojave Desert, the player will explore the region controlled by various warlords, completing quests for them.
The game has a very Western feel to it, which the fans of Red Dead Redemption 2 will definitely appreciate. It’s also full of things to do outside the main quests, including a variety of side-missions. If you want to experience the Wild West of the post-apocalyptic future, then Fallout: Ne Vegas is the game just for you.
Gun
| Release year: | 9 November 2005 (PC), 8 November 2005 (PS2, Xbox) |
| Genre: | Action & Shooter |
| Developer: | Neversoft |
If the Red Dead Redemption series is “The Unforgiven” of the Western-theed video games, then Gun is “The Quick and the Dead.” Neversoft took a less serious look at the genre and produced a game that features mad priests, feral Civil War generals, and power-hungry landowners. The game’s plot focuses on the search for Quivira, a legendary city of gold.
The gameplay features quite a decent amount of interesting mechanics, including a Quickdraw mode, in which the time slows down, and the shooting targets are marked on the screen with arrows. Sounds familiar? Gun features an open-world setting with two main towns and a vast prairie between them, where the player can complete various side missions. Fans of open-world shooters will definitely enjoy this easy-breezy cowboy game.
Red Dead Revolver
| Release year: | 4 May 2004 |
| Genre: | Action-adventure |
| Developer: | Rockstar San Diego |
Red Dead Revolver, the progenitor of the Red Dead Redemption series, introduced many of the mechanics the RDR 2 is known for, including the Dead Eye system, dueling, and the general Western feel. The player takes the role of a gunslinger, Red Harlow, searching for the man who murdered his father.
Unlike the Red Dead Redemption series, Red Dead Revolver doesn’t feature an open world, with the prospector town Brimstone serving as the explorable hub. While not as content-heavy as Red Dead Redemption 2, the first installment of the Red Dead series deserves a chance, if only to prove how far the developers have come.
Call of Juarez: Gunslinger
| Release year: | 22 May 2013 (PC, PS3, X360), 10 December 2019 (Switch) |
| Genre: | Action & Shooter |
| Developer: | Techland |
Besides its Western setting and competent FPS gameplay, the game’s main selling point is its narration. Unlike Red Dead Redemption 2, which followed a more or less linear storyline, Gunslinger takes the player through a rollercoaster of events, thanks to its unreliable narrator Silas Greaves.
The protagonist tells tall tales of his cowboy exploits, only to change them halfway should anyone contest the facts. This leads to unexpected changes in the game’s progress, with events rewinding, settings changing within seconds, and characters appearing out of thin air. If you can remember one of the quests in RDR 2, related to one elderly gunslinger, you will know exactly what kind of game you have on your hands.
Red Dead Redemption
| Release year: | 18 May 2010 |
| Genre: | Adventure |
| Developer: | Rockstar San Diego |
Our list of games like Red Dead Redemption 2 wouldn’t be complete without the previous installment of Rockstar’s Western series. Red Dead Redemption introduced many of the mechanics RDR 2 built on – a vast open-world filled with content, a gripping story of dying Old West, and the protagonist that we’d all die for.
John Marston’s quest to save his family and leave the life of an outlaw behind was one of the best-written pieces of gaming storytelling in the history of the medium, and his noble sacrifice to provide his wife and son with a chance at better life is to this day considered one of the most heartbreaking moments in gaming.
