WESTERNS, PLEASE.

Exploring a modern day city like Los Santos in Grand Theft Auto V or New York City in The Division, or even exploring Boston with 1950’s aesthics with Fallout is cool and all but one thing that videogames are missing is: Westerns.

What is missing from videogames is the American frontier of the early colonialism  days to the days of the Outlaw in the 1800’s, the Frontier lasted almost 300 years until the early 20th century when expansion of the Government and the technology of steam trains to cars came to the West, destroying the way of life that was always there. The era is filled with romanticism, romance, wars, genocide and leaders like General Custer, General Robert E. Lee, and Sitting Bull were part of this fascinating era. There’s so much events that can be seen in open world videogames if developers give it a shot.

Looking at the success of Hollywood that it has with the West, and looking at Red Dead Redemption which is one of the best open world games in forever, it’s hard to wonder and be baffled at why nobody has ever done a Western videogame that isn’t GUN or the Red Dead Anthology, Red Dead Redemption is proof that the West can work in a videogame if you do it properly. We need more Westerns like Red Dead Redemption and it’s upcoming sequel that is dropping next Fall, Red Dead Redemption 2.

The time setting of the 1800’s has so many events that we can explore in an open world setting or a linear narrative game. Events like the Civil War and the Native American War with General Custer, Manifest Destiny, and exploring the West can all be done.

Going West.

The entire expansion to the West is horrific and interesting, you have Manifest Destiny, you have the Trail of Tears, you have the Civil and the Native American Wars that plagued most of the West and the Midwest in the 1860’s to the 1890’s and ultimately, the death of the West in the first decade of the 1900’s. There’s alot of history and let’s don’t include the early years of the Frontier where there was forests and alot of history that went down in the 1600’s, a game similar to the Revenant would be awesome.

I think, personally there’s alot of demand from gamers that want to see the Frontier in a videogame that isn’t Red Dead or GUN, I would love to see another good western that is similar to Red Dead by Bethesda or by 2K Games, another company that is in the hands of Rockstar’s parent company, Take-2 Interactive.

I think while there’s alot of demand, there’s alot of “meh.” going around when it comes to Western games. There’s risk when you place a game in the days of the frontier, especially when it comes to the Wild West.  The only example to go by that was a big success was Red Dead Redemption, and while that game was a masterpiece, I think there’s fear that if you do a Western game, you might not be able to live up to Redemption or Rockstar’s games at all.

Red Dead Redemption is a kind of game that is too good and like I said, anything that isn’t Red Dead or Rockstar would be compared to Redemption, one of the best games of the past 6 years.

Red Dead Redemption is a complete masterpiece, Rockstar nailed it and set a high bar with Westerns that nothing would ever live up to it, but one thing is for certain: We need more Westerns.