One aspect of Red Dead Redemption 2 that's earned a great deal of praise is its realism. Red Dead Redemption 2's realistic graphics do a fantastic job of recreating the Wild West, with some scenes from the game looking almost indistinguishable from real life. The Red Dead Redemption 2 photo mode has been used to capture all kinds of awe-inspiring images that could pass for real world photos, and the reverse is also true, a photo of 1906 New Orleans being mistaken as some for an RDR2 screenshot.
A viral post on Reddit shows a colorized photo of New Orleans, Louisiana from 1906, colorized by Sanna Dullaway, who colorizes all kinds of classic black and white photographs. Dullaway's colorization of 1906 New Orleans is the spitting image of Saint Denis from Red Dead Redemption 2, which is no surprise when one considers the fictional city's inspiration. As many fans of Red Dead Redemption 2 likely know, Saint Denis is based on New Orleans, with Rockstar Games clearly going through a lot of trouble to provide an accurate recreation of the city in its open world western game.
It's a testament to Red Dead Redemption 2's graphics and attention to detail that people can look at a real-life photograph and assume that it's a screenshot from the game. Red Dead Redemption 2's visuals are so impressive, in fact, that screenshots of the game have been used to trick local TV stations. For example, an Oregon TV station shared an image of Red Dead Redemption 2's wilderness with its viewers, not realizing that it was a screenshot from a video game and not real life.
Red Dead Redemption 2's impressive graphics are a big reason why many fans are excited to see what's next from Rockstar Games, as the studio's next project will likely leverage the power of the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X consoles to offer a greater level of realism. It will definitely be interesting to see just how far Rockstar can push the graphical limits with the new consoles, but there are some things fans can check out in the meantime.
For instance, there is a Red Dead Redemption 2 8K mod that adds ray tracing to the game and ups its realism even further. Over time, it's possible that more graphics mods will be made for Red Dead Redemption 2 to make the game look even better, and so those playing the PC version may have a lot to look forward to in the months and years ahead.
Meanwhile, fans can keep their fingers crossed that an official Red Dead Redemption 2 next-gen port materializes, though Rockstar is focused on the GTA 5 PS5 and Xbox Series X port first.
Red Dead Redemption 2 is out now for PC, PS4, Stadia, and Xbox One.