Ariel Pippin

An often overlooked, yet essential aspect of a good visual narrative is the music. Whether it be a movie, television show, or video game, if the story contains some type of emotional element, it becomes the music's job to drive that element home. If you played Rockstar's Red Dead Redemption 2 last year, you experienced a story with a fair amount of emotional complexity that challenged the themes of loyalty, morality, and freedom, and did so in a way that resembled nothing short of a masterpiece. Like most stories of this nature, an enormous bow was needed to tie all of those layers together and create an experience that was just as moving as a movie you'd see at the theater, or a television show that you'd watch at home. Woody Jackson's The Music of Red Dead Redemption 2: Original Score serves as that metaphorical bow, elevating the game to be the immersive, unforgettable experience that is Red Dead Redemption

The song that stood out the most for me personally was Revenge Is A Dish Best Eaten , which served as the musical counterpart for the game's mission of the same name. It begins with an elegant string section, calling into mind the city of Saint Denis and the lavishly devious character of Angelo Bronte. Soon after, an eerie horn emerges into the piece, serving representative to Dutch in a tension-building contrast to Angelo Bronte's strings. The two instruments, while complementing each other, build two separate forms of tension in the same way that the ego-centric, power-hungry personalities of Dutch and Bronte clash with one another. The two personalities dance around with each other until they can no longer coexist. The horns build, rapid guitar strums emerge, then we experience an unnerving high set of strings, right before everything stops all at once for a brief moment. In that brief moment, Dutch kills Bronte. Right as it passes, a heavy string section crashes in to represent Arthur Morgan's horror in realizing just how far Dutch has strayed from the man he once k

His decisions always get members and innocent people in harm's way. As the game progresses, he gets increasingly more vile and selfish. Despite claiming to be faithful to Dutch, it’s made apparent that Micah only cares about one person, which is himself. Kudos to Rockstar for making one of the most detestable characters in gaming hist

This happened around a year before the events of the game take place which helps give the gang an interesting dynamic. Players get to see what it's like to play as a veteran of the group in Arthur and interact with someone who's a recent addition trying to earn trust and loya

The act of listening to this score pulls you right back into the experience of playing the game and watching its story unfold. Each song's instrument choice, structure, and climax emotionally matches the storyline in which it represents. For example, Mrs. Sadie Adler, Widow , structurally mirrors the narrative arc of its character, Sadie Adler. The low, melancholy strings start the track off in a tone of tragedy, calling to mind the fact that Sadie's story begins with the murder of her husband. The song continues to build in pace, as heavy drums and high strings come into the mix, setting a more powerful, menacing tone, and representing Sadie's transformation from victim to outlaw, and a full-blown member of the Van der Linde gang. We finally progress into a conclusion that resembles what might serve as the soundtrack for a horror movie set in the wild west, as screeching strings mirror the building of tension while Sadie accompanies John Marston on a mission to confront Micah Bell at the story's

Foreshadowing in storytelling can come in many different forms and is often only obvious with a second viewing or experience. During the game Recommendations, both Hosea and Lenny can be heard stating that when they're buried they wish to be placed near frie

Josiah Trelawny is on and off member of the Van Der Linde gang. This means that loyalty isn’t one of his defining characteristics. Josiah will usually leave the gang for long periods of time, only to come back when he was a new profitable

Considering he was a former slave it's likely that it was due to racism or pro-slavery ideals. This led Lenny down a dark path that had him killing those men for killing his dad. It was purely revenge and caused Lenny to go on the run before finding comfort inside the Van Der Linde g

Lenny happens to be one of the few members of the Van Der Linde gang that doesn't get a nickname of any sort. Many of the other members either have names that they earned through crime or deeds, but Lenny never really obtains one at any point in the g

Where GTAV shines — outside of the ever-improving, insanely replayable online mode — is its living, breathing open world. There's so much to do and see in the new San Andreas that players could spend hours doing nothing of real conseque

In Red Dead Redemption 2 Strauss' story directly affects the lead character, Arthur Morgan. Strauss' actions play a big role in Arthur finding redemption in his way as the events of the game unfold. Here are 10 things about Red Dead Redemption 2 's heartless bookkeeper, Leopold Stra