Games like Red Dead Redemption 2
The three best games after Red Dead Redemption 2 are Ghost of Tsushima (the same 'exist beautifully in a landscape' craft, samurai edition), Kingdom Come: Deliverance II (deeper immersion, fewer guns) and The Witcher 3 (the only quest writing in the same league). Ten games ranked below by what they preserve: the immersion, the story, or the frontier.
Red Dead Redemption 2 ruins other open worlds for a specific reason: it commits. Weather matters, the camp remembers, and nothing is in a hurry — 92% positive across 908,000 Steam reviews for a game that makes you brush a horse. Recommendations that just say 'big map, good story' miss what actually hooked you.
The ten below are ranked by commitment to that same idea — a world that exists whether or not you are the main character. Each entry names what it carries: the immersion, the writing, or the frontier itself. One is a deliberate skip: the formula most often sold as the next RDR2.
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How we picked these
- A world with its own routines — not a theme park waiting for the player.
- Writing that survives comparison with Arthur Morgan's arc, or comes honestly close.
- Pace: the game must let you walk, camp, and waste an evening on nothing.
- Finished, polished, and 80% positive or better on Steam (exceptions flagged).
- Every rating quoted is from Steam, checkable in one click.
The list
01 Ghost of Tsushima DIRECTOR'S CUT
Ghost of Tsushima is the nearest thing to RDR2's central pleasure — being somewhere gorgeous with a code to live by. Wind instead of minimap, standoffs instead of shootouts, 94% positive across 95,000 Steam reviews. The story is simpler than Arthur's, but the landscape immersion is the genre's next-best.
02 Kingdom Come: Deliverance II
Kingdom Come: Deliverance II out-commits even Rockstar: 15th-century Bohemia where you must eat, sleep, wash, and learn the sword badly before you learn it well. 94% across 193,000 reviews. If RDR2's chore-immersion was a feature for you and not a bug, this is the deepest well on the list.
03 The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is here for the writing: the only open world whose side quests reliably hit RDR2's dramatic level — 97% across 882,000 reviews. The world is more game-y, fast travel breaks the spell — but story for story, nothing else on this page competes.
04 Days Gone
Days Gone is the motorcycle-frontier sleeper: a broken Oregon, a bike that needs fuel and repair the way Arthur's horse needed feeding, and a story that starts slow then earns its 93% across 116,000 reviews. Written off at launch on console; PC players got the fixed version and rated accordingly.
05 Cyberpunk 2077
Cyberpunk 2077 is RDR2's urban mirror — the same 'world first, missions second' density, neon instead of prairie. 87% positive across 973,000 reviews after its redemption arc. Pick it when you want the immersion but not another wilderness.
06 Horizon Zero Dawn
Horizon Zero Dawn swaps outlaws for robot dinosaurs and keeps the frontier feeling — a hostile, beautiful world where preparation before a hunt matters. 88% across 128,000 reviews. More conventional open-world scaffolding than RDR2, but the hunts themselves have real weight.
07 Grand Theft Auto V
Grand Theft Auto V is the other Rockstar answer, ranked honestly: faster, louder, more cynical — 88% across 2 million reviews. Play it when you want the studio's craft without the melancholy. If it was the slowness of RDR2 you loved, this is the wrong direction; everything else here is closer.
08 Red Dead Redemption
Red Dead Redemption — the original, finally on PC at 92% — is the epilogue's prologue: John Marston's own story, older mechanics, same soul. Shorter and simpler than RDR2, and the ending still lands after all these years. Best played after 2, not before.
09 Mafia: Definitive Edition
Mafia: Definitive Edition is for the story-first player: a linear gangster tragedy with RDR2's period commitment squeezed into fifteen hours — 87% across 110,000 reviews. The open city is set dressing; the doomed-man arc is the point, and it rhymes with Arthur's.
SKIP10 Far Cry 5
Skip the 'it is basically RDR2 with a different coat' pitch — Far Cry 5 is an outpost checklist wearing a frontier costume, and its rhythm (clear, loot, repeat) is the exact opposite of what makes RDR2 breathe. It is a decent shooter at 81%; it is not this list's answer. Days Gone gives you rural America with an actual pulse.
Similar but different
DEATH STRANDING DIRECTOR'S CUT
Death Stranding takes RDR2's most radical idea — travel itself as the game — and builds everything on it. Walking a broken America with cargo on your back, 92% across 67,000 reviews. Slower than RDR2, and prouder of it.
Euro Truck Simulator 2
Euro Truck Simulator 2 is the honest version of what many people do in RDR2 anyway: travel, weather, radio, thoughts. 97% across 937,000 reviews. No story, no guns, genuinely restorative.
Outer Wilds
Outer Wilds shares RDR2's rarest quality — a world with its own clock that does not wait for you. A 20-minute solar system instead of a frontier, and the same feeling of being small inside something true. 96% across 106,000 reviews.
FAQ
What is the closest game to RDR2 in feel?
Ghost of Tsushima for landscape-and-honour immersion, Kingdom Come: Deliverance II for simulation depth. Nothing matches all of RDR2 at once — pick which half mattered and the top of this list covers it.
Should I play the first Red Dead Redemption?
Yes — after 2, not before. RDR2 is a prequel, so the original plays as the devastating epilogue of John's story. The PC port sits at 92% and runs clean.
Is there anything like RDR2's honor system and consequences?
Kingdom Come: Deliverance II goes furthest — reputation, dirt on your clothes, and villages that remember. The Witcher 3's choices are heavier per quest, though the world reacts less continuously.
I want another slow game, not another open-world checklist. What do I avoid?
That is why Far Cry 5 is this page's skip: mechanically fine, rhythmically wrong. Death Stranding and Euro Truck Simulator 2, strange as they sound, respect the RDR2 pace better than most prestige open worlds.
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