The best games like Red Dead Redemption 2 can help you get swept up in sprawling adventures, draw you into the world of the wild west, or deliver an experience that not a million miles away from the escapades of Arthur Morgan. As one of the best open-world games and best RPGs around, Red Dead Redemption 2 is easy to get lost in, with an expansive setting, surprising random instances, and an engrossing main campaigned framed by many side quests. But once you've ready to part ways with Arthur for a spell and step into something new, you might find yourself looking for games like Red Dead Redemption 2 to scratch the same itch.
Whether you love the wild west and want to keep your cowboy hat on, or you're after another big adventure, there are plenty of great alternatives out there for you to explore. So saddle up as we take you through the best games like Red Dead Redemption 2 you can play right now.
Best games like Red Dead Redemption 2
Red Dead Revolver
Developer: Rock Star San Diego
Platform(s): PS4, Xbox One (backwards compatibility)
Take a trip back to 2004 and see where the Red Dead series started in this Revolver PSN port that still holds up with impeccable form. What it lacks in open-world structure it makes up for in cinematic style. Switching between protagonists throughout the story, your main rogue is Red Harlow, a deadly bounty hunter whose parents were murdered by the vicious Colonel Daren. An adrenaline-pumping revenge story that is always introducing a fun new mechanic, Revolver focuses on highlighting its arcade shooting style, excellent duelling mini-game and mission variety, which will be a refreshing jolt of fun for Red Dead Redemption fans, especially if they loved the combat within their beloved Rockstar western.
Gun
Developer: Neversoft
Platform(s): PC
You may or may not have heard of GUN, depending on how old you were around the dawn of the last console generation. Whilst Red Dead Redemption bookended the heyday of the Xbox 360/PS3, Gun kicked it all off. In a pre-Red Dead world, Gun was a deeply ambitious and realistic Wild West simulator, crafted by Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater legends Neversoft. With satisfying, crunchy combat and a reactive open-world, It’s still well worth a punt for the extremely cool bullet-time ‘Deadeye’ system alone if you can deal with the admittedly dated graphics. In any case, it’s viable as a history lesson, and another interesting take on the third-person open-world western, a fairly limited genre.
Call of Juarez: Gunslinger
Developer: Techland
Platform(s): PC, Xbox One (backwards compatible), Nintendo Switch
A decidedly absurd twist for the series, Call of Juarez: Gunslinger is an arcade shooter from Techland of Dead Island and Dying Light fame. Leaning into the stories and tall tales that gave cowboys and the old west their notorious name, you play as a bounty hunter mopping up the likes of Billy the Kid and Jesse James. The kicker is that this is all relayed during a drunken exchange at the bar, with our unreliable narrator spoofing the tropes and jogging his memory of the Old West during his account. It makes for a much more light-hearted affair than Red Dead Redemption’s often-grisly tone.
West of Loathing
Developer: Asymmetric
Platform(s) : PC, Nintendo Switch
Speaking of absurdism, West of Loathing is a recently released indie darling from the team behind the hilarious cult browser RPG Kingdom of Loathing. Instead of offering vague fantasy tropes, this time around the stick figure world is grounded in the Old West. As well as being a belly laugh a minute, West of Loathing is a surprisingly deep RPG with a goof-filled open world and a bean-slinging protagonist. If you’re tired of Red Dead’s tricky controls and just want something simple, appealing and extremely well-written and funny whilst still grounded in the outlaw lifestyle, you cannot go wrong with West of Loathing and it’s addicting turn-based combat.
Bully: Scholarship Edition
Developer: Rockstar
Platform(s): PC, PS4, Xbox One
If you enjoy Rockstar’s tongue-in-cheek writing style and the more zany of the Strangers and Freaks side missions in Red Dead Redemption, you will love Bully and its stylistic, character-driven world. Like Marston, Jimmy Hopkins is an outlaw in his own right, just placed in a different setting, that of the notoriously strict Bullworth Academy. Instead of finding old gang members, you’re working through gangs of high school stereotypes, uprooting corruption at the core. Another detailed open-world full of collectables and unique weapons, Bully: Scholarship Edition is another finesse-filled Rockstar story that’s well worth playing.
Fallout: New Vegas
Developer: Obsidian Entertainment
Platform(s): PS4, Xbox One and PC
New Vegas might not be a Western in specific terms, but it certainly feels like one, right? A mysterious courier left for dead in the middle of an unforgiving desert… Factions of outlaws vying for control and ancient guns that love to jam. Aside from the thematic comparisons and old-world vibes, Fallout: New Vegas is another incredibly detailed open world with a gripping story, one that you can tinker with to your heart's content on PC with the excellent modding scene. That’s only after you’ve finished exploring, wrapping up the bountiful side quests and engaging with the troupe of colourful companions who will join you on this adventure, which is made to be played multiple times. It truly is one of the best Fallout games of all-time.
Hunt: Showdown
Developer: Crytek
Platform(s): PC, PS4, Xbox One
The only strictly multiplayer entry in this list, Crytek’s Hunt: Showdown is for the keen bounty hunters among us who wish to take their skills online. Set in 1890s Louisiana, you must explore swamplands in this survival horror FPS to find your monster mark, whilst an Undead Nightmare-esque plague descends on the map. A mixing pot of mythology and Wild West iconography, gameplay involves frenetic gunplay with old school weaponry, but the interesting approach to the gameplay by including PVE and PVP engagements is what makes this lawless shoot-em-up shine.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
Developer: CD Projekt Red
Platform(s): PC, PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch
Another game that is deservedly in many player’s top 10 list, The Witcher 3 might not be a western, but it’s one of the very few open-world RPGs that offer as much detail as Red Dead Redemption. From the gripping narrative where your choices actually matter to the emphasis on exploration and getting lost. The Witcher 3 should offer a familiar deluge of fun to those of us looking for something more post-Marston. Geralt’s emotional range might also delight those tired of the typical stoicism of Old West outlaws.
Grand Theft Auto 5
Developer: Rockstar
Platform(s): PC, PS5, PS4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X
Like Bully, GTA 5 isn't set in the wild west - although some Los Santos neighbourhoods would give the American Frontier a run for its money - but it does share many of the Rockstar traits that elevate it above the rest. San Andreas isn't anywhere near as big or impressive an open world as Red Dead Redemption 2's old west, but it is brimming with side ventures, business opportunities and hedonistic distractions that will keep you coming back for more and more. Sadly there are no horses and carts in modern day SA, but there are flying DeLoreans - which is almost a nod to RDR 2's era via Back to the Future Part 3, yeah?
The Oregon Trail
Developer: Gameloft
Platform(s): PC
The preeminent western game that popularised a genre accident by accident. The first in a series of educational computer games - billed at the time as "edutainment" - in 1971, and latterly produced by the Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium (MECC) in 1974. While aimed at school children as a means of illustrating the harsh realities of 19th century pioneering, The Oregon Trail is brutal in its storytelling - with players tasked with combating everything from hunger to harsh elements, feral animals, and, believe it or not, dysentery. Despite its age, The first Oregon Trail game can be played for free on the Visit Oregon state tourism website.
