Red Dead Redemption 2 allows you to both metaphorically and physically bond with the horses. The way to build a bond with your horses is pretty simple. You can pat them, feed them, brush them, and if a threat is nearby, calm them. Doing these simple actions allows you to gain benefits from your horse. Most importantly you are able to call it from further away.
As you use your horse more and more often to get around and complete missions, you train up its stamina. Training the stamina allows it to run at the fastest pace for longer. Training up the horses stamina is no easy task though as it takes a considerable amount of time.
As you can probably tell me and my horse spent a large amount of time together bonding and as such I was devastated when he was brutally killed by some ruthless bounty hunters.
Without spoiling too much of the game you are "Wanted Dead or Alive" in one part of the map. This means that if "the law" see you they will chase you down and kill you. Whilst I was wondering through this section of the map to complete a story mission some bounty hunters spotted me. It wasn't just a small group either as about six or seven more appeared after they'd spotted me.
Within seconds I was mashing the sprint button trying to get as far away from them as possible but it seemed as if all was lost as they gained on me. I turned around and began my finally stand. But before I knew it the bounty hunters had shot my horse square in the head. It wasn't long before I also fell.
When I respawned I noticed I still had a horse, but it wasn't my horse. I had been given a new one. I never anticipated that a game would make me feel this way about a death. I felt like someone had taken something from me.
Rockstar Games have really done something impressive with this game that I never thought would happen. They honestly make the horse bonding mean something to you and the more you bond with a horse the less you want to take it into battle. I've never felt bad about an action I've made in a video game until this moment. It was really strange to feel anything at all for a virtual horse.
I really recommend that you try Red Dead Redemption 2 as you may find something in it that you love. I honestly was on the fence at first but after reading some reviews and hearing some thoughts from my gaming friends. I bit the bullet and haven't stopped playing for 2 days now.
-Blane Zemunik
