Finishing Red Dead Redemption 2 leaves more than a story behind. There are people you have spent whole evenings with, roads you know well enough to ride without thinking and a camp that became somewhere to return to between the big moments. Looking for the next game can feel less like choosing another adventure and more like deciding where you want to live for a while.
The most interesting games like Red Dead Redemption 2 offer different parts of that attachment, from a medieval world that asks you to learn its habits to another crime family whose welcome becomes complicated. These ten PC recommendations are all on Steam, with a few shorter Western detours for when you want the frontier without another enormous commitment.
The most natural journey after Red Dead Redemption 2 leads into the future of the people you already know. The first Red Dead Redemption follows John Marston years later, and spending so long around the gang changes the weight of meeting that world again. A name that would once have been an introduction now carries a history, making this an unusually rewarding case of playing a series out of release order.
It moves more briskly than Arthur's adventure, with less of the everyday business that made camp feel like somewhere to live, but that sharper pace suits John's story. The PC edition includes the original campaign and the separate Undead Nightmare adventure, so there is another rather different Western waiting once you have followed him through. Begin here if the people, their loyalties and the changing frontier are what you most want to keep thinking about.
Some of Red Dead's best hours happen on the way to the mission, when the journey becomes interesting enough to interrupt whatever you intended to do. Kingdom Come: Deliverance II understands that appeal, sending Henry through a medieval Bohemia where learning to forge a blade or mix a potion can become a useful diversion of its own. Improving those skills changes how he manages the next job, so time spent living in the world feeds back into the adventure.
The same gradual competence carries into swordplay, where learning a parry and understanding the weapon in your hands matter more than simply acquiring an impressive suit of armour. That slower relationship with everyday tasks makes this one of the richest places to settle after Red Dead. Henry's story continues from the first Kingdom Come, so the earlier adventure is worth beginning with if you want to follow the person as closely as the place.
Calling the wind to guide Jin Sakai across Tsushima is a lovely way to make travelling somewhere feel like part of the scene. The island's fields, forests and troubled villages supply plenty of reasons to leave the direct route, while Jin's attempt to protect his home gives the journey a personal direction. That combination will be familiar to anyone who kept riding in Red Dead long after the practical reason for the trip had disappeared.
The fighting provides a more immediate change of pace, building encounters around the sword, a well judged defence and the tools Jin acquires along the way. His responsibilities also pull against the traditions he was raised with, keeping the story involved in what becoming effective might cost him. It is a strong next adventure when a memorable landscape and a character caught between loyalties matter more than finding another cowboy to play.
Tommy Angelo begins Mafia as a taxi driver with a fairly understandable interest in staying out of trouble, then gets drawn into a family that makes trouble look like an opportunity. Following his rise through the Salieri organisation gives the jobs a personal cost, because the people opening doors for him are also the people whose expectations become harder to escape. The pull of belonging is an excellent reason to continue after Red Dead's gang.
Lost Heaven supplies the streets, cars and atmosphere of a 1930s crime film, while the campaign keeps Tommy's story moving with a much firmer hand. Treat the city as the setting for that story and its more directed structure becomes a pleasure, especially after an adventure that happily let you disappear for days. The appeal is seeing where his involvement leads, with another uncomfortable job rarely far away.
Replacing a horse with a motorbike does not make the next journey much safer, particularly when the fuel tank is nearly empty and the road runs through infected territory. Days Gone makes Deacon St. John's bike part of his relationship with the Pacific Northwest, turning a stop for supplies or a repair into something worth planning around. Familiar routes gradually become places you know how to survive.
That attachment to travelling is what makes it an interesting follow up to Red Dead, while Deacon's history and loyalties give the long campaign more to work through than another dangerous road. The infected hordes demand a very different kind of preparation from an ordinary encounter, encouraging you to look at the terrain before starting a fight you cannot easily stop. Give its slower character story room to develop alongside those increasingly ambitious plans.
Geralt can set off to deal with a monster and end up listening to an account of village life that makes the contract considerably less straightforward. The Witcher 3 gives its detours room to become stories about people, with a rumour or a paid job leading into somebody else's grief, pride or badly concealed history. Following them is an excellent way to recover the pleasure of Red Dead's unexpected encounters.
Geralt brings a more established place in that world than a character you create yourself, and the people who know him have opinions that reach back beyond the current quest. That helps the larger adventure carry some familiarity even as you enter somewhere new. Let the conversations complicate the job before deciding how to finish it, because the most interesting thing on the road is often the person who would like you to believe their version of events.
A hillside in Death Stranding can hold your attention for longer than an entire fight elsewhere, because getting a load of supplies across it is a problem you have to understand. Sam Bridges' deliveries turn terrain into a series of decisions about footing, equipment and the route you are willing to risk. Reaching somebody on the other side is satisfying partly because you know exactly what the trip involved.
For a Red Dead player who enjoyed the space between the dramatic moments, that attention to travel can be a powerful draw. The setting is stranger and the storytelling considerably more eccentric, but its lonely distances acquire warmth through the people you connect. Going online also lets other players' structures become part of the landscape, making a useful bridge a small reminder that somebody else struggled along this road before you.
The car in Mad Max begins as a means of staying alive, then gradually becomes a project you take personally. Scavenging parts and improving the Magnum Opus changes how confidently you approach the next stretch of wasteland, especially once a convoy turns a distant cloud of dust into an opportunity. Those upgrades are satisfying because the road keeps providing occasions to use them.
It offers a more direct kind of companionship than Red Dead's cast, putting much of the attachment into a machine that carries your progress through a hostile place. The story is leaner, while the pleasure lies in getting out, finding what you need and coming back better equipped for another violent journey. That makes it a useful change of pace when you want the roaming and the sense of ownership without immediately committing to another enormous character drama.
A Western robbery becomes a rather different proposition when you can stop and consider what every member of the crew should do. Desperados III gives John Cooper's companions distinct skills, then fills a location with guards whose routines are there to be understood. One character draws attention while another moves into place, and an obstacle that seemed impossible starts to look like several small problems you can solve together.
The Showdown mode lets you pause to coordinate those actions, making a successful sequence feel like the result of knowing your people as well as knowing the ground. It is a much closer, more deliberate kind of planning than roaming Red Dead's frontier, but the setting and the pleasure of a capable gang carry across beautifully. A few minutes spent watching can be the difference between a clean escape and discovering why the plan needed another minute.
Silas Greaves has a story to tell, and Gunslinger is quite happy to let his telling become part of the action. Following the bounty hunter through encounters with famous outlaws turns the Western into a lively tall tale, with a narrator whose version of events is almost as entertaining as the gunfight taking place inside it. The pleasure is in letting him keep talking while you try to keep shooting.
Combos and score chasing give the combat a brisk arcade rhythm, making this a particularly good answer when you miss the genre but would rather avoid another long settling in period. It trades Red Dead's patient everyday detail for a more concentrated dose of legends, dust and increasingly improbable danger. After so much time spent living on the frontier, hearing somebody make a performance out of it is a refreshing way to end the trip.
Where should you go after Red Dead Redemption 2?
Follow John into Red Dead Redemption if the gang is still on your mind, or make room for Kingdom Come: Deliverance II when the everyday life around the story is what you miss. Mafia supplies another close crime drama, while Ghost of Tsushima is a wonderful reason to take the long route across a landscape. Gunslinger offers the easiest change of pace when you want another Western and would prefer to get moving quickly.
A different setting can be easier to appreciate once you know what you are hoping to find in it. Our story game recommendations lean further into characters and writing, while the open world selection offers more places where a detour can become the evening's adventure.