Rockstar’s latest epic Red Dead Redemption II has a lot going for it right now and with the online mode now rolled out to the masses it’ll likely be a popular game for a long time to come as well.

I’m playing through the campaign now and it amazes me just how incredible everything looks. There’s no shortage of things begging for screenshots and the game even provides a cinematic mode to really show it off. My favourite image so far though has to be this:

This was literally the first thing I saw after loading the game and I didn’t even realize that it was interactive. Once I moved the controller Arthur would stand up from the rock and the camera would return to the over the shoulder view. This has happened before when an untimely death would whisk me to a picturesque location to begin again but this time around it just seemed an inspired way to make the player continue the experience from the camp.

GTAV was good at doing the same when switching characters and finding them in various locations, with a spot of crazy thrown in for Trevor, so I’m glad that kind of thought has carried on here. It’s a good way to get you reestablished in the game again if you’ve not played for five days or five minutes.

There’ll be more to say about the game soon but for the moment I can’t help but be impressed with the work that’s gone into making this game look as good as it does in addition to setting the right tone. Considering the scale of it (one heck of a big map here) that is an impressive achievement and one that will be hard for many to beat.

Red Dead Redemption II is out now for Xbox One and PlayStation 4.