Set in an open world, Red Dead Redemption 2 is set in the fictional American West and features a third-person perspective. Players control an outlaw named Arthur Morgan, a member of the Van der Linde crime syndicate gang, and complete different missions to advance the plot. Outside of the missions, players are free to explore the open world as if they were playing a sandbox game. Players can ride horses or walk throughout the western US and Mexican worlds with a top-down feel. The gun battles in the game have a bullet-like time setting. Players can mark multiple shooting targets on enemies in a slow-motion period of time. There is a moral value system in the game. Not only does the player's behaviour affect the player's reputation, but also the attitude of NPCs towards the player changes accordingly. The game has a multiplayer mode, which allows up to sixteen players to participate.

During the game, players can duck into cover, aim freely, or lock onto a target character or animal. Players can also selectively hit certain body parts to immobilise the target without killing them. The target's AI will react differently when the player hits different parts of the target. Weapons available include regular pistols, revolvers, rifles, semi-automatic rifles, shotguns, explosives, ropes, Gatling machine guns, knives, Indian tomahawks and more.

Red Dead Redemption 2 is being developed by Rockstar Games and features RAGE. the game was initially expected to be released in 2017, but was later pushed back to spring 2018 before it was confirmed that the game would be released on October 26. The game's music was produced by Woody Jackson, who produced the music for Drakengard.Rockstar Games is the game development division of game publisher Take-Two Interactive, based in New York, USA, formerly BMG Entertainment's game publishing division BMG In 2005, Take-Two established the 2K Games brand, as well as the 2K Sports brand for sports games and the 2K Play brand for casual games, in order to differentiate its games from those published by Rockstar. The 2K Games brand, as well as the 2K Sports brand for sports games and the 2K Play brand for casual games, were created to consolidate the resources of the original Take-Two studio development brands.