Red Dead Redemption 2

Sorry for the lengthy post but I have a lot to say as someone who is playing the game for the first time now that the post-launch hype and recent-bias has somewhat died down. There isn't any story spoilers here, only stuff about random encounters which I've tagged.

TLDR: Cracking game but the controls are ruining it.

Long version:

The greatest compliment I can pay to Red Dead Redemption 2 is that the level of immersion is higher than any game I’ve ever played. This is reinforced by first person mode and in my opinion it’s the best way to experience the game. The various systems like horse bonding, purchasing, looting and fistfights are just easier to navigate in first person. I’ve had to make some adjustments e.g. I turned off head bobbing and switched to ‘standard FPS’ to make it more traditional but for the most part it’s solid. Additionally, the level of graphical detail is actually more pronounced when you’d expect it to be low textured in a traditionally third person series so it really does feel like R* made a first person version of the game from the ground up and haven’t just tacked it on.

Graphically, this is the most photo-realistic open world I have ever seen. The weather and lighting is just stunning in any location or time of day. The gun models, the horses, the mud etc etc etc is second to none. I would say all aspects of the graphics excel…except the face models. R* has never got face models right and I only notice this because the cut scenes are very cinematically directed and the environmental graphics are so good. The music is also very complimentary to the visuals, and the way the ambient music fades in and out at just the right moments while in free roam is spot on.

Gunplay is raw and intense. Love the sound and feel of each gun and the way Arthur reloads weapons, it all feels weighty and deliberate. Enemies blend in with the environment realistically so you really do have to try to make them out or follow the trajectory of smoke from their gunshot to locate them. I like that the cover system doesn’t actually feel like a cover system in that it’s not designed in an easy or obvious layout for the player. You essentially have to “find” cover so if you’re entering a combat situation without scouting and planning first you’ll likely die wasting time trying to get a decent spot. Also, wooden crates will be shot through instantly along with any other weak looking cover so I don’t even bother with those.

Enemy A.I. is clever, they are quick and will take every opportunity to get a shot in so knowing when to keep your head down is important. An interesting development is that lock-on feels deliberately loose presumably to encourage the use of Dead Eye. In RDRedemption1, Dead eye was your reward for doing critical kills but here it almost feels like a requirement in shootouts to ensure accuracy. It reminds me of V.A.T.S. from Fallout in that regard… or maybe it’s me and I just need to set lock-on to ‘wide’ in settings.

Voice acting is top notch for the most part (I’m not sure if Molly is Irish or not…) I always listen to NPC chatter in towns; they’re always so different and interesting. I enjoy all the conversations at the camp as well and how the gang’s response to me changes if I return bloody or dirty or have been gone away a little long. I’ve only ever heard camp dialogue repeated once in my 20+ hours with the game and the various tasks each gang member performs are always so varied. I myself enjoy all the chores and always do them when I can.

I also love how dialogue is entirely contextual.
Speaking of Sadie, It’s little things like that - the non-verbal story telling that this game does best. Oh and speaking of the ledger, I like that when making purchases you can actually zoom in close enough to actually read the writing without the need for a ‘read’ option.

I’ve heard a lot of talk about how the main story is good but at this point in chapter 2 I have no interest in it. The Arthur in cut scenes is not my Arthur anyway and I find the best stories in the game are ones you find whilst simply exploring the world, as cheesy as that sounds. It’s not just the “random” (they’re so obviously meant to cue at certain times) encounters but every abandoned home or empty shack leaves you wondering what happened before you showed up.

There’s so much freedom in conversations that could lead to completely different outcomes without you necessarily needing to verbalise your choices. For instance, Of course this meant abandoning the legendary bear pelt I had just skinned but I was happy to do it because my Arthur is basically a saint.

Speaking of horses, they are everything and the fact that you need to take care of your horse’s well being actually made me a better rider. Sadly, I lost my favourite one. Spent such a long time bonding with it and even got to max bond level. Basically, I came across some O’Driscolls at a random ranch and a gun battle ensued. I got off my horse and left her behind, didn’t ask her to flee as I assumed she would do that on her own as she always did when things got too heavy. For some reason this time she didn’t flee, presumably because our bond was high, and she decided to run into battle to help me out. She got injured, I rushed over to her but got shot in the process and we both died as a result. I got my revenge by killing every single last O’Driscoll in the ranch (even the ones who attempted to flee) but the emotional damage was done. My bond with my new horse will never be the same.

My favourite memory of my old horse (who I named Phobos ) was when R* got me mourning fake horses y’all!

On that note, I enjoy the slow and realistic feeling of the mechanics. I feel like I exist in a living world and not like everything is just there for Arthur as a resource. You can't call your horse from all the way across the map, for instance, because obviously it won’t hear you. Not that there’s anything wrong with being able to do so – Assassin’s Creed Odyssey is awesome but that’s an entirely different type of open world game. In RDR2 there’s a lot of give and take and, depending on the type of player you are, you’ll either love that or hate it. I personally enjoy the fact that the game being as realistic as it is means you can’t have everything – well, you can but it will take time.

For instance, on my way to a bounty mission I had scored some game and put the pelt on the back of the horse. When I found my target I hogtied her but realised there wasn’t room for both the pelt and the woman. Valentine was miles away as was my camp and I didn’t want to auto-fail the bounty or lose my pelt so I had no choice but to put the pelt on the horse and carry the woman all the way to Valentine with my (late) Phobos following me close behind. It seems long when I say that but actually I was at my destination before I knew it. Simply figuring out how to traverse the world on foot while making sure I wasn’t leading the horse behind me into environmental hazards while carrying a woman calling me every name under the sun became it’s own challenge. So time felt like it passed very quickly. I successfully got her to Valentine, collected my bounty, got on my horse and returned to the camp with the pelt. Turns out I couldn’t use the pelt to craft what I wanted anyway as it was merely ‘good’ and not ‘perfect’.

There isn’t much I dislike about the game itself (emphasis on the game itself) but I will say that the new survival-esque systems don’t really mesh well with the traditional R* style…or more specifically the traditional R* mission structure doesn’t fit with these awesome new systems and needs to go. For a game that’s so slow this has to be one of the most impatient games I’ve ever played. Don’t believe me? Look at the optional objectives in the mission brief - 99% of them have time limit achievements. Why the rush? Every auto-fail is “So and so was abandoned.”

In previous R* games, auto fails for not sticking to the mission made sense because there wasn’t a thousand things you could do at the same time but I don’t understand why I can’t very quickly shoot a rabbit with my bow while on my horse, run to it, pin it’s pelt on the horse and continue following my gang who are trotting along very slowly anyway. It takes merely seconds but the game literally doesn’t want you to do anything else when you’re on a mission. I get the emphasis on storytelling but in God of War if the game didn’t want you to deviate from the current mission it would simply lock you out of doing it. In Bethesda games NPCs continue without you and will even meet you at the objective when you arrive at a later date. Don’t give me choices and then punish me for them. :rolleyes:

That said, the linearity is jarring but I can get used to that. What I cannot get used to are the controls which are absolutely DREADFUL. I don’t know how it is for XBox players but on PS4 it’s a nightmare. What a mess of a UI system. I understand that it’s hard when you have this many systems but they could have done a better job with the mapping. I don’t feel like the muscle memory is there yet even after 20 or so hours. Most of the time I die is because I’m faffing about trying to equip the right weapon or trying to figure out what I’m supposed to do. I mean X to crouch and square to jump Why not circle to crouch, square to punch and X to jump? And the touch pad that R* has dedicated to their cinematic camera could have easily been toggled to pull up the map like most current gen games… Even selecting things in your item wheel is clunky and inconsistent. Release L1 to select

Hilariously, the game knows that the controls are complicated so the tutorials never stop repeating. It doesn’t help that the tutorials seems to appear in real-time...in a game that doesn’t allow you to take your time during missions to figure things out before auto-falling, and there seems to be no log for the last thing you learned from what I can see. How anyone can play it without HUD is beyond me.

Anyway, I do enjoy the game immensely and at 20 or so hours my patience with the controls has not run out. Yet.

Zero-Cool wrote: »

Fair play to ya, great post. And fair play to me for reading it all. Even though I'm finished the story and solely playing online now, your post has made me want to go back and play on first person. I miss chatting to Sadie #IWantSadieDLC

Thanks, I realise it's a lot but wow, this game is something else. So much to unpack, highly ambitious. Just needs better controls and UI.

When in Saint Denis and come out of shop and horse is surrounded by people do not sprint up to horse and press Y as you will rugby tackle someone nearby and become wanted. Found out the hard way.

Discovered Saint Denis yesterday for the first time at night. My goodness it's stunning. If you haven't gone there at night yet do so and put it in FP to enjoy the scenery! Went to the theatre for the first time and was

@Donegal I think you're supposed to press right trigger lightly to draw/ fill up the DE meter then tap it again when ready which starts the DE animation. The longer you draw/fill up DE the more time you'll have in DE. If you take too long to draw i.e. opponent draws first you will miss your DE opportunity and will enter real-time. I think.

Agree about the bounty system. The game desperately wants the player to experience it and will do anything to make that happen. I accidentally bumped into someone at Saint Denis during the day, walked away without saying anything and got a bounty of $15 for 'disturbing the peace'. To cut a long story short I now have $245 bounty on my head as a result of knocking into someone accidentally. :rolleyes: Although I suppose the fact that I survived and killed every one of my pursuers is an indication I'm getting a grip on the controls...