Red Dead Redemption 2

When you have to paint it on?

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Yup

Finished chapter 6

probs the best story of any game i’ve played, i am exhausted by it though, felt like I WAS Arthur

Sadie is so great - really comes into her own. Would hope there is a female lead / co-lead in the next GTA.

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Here's a MASSIVE TL;DR on my thoughts on the game (about 30% completion - on chapter 3) which I wrote to my gaming pal who is weighing up whether to get the game or not

Well now, I have thoughts a-plenty about RDR2; I’ll try to share them with you as coherently as possible. First thing to say is that I’m not massively far through it (I managed to make good inroads in half-term but progress has stalled since returning to school).

First of all: I really really like it; I’m enjoying it far more than I thought I would and though it is clearly a huge leap forward in some ways I think that a lot of the hype surrounding it is misplaced: essentially although it is much more sophisticated and nuanced than GTA it is essentially GTA with horses in the minute to minute playing of the game.

I was reluctant to play it as cowboys don’t hold nearly the place in my heart that wizards and aliens do but the more grounded (literally) setting actually works really well with slower pace and more considered narrative.

I can’t say that I’m as impressed by the limitations of freedom that are described in that article: it’s one of the things that I think is most copy/pasted from GTA: break the law and you get chased by law enforcers: the more that you break the law, the more persistently you’ll be hunted. I suppose the difference is that in GTA if you managed to escape then you mostly could swan around afterwards as you pleased whereas in RDR even if you escape there are consequences later to your actions. However, as I’m a fairly conservative and law abiding player by nature so I’m not really going to go around shooting up townships for the giggles anyway so it hasn’t really affected me much.

The two main strengths of RDR2 are the scenery and the characterisation. It is really very pretty indeed (although I’m more of a graphics tart than you I suspect). There are times when my ps4 will whine as if it’s attempting take off as it struggles with processing all the falling leaves, rippling water and swaying horse-hair: it’s impressive how seamlessly it presents this beautiful open world though. The clouds and sunsets are the best I’ve ever seen in a video game.

Characterisation is brilliant too. Despite my reservations about playing such a male-heavy game I do genuinely care about Arthur and his relationships with other members of the gang. Dutch, the gang leader, is especially brilliant. The quality of the writing is much much better than is the video game standard: there’s one or two laugh out loud funny bits and some genuine pathos when you discuss the loss of the gang’s way of life as the American West civilises itself.

A lot of the flaws in the game, I think, are products of the limitations in the very nature of video games themselves. You can’t have everything: you can either have agency and control over the player-character OR you have a well-rounded and scripted character who is written for you. It’s hard to have both (mass effect tried with mixed results) and RDR mostly scripts Arthur for you but gives you some opportunities to fine-tune how he behaves in the world in some of the missions. The same thing applies to the story: if you want a game that is well-scripted you have to accept than it won’t have complete freedom: you’ll be steered towards pre-written story moments. I don’t mind the lack of freedom in the story as the pay-off for narrative is so good.

The game mostly works well mechanically: there are a LOT of systems to get your head around and it can be a bit overwhelming to start with. Some of them work well, shooting and reloading feel good; some are tricky to get your head around (I still don’t understand how ‘core refilling’ really works) and some are just plain annoying (why can’t you store things in your saddle bag when your satchel is full?)

Overall: I love it. I’m enjoying it but I think it’s an evolution rather than something dramatically different or new. I think there will always be a tension in games between player agency and pre-scripted stories but I think this game makes a good a fist as any of getting that balance right.

This is the article he sent me that I’m responding to:

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Her, Lenny, Arthur, Dutch and Hosea are the stars of the show. All very well-written (well apart from Lenny, who is just great for the bants).

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on chapter 4 now

this ain’t gonna end well is it?

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If you have subtitles on these are in English no matter what language is being spoken.

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Yeah i’d agree with that and add Charles. The glimpses you get into his history / makeup are pretty interesting and has a great stoic formidable aura.

Loads of side characters / strangers are also brilliant. Best crop from the open world games I’ve played I think.

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dutch is a really tragic figure, in a way. i was prowling around his tent and there are books he owns about organising society in a kind of proto-anarchist way, you can read excerpts from them. there’s also old newspaper clippings showing how the gang used to give away money from bank jobs to the poor. he’s truly lost his way now tho. on chapter 3 and i can feel the storm clouds gathering :slightly_frowning_face:

he’s like a misguided cult leader tied to this twisted ideal of freedom. They’re just killers looking for an excuse really

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Chapter 5+ spoilers.

I was a bit caught off guard with them going to Guarma as I was so engrossed by the standard map, but the fact that they / Dutch got a glimpse into their apparent dream retirement location - and it was a total hellhole was a great touch I think. There is no escaping the inevitable.

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yeah i mean, at least arthur knows himself, and knows what he is.

In principle i agree with tou. But the writing in GTA is so diabolical, especially when it comes to portraying women that i dread to think what theyll come up with

On anither ntoe. I wish i got to chapter 3 sooner, the game has really started to come into its own

Yeah that was my one concern, but RDR2 has the same writers as GTAV so hopefully they can build what they’ve done, because it’s easily the best to come out of Rockstar.

Never played GTAV Online, but I presume you can create a female character?

Maybe it’s the contemporary setting and feeling the need to shoehorn in pop culture nods that detracts from the female writing.

GTA is so frimly stuck in ham fisted satire that im doubtful, but one can only hope! There is a problem when Saints Row is basically a larger than life cartoon drenched in sex, camp and drugs and they can write a better lead (which can be male or female with different accents… or a zombie) with more nuiance and sensetivity than the whole of GTA combined

Does anyone find the missions a bit too… easy? With shootouts you can leave yourself exposed to gunfire, take damage multiple times, then take cover and clear out 10 or so enemies without any problems. The only times I’ve had to retry missions was with quick-draw duels. Maybe I should de-activate auto-aim or go first person? I’m only at the end of chapter 2 so still some way to go yet… In fact hunting is much more challenging and requires greater consideration, imo

Story missions are easy. The randim encouters i end up endulging are pretty difficult. Its a good trade off i think, dont stop progress but the challenge is there if u look for it

I never enjoy playing rockstar games enough to want a significant challenge becauae gameplay is usually 2nd to the sandbox, roleplay and world

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