Gaming Red Dead Redemption 2 (PC, PS4, Xbox One, Stadia)

[Real Name]

Thinking about buying Playstation just so I can play this game.

Bad part is how to explain to kids they arent allowed to play Playstation too much all the while their dad is playing it for hours.

 

[MiceOnMeth]

Been meaning to replay this but I always stop at the start of chapter 2
It's just such a long slog of a game with very samey "ride here, shoot 100 people, ride back" type missions

 

[Van Piorsing]

Been meaning to replay this but I always stop at the start of chapter 2
It's just such a long slog of a game with very samey "ride here, shoot 100 people, ride back" type missions

This thing is definitely omnipresent, also or even especially in later chapters.

'Oh Arthur, you've slaughtered equivalent of a big town population, but you gave me money, you're such a good man !'

Cringed few good times at the storytelling which is heavily structured, painfully similar to watching TV series, when most episodes end in shooting gallery. Had a similar thing in Days Gone, and it's almost the same thing here. If you can go past these first 'camps', there's definitely some quality content to show for.

Dutch unintentionally summed up the whole game.

 

[VeevaVee]

I've found the racist guy in Saint Denis who you can freely twat about with no repercussions from the law. I gave him a thump and he ran away. Went back and now when he sees me he runs away, so I obviously chase him and give him another thump. Great fun.

I tied this guy up, took him to the swamps and fed him to an alligator. Horses for courses

 

[Bebe]

Been meaning to replay this but I always stop at the start of chapter 2
It's just such a long slog of a game with very samey "ride here, shoot 100 people, ride back" type missions

The missions and general gameplay in RDR2 are mostly crap imo.

Happily for Rockstar the story, atmosphere, graphics, music and sense of immersion are all 10/10. It's one of the oddest (and best) gaming experiences I've ever had.

 

[AfonsoAlves]

I've never managed to finish this game (or even get to the big city), because certain aspects of the mechanics are really jarring. It just isn't...fun for me.

For an RPG the scale of this, there's a few key elements you can judge on:

Character Development Mechanics - How you can "adjust" your build, the different gameplay styles, the way you wish to play your character as (Stealth assassin, gungho gunslinger, Moral do-gooder etc)

Game Combat Mechanics - How well the game feels to play in the most important aspect.

Storyline and Character design - How well the story of the RPG sinks you in.

Game immersion, world design, graphics etc - How does the world feel to step foot into

RDR2 is a solid 10/10 on Game Immersion, a solid 3/10 on Character development, a meh 6.5-7/10 on Storyline and character design and I would honestly give the Combat mechanics 2/10.

The immersion is incredible, there's no doubt about that. Excellent world, amazing mechanics - etc.

Combat mechanics are awful. Point. Shoot. Get big gun. Point. Shoot. Switch to pistol. Point. Shoot. Get a bow and arrow. Point. Shoot. There's no challenge, there's no difficulty. The only way this game scales in challenge is when they just throw hordes of enemies at you. Compare the difficulty scaling to something like Dark Souls or Elden Ring. The combat mechanic is so repetitive. Shoot them off horseback or just get behind cover and blast them. You either get a small gun, a medium gun or a big gun. The only combat variation is the range in which you shoot your gun. You have a knife but using that in most combat scenarios is suicide.

Character Development Mechanics are the same as the above - and partially driven by the above. There's literally no way to play the game any differently other than a guy who goes around butchering and shooting up entire towns. There's barely any stealth mechanic outside of hunting, there's no such thing as "builds." Compare to Cyberbunk (which has a bunch of other issues) - you can choose to be a melee guy with blades, an edgerunner with hacks, a shoot em up kinda guy or a stealth assassin. I'm not saying these are viable for RDR2 but there's practically no variety in how you can setup your character to approach the game.

Storyline is decent, character design is decent - some characters are just awful whereas others are really good.

 

[Kaos]

I've never managed to finish this game (or even get to the big city), because certain aspects of the mechanics are really jarring. It just isn't...fun for me.

For an RPG the scale of this, there's a few key elements you can judge on:

Character Development Mechanics - How you can "adjust" your build, the different gameplay styles, the way you wish to play your character as (Stealth assassin, gungho gunslinger, Moral do-gooder etc)

Game Combat Mechanics - How well the game feels to play in the most important aspect.

Storyline and Character design - How well the story of the RPG sinks you in.

Game immersion, world design, graphics etc - How does the world feel to step foot into

RDR2 is a solid 10/10 on Game Immersion, a solid 3/10 on Character development, a meh 6.5-7/10 on Storyline and character design and I would honestly give the Combat mechanics 2/10.

The immersion is incredible, there's no doubt about that. Excellent world, amazing mechanics - etc.

Combat mechanics are awful. Point. Shoot. Get big gun. Point. Shoot. Switch to pistol. Point. Shoot. Get a bow and arrow. Point. Shoot. There's no challenge, there's no difficulty. The only way this game scales in challenge is when they just throw hordes of enemies at you. Compare the difficulty scaling to something like Dark Souls or Elden Ring. The combat mechanic is so repetitive. Shoot them off horseback or just get behind cover and blast them. You either get a small gun, a medium gun or a big gun. The only combat variation is the range in which you shoot your gun. You have a knife but using that in most combat scenarios is suicide.

Character Development Mechanics are the same as the above - and partially driven by the above. There's literally no way to play the game any differently other than a guy who goes around butchering and shooting up entire towns. There's barely any stealth mechanic outside of hunting, there's no such thing as "builds." Compare to Cyberbunk (which has a bunch of other issues) - you can choose to be a melee guy with blades, an edgerunner with hacks, a shoot em up kinda guy or a stealth assassin. I'm not saying these are viable for RDR2 but there's practically no variety in how you can setup your character to approach the game.

Storyline is decent, character design is decent - some characters are just awful whereas others are really good.

Its standard Rockstar jank tbh. Wonderful world building, but the mechanics feel dated and clunky. I liked how they toyed with RPG elements in San Andreas, but since then their games have mostly been cookie cutter cover shooters. Sound design of the weapons is terrific though.

GTA gets away with it because, well the 'GTA' element, the bulk of the fun to be had is with the driving mechanics. Naturally that doesn't translate well into horse and carriage.

 

[AfonsoAlves]

Its standard Rockstar jank tbh. Wonderful world building, but the mechanics feel dated and clunky. I liked how they toyed with RPG elements in San Andreas, but since then their games have mostly been cookie cutter cover shooters. Sound design of the weapons is terrific though.

GTA gets away with it because, well the 'GTA' element, the bulk of the fun to be had is with the driving mechanics. Naturally that doesn't translate well into horse and carriage.

The most fun I had with GTA is just grabbing a load of weapons and going around the city with maxed out stars.

But yeah, GTA is also insanely repetitive with its combat mechanics.

 

[amolbhatia50k]

I think it's probably bc it's not the get up and run around with your head cut off while defying all the laws of physics like gameplay that a Fortnite has. Kids be crazy.

I don’t even understand the supposed issues with the gameplay. What’s so bad about it? I have absolutely no issues whatsoever.

I’ve never played Fortnite. No, it’s simply that the combat loop is pretty much unchanged from ancient Rockstar titles. I loved RDR1 - it was one of my favourite games of that console generation. RDR2 builds on it in every way aside from the combat which remains, inexplicably, almost identical. This loop began to grate me first in GTA5 which was the fist GTA I couldn’t bring myself to love. RDR2 is a vastly superior game imo but maintains that significant flaw except it stands out even more as a 2018 title.

To each their own, we all value different things in games of course. And I’m not saying it’s a bad video game as that would be objectively wrong given it’s superb by so many metrics you could judge a game by. But I do think moment to moment gameplay is an essential part of these games - it doesn’t even have to be best in class but here it’s genuinely poor imo.

The other major flaw is the mission design which is extremely on rails - not allowing for any agency for the player whatsoever. While they thought of every possibility in poking at its open world that a developer can, they want you to just be a sheep and follow the script to the tee on missions which are usually extremely routine, linear and unforgiving to doing anything outside the box.

It’s also important to point out that this isn’t an anomaly - the view of Rockstars outdated combat is not really that uncommon.

 

[TrustInJanuzaj]

How could the gunplay be better though? Feel more like cod? I just don’t really see what else you can do with the shooting mechanics, also it’s not an RPG, it’s an open world sandbox.

 

[HTG]

How could the gunplay be better though? Feel more like cod? I just don’t really see what else you can do with the shooting mechanics, also it’s not an RPG, it’s an open world sandbox.

Playing on PS5, I agree. No idea how you would do it differently. And I’ve actually not struggled with it. I actually like it. But everyone’s different, I suppose.

 

[Redlambs]

I’ve never played Fortnite. No, it’s simply that the combat loop is pretty much unchanged from ancient Rockstar titles. I loved RDR1 - it was one of my favourite games of that console generation. RDR2 builds on it in every way aside from the combat which remains, inexplicably, almost identical. This loop began to grate me first in GTA5 which was the fist GTA I couldn’t bring myself to love. RDR2 is a vastly superior game imo but maintains that significant flaw except it stands out even more as a 2018 title.

To each their own, we all value different things in games of course. And I’m not saying it’s a bad video game as that would be objectively wrong given it’s superb by so many metrics you could judge a game by. But I do think moment to moment gameplay is an essential part of these games - it doesn’t even have to be best in class but here it’s genuinely poor imo.

The other major flaw is the mission design which is extremely on rails - not allowing for any agency for the player whatsoever. While they thought of every possibility in poking at its open world that a developer can, they want you to just be a sheep and follow the script to the tee on missions which are usually extremely routine, linear and unforgiving to doing anything outside the box.

It’s also important to point out that this isn’t an anomaly - the view of Rockstars outdated combat is not really that uncommon.

Completely agree.

I really can't be arsed going into the mechanics behind how it could be better with people who bring up Fortnite and Cod (both games funnily enough that have superior modern feels, even if they are being used as as a negative here) as some kind of metric vs Rockstar and their incredibly odd feel to their gameplay.

I love the world and the setting of RDR2, but the gameplay was a big nope for me. Even the Mrs, who has cleared the game fully 3 times and usually is so much more forgiving than I am, says the gameplay is very much "just get through it" rather than adds to the fun.

 

[TrustInJanuzaj]

Completely agree.

I really can't be arsed going into the mechanics behind how it could be better with people who bring up Fortnite and Cod (both games funnily enough that have superior modern feels, even if they are being used as as a negative here) as some kind of metric vs Rockstar and their incredibly odd feel to their gameplay.

I love the world and the setting of RDR2, but the gameplay was a big nope for me. Even the Mrs, who has cleared the game fully 3 times and usually is so much more forgiving than I am, says the gameplay is very much "just get through it" rather than adds to the fun.

I’m not taking the piss just asking a genuine question. For me the gunplay feels soo much better than a game like cod for example. There’s a real weight behind it and the guns actually pack a very realistic punch. Is it purely because the characters movement is slow and heavy as opposed to the quick and nimble of style of those other shooters? If so I don’t see how that’s anything to do with “being modern” it’s just a stylistic choice and one I personally prefer.

It’s the mission structure that feels more outdated to me with the linear story beats and if you fail an objective you lose style thing.

 

[Hoof the ball]

How in the feck did so many quit during the prologue?! Before the map even opens up!

Mental.

Redcafe is a weird place. It's the only place on the Internet where people "give up" or "quit" something routinely after the first episode of a show, or hour of a game.

Like, just play the fecking thing and see how you feel when it's done. It's not hard.

 

[amolbhatia50k]

Redcafe is a weird place. It's the only place on the Internet where people "give up" or "quit" something routinely after the first episode of a show, or hour of a game.

Like, just play the fecking thing and see how you feel when it's done. It's not hard.

Not really. It’s human nature to not want to spend more time on something you’re not really enjoying. Who the hell spends 60 hours doing something without considering whether they’re having fun or how much fun they’re having? If anything, it’s a weird fan thing to consider not proceeding with an unfun activity as “quitting” or “giving up”. You’ve not married the product ffs.

 

[One Night Only]

Not really. It’s human nature to not want to spend more time on something you’re not really enjoying. Who the hell spends 60 hours doing something without considering whether they’re having fun or how much fun they’re having? If anything, it’s a weird fan thing to consider not proceeding with an unfun activity as “quitting” or “giving up”. You’ve not married the product ffs.

I see you are clearly not a golfer.

 

[Hoof the ball]

Not really. It’s human nature to not want to spend more time on something you’re not really enjoying. Who the hell spends 60 hours doing something without considering whether they’re having fun or how much fun they’re having? If anything, it’s a weird fan thing to consider not proceeding with an unfun activity as “quitting” or “giving up”. You’ve not married the product ffs.

If you pay 50 quid for something and then quit two hours into a game that you know is a story driven narrative then all the more foolish. You already know that the point of the game is the narrative, so if you don't allow the narrative reasonable time to play out, what's the point?

I'd understand if it was a game that was based around gameplay loop and sheer mechanics, but it's not. It's based around narrative. You have to know this much when you buy a game like Red Dead.

It's not even as though you have to play it in one setting. Folks are like, "I haven't got time for a game that long", as if you can't play 30 minutes, save and come back another day.

 

[amolbhatia50k]

If you pay 50 quid for something and then quit two hours into a game that you know is a story driven narrative then all the more foolish. You already know that the point of the game is the narrative, so if you don't allow the narrative reasonable time to play out, what's the point?

I'd understand if it was a game that was based around gameplay loop and sheer mechanics, but it's not. It's based around narrative. You have to know this much when you buy a game like Red Dead.

It's not even as though you have to play it in one setting. Folks are like, "I haven't got time for a game that long", as if you can't play 30 minutes, save and come back another day.

Maybe it’s on PS plus / game pass? Maybe they’re well off? Maybe they aren’t high schoolers with endless hours to waste?

You say that the point of the game is the narrative as if it’s some interactive movie. If someone isn’t enjoying playing a video game, don’t see why they should keep torturing themselves to play.

This isn’t even related to this game. I wouldn’t begrudge anyone not wanting to play Deus Ex or Witcher 3 if they aren’t actually having fun. This notion that there is some essential duty to the game to see it through no matter how little one is enjoying it, and anything but submission to it is “giving up” is daft. Do what you enjoy - free time is precious.

 

[Big Andy]

Into Chapter 5 now, and I'm annoyed with my bedroom being upstairs and indoors, he's a fecking Gunslinger, not Alan Partridge.

I've stopped doing the story missions for a bit, and I'm going round doing the legendary fishing challenge and trying to get all the Cigarette Cards, as well as Legendary animals when I stumble across them.

I just like riding round on my horse, camping outside, hunting and stumbling across side missions. I've just found the severed head with a note in it, so I'm looking for the others now. I've been reasonably good and not googled much so far in terms of locations of stuff, I managed to find 2 treasures but I had to google those as I had no idea where the things were and I needed cash.

Saint Denis is mental, I accidentally ran into someone with my horse, tried to defuse it and then the cnut shot at me, so I punched him and then about 200 police started chasing and shooting at me. I'M THE feckING VICTIM HERE YOU cnuts.

Playing a high honour Arthur, so I spend most of my time helping folk, except that guy who keeps on getting bitten by snakes. I helped him twice, and the third time I just shot the cnut.

Also, where is GAVIN??