What are your opinions on Red Dead Redemption 2 so far?

[Elfgore]

So, I finally finished the game. Epilogue included. It was another Rockstar game in all honestly. The normal might go on a little too long, have some real trivial missions, as well as have some wonky controls.... but I had a lot of fun. Once I started picking up how close I was coming to the end, I couldn't put the controller down. Think I stayed up until like two or three in the morning. Plus the song that plays for the last mission... mhmmmm. It might beat So Far Away from the first game.

Spoiler: Lotta spoilers, don't read if not finished main story!!!!

Some random rambles of mine incoming. First off, this game has made me think the most about my decisions near the end than any other video game. I feel like a bunch of people have a different end to the story and the man Arthur was. He was tired and dying, all he cared about was doing right for the people he wronged. Hair and facial hair was never cut after the river boat robbery. For the last three hours I didn't wear my hat. Got shot off somewhere and I decided Arthur didn't care anymore. This actually lead to a very special moment for the last mission when he puts on his hat for the last ride. It was, emotional and a very fitting end to the Arthur I played. The gang was done as was Arthur, but he had one more ride he had to do, so he put on his hat once more. Call me a sap but I teared up a little.

I still have some massive complaints about the shitty bounty system and the uselessness of the bandanna. Okay, I put the bandanna on in the middle of the woods and ran for solid five minutes to reach the train... how do they know Arthur Morgan is robbing the train? There is literally no purpose to it.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

About those staple small-talk riding sections on your way to actual gameplay:
They're so boring R* had to throw in a "cinematic" mechanic where the screen gets letterboxed and automatically toggles through different camera angles as the scene goes along, essentially transforming the thing into a cutscene. The only real difference is you have to keep pushing X or whatever, which is annoying, so why not just make it into a cutscene? Is it because it's not that important? Then why have it in the first place? Everything's well-performed but the dialogue basically goes in circles.

 

[Mcgeezaks]

About those staple small-talk riding sections on your way to actual gameplay:
They're so boring R* had to throw in a "cinematic" mechanic where the screen gets letterboxed and automatically toggles through different camera angles as the scene goes along, essentially transforming the thing into a cutscene. The only real difference is you have to keep pushing X or whatever, which is annoying, so why not just make it into a cutscene? Is it because it's not that important? Then why have it in the first place? Everything's well-performed but the dialogue basically goes in circles.

GTAV had the cinematic camera as well but it was totally worthless because there was no way you could drive a car without crashing into everything when using it.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

About those staple small-talk riding sections on your way to actual gameplay:
They're so boring R* had to throw in a "cinematic" mechanic where the screen gets letterboxed and automatically toggles through different camera angles as the scene goes along, essentially transforming the thing into a cutscene. The only real difference is you have to keep pushing X or whatever, which is annoying, so why not just make it into a cutscene? Is it because it's not that important? Then why have it in the first place? Everything's well-performed but the dialogue basically goes in circles.

GTAV had the cinematic camera as well but it was totally worthless because there was no way you could drive a car without crashing into everything when using it.

Didn't play long enough to discover it.
I think RDR2 just needs you to hold down X, not sure that steering matters at all.

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

Arthur as a character really grows as the plot progresses. As you say, he starts of as this misled idiot but the further the game progresses, the more it becomes apparent that Arthur has a keen understanding of his own situation and realizes just where it is all headed. Doing some of the side quests also reveals an actually well done deliberation on his morality and life choices.

Yeah, the side missions are never ignored for the potential value and depth they add there. One in particular had ended with Arthur answering someone's personal question with a certain admittion of emotion that caused a surprise tug at the heartstrings at a moment when my guard was down.

 

[dscross]

A few useful tips [https://rockstarintel.com/red-dead-redemption-2-hidden-controls-and-tricks/] to make life easier on the frontier; some of which I still wasn?t aware of.

As for the horse speeds, from what I?ve read there is a tapping rhythm that needs to be felt out for each horse to maintain max speed with minimal stamina loss. Generally it?s somewhere between mid-to-end of the gallop stride. Just make sure the stamina icon stays white and adjust if it flashes red. You can also simply hold the sprint button down to give your thumb a rest, but your horse will back off slightly from an all-out sprint. Alternatively, you can place a marker on the map and get up to a sprint, then enable cinematic mode to auto-pilot to your destination. From what I?ve seen though due to terrain changes and NPC variables it isn?t entirely foolproof.

 

[Catfood220]

I have taken to wearing a dead fox as a hat. Because why not? It looks utterly ridiculous.

And Goddamn it, this game is good at making me feel guilty at what I'm doing. Not only do animals run off and then lie down and whimper and cry in pain when you simply wing them. But there are times when you can have deep and meaningful conversations with a couple of the women in the camp. A couple of nights ago, Arthur had two conversations that basically went,

"I'm not doing so well...I'm killing animals for no reason...I'm killing innocent people..."

Goddamn it!!! Thinking about it, yeah, I did go on that house robbery mission and kill that Hillbilly family. There was no reason for that, they were just defending their property and I killed them for a couple of hundred bucks. There was that time when I was caught looting someone and got witnessed, I shot that witness but someone else saw me. So I shot that witness but someone else saw me so I had to kill that one. It was something out of a comedy sketch me racing back and forth up one bit of road taking care of these people. But they didn't deserve to die.

I try not to kill unless fired upon first, preferring to hogtie people I decide to rob. But these two conversations made it seem like I was doing serious psychological harm to Arthur. Goddamn it game!!!

 

[dscross]

K - I've played it now. I think this might be one of my favourite games ever. I'm pretty blown away by it. The controls are absolutely fine for me, whatever people are saying (but hey I like tank control as well so I guess I'm weird). The character upkeep is not intrusive like everyone keeps saying, in my opinion (I've barely noticed it) and the riding around on horseback for ages is one of the things I loved about the original. People who don't like that should have played rdr1 first to see if they liked the style.

The world itself is amazing. It's so immersive. It's not an action-heavy game. It's a take your time with some action interspersed kind of game (like the first game was). You need to be on board with that in order to enjoy it.

If you can live with the above and liked rdr1, I highly recommend it for people who haven't played it. It's awesome.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Now that the world's opened up a bit I'm loving the game more and more. The attention to detail to the world is insane. I like how the random events and side activities have taken an even bigger life since the first game, like the whole backroom robbery business that came up purely ona series of hunches and just played out seamlessly and unobtrusively. Wish the missions were a little more like that. Also wish they were upfront about the bonus objectives leading to gold rather than tell you after the fact, as it is the game forces you to play each mission twice before acing it.

 

[dscross]

I have taken to wearing a dead fox as a hat. Because why not? It looks utterly ridiculous.

And Goddamn it, this game is good at making me feel guilty at what I'm doing. Not only do animals run off and then lie down and whimper and cry in pain when you simply wing them. But there are times when you can have deep and meaningful conversations with a couple of the women in the camp. A couple of nights ago, Arthur had two conversations that basically went,

"I'm not doing so well...I'm killing animals for no reason...I'm killing innocent people..."

Goddamn it!!! Thinking about it, yeah, I did go on that house robbery mission and kill that Hillbilly family. There was no reason for that, they were just defending their property and I killed them for a couple of hundred bucks. There was that time when I was caught looting someone and got witnessed, I shot that witness but someone else saw me. So I shot that witness but someone else saw me so I had to kill that one. It was something out of a comedy sketch me racing back and forth up one bit of road taking care of these people. But they didn't deserve to die.

I try not to kill unless fired upon first, preferring to hogtie people I decide to rob. But these two conversations made it seem like I was doing serious psychological harm to Arthur. Goddamn it game!!!

I got that too! It made me reconsider if my wrongdoings were really worth it. It starts with one random encounter but often spirals into a chain reaction of unintended death. I also finally found an above average horse that I?ve taken a liking to so would rather avoid as many hairy situations as possible.

I finally robbed a train properly but the take didn?t seem worth it, even with two safes. The most successful was only clearing about $20 after the bounty I accrued. One time I was in the red (no pun) because I crossed state lines on the train and got a bounty there too.

I?ve actually been surrendering more lately, making sure to spend pretty much all of what I have first. Much more efficient than paying bounties. I also really want to find some treasures. Got a map for one but no idea where it might be, and supposedly there are non-map ones worth a lot more.

Now that the world's opened up a bit I'm loving the game more and more. The attention to detail to the world is insane. I like how the random events and side activities have taken an even bigger life since the first game, like the whole backroom robbery business that came up purely ona series of hunches and just played out seamlessly and unobtrusively. Wish the missions were a little more like that. Also wish they were upfront about the bonus objectives leading to gold rather than tell you after the fact, as it is the game forces you to play each mission twice before acing it.

I think it?s on purpose to serve as something merely extra from a challenge perspective; to try after getting a feel for the mission. If I saw those objectives before starting every mission I?d be less keen on paying attention to the story or letting things play out naturally, especially for the time limit stuff.

 

[dscross]

Best crossover of 2018 [https://www.reddit.com/r/reddeadredemption/comments/a03lm8/kratos_in_red_dead_redemption_2_god_of_redemption/]

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Now that the world's opened up a bit I'm loving the game more and more. The attention to detail to the world is insane. I like how the random events and side activities have taken an even bigger life since the first game, like the whole backroom robbery business that came up purely ona series of hunches and just played out seamlessly and unobtrusively. Wish the missions were a little more like that. Also wish they were upfront about the bonus objectives leading to gold rather than tell you after the fact, as it is the game forces you to play each mission twice before acing it.

I think it's on purpose to serve as something merely extra from a challenge perspective; to try after getting a feel for the mission. If I saw those objectives before starting every mission I'd be less keen on paying attention to the story or letting things play out naturally, especially for the time limit stuff.

I get it, immersion. Just wish at least I could skip the "playable custscene" portion of missions upon replay.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Just got a profanity check for trying to name my horse Sarah Jessica Parker. What the hell?

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

Just got a profanity check for trying to name my horse Sarah Jessica Parker. What the hell?

Okay that was pretty good!


OP: Got a question on side missions. I'm towards the ending chapters, like just got off the island and want to go save John. But I don't want to rush to the end, but I can't find any side missions. I keep seeing a white bubble up in the north where professor Farnsworth is doing his thing, but every time I go there all the doors are locked and he's nowhere to be seen or heard. Likewise I have a bunch of homestead raids, but the loot never shows up. I even googled it and I think I messed up as I was supposed to get the occupants to tell me where the money is, but they all pulled knives and guns and even with fists I still beat them to death. Also all the posts have stopped selling tips on stagecoach robberies. Also also also the random little asides, like bandit ambushes or women in distress have all just stopped. Its like the game just blew its load in the first 3 chapters, but decided it needed to be twice as long but with no content.

 

[Callate]

My opinion is that those @#$%&*@# at RockStar had better put out a PC version this time, dagnabbit.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

So I'm taking my sweet time with the story and just fucking about the world. In part because I tend to do that with open worlds, in part because I'm afraid to miss out content by advancing the plot. Just unlocked fast travel, or rather its one-way ticket equivalent, but I'm still on chapter 2, working past level 1 challenges and figuring out perfect-pelt hunting. Honor's nearly 100% good, got three (out of five? That seems little) bounties and robbed the requisite 4 homesteads. I don't know how many hours I've crunched at this point.

 

[CritialGaming]

I must admit, I am really struggling to play RDR2. It's is extremely slow and seems to want to keep players at a slow pace with all the things to keep track of. Taking care of yourself and your horse, while also trying to stay on top of the missions, donations to camp, upgrades, etc. It's all a bunch of slow systems that do not motivate me to keep playing very much.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Just got a profanity check for trying to name my horse Sarah Jessica Parker. What the hell?

Okay that was pretty good!


OP: Got a question on side missions. I'm towards the ending chapters, like just got off the island and want to go save John. But I don't want to rush to the end, but I can't find any side missions. I keep seeing a white bubble up in the north where professor Farnsworth is doing his thing, but every time I go there all the doors are locked and he's nowhere to be seen or heard. Likewise I have a bunch of homestead raids, but the loot never shows up. I even googled it and I think I messed up as I was supposed to get the occupants to tell me where the money is, but they all pulled knives and guns and even with fists I still beat them to death. Also all the posts have stopped selling tips on stagecoach robberies. Also also also the random little asides, like bandit ambushes or women in distress have all just stopped. Its like the game just blew its load in the first 3 chapters, but decided it needed to be twice as long but with no content.

I don't know about any of that except that it's recommended to do most homesteads in the early chapters. The dudes you mention that pulled weapons on you, you're supposed to leave one of them alive so he'll tell you where the stash is. The Aberdeen pig farm, you're supposed to take the glaringly obvious bait and fall for the ruse or you won't learn where the stash is hidden. Most of the time the game just wants you to go against your instinct, I find. And if the list at PSN Profiles is comprehensive then my trophy popped early at the third homestead robbed.

 

[BrawlMan]

Just another open world game. I have no interests. If I need one, I'll get Just Cause 4.

 

[dscross]

I must be nearing the end of chapter 2 because my camp is being dismantled after the shootout in Valentine. I?ve only gotten one homestead though so hopefully I can still get the others. I haven?t talked to Dutch yet as I figured that would trigger the jump to chapter 3.