Red Dead Redemption

[Mr. GOH!]

My SoTR playthrough is at 67%. I feel like I ought to just power through the last couple of spots this week and then immerse myself in the cowboy lifestyle. Problem is that I am already deep into RDR2.

 

A few RDR2 comments:

 

I have failed to complete a number of missable side missions due to controller input confusion because in order to talk to someone, you have to aim at them WITHOUT a gun in your hand, or else they flee. I also failed to complete a missable encounter because the NPC I let ride on the back of my horse took it as a literal personal attack when I crashed my horse and both of us went flying. 

 

Horse crashes SUCK. Especially if they involve someone else, because that someone else is probably going to shoot you, so you will have to kill him. And then someone will witness you killing in self-defense and run to report it to the sheriff, so you have to kill the witness (or, I think if your reputation is good enough, persuade the witness not to go to the fuzz).

 

Horse customization is on point; my horse, Bucephalus, is sporting a mohawk and platinum-dyed braided tail. Also he is a very good horse I got for free; thanks, preorder or special edition bonus!

 

Arthur can get fat or skinny and you can let his hair grow to ridiculous lengths, but you can't magically grow hair at the barber's; the barber can only shorten your hair, like in real life. I am growing my Arthur's hair out so I can see the full array of hair customization options.

 

There are a ridiculous number of types of plants, fish, and animals to hunt and harvest. 

 

Crafting seems pretty decent, at least early on, though crafting 100 individual special bullets is time-consuming.

 

As many critics have said, RDR2 does not give a good goddamn about the value of your time; a lot of very common player actions are accompanied by slow animations, fast travel is really not all that fast, and a menu you can get to in a single button hold may stake six button presses to back out of. I cannot help but think this is entirely deliberate and I do not rate the game any less highly for it. Apart from the console-specific menus and the main menu, everything feels like a Western simulation. Your journal is not some nested set of links, but a physical journal Arthur can flip through, with many pages just dedicated to rather good sketches. Letters, journal entries, and notes are all well-written in character, too. 

 

The attention to detail is astounding.

 

Everything about Dutch van der Linde and his gang is amazingly well-executed, and his voice actor does a tremendous job. Hell, all of the voice actors do a great job. Some of the quick random encounters are memorable mostly for the characters you meet as Arthur, and they all come alive through the voice work. 

 

 

 

[TheMightyEthan]

My copy arrived, but now I'm debating returning it and waiting for the PC version. I've seen reports that PS4 Pro has trouble maintaining 30 fps in towns, and for some reason they went with 1920x2160 for resolution, which makes it look way blurrier than it should given the pixel count. 2715x1527 would give the same total number of pixels, and so the same overhead, but the scaling factor isn't as large so it doesn't look at blurry. Really bizarre decision.

 

*Edit - Even better would have been to use the Pro's checkerboard scaling.

[Mr. GOH!]

It runs just fine and looks great on my vanilla PS4.

[Mister Jack]

I've been playing this recently and while I'm sure I don't have to explain why it's great, there are a few major issues I have that prevent me from saying it's a 10 out of 10 game. 

 

1) The fast travel system is probably the worst I've seen in recent memory.  Not only do you have to pay hundreds of dollars to unlock it at all from your camp, but fast travel is a one way trip.  To get from town to town you have to either pay a stagecoach or buy a train ticket, and this can get expensive.  Even if you have the money, you can't do these things if you have an active bounty, which means either paying a ton of money to get rid of it or turning yourself in to the law and sitting your ass in jail for a while.  This is assuming your crimes aren't severe enough to have you shot on sight, in which case you're just completely fucked out of using fast travel until you pay off the bounty, and good luck with that.  I understand that Rockstar is very proud of the world they've created and they have every right to be, but I don't want to take the god damn scenic route every time I need to go somewhere.  This is a BIG map and it can take a LONG time to get from point A to point B.  I really hope the fast travel system gets an upgrade or something down the line because right now it's just awful.

 

2) It is waaaay too easy to get a bounty.  Shooting at someone in self-defense can get you a bounty.  Accidentally bumping into someone with your horse can get you a bounty.  I'd say at least 90% of the things I've done to get a bounty were undeserved.  Unlike wanted levels in GTA, bounties stick with you even after you die and make your life pretty difficult, so I've been trying very hard to avoid open criminal activity that will raise my bounty.  Alas, a group of men tried to rob me at gunpoint in Saint Denis and when I defended myself I got slapped with a $150.00 bounty.  That's a lot of money!  I'm fine with bounties being a harsh punishment for criminal activity, but I wish the threshold for getting one wasn't so low. I once got a bounty just for accidentally running into a guy on the street!  Everyone knows that the on-foot controls in Rockstar games are kind of clunky, so it's easy to knock people over without meaning to.  Better not do that in RDR2 or your ass is in a lot of trouble.

 

3) The attention to detail is very impressive, but sometimes it's a little too impressive.  Every single time you want to loot someone or skin an animal or pick an herb you have to watch a detailed animation of Arthur physically performing these actions.  EVERY SINGLE TIME.  It's not a big deal in the beginning but I fear it's going to become tedious very quickly.  While I do like how the game has little touches to adhere to realism such as having you look through actual catalog books when you go to the shops, there are times when I feel like this dedication to realism is to the game's detriment.  Also, they conveniently omit this dedication to realism during times when it would be convenient for you.  For example, I killed a gun store owner because he was a rude little prick yet I can't steal any of those perfectly good guns he has in the display cases?  Who cares if it's cheap?  It would be realistic.  I do appreciate all the effort they went to, but I just wish you could turn some of those animations off to save some time.

 

I really do like this game a lot.  It's easily a high 9 for me so far, but I'm not going to pretend it's perfect.  These things noticeably detract from the experience for me, even if it's what Rockstar was going for.  I don't want to sound like I'm shitting all over the game but I had to vent about these three things that are kind of pissing me off, especially the fast travel thing.

 

Edit: Problem number 4) I'm still getting a bounty when I do robberies despite putting on my mask beforehand.  What the fuck?

Edited October 31, 2018 by Mister Jack

[CorgiShinobi]

It's an impressive game, but all the little hiccups keep me from saying this is definitely GOTY. It feels like for every cool and engaging moment, there's a finicky and frustrating mechanic that you have to train yourself to overcome. The having to swap your fists in the Weapon Wheel to make L2 the button to interact versus aiming your weapon. Also, Autosave is not your friend in this game (and you have to turn if off every session). The first robbery you do in Valentine, I got screwed out of the goods inside. I shot all the enemies and while I pick up my first item, I was Wanted and there were four lawmen outside the building. I load up the game as I didn't want a $165 bounty so early on, but the autosave occurs before the moment the law gets involved. Of course, I do a different robbery and it repeats somehow. I don't know if I can repeat the doctor one as I missed the revolver (though I'm sure I have a better one now).

 

Then you have your typical horse shenanigans. I learned that the Circle button has a number of uses in this moment:

 

Edited November 3, 2018 by Atomsk88

[TheMightyEthan]

I haven't been able to figure out how to manually saved, so if I turned off autosave I would be playing a permadeath mode...

[Mister Jack]

1 hour ago, TheMightyEthan said:

I haven't been able to figure out how to manually saved, so if I turned off autosave I would be playing a permadeath mode...

Pause menu, then story

 

@Atomsk88

You don't have to switch to your fists to talk to people. Just tap L1 to put your gun away first

Edited November 4, 2018 by Mister Jack

[TCP]

Wow chapter 5.... When Red Dead goes full
 

Spoiler

Uncharted!

 

I love it.

[TheMightyEthan]

On 11/3/2018 at 9:02 PM, Mister Jack said:

You don't have to switch to your fists to talk to people. Just tap L1 to put your gun away first

 

 

Yeah, the problem lots of people have been reporting, about accidentally threatening people when you try to talk to them, is one of the few complaints I haven't encountered, since from the start I've made it a practice to holster my gun unless I actually need it.

 

It does annoy me that with long guns if you "holster" it you'll actually just hold it down in your left hand, not strap it to your back, unless you do another action that requires both hands, but it's just an aesthetic annoyance and not an actual mechanical problem.

[Mister Jack]

They did that in Max Payne 3 and it bugged me there too.

[Mr. GOH!]

You all know that certain minor crimes won't earn you a bounty even if they're reported? I've been reported for disorderly conduct and not gotten a bounty. 

 

I have noticed that you get a lot of information about the goings-on in some smaller side towns, like Strawberry and Emerald Acres; does that ever play into a mission?

 

@Atomsk88 That first back room robbery is frustrating because there isn't a way to do it without getting a significant bounty. The pistol is pretty good, but the money is not worth it. I ended up surrendering to the law after killing the goons in the back.

 

@Ultra TCPHow are you already at chapter 5?!?!?!? I just got to 3 yesterday and there's still so much to see and do!

 

A question about a side character to whom you turn in a certain collectible for the folks that have gotten pretty far:

 

Spoiler

Is the Sinclair guy who wants the rock engravings a time traveler from the 1920s or 1930s? Not a criticism, but that seems so out of place in RDR2.

 

Edited November 5, 2018 by Mr. GOH!

[TCP]

Chapter 6 now. How are you not?!?!

No, I need to cool it and do some more side stuff. 

[Mr. GOH!]

I love rdr2 so much and it is so difficult to find time to play it like I would like when I have an eight-month-old at home.

[TheMightyEthan]

I love it so much except all the times I hate it with a fiery passion. Those times don't manage to marr the amazing times though.

[CorgiShinobi]

Agreed with Ethan.

 

I did a stage couch robbery with Bill last night; one that's optional and not story-related. The thing goes FUBAR because Bill and we have to kill all the guards. I accidentally killed one of the guard's horses and my honor takes a hit. I figure I can recover from it eventually and carry on. You have to jump onto the stage couch to slow it down and once you do you have blow open the door with dynamite.

 

Two more dead horses and my honor has taken a big hit. I think to myself, "Screw this, I'll restart!" However, my last save was from 30 minutes ago...

 

Manual saving is still better than the autosaving in this game, but last night I was a little forgetful. I ended up redoing a story mission all so I didn't have the death of three horses on my Arthur. Reminds me of the time when I was doing the gunslinger side mission on top of a train. I was pretty poor at dueling at first because the controls are convoluted, so I had a few restarts from dying. When I finally defeated the gunslinger, turns out my horse spawned next to the moving train and was hit by it. So I restarted from my last save because the horse is too good to let die.

[Mister Jack]

 

How does it feel to know you will never have as much fun playing RDR2 as this guy?

[TCP]

Are we going to form a PS4 posse or what?

We'll call ourselves... the X PUSHERS!!! 

[Mr. GOH!]

I'm down! 

 

Made my character for RDR2 online last night. Here's a gif:

 

Edited November 30, 2018 by Mr. GOH!

[CorgiShinobi]

I made it to Chapter 5 last night.

 

I've been trying to collect or find all that I can because I know things go loopy for the rest of the game (YouTube loves to recommend spoilers). After the Red Dead Online update, Molly came back and I got to deliver the pocket mirror. Now though, Mary-Beth's request disappeared when I collected the fountain pen, so screw me, right?

 

Speaking of Red Dead Online, I doubt I'm going to struggle through that mess. If it ain't the griefers, it's the joke of the game's economy. If I'm going to grind, I'm going to hunt animals and find ingredients/objects in the single player. At least there I have a quarter million accounting for inflation. People can barely afford to hunt for fear of missing with ammo or wasting resources outside of a mission.

Edited December 1, 2018 by Atomsk88

[Mr. GOH!]

I wouldn't sweat the item missions, mostly because I am in chapter six and cannot complete some for my favorite camp characters.

 

Spoiler for those who have not completed chapter 5:

 

Spoiler

Once Arthur was diagnosed with TB, which is pretty neat, I have decided to make him look as much like Val Kilmer as Doc Holliday. I'll post a picture later.  I like how Arthur looks progressively grosser and loses weight once he's bee diagnosed, though now I feel bad if I make him run anywhere.

 

[TheFlyingGerbil]

who are your (and other people's) favourite camp characters?

 

 

[Mr. GOH!]

Two rankings, the first is the ones I personally like the best and if it were more of a roleplaying I would favor in my adventuring party. The second is the ranking of best-developed and interesting. Since I am in chapter 6, these lists may be slightly spoilery, particularly the second one. Arthur is my favorite RDR character overall, of course.

 

1. Hosea

2. Sadie

3. Lenny

4. Sean

5. Susan

6. John/Abigail/Jack

7. Karen 

8. Tilly

9. Mary Beth

10. Trelawney

11. Kieran

12. Javier

13. Pearson

14.  Uncle

15. Swanson

16. Dutch

17. Micah

18. Mollie

19. Bill Williamson

20. Strauss

 

1. Dutch - He belongs ion the pantheon of great Western characters in all media.

2. Sadie 

3. Micah

4. Hosea

5. Sean

6. John/Abigail/Jack

7. Lenny

8. Susan

9. Tilly/Karen

10. Kieran

11. Charles

12.  Pearson

13. Javier

14. Bill Williamson (he's so unpleasant, though)

15. Trelawney

16. Uncle

17. Swanson

18. Strauss

19. Mollie

 

Spoiler

I hope Sadie survives and that she's the character you can play in the hopefully open-world epilogue. Mollie is criminally underdeveloped, as are Swanson, Javier and Mary Beth. The game also pretty much telegraphs that Kieran, Sean, and Lenny will die tragically, although that didn't bother me, since I knew that the story is about the dream of the van der Linde gang falling apart. 

 

I really love the various character moments you can watch in camp; that's where a lot of the affection I feel for my favorites comes from, though Sadie is a badass on missions inn the last couple chapters, too.

 

 

 

[TheFlyingGerbil]

i'd not realised there were so many of them - I will need to pay more attention as I go along.

[Mister Jack]

Why does getting killed online erase all of your pelts from hunting? FUCKING WHY?!