Red Dead Redemption 2 (video game)

[MinionZombie]

RDR2 starts off slow - it's about 4 hours of gameplay before it starts getting underway, really. It spends that time introducing the main mechanics and the characters - then it starts broadening out a great deal. There's a boatload of different controls to learn in the game (on my first few hours with the game it was a bit of a chore trying to remember them all, but then muscle memory kicks in). I got absolutely sucked into the game once it opened up. Got wrapped up in the characters, the story, the game world, exploring and so on - just like I had done with RDR1, but moreso. On my original playthrough of the game I clocked in about 120 hours. Then I returned to it earlier this year for just a bit of playing around and got about another 30 hours out of it (I had intended to replay certain missions, but got caught up in just exploring again and doing little collectible missions that I'd not really done before, hunting legendary animals, or just playing cards etc) - when I came back to it I discovered a photo mode had been added, so I spent a fair bit of time just enjoying that and getting arty. I've still got it installed so will likely return to it at some point - although right now I've got other things in line (I just started Yakuza 0 yesterday, and then I also bought DiRT Rally 2.0 GotY Edition in a sale at 60% off).

[shootemindehead]

I'd definitely say stick with it. I enjoyed the whole thing but I know a lot of people complained that the start was slow while you're stuck out in the snow. Once you reach Valentine and can really start exploring the world and doing all the hunting, fishing, meeting various characters and getting involved in the side quests etc it gets really good. I played it on PS4 and it looked amazing on that so can imagine on a high end rig it will look stunning. I do have a high end PC myself although my graphics card is four years old now so thinking of ordering a RTX2080 to replace my GTX1080 as I'm starting to see lots of talk of ray tracing etc in newer games. Oh I'll sticking with it Tricky, no bloody fear. I spose I was just expecting to put it on last night and have a mosy around the map, just to check things out. A bit you can in the first game. But that's not possible because it's like Vladivostok outside. My GPU is my bottleneck as well.

[Neil]

Waiting for a sensible price on PC...

[kidgloves]

Free with Xbox game pass now. Not on PC though

[shootemindehead]

So, what is it about this game? I just cannot seem to get into it. I feel like Rockstar was trying to make it a sim of sorts and forgot the "fun" elements that make their games great craic to play. The controls are clunky as hell too. I've gone through the starter section and I'm at the horseshoe camp, or whatever it's called, and have been on a wander a few times. But it all feels like activities rather than gameplay so far. Plus, I know the game has been lauded for its visuals, but TBH, I find it a bit of a bloom filled mess most of the time. Everything is so SOFT. I've been messing around with the settings, but I cannot seem to get a sweet spot. FPS is fine. It's just the look of it that's bugging me at the moment. Hoping it improves a bit.

[ProfessorChaos]

i'm kind of in the same boat. i just can't seem to put more than an hour or two into this game without getting bored to tears. i'm still at the horseshoe camp as well. my backlog of games is so big, i keep thinking my time would be better spent trying to knock out some shorter games rather than getting into a daunting one like rdr2. I keep reading about how great the story is and how it's such a phenomenal experience but I guess i've not got to that point yet.

[MinionZombie]

The game definitely takes some getting in to - but one you get into it, you're into it. The opening few hours are quite gradually-paced, but soon enough things begin opening up more and more and you'll find yourself getting into the usual Rockstar japes (albeit in the western world - so it was never going to be like GTA V). I do agree that the controls are troublesome - there's just so many of them that it really did take me several hours before I had them figured out, far longer than most other games. And the buttons have different operations for different contexts, too, so it's like layers of things. There are certainly some 'sim like' things that don't really add much to the game, except some busy work (i.e. cleaning your gun) and I didn't get any additional immersion from that - about the only thing that added was a way to admire my weapon customisation. RDR2 is a game you've got to stick with, you can't just hop in and out for an hour or two every couple of months. You've got to invest yourself in it and allow yourself to be immersed - then it works. GTA V, by comparison, lends itself much more to 'walk in, fuck shit up, walk out' type gameplay, whereas RDR was never that in the first place.

[shootemindehead]

Played a few more hours and I'm about 20% into the game, which is a considerable amount, and I'm still waiting for things to really kick off. There are some funny bits here and there, but it really lacks the all out stupid nonsense that a GTA game has. But, in fairness, so did 'Red Dead Redemption' (what a dumb name for a game). It all ends up being just ok at the moment, which is very, very, far from the knock your socks off experience I was led to believe (and I was even tempering that expectation). Staying out of the way of the law is a tough prospect too. Nearly everyone is a wanker. Go too close to someone in town and you'll end up in a gunfight, which brings the law down on you only. I managed to "acquire" a $60 bounty for just being bumped into and having to shoot my way out of some shithole. I then needed to spend a few hours collecting animal pelts to pay of the bounty, which was "fun" I suppose. But, yeh, controls are all levels of WTF. I was trying to track an animal and trying to remember what buttons to press, but ended up pulling my gun and shooting a guy, who was then subsequently found by someone else and then I was wanted for murder. I'll finish it out, but to say that the first 20% of the game has been unsatisfactory would be an understatement. Glad I waited for a Steam sale.

[Neil]

The game definitely takes some getting in to - but one you get into it, you're into it. The opening few hours are quite gradually-paced, but soon enough things begin opening up more and more and you'll find yourself getting into the usual Rockstar japes (albeit in the western world - so it was never going to be like GTA V). I do agree that the controls are troublesome - there's just so many of them that it really did take me several hours before I had them figured out, far longer than most other games. And the buttons have different operations for different contexts, too, so it's like layers of things. There are certainly some 'sim like' things that don't really add much to the game, except some busy work (i.e. cleaning your gun) and I didn't get any additional immersion from that - about the only thing that added was a way to admire my weapon customisation. RDR2 is a game you've got to stick with, you can't just hop in and out for an hour or two every couple of months. You've got to invest yourself in it and allow yourself to be immersed - then it works. GTA V, by comparison, lends itself much more to 'walk in, fuck shit up, walk out' type gameplay, whereas RDR was never that in the first place. With the amount of time I have available now limited, and my patience generally reduced, I'm concerned now how much I'll get out of RDR2. Note: I gave up early on GTA V...

[MinionZombie]

Yeah, it's probably not the right game for someone with limited game playing time... Shoot - I got into some accidental shootouts at times. I ended up, somehow or other, in a disagreement out in the sticks with some disagreeable sort and I ended up killing him ... a witness saw me and I couldn't run up to them in time to bully them into staying quiet, so I shot them ... which was witnessed by another person in the other direction I'd just come from ... ... suffice it to say, there were about five bodies scattered around with me looting their corpses.

[shootemindehead]

So, I played this all day yesterday (which is testament to it of sorts, I spose) and it does get better. What helps it is it's total commitment to detail. While the gameplay has been a less than stellar experience, the world of RDR2 is absolutely sublime. Just wandering around the map is it's own joy. It's even better now that I turned off the volumetric effects and that hideous bloom has gone away. I can actually see the feckin detail now. and it is a lovely looking game for sure. I thought the original was great (albeit with console limitations), but on a PC is where something like this shines. Plus, I haven't seen any real FPS hits yet and my comp is about 6 years old. I moseyed into Valentine and saw that the saloon I fucked up ages ago was repaired and back open for business. So I popped in there for a bit and ended up staying all (game) day playing poker, which is actually a challenge now (unlike in RDR 1). When is left the game, it was night time and the town looked fantastic. It was a nice clear night and everyone was getting langered. It was gas. I also got a train to St. Denis, which was an eye opener, cos I didn't think I could travel over the borders. But it seems that only Blackwater is in lockdown. So, the map has just got larger in a good way. I'm over a quarter of the way through the game, though, and little of consequence has happened yet, so I'm still hoping for that to pick up. So far, though, detail wise the game is a winner. One of the nicest I have ever played. It's just the gameplay that's lacking.

[MinionZombie]

Now you're starting to get it, shoot - nice. That wandering around aspect really makes this game sing. Early this year I went back to it, intending to replay some/all of the missions, but instead I had to get my head around the controls again - so just focused on wandering about looking for secret places and encounters etc, did a couple of bounties ... and then I just ended up continuing to do that for, literally, another 30-50 hours worth of gameplay! I was going around collecting cigarette cards and finding rock carvings and such, things I hadn't been all that arsed with (unless I stumbled across them) during my original play through. I think I've got like 95% completion now. Don't reckon I'll do that last five percent as it's really farty stuff - epic fetch quests for flower breeds and shit. But yeah, those times just wandering about the map, taking a trip to Strawberry, say, and admiring the beauty of the place ... playing some poker or 21 ... going for a roam through the landscape ... encountering dangerous folks and gunning 'em down. Good times.

[Neil]

I believe they wanted this level of depth in Cyberpunk 2077, but didn't manged it...

[shootemindehead]

Now you're starting to get it, shoot - nice. That wandering around aspect really makes this game sing. Early this year I went back to it, intending to replay some/all of the missions, but instead I had to get my head around the controls again - so just focused on wandering about looking for secret places and encounters etc, did a couple of bounties ... and then I just ended up continuing to do that for, literally, another 30-50 hours worth of gameplay! I was going around collecting cigarette cards and finding rock carvings and such, things I hadn't been all that arsed with (unless I stumbled across them) during my original play through. I think I've got like 95% completion now. Don't reckon I'll do that last five percent as it's really farty stuff - epic fetch quests for flower breeds and shit. But yeah, those times just wandering about the map, taking a trip to Strawberry, say, and admiring the beauty of the place ... playing some poker or 21 ... going for a roam through the landscape ... encountering dangerous folks and gunning 'em down. Good times. Well, I "get it". There just isn't much of a game involved, which is its biggest drawback unfortunately. The attention to detail is spectacular and it's impossible to be too critical of it. You could sit in St. Denis and just watch the NPC's come and go for hours and the sheer amount of chatter that goes on is staggering. There must have been hundreds of hours of yap recorded for that. I stopped in Rhodes for ages and just listened to all the guff and it was gas. I've also download a mod that allows you to change the passage of time, so 1 minute is 1 minute in real life is you wish. I set it 30 secs=1 min and I still spent hours just bumming around the place. I usually do stuff during the day and then head back to the camp at night. I haven't figured out fast travel yet, but I'm in no hurry to either as the map really isn't that big that you can't just horse it to anywhere. But, while there's plenty of "stuff" to do, there's no gameplay or challenge to it and that's the problem I am having with RDR2. There's tons of "content" that you can, literally, spend hours doing or watching. But you'll walk away without having played a game.

[MinionZombie]

Well, I "get it". There just isn't much of a game involved, which is its biggest drawback unfortunately. The attention to detail is spectacular and it's impossible to be too critical of it. You could sit in St. Denis and just watch the NPC's come and go for hours and the sheer amount of chatter that goes on is staggering. There must have been hundreds of hours of yap recorded for that. I stopped in Rhodes for ages and just listened to all the guff and it was gas. I've also download a mod that allows you to change the passage of time, so 1 minute is 1 minute in real life is you wish. I set it 30 secs=1 min and I still spent hours just bumming around the place. I usually do stuff during the day and then head back to the camp at night. I haven't figured out fast travel yet, but I'm in no hurry to either as the map really isn't that big that you can't just horse it to anywhere. But, while there's plenty of "stuff" to do, there's no gameplay or challenge to it and that's the problem I am having with RDR2. There's tons of "content" that you can, literally, spend hours doing or watching. But you'll walk away without having played a game. Fast Travel - it's an upgrade for your camp. Once you've unlocked that ability, one of the things you can do is unlock fast travel. The rest of the camp upgrades are mostly cosmetic IIRC and were underwhelming, but fast travel was definitely useful. You can also get a stage coach to act like a taxi - interact with it and choose where you wanna go for a price. Fast Travel points are generally limited to towns and settlements or railway stations, so you have to horse about still. I don't really understand what you mean by it not being a "game". I was always engaged with it, I wasn't just watching a movie go by ... it's not like playing Yakuza 0 (which is one I'm still part-way through) where the cut scenes go on for feckin' ages, sometimes so long the controller switches off to save power! Sometimes when playing that game I do come away thinking 'how much did I actually just play during that hour?' ... RDR2, on the other hand, I was always actively playing it. So I don't get what you mean.