I finally got a new videocard, and after setting up EE for Witcher 3, and then reverting back to my Ghost Mod et al config (the wife refuses to learn EE combat), the first game I actually started playing is this one.
I will begin with this, I work full time, but I've somehow done 18 hours of RDR 2 in the last three days, and story-wise, I'm in the beginning of Chapter 2, haven't freed Sean yet.
It's every bit as good as I imagined it when I was watching LPs on youtube. Huge potential for exploration, emergent gameplay, subtly done but impressive if light C&C.
The game is remarkable in how it expects you to take things slow instead of turning gameplay into a laundry list of errands. Witcher 3 is the only other game I can think of which also allows for such style of playing.
Some fun stories:
Slight spoilers
- In Valentine, some prostitute asked me to help clean a mess in her room where she had killed a john. I did help her, but then went to the Sherrif's office to check for bounties and completely by mistake, told the deputy about the murder. The deputy went "Oh, not this again", then proceeded to round up the prostitute, carrying her over his shoulder and into the cell. Turned out she has been killing folks suspiciously often. The production values and attention to detail with the dialogue and animations surprised me, but what was further surprising was that she was hanged the next morning with people from Valentine gathered in front of the gallows and the sherriff doing a little speech. I'm pretty sure if I had stayed and waited, she would have actually been brought to the gallows, no spawning directly. Should check it next time. It even left me with an uncertainty if turning her in had been the right thing to do. Yeah, she may have killed a few of them, but maybe it had always been self defense?
- I was doing the second bounty, the Black Widow. I snuck up to her hideout where she was talking to some poor bastard. She sensed me and send him to attack me. However I already had my lasso equipped, so I quickly hogtied him, and then it was just me and her. She actually commented on that, and I'm not sure but maybe the comment was specific to hogtying him. She didn't resist as I tied her up as well. But then I had to cut his ropes, because it felt like the logical thing to do. He ran away, thanking me. It's just insane how many outcomes Rockstar have provided for.
I can go on but you get the idea. For me this game is just what the doctor ordered. I'm a big fan of revisionist westerns, used to love reading O. Henry's short stories, and the game's tone is really somewhere between a serious western movie and "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs".
Something I could wish for was even more simulationist stuff regarding the shooting mechanics specifically. Also, I'm sorry AI can't be more intelligent regarding the crime system and establishing who is guilty, because I often get treated as the guilty party when I have actually been acting in self defense. When a guy pulls on me, I can either run or shoot him, and when I do, it's my fault.