Red Dead Redemption 2 - now available on PC

[deama]

What is it about Arthur getting sick that makes people want to stop playing?

In terms of gameplay, it doesn't actually matter until the end. Or am I misremembering?

I think it's the lack of choice and being railroaded into it.

 

[PorkyThePaladin]

Who wants to play a dying character, getting sicker by the minute, coughing up shit and stuff, and growing weaker in front of your eyes? We all already have that to look forward to in real life, don't need that much of it in our escapism.

Mind you, I am usually for more realism, tragedy, etc in vidya games, but this is a bit much, the way it was done here.

 

[Lyre Mors]

I know there's a few combat mods out there. Anyone ever try this one out?

https://www.nexusmods.com/reddeadredemption2/mods/675

If I ever play it, I'll likely be modding it.

 

[PorkyThePaladin]

I think RDR2 falls into the same category as Skyrim when it comes to modding. You spend a ton of hours modding it, and then the end result is still shit. The underlying model is just too broken mechanically I think.

I tried PED mod, for example, that everyone raves about, which among fancier dying/bleeding out animations for NPCs, also is supposed to make combat more dynamic and lowering everyone's health. After installing it, NPCs would not die at all to body shots. I could hit them 10-15 times in the torso, they d still get back up (compared to already ridiculous 3-4 shots in vanilla).

 

[NorwegianWolf]

I started playing RDR2. About 8 hours in. Of course it's very cinematic and rather slow paced. That's to be expected, so I'm not complaining.

On one hand the amount of controls and mechanics is somewhat overwhelming, and after 8 hours I can't remember everything about fist fights, horse bonding, herb picking, weight gain, lassoing and hunting.
On the other hand, I'm 8 hours in, and despite introducing herb picking, the crafting mechanic still wasn't introduced.

But lord be my witness, A Quiet Time was one of funniest quests ever. Being drunk is so well made it blew my mind.

 

[deama]

It's a fun ride, wish it wasn't so linear though.

 

[9ted6]

It's tolerable until Lemoyne. Combat's way too easy throughout but Lemoyne's where the writing and story completely fall apart. Boring gameplay and terrible writing can't be saved by good graphics and music.

 

[Ivan]

Indeed, when it starts taking itself more seriously and dramatic, I stopped giving a fuck.

 

[EtcEtcEtc]

It's tolerable until Lemoyne. Combat's way too easy throughout but Lemoyne's where the writing and story completely fall apart. Boring gameplay and terrible writing can't be saved by good graphics and music.

What game has good writing if RDR2 doesn't.

It has some of the best writing of any game.

 

[Spike]

It's tolerable until Lemoyne. Combat's way too easy throughout but Lemoyne's where the writing and story completely fall apart. Boring gameplay and terrible writing can't be saved by good graphics and music.

What game has good writing if RDR2 doesn't.

It has some of the best writing of any game.

Haven't played 2 yet but 1 has good writing. Rockstar have always been one of the few I will allow to make what are essentially moviegames in my ideal throne-and-altar theocracy.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

It's tolerable until Lemoyne. Combat's way too easy throughout but Lemoyne's where the writing and story completely fall apart. Boring gameplay and terrible writing can't be saved by good graphics and music.

What game has good writing if RDR2 doesn't.

It has some of the best writing of any game.

Betrayal at Krondor

 

[cruel]

Interesting:



I dropped this game after 2h, mostly due to too much 'realism', but I wasn't aware there are so many good mods to fix stuff. He mentions mods for quick loot, fast walking outside of the camp, but also weather & temperature having actual impact, more options to camp and few others. I think I might try the game once again.

 

[Ash]

Just play a real game dude.

 

[cvv]

I wasn't aware there are so many good mods to fix stuff

No mod can fix the unbearable mission design where 90% of missions have the same structure.

And nothing can save the fact that there are a million different activities in the game - hunting, robbing, upgrading camp, etc. - and none of that matters for the main quest because you never need any materials or money above what the game gives you.

 

[Non-Edgy Gamer]

I dropped this game after 2h, mostly due to too much 'realism'

The game is easy. The "realism" is mainly in the tutorial. It's not like there's a hunger mechanic requiring you to hunt or anything.

I think I might try the game once again.

It's all ruined by them FORCING you to work for a Jewish moneylender and FORCING your character to get AIDS tuberculosis and die. Slowly. There's also the dumb DEI stuff in it, but that doesn't have a direct impact on gameplay iirc.

And that's fairly early game. It's a fun game, but this makes me regret purchasing it. I just like to play poker in the starter town and kidnap random people.

If they ever mod out Strauss' questline and the result entirely, then let me know. But given that Aurthur's death is a main story element, I doubt they will.

 

[cruel]

Those were some severe spoilers man. Now I will need to wait 2+ years to forget what you wrote there lol

Sent from my KB2005 using Tapatalk

 

[Multidirectional]

I lasted a little over 3 hours in this game. I expected it to be overhyped mediocre game. But that would have been an improvement over the pile of shit it actually turned out to be. One of the most boring games I've ever played and I really don't think I'm exaggerating. Everything felt fucking tedious, from mission design to controls and those slow animations. And then the writing is just typical Rockstar stuff of group of unlikeable douchebags constantly bickering among each other - this one I predicted because they are unable to do anything else. Map is really good looking but that can't do much for me when game is completely devoid of fun.

 

[Spike]

I lasted a little over 3 hours in this game. I expected it to be overhyped mediocre game. But that would have been an improvement over the pile of shit it actually turned out to be. One of the most boring games I've ever played and I really don't think I'm exaggerating. Everything felt fucking tedious, from mission design to controls and those slow animations. And then the writing is just typical Rockstar stuff of group of unlikeable douchebags constantly bickering among each other - this one I predicted because they are unable to do anything else. Map is really good looking but that can't do much for me when game is completely devoid of fun.

A take so bad I think I got cancer of the eye.

 

[PorkyThePaladin]

You can't fix bad overall design.

I specialize in modding games that have potential, but have a few things keeping them from being good. For example, the original Deus Ex is overall a great game, but the enemy AI in vanilla ruins it. So you get a mod to improve the AI. Kingdom Come: Deliverance is an amazing game, but for some reason the devs added masterstrike, and a skill power curve that ruin the otherwise great combat system. So you install a mod to remove those. Fallout New Vegas is another gem that is ruined by the hitpoint bloat and the boring VATs system, so you get a mod to remove the former and don't use the latter, and it turns into a great RPG with decent FPS combat.

But games like Skyrim and RDR2, how can you mod them? You literally have to replace half the game or more, because there is so much shit. With RDR2, the quests are badly designed (ride for 2 hours somewhere, engage in a completely linear sequence of actions, ride 2 hours back). The combat is badly designed (yes, it looks great at first due to the graphics/physics, but once you get into it, you realize it's absolute shit). Long range combat is basically true popamole style, you hide behind some rock or tree and pop out to land a few shots. Everyone has way too many hitpoints, only headshots are lethal, most of abilities like Dead-Eye/Quick-Draw feel boring and cheesy. The writing is horrible, not the supposedly "woke" stuff non-edgy retard above is whining about, it's really not that bad in this one, but more like it's a 60+ hour long story about a bunch of morons following an obvious conman, with lots of boring shit happening in between.

Rockstar's peak was during the San Andreas/GTA IV period. Since then, they've been making the most boring games known to man.

 

[Multidirectional]

They had a potential to make a really fun game with Max Payne 3. Even made fun combat for it, certainly above what they usually have in their games. But then shat all over it with stupid cutscenes every 10 steps.

 

[cvv]

With RDR2, the quests are badly designed (ride for 2 hours somewhere, engage in a completely linear sequence of actions, ride 2 hours back). The combat is badly designed, most of abilities like Dead-Eye/Quick-Draw feel boring and cheesy. The writing is horrible, not the supposedly "woke" stuff non-edgy retard above is whining about, it's really not that bad in this one, but more like it's a 60+ hour long story about a bunch of morons following an obvious conman, with lots of boring shit happening in between.

Agreed on the quests and combat, probably the biggest - unfixable - flaws. Missions are so hilariously repetitive it's absolutely baffling nobody out of those 2000 people who worked on the game pointed it out. Shootouts without dead eye are impossible and with it they're incredibly banal, like playing a god mode.

Disagreed on the writing tho, the story is... fine I guess but the dialogues are some of the best I've ever seen in my 20 years gaming career.

 

[soutaiseiriron]

The combat is fine to good, it's just that it's not really used to it's fullest extent with extended portions of combat that actually will attrit the player's health or ammo or anything at all. It's an unfortunate consequence of R*'s cinematic focus, so what you end up with in MP3, GTAV and RDR2 is basically just covershooting. They can't diversify in that, since they have a mandate on focusing on dialogue and music and whatnot with an exact expected pace. If you intentionally lag behind or experiment in basically any way, you ruin what they so expertly designed.
RDR2 did have some more open-ended and interesting sections in side content, like there was that one civil war era fortress that hosts a bounty target, and that was legitimately interesting, much like a Far Cry outpost as far as open world design goes. A small number (very small, unfortunately) of main missions were pretty good too, like American Fathers, a stealth mission later in the game.
Anyways, this was kind of a tirade but I think RDR2 is still good despite the extreme linearity and modern Rockstar-isms that it has. You just kind of have to approach it less like a game (outside of side content) and more of a movie whenever you touch the main missions. If you do, it's pretty solid.

 

[PorkyThePaladin]

With RDR2, the quests are badly designed (ride for 2 hours somewhere, engage in a completely linear sequence of actions, ride 2 hours back). The combat is badly designed, most of abilities like Dead-Eye/Quick-Draw feel boring and cheesy. The writing is horrible, not the supposedly "woke" stuff non-edgy retard above is whining about, it's really not that bad in this one, but more like it's a 60+ hour long story about a bunch of morons following an obvious conman, with lots of boring shit happening in between.

Agreed on the quests and combat, probably the biggest - unfixable - flaws. Missions are so hilariously repetitive it's absolutely baffling nobody out of those 2000 people who worked on the game pointed it out. Shootouts without dead eye are impossible and with it they're incredibly banal, like playing a god mode.

Disagreed on the writing tho, the story is... fine I guess but the dialogues are some of the best I've ever seen in my 20 years gaming career.

The dialogue in RDR2 is ok technically, but what is it about? Really inane shit, like Dutch selling them on dumber and dumber plans, and they all grunting and going along with it anyway because....

 

[soutaiseiriron]

It's not dumber and dumber, you just perceive it as such because you see it in third person, you see how this clearly tragedy-coded story will end up like that. It's not even dumber and dumber to begin with, it's greedier and greedier. It's clearly about how the group has an almost cult-like adoration of him and what he has pulled them through to earn that trust, and Dutch is basically a father figure to Arthur which is why he'll go through with just about anything. This one last score will get us to Tahiti, you just have to believe!

 

[PorkyThePaladin]

... how the group has an almost cult-like adoration of him ...

That's it in a nutshell. The quick and succinct summary of why RDR2 has terrible writing (in addition to the already mentioned terrible gameplay). You see, the Wild West has always been a setting for epic yarns about hard land and hard men (and in some cases women). The quiet loners who go their own way and do what needs to be done. And RDR2 is about a fucking cult of henchmen, the main character being one of these henchmen. Really bad idea for a game, but especially so for a Wild West game.