Red Dead Redemption 2

[Chindie]

It's certainly a big install. Took the better part of 2 hours to get both discs done.

[Brumerican]

 I think I'll install it during the Villa game having read about the loading times

C64's didn't take that long FFS.

[choffer]

About an hour or two in so far. It’s a bit of a slow start but I’m really enjoying it so far. 

[stegzy]

Been playing it for about 6 hours today, it’s absolutely amazing.

starts of fairly slowly but they warn you about that in all the reviews and it’s just to help with character development, but once it opens up it is stunning.  Just gutted I’m off on holiday in the morning and won’t get Schneider to play again until Monday.

[NeilS]

Just opened up the case to install the game, TWO discs!! This could take some time. 

[dubbs]

Just completed chapter 1 which is basically the tutorial.  What a fabulous looking game this is.  In the tutorial you don't really get a chance to look around properly but now it's opened up a bit and the season has changed it's just beautiful. 

[El Zen]

Got this yesterday. Goodbye life!

[Davkaus]

I'm only 3 hours in, but so far the installation process was the most fun part of the experience. What's their obsession with forcing me to walk at a glacial pace, and how are the controls so bad? Why do I have to watch the same extended animations over and over. Why is looting so bloody slow. It's like the whole game is designed to slow me down. 

It feels like they've tried to put 'realism' over fun, so far at least. 

 

Edited October 27, 2018 by Davkaus

[hogso]

The mission with Lenny at the Saloon, holy shit

Edited October 27, 2018 by hogso

[Dr_Pangloss]

I think this is pretty awesome so far, no issues with the pace of it at all.

[hogso]

As I said earlier, it is slow paced, but that's something I'm OK with. Criticism of it for that reason is fair though, I think, and merely reflects personal preference instead of whether the game is good or not. It's hard not to draw comparisons with GTA V for obvious reasons, but that game thrives on being fast paced - just because this isn't does not make it any less entertaining, I believe. This is a game where I would legitimately take great pleasure in just riding my horse out of camp, trotting out to the woods, hunting some deer, camping over night, then on the journey back stopping by the river to fish, and turning that in for food at camp. Not very exciting, but damn good fun I'd say.

[Davkaus]

46 minutes ago, hogso said:

This is a game where I would legitimately take great pleasure in just riding my horse out of camp, trotting out to the woods, hunting some deer, camping over night, then on the journey back stopping by the river to fish, and turning that in for food at camp. Not very exciting, but damn good fun I'd say.

I agree with that entirely, it's one of the reasons I loved the previous instalment so much, but have very little interest in GTA.

There are just some very peculiar design decisions. Why do I have to walk at an incredibly slow pace inside the camps which makes it an absolute chore? Why is the skinning animation so bloody long and unskippable. I'm never going to skin another deer if I can avoid it...

It's a beautiful game, and it doesn't need to be some hectic arcadey shooter, but at some points it's like they've gone out of their way to make it frustrating. Any situation in which you find yourself having to loot multiple things for example. And the button holding....Hold this button for 2-3 seconds to confirm you want to loot, wait 5 seconds for him to open the chest. Then wait for him to put the item in his bag. It's genuinely tedious. I think there will be a lot more people getting fed up of this after dozens up hours in the game, it's completely unnecessary.

Inventory management feels like something out of a 90s game as well, it's like they're trying to piss me off. And why are there some many different buttons to perform similar actions. One button to pick things up. Except guns, that has its own button. Oh, and at least 3 different buttons to draw your weapon, depending on what else you're doing at the time. What?

 

Definitely a good game in there, but the 10/10s surprise me based on the first 5-6 hours. 

Edited October 27, 2018 by Davkaus

[Dr_Pangloss]

17 minutes ago, Davkaus said:

I agree with that entirely, it's one of the reasons I loved the previous instalment so much, but have very little interest in GTA.

There are just some very peculiar design decisions. Why do I have to walk at an incredibly slow pace inside the camps which makes it an absolute chore? Why is the skinning animation so bloody long and unskippable. I'm never going to skin another deer if I can avoid it...

It's a beautiful game, and it doesn't need to be some hectic arcadey shooter, but at some points it's like they've gone out of their way to make it frustrating. Any situation in which you find yourself having to loot multiple things for example. And the button holding....Hold this button for 2-3 seconds to confirm you want to loot, wait 5 seconds for him to open the chest. Then wait for him to put the item in his bag. It's genuinely tedious. I think there will be a lot more people getting fed up of this after dozens up hours in the game, it's completely unnecessary.

Inventory management feels like something out of a 90s game as well, it's like they're trying to piss me off. And why are there some many different buttons to perform similar actions. One button to pick things up. Except guns, that has its own button. Oh, and at least 3 different buttons to draw your weapon, depending on what else you're doing at the time. What?

 

Definitely a good game in there, but the 10/10s surprise me based on the first 5-6 hours. 

I quite like this tbh, games have become far too easy over the past 15 years, you actually have to think about what you're doing.

[Paddywhack]

5 hours ago, Davkaus said:

I'm only 3 hours in, but so far the installation process was the most fun part of the experience. What's their obsession with forcing me to walk at a glacial pace, and how are the controls so bad? Why do I have to watch the same extended animations over and over. Why is looting so bloody slow. It's like the whole game is designed to slow me down. 

It feels like they've tried to put 'realism' over fun, so far at least. 

 

Couldn’t agree more. I haven’t finished the first chapter yet so I’m going to reserve judgement, but I’ve found it a bit of a grinding chore so far. 

[Davkaus]

1 hour ago, Dr_Pangloss said:

I quite like this tbh, games have become far too easy over the past 15 years, you actually have to think about what you're doing.

I completely disagree. Dark Souls is difficult and makes you think. So does Cuphead, or Hollow Knight. All challenging games that make you consider each and every action. All games with incredibly well designed and very precise controls. Sloppy controls are an annoyance not something to be lauded for adding challenge, IMO.

One thing that's reduced the slowness a little bit is you seem to move and turn a lot more quickly in first person mode as you don't have to wait for the animations. A bit weird, but a pleasant surprise. 

Edited October 27, 2018 by Davkaus

[Chindie]

I do kinda feel like the game is holding me at a distance with the control scheme and some choices it has made. Things are needlessly convoluted, finicky, and too slow too often. I expect the usual Rockstar lumbering movement, but that's taken a tad too far here, and everything else is just absurdly slow. It also doesn't help that the game chooses to start in an environment that exacerbates that feeling.

The inventory management etc is clunky and stuff is made needlessly complicated. I shouldn't have to specifically go grab my gun off my horse every time I get off it. Interacting with things is finicky to the extreme - standing perfectly in position to pick up something or interact with things. I wanted to let my horse earlier when it was hitched. I couldn't. Why? The horse was stood too close to the hitching post. I had to mount it, move, get off and then do it. Asking the horse to follow you requires you to be stood just in the right position.

And then there's just the simple but silly stuff. Things like searching a house you find stuff to interact with, but the only indication that you can is a small instruction in the bottom right.

It's not blowing me away right now. There's exceptional stuff about it. It looks fantastic, the world is already clearly deep and well realised, there's a high degree of freedom, customisation and so on. The presentation is in all aspects excellent. But I just can't get away from the issue of feeling like I'm fighting with it. It really feels like there's too much going on that's been developed piecemeal and then slotted in.

Hopefully it's just a case of growing used to it and more comfortable with the controls and so on.

[hogso]

2 hours ago, Davkaus said:

Definitely a good game in there, but the 10/10s surprise me based on the first 5-6 hours. 

It's definitely a 9/10 for me. The issues described are certainly enough for it not to trouble 'best game ever' territory. I don't think there will be anything to change your mind, as the technical stuff won't go away (unless it's patched (which I imagine it will be)). 

I've just finished a session on it. For heavens sake think before you do things in populated areas - if it might be naughty, don your damn bandana! 

Here's how I just spent 30 minutes. Riding my horse, and accidentally hit another rider, so all 4 of us go flying (those physics!). Other guy immediately starts shooting me up. I kill him. There's a witness, and I get a bounty. I ride off into town and pay the bounty off at the post office. As I make my way down the High street, there's a fight outside the saloon, and one guy dies. I loot his corpse.

There's a witness for this, and seeing as we're literally next door to the Sheriff's office, it's immediately reported before I stop the witness. I give myself up, and spend the night in jail (incidently, the bounty was $5, find for jail was $4 with the added benefit of a night's stay). 

I leave town and notice the train has stopped, there's a guard dead, and it's apparently stuck. I find an alternate route round, and decide to check out the front of the train. There's a bit of a queue forming, so I figure I'll move the train. This is an immediate $50 bounty, and shortly after 4 lawmen give chase. I continue driving the train until out of the region, so they give up the chase. I return to the nearest station and visit the post office - but there's no clerk. So I peg it home. 

I don't know if it was fun or frustrating! 

[Daweii]

This game is the Grand Theft Auto IV of Red Dead games.

Both have very lumbering and deliberate movement systems powered by the exact same Euphoria physics engine, an engine that was pared back considerably for Grand Theft Auto V for this very reason.

Both are very realistic takes on their era and setting. Grand Theft Auto IV was a life sim at times as you balanced Niko's life around the core of the game. Red Dead Redemption 2 takes that and amps it up to 11 across the board.

Both are very satisfying and frustrating to play in equal amounts. Grand Theft Auto IV struggled to find a balance between pure fun and realism, which I feel may be an issue in Red Dead Redemption 2 as well. Hunting isn't a game in RDR2, it's a time consuming hobby.

That said is Red Dead Redemption 2 a bad game? No, just like Grand Theft Auto IV when it was new wasn't a bad game, but will this be a game people replay over and over? Perhaps not. I know for a fact I will likely never play this game again once I'm finished.

Red Dead Redemption 2 is a well crafted game, it's beautiful, it's detailed, it's rich and full of life which are all great qualities. I just think ultimately for me the realism will slowly but surely grind me down. 

Good game though, solid 8/10 currently. 

[a m ole]

Horses for courses

[Czechlad]

I'm having a good time. I've played probably 10 hours now. I had a glitch that my guns wouldn't fire in the wolf part where we had to rescue John.

My god that was frustrating. I thought that was intentional because it would cause an avalanche or something. I couldn't figure out how to evade 3 wolves. It wouldn't even let me punch or slash with my knife. I ran to the edge of the cliff and let them bite me because then they fell off. Later I found out, yea that was a bug a lot of people had faced. 

Overall though the game is fun, but yea it is slow. The bounty system is angering me. My bounty keeps getting raised in New Hannover and I get attacked a lot. Most of the time it's not even my fault the bounty gets raised. They killed me horse!