Red Dead Redemption 2

Standman

Having finished the main story, I have to say I didn't enjoy it as much as I expected. I really wanted to like it, but the missions got a bit tedious and repetitive ("we gotta get outta here" > everyone shoots > repeat).

On paper it's a great game. The world is amazing, but it just wasn't as enjoyable or memorable as some of the GTA games for some reason.

The Nal

Out of the 40 or 50 hours it takes to complete the game, 30 odd hours of it is just this

Potential-Monke

Just started the Epilogue last night. The ending,

I suppose because Arthur was sick for the last chapter or 2, his death didn't really shock me. But my god, I did not expect Ahaon to bite the bullet. I've had him since the very beginning, and the 30 seconds Arthur spent with him at the end very nearly brought out the tears. Interesting to see the epilogue being played as John. I'd imagine it will set up RDR1, which I still hope they will release for this. Like, why do the physical copies of the game have a map for both America and Mexico?

Speaking of playing as John, when it first cut to them after end-game, and they were heading to Strawberry. It's like they never even heard of it before, and they camped nearby for the first half of the game. Are we supposed to believe that the distances between the towns are further than they actually are?

Anyway, will finish this up over the next couple of nights, happy to be finishing it to be honest. It's a great game, but Chapter V and VI really took the swing out of it and was a slog to finish. I'm happy to be finished it, and have no intention of playing it again. I will pick it up again in 6-12 months, hopefully they'll have more SP content and some game balances, and preferably an anywhere/anytime fast travel option, or at the least more stagecoach stops!

Thatnastyboy

The Nal wrote: »

Out of the 40 or 50 hours it takes to complete the game, 30 odd hours of it is just this
/QUOTE]

Depends what you make of it IMO, lot of travelling alright but the world never switches off - when riding one place to another I tend to keep an eye out for perfect animal specimens, things to loot, random encounters, interesting places & legendary animals etc.

I'm about 100 hours in and only started the 1st epilogue, and am nowhere near bored yet...

Depends what you want from it I guess

Leroy42

I'm going to put all spoliers on this, might not be needed but better safe than sorry.

I think they didn't flesh out the other characters enough, or explain why Arthur and the rest would continually accept the situation. Dutch could be a great character, but he is one dimensional. He has a belief, but nothing he does makes much sense. He's this leader, yet continually lead the gang the wrong way. He is supposed to be focused on this overall plan, yet easily gets sidetracked with Colm O'Driscoll or other things. "We need more money", yet they have ample opportunities to get money.

And why wouldn't the O'Driscolls target Morgan directly? He clearly is the single most important member of the gang. Take him out and the gang would fold.

Why does Saidi stay with the gang? They could have made more of her journey from wife to criminal. They could have had more missions where she develops from the moping and seemingly hopeless person in the first camp to the bad ass, revenge driven super she becomes.

Rather than the simple robbing stage coaches that you do on your own, they should have involved more the ladies in the camp. Use that to learn more about their journey, but also show that deep down they are different to Arthur. He happily kills anyone, but they have morals and simple fell in with the gang rather than really believing in it.

Too much time is given over to hunting and money, yet it becomes totally unnecessary as you progress. You end up being rich, yet at no point even think about settling down. Arthur sees the end is coming in terms of the way of life. He has plenty of money, the love of his life would love him back, but for some reason, which apart for Dutch being like a father, never wants to pursue. Now part of that is simply because to do so would make the game pretty boring, but they could have had him try to move away only to be dragged back by the likes of Saidi, or Dutch.

Sad Professor

The Nal wrote: »

Out of the 40 or 50 hours it takes to complete the game, 30 odd hours of it is just this

You could say the same of GTA or any open world game. If you didn't find the world interesting enough to explore or do the abundance of side activities/missions/encounters that's fair enough, but the travelling really isn't the problem. In fact, an awful lot of the story missions fast travel your outbound or return journeys.

As I noted earlier in the thread though, there's a couple of side missions in chapter 6 that unceremoniously dump you on the far side of the map which are very annoying, but they were the exception rather than the rule. Most story missions are fairly close to camp and often leave you close to other story mission.

Potential-Monke wrote: »

Speaking of playing as John, when it first cut to them after end-game, and they were heading to Strawberry. It's like they never even heard of it before, and they camped nearby for the first half of the game. Are we supposed to believe that the distances between the towns are further than they actually are?

I wouldn't really describe Horseshoe Overlook as being close to Strawberry. If it is then so is Rhodes in which case they shouldn't have being able to get away with what they did in chapter 3.

The gang had operated in the West Elizabeth area before fleeing north but mainly in the south around Blackwater. I guess

John and (more so) Abigail had just never been to Strawberry during that time, which is only period of a few months at most.

20silkcut

Potential-Monke wrote: »

Just started the Epilogue last night. The ending,

I suppose because Arthur was sick for the last chapter or 2, his death didn't really shock me. But my god, I did not expect Ahaon to bite the bullet. I've had him since the very beginning, and the 30 seconds Arthur spent with him at the end very nearly brought out the tears. Interesting to see the epilogue being played as John. I'd imagine it will set up RDR1, which I still hope they will release for this. Like, why do the physical copies of the game have a map for both America and Mexico?

Speaking of playing as John, when it first cut to them after end-game, and they were heading to Strawberry. It's like they never even heard of it before, and they camped nearby for the first half of the game. Are we supposed to believe that the distances between the towns are further than they actually are?

Anyway, will finish this up over the next couple of nights, happy to be finishing it to be honest. It's a great game, but Chapter V and VI really took the swing out of it and was a slog to finish. I'm happy to be finished it, and have no intention of playing it again. I will pick it up again in 6-12 months, hopefully they'll have more SP content and some game balances, and preferably an anywhere/anytime fast travel option, or at the least more stagecoach stops!

I think it’s obvious that the distances are representative and are actually much further than what they are. Same as GTA really.
You can go from the snow of the grizzly mountains to 25 degrees in the swamps of lemoyne in the space of a few minutes.
Likewise Beecher hope ranch straddles semi arid grassland and savannah type grassland with Armadillo just minutes down the road in a desert.
If you were to represent those climatic changes in real distances your talking hundreds of miles.
From Colorado to Louisiana.
From New Mexico to Virginia that’s what I’d be guessing the RDR2 map represents. If you made those journeys in the 19th century they’d be once in a lifetime trips for ordinary folk. Outlaws of course are roamers.
It’s funny that they do reference real world places like New York and San Francisco while St Denis is clearly a mock up of New Orleans .

20silkcut

Standman wrote: »

Having finished the main story, I have to say I didn't enjoy it as much as I expected. I really wanted to like it, but the missions got a bit tedious and repetitive ("we gotta get outta here" > everyone shoots > repeat).

On paper it's a great game. The world is amazing, but it just wasn't as enjoyable or memorable as some of the GTA games for some reason.

I reckon there are two schools of rockstar games fans. GTA/Max Payne fast paced action packed and RDR/LA Noire atmospheric historic story based.

The Nal

Sad Professor wrote: »

As I noted earlier in the thread though, there's a couple of side missions in chapter 6 that unceremoniously dump you on the far side of the map which are very annoying, but they were the exception rather than the rule. Most story missions are fairly close to camp and often leave you close to other story mission.

They're the ones I'm referring to yeah.

Then you have to go back to camp or St Denis, and then all the way back to the same place you've just come from. Such a momentum killer.

Its astonishing to me that they didn't give an option to travel to waypoint like in RDR1.

matrim

Potential-Monke wrote: »

Just started the Epilogue last night. The ending,

I suppose because Arthur was sick for the last chapter or 2, his death didn't really shock me. But my god, I did not expect Ahaon to bite the bullet. I've had him since the very beginning, and the 30 seconds Arthur spent with him at the end very nearly brought out the tears.

Same here, I was more upsed by Hoofy dying then than any other character in the game. With Arthur all I wanted was to try get Micah before he died.

Starting the epilogue I was also angry at John because he doesn't have Arthur's hat on. I was then suprisingly happy when it got to the end of epilogue 1 and he still had it.

Standman

20silkcut wrote: »

I reckon there are two schools of rockstar games fans. GTA/Max Payne fast paced action packed and RDR/LA Noire atmospheric historic story based.

Ah there's plenty of action in the main story, which is what I was least impressed with. The most enjoyable part of the game for me was just rambling around exploring, treasure hunting and hunting in general.

I actually really enjoyed John Marston's journey in the epilogue compared to Arthur's. Starting from a farm hand to building your own house – that was great, I felt more invested in the story. And a few shooty missions in between for a nice balance. The writing felt more measured and deep in the epilogue.

The Nal

I'm enjoying free roaming with the cheats on.

Explosive crossbows and the ability to instantly clear a wanted level is great fun in Saint Denis.

20silkcut

Standman wrote: »

Ah there's plenty of action in the main story, which is what I was least impressed with. The most enjoyable part of the game for me was just rambling around exploring, treasure hunting and hunting in general.

I actually really enjoyed John Marston's journey in the epilogue compared to Arthur's. Starting from a farm hand to building your own house – that was great, I felt more invested in the story. And a few shooty missions in between for a nice balance. The writing felt more measured and deep in the epilogue.

would have to disagree with that. I thought Arthur Morgan was quite a deep character and the story demonstrated how life changing events like terminal Iillness can change ones outlook on life. It was quite unique that the main protagonist went down to a humbling natural cause rather than a blaze of glory shootout. In terms of young people under 20 years old playing the game it really demonstrates the reality of death in a way that was never portrayed in any protagonist in film, gaming or tv when I was young.
It was dragged out a bit especially with that damned guarma chapter but then if it was too short people would complain as well probably more so. Btw I think another prequel with the Van der Linde gang as protagonists is pretty unlikely. Dutch and Micah are destroyed as characters after rdr2. Both were incredibly well depicted I might add though. How could you undertake new missions with them? In the final couple of missions as Arthur Morgan I just kept aiming my gun at both of them trying to shoot them and riding my horse into them two right fupping tunts

DEFTLEFTHAND

Standman wrote: »

Ah there's plenty of action in the main story, which is what I was least impressed with. The most enjoyable part of the game for me was just rambling around exploring, treasure hunting and hunting in general.

I actually really enjoyed John Marston's journey in the epilogue compared to Arthur's. Starting from a farm hand to building your own house – that was great, I felt more invested in the story. And a few shooty missions in between for a nice balance. The writing felt more measured and deep in the epilogue.

Me too, The story was good but none of the missions really blew me away.

I just loved having the ability to ramble around being a killer and thief, huntsman, fisherman. The map is just perfect for me, so much to do and see outside the story missions.

The Nal

I loved

the Guarma chapter!

wotzgoingon

The Nal wrote: »

I loved

the Guarma chapter!

I didn't like it at all.

Thatnastyboy

The Nal wrote: »

I loved

the Guarma chapter!

Liked it myself tbh, the missions were fun -

Was fookin raging I didnt have a varmint rifle or bow though

20silkcut

The thing about guarma for me was after barely escaping the pinkertons at st Denis we were thrust into a world that was worse a miserable slave colony controlled by a militia and all our guns and money were gone.

SureYWouldntYa

Finally finished it, found the game a wee bit of a slog at the end

after you become John

Did anyone else think

we were gonna really find out what happened at Blackwater before the game ended? I really thought that as you were close to finding the rat, we'd go back in time and see what really happened at Blackwater

SureYWouldntYa

SureYWouldntYa wrote: »

Finally finished it, found the game a wee bit of a slog at the end

after you become John

Did anyone else think

we were gonna really find out what happened at Blackwater before the game ended? I really thought that as you were close to finding the rat, we'd go back in time and see what really happened at Blackwater

Would have been better than getting sent to

Guarma

GavRedKing

After you clear the epilogue, is there any point really continuing the game?

Like I've not even gone further south west into the map down closer to Mexico and I dont see any reason too.

I know theres some

dinosaur bones

down in that region but is there any missions or bounties down there?

I'm at about a 89.4% completion at the moment and I dont know if I have it in me to do the 100%.

Nerdlingr

Finished it last night. Dragged towards the end. Actually liked the Marsten stuff, but that on top of the 6 previous chapters... i dunno... I could have just done without chapter 5 tbh. It really added very little to the story , only an opportunity to shoe-horn in a song and a ride back to the camp ala RDR1 into mexico.

Sad Professor

There’s 2 gang hideouts in New Austin. And 2 bounties - they are in Tumbleweed after the chance encounter. Also a few other chance encounters in Armadillo. That’s about it in that area really.

The Nal

SureYWouldntYa wrote: »

Finally finished it, found the game a wee bit of a slog at the end

after you become John

Did anyone else think

we were gonna really find out what happened at Blackwater before the game ended? I really thought that as you were close to finding the rat, we'd go back in time and see what really happened at Blackwater

Yup

was very disappointing there wasn't a mission back there.

Sad Professor

The Nal wrote: »

Yup

was very disappointing there wasn't a mission back there.

I reckon there was probably a cut mission in which

the gang tried to recover the money from Blackwater. We know about 5 hours worth of content was cut late in development. How the money ends up in Micah's possession at the end isn't really clear. However, I doubt there was ever any plans to show us the Blackwater ferry heist given that Arthur wasn't present for it. It also would have revealed Dutch's true nature, which the game carefully leaves ambiguous even at the end.

GavRedKing

Sad Professor wrote: »

I reckon there was probably a cut mission in which

the gang tried to recover the money from Blackwater. We know about 5 hours worth of content was cut late in development. How the money ends up in Micah's possession at the end isn't really clear. However, I doubt there was ever any plans to show us the Blackwater ferry heist given that Arthur wasn't present for it. It also would have revealed Dutch's true nature, which the game carefully leaves ambiguous even at the end.

The last mission

where you find Dutch and Micah and make off with about 20k

is a decent ending but you dont need all that cash, if you could spend it on improvements to the ranch maybe it would be worth while but all I've been using it for is to pay off bountys going on killing sprees.

GavRedKing

GavRedKing wrote: »

After you clear the epilogue, is there any point really continuing the game?

Like I've not even gone further south west into the map down closer to Mexico and I dont see any reason too.

I know theres some

dinosaur bones

down in that region but is there any missions or bounties down there?

I'm at about a 89.4% completion at the moment and I dont know if I have it in me to do the 100%.

At that kind of % I could nearly guarantee you'd spend at least 40-50 more hours getting to 100%.

Think I've about 150 hours on the clock and only 10 of those would be for the online portion of the game. The biggest annoyance for 100% were some of the challenges, you could have done the requirements already from normal play but they don't count for the challenge unless its unlocked, so you end up roaming the map collecting the herbs again.

ERG89

Finished game spoilers

Remember when Abigail had the key in chapter 6?
I don't remember going back for the treasure. Or was that explained that someone took the money from the caves. Been a few weeks since I finished it and forget.

The Nal

ERG89 wrote: »

Finished game spoilers

Remember when Abigail had the key in chapter 6?
I don't remember going back for the treasure. Or was that explained that someone took the money from the caves. Been a few weeks since I finished it and forget.

Abigail gives Arthur the key after you save her when shes taken by the Pinkertons. In the next mission you have a choice to go back to the treasure or leave with John. You must have gone with John.

DEFTLEFTHAND

I think I've finally reached max hair and beard growth with the hair tonic (final missions of Chapter 6).

My Arthur resembles a wooly mammoth, I find myself laughing out loud when I see him in the cutscenes. Looks like a right pillock.