Topic: Red Dead Redemption 2 OT

The whole game is a cowboy sim really. I can easily see why it would turn people off but if you're into it's pretty awesome.

Also, I lost my first horse and it affected me more than it should have. RIP Roach.

@Tjuz I really loved the deliberate pace for the first few hours and sometimes still do but often I'm just thinking please hurry up. The story is excellent though and the world they have built is amazing and it's refreshing to be able to discover things for myself rather than always following markers. I don't think it's as good as it's predecessor, mainly because that was much better at being an actual game and the story was better too. Still easily one of the top 2 or 3 games I've played this year and I can see myself playing it for a long time to come

@Kidfried I'd only go hunting if you enjoy it as the rewards for your time are relatively minor and consist mainly of cosmetic items for camp and outfits/equipment with some perks, either trade them in at camp or the trapper in Saint Denis.

As for tips, look for the star rating of whatever it is you're tracking and ignore anything that isn't 3 stars as it's worthless. Make sure you study the animal and press R1 to find out what weapon to kill it with and use dead eye to identify it's weak points, only kill them with that weapon and it's weak point and you'll always have a perfect carcass/hide/skin and make sure you sell/trade it ASAP as it degrades over time. Oh and use the bait that can be bought in stores and the item to mask your scent to make it easier for quicker and more nervous animals like deer

@Gremio108 Ha, I'm still on chapter 2 as well despite playing for hours. I keep getting distracted every time I head off to do a mission, either by the 3* animal whose pelt I simply MUST have, or by some of the random encounters you come across. The random encounters have been pretty neat on the whole and it's cool that they are in different places in different games so you don't seem to be able to hunting for them.

@Kidfried I named my pre-order horse Shiva because of it's colour. Turns out it's male though. Oh well.. And @carlos82 is spot on with hunting. Picking up the varmint rifle and crafting small game arrows is almost essential for most hunting (having a proper rifle too for bigger animals). From my experience though, you DON'T have to worry about it degrading if you skin the animal. I think the meat goes off if you carry the whole animal around for too long though.

Just started and about an hour into it and the pace is fine by me to be slow, it’s the controls that are making my mind boggle. It’s nice to have a “cinematic view” and options like that, but I wonder if it’s worth the confusion on the controls. I assume that over time it will become second nature, but it’s definitely not as intuitive as I’d hoped. Otherwise, so far so good.

Any of you who speak the King’s English or who have English as your second language having trouble understanding the American drawl? Arthur voice is pretty Southwest US colloquial.

@Thrillho Yeah the back of my horse keeps getting covered in pelts that I've picked up. Any idea what the limit is for how many pelts you can carry on your horse?

@Th3solution I was surprised at how heavy Arthur's accent is. I love his voice, no problems understanding it up to now.

@Gremio108 Sometimes I’ll watch a British show or actor and have a little trouble if they talk fast. I tried listening to a podcast with a couple British guys talking and I missed about 20% of the conversation because of the way the words mulled together and I couldn’t tease out the meaning. The issue is magnified if the accent is cockney or any of the regional versions of the English language. I wondered if it was the other way around that, for a foreigner, an American accent is one thing, but an Southwestern drawl is quite another. It helps with immersion and I do also like Arthur’s accent, and Dutch, who sounds more educated and confident. But for me, such things are second nature as an American. Not sure how I’d feel trying to play an 80 hr game while listening to a remote slang that I’m not accustomed to.

@Th3solution Thankfully, Arthur's speech is very slow (much like almost everything else about him) so it's fine. I can't get enough of his voice, honestly. Might start talking like that myself

My wife caused some more chaos in Red Dead today. She only played for about half an hour, but in that time she dragged a lawman through the streets of his own town with the lasso, got attacked by a moose, crashed a stagecoach into a train and chased a turkey into a river.

I'm starting to think she should have her own Twitch channel.

@Gremio108 I'm not sure if there is. If you die, you'll lose whatever you have. Supposedly, any legendary pelts you may have had work their way to the trapper if you do happen to die before getting it there yourself.

@Th3solution No problems with the accent for me either. I've got subtitles on anyway and those have mostly been useful for picking up conversations going on far away, especially in the camp.

@Thrillho That's good to know. I couldn't find the Trapper in the wilderness, so I went all the way to Saint Denis after I heard he had a shop there. The place blew my mind, although I could have done without getting a wanted level just for knocking someone over in the marketplace!

@Gremio108 The first time i went to Saint Denis it was night time and foggy. I was just in awe at how beautiful and moody it looked with all the neon lighting. This is one of the best looking games I've played in a while.

@Thrillho Ha! I named that horse Shiva, too.

The transition from to gameplay to cutscene and back is outstanding. It's so seamless. The cutscenes are so well done.

@Gremio108 I found him not far south from the chapter 2 camp thankfully. I have been into Saint Denis due to a random encounter where you find someone who needs to get to the doctor who amputates his arm. I didn't stick around for long as it was all a bit overwhelming.

@ApostateMage ha, FF7 fans for life

I was going to wait to get this but decided to treat myself. The slow beginning was a nice change of pace. Rather than some huge set piece or all-out action, I felt it demonstrated that this is a close knit group who have been through some real hardships. It set the tone and helped build a relationship with the others. They are outlaws, but they are still human, after all.

On chapter 2 now and have been for a long while. I'm taking my time exploring. The beauty of the world is a real highlight so far. I'm finding that hunting is far more difficult than in the first Red Dead Redemption. My only real criticism so far is that the game doesn't really tell you a whole lot and there are so many systems and things to figure out. The framerate in towns is also crap (I'm playing on a base PS4).

@Th3solution Their accents are quite easy to understand. Arthur sounds much older than he is though. I guess he's had a hard life!

@mookysam I was struggling with the hunting until I started using my lasso. Once you've lasso'd them, reel yourself in and you can then use the knife to finish the animal off. I've not tried it on a cougar or a bear yet, though. That could end badly.

@Thrillho I mean, I know he's not a fully qualified doctor or anything, but I'm sure Arthur could've had a go at that himself. The spot for chopping firewood would make a good operating table...

I feel like I eat a decent amount but I'm always underweight.

Well, I just spent another 6 hours playing RDR2. What a great game. The world is so alive and full of things to discover. I've been playing in Chapter 2 for about 8 hours now, and I haven't done a single main mission from it. I absolutely intend to do it every day, but something always distracts me and then I'm on the other side of the map saving a woman from being kidnapped and killing off an entire village of bandits. That's just how this game goes, I guess! I haven't even woken Uncle up from what seems to be an infinite slumber at this point.

Normally I get easily overwhelmed with open worlds, resulting in me simply avoiding playing said game. I am not at all put off by the open world in RDR2 so far. In fact, I relish in it. I think what this game does well for me to avoid having that same situation happen is not having an overabundance of markers on the map and also giving you a limited view of the map at first until you explore further. I love that the only markers on the map are for important things such a stores, places to fulfill your needs or main missions. No fluff with bandit camps, side activities or whatever else. The Witcher 3 particularly was an offender there, and probably was a big reason I found that game such a slog compared to this one. Nothing about this open world seems overwhelming, it just feels exciting.

Do any of you have spoiler-free opinions on your favourite gang members so far? I'd have to say Abigail, Pearson and Susan are up there for me. Maybe Hosea once I get to know him a bit better. Abigail is definitely my favourite at the moment, so fingers crossed she isn't killed off any time soon as she seems ripe for an emotional death scene. I haven't gotten the opportunity to socialise with Uncle, Reverend Swanson and Javier yet as I've been avoiding them and their main missions. Lenny and Micah seem oddly absent from my camp recently. I'm pretty sure Lenny was there at first, so I'm not sure where he's headed off to. I can't recall ever even having seen Micah in camp. The ensemble is already big enough without them, though! I'm glad I don't have to simultaneously get to know all of those five in addition.

@Tjuz I played a bit yesterday evening and most of this afternoon and did one mission. I'm still on chapter 2 and must have sunk HOURS in so far. I just love hunting too much

One thing I've only just learnt by accident is you can make trinkets at a fence with special items you get from hunting legendary animals which give passive buffs (and don't need to be chosen to be worn either).

I did end up on an unintentional mini-rampage earlier after a witness saw me looting the body of someone I'd killed from a mission. I tried to stop them but they opened fire at me so I took them down. Another NPC wasn't happy I did that so I chased them down but accidentally rode into their horse killing them too. Whoops.

Random encounter.