This game is one of the greats. A real masterpiece of the field. Easily the best game Rockstar has ever made.
Apparently same people wrote it as those who wrote GTA 4 and 5
Dan Houser
Rupert Humphries
Michael Unsworth
Lazlow Jones
Hard to believe.
nope, the gta’s are actually written superbly, but they were written for kids who were shunned by the popular kids and girls in high school. They did that with such empathy and expertise it’s as if it’s written by kids who were shunned by the popular kids and girls in high school.
RDR2 seems to be written for adult people ;-) I can’t wait to get my mitts on it. But apparently Rock* aint done rolling in the monies so they whore themselves to the console peasants as an exclusive for a bit before submitting to the PC masterrace.
Yeah I love the GTAs, I’m probably going to go back and revisit GTA 5 after I wrap up RDR 2.
Yeah, I really enjoyed GTA IV. I’ll probably go back sometime next year to that game and finish my replay of it. My main problem with GTA IV and finishing the story is that I just love that city and the music and the driving so much, even on a re-play of the game, I just kept driving around the city and taking it in, instead of doing the story.
I’m not Tom, more over, I haven’t played RDR2, but there are certainly dozens and dozens of game mechanics which prefer immersion and emergent gameplay over reliability and player’s comfort almost the same way Far Cry 2 game mechanics did. Although, RDR2 is doing it much, much better, thanks to its huge budget and longer development cycle.
I’m very fond of such an approach in game design, that’s why watching how RDR2 (by the way, the recent Zelda as well) manages to annoy and upset some of the not so bright reviewers makes me infinitely happy :)
Gah, how did I miss this? Thanks to @kentwou for bumping it.
Yes, I love that you bring up Far Cry 2, @Mossybrew. That was another game that cared more about creating a sense of place than providing fluid gameplay with minimal resistance to insure you didn’t go play something else. In Far Cry 2, geography mattered. Fast travel was a system and not just a shortcut. You had to commit to what weapons you were going to carry. It wasn’t afraid of downtime. The malaria and weapon jams got in your way. There are absolutely similarities in Red Dead Redemption 2 and how Rockstar isn’t really interested in providing fluid gameplay. That’s what I was getting at with the closing line in the review. They have a more ambitious goal than making a good game. I think that was also true of what Clint Hocking did – and what Ubisoft let him do! – with Far Cry 2.
-Tom
But weapon jams and fires sucked. Even RDR2 knows not to have that stuff impede on F-U-N we may be having. I am glad its not that similar. :P
Also omg I am getting yet another fishing focused mission! Yussssss!
Tom, I’m sorry for a shameless offtopic, but to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the release of Far Cry 2 Clint Hocking wrote a series of posts in his own blog, which include his top 10 favorite pieces devoted to Far Cry 2 analysis and criticism. By the way, he tried to avoid stuff written shortly after release of the game. The final post with runner-ups was added just recently. I hope you’ll enjoy it.
I had to go back through this article now that I’m done with the story and can pick up on the various bits of context that I missed the first time around. It’s hard to disagree that Arthur is a real piece of work - I had so much fun riding in his boots and getting into various adventures and seeing what he would do and say next.
I love that Arthur has depth, he has an inner life, and an artistic side that he doesn’t let anyone see. He jealously guards that journal he’s constantly jotting in, while others in the gang tease him about taking a peek. They wouldn’t know what to make of that Arthur.
But I have a family member that reminds me so much of Arthur. He’s been told he was stupid for so long that he believes it. He has no goals and he waits to be told what is next. It didn’t have to be that way. Arthur thinks he’s the enforcer, a dummy, because that’s all anyone sees. He doesn’t have room to breathe and break out of that pigeonhole. Not until the end when it’s pretty much too late. And it’s worth pointing out that when the time comes and the chips are down, he uses his time to ensure that others get a chance at a better life. I don’t know if I have it in me to play this beast again, but I do already miss Arthur.
I just got a PS4, and although I bounced a little off the first game, I picked this one up (coming in a few days) pretty much on strength of this review.