Thanks for the great write up! You describe how I felt playing Fallout 4, in some ways. I played through that several times, and always found new things.
I believe Chapter 3 is where it fully opens up?
But do they open the kimono?
Did they ever fix the bug whereby you can’t give Dutch his (or someone’s) pipe? I didn’t find the thing till the “sorta near St Denis” camp, and even when talking to Dutch didn’t start a mission, you wouldn’t get the prompt to give it to him.
Kolbex
3078
Did he ever ask you for it? I never got that request from him.
Yeah, he asked me for one back at the Horseshoe Overlook camp.
To be clear, I played this near release on the PS4 Pro.
Late to the party on this but…I really hit the wall with this game about 15 hours into it…I just got bored. There is sooooo much riding back and forth to camp, which seemed to me to be about 50% of my game time.
I also find a lot of the game mechanics really annoying, especially the stuff having to do with towns, and NPC reactions and awareness.
I was certain I was going to love this game, and it ended up feeling incredibly tedious to me for whatever reason. I’ll give it a rest and come back to it some other time, maybe I just wasn’t in the mood for it.
There is a lot of horse time. If you look into the two fast travel options you do get more choices.
Edit: Hang on, three fast travel options. Forgot Lordkosc’s one :)
Fast travel from camp via your supply wagon , also take the train or use the stage coach. :)
50% of the game is the fishing, as I recall it.
McCrank
3083
I just finished up a 160 hour playthrough of this game to get 100% and I loved every slow-strolling minute of it.
I tip my cap to you. I just couldn’t do the challenges. Well, I had no interest in doing them like with the first game. Just too many things that were just too random to occur in order to finish all the challenges (especially around gambling, if memory serves).
JeffL
3085
Yeah, I played for hundreds of hours, much of it in free form roaming and exploring, and I ignored the challenges. They just didn’t fit my guy’s vibe. ;)
I just fired it up to explore the area below John’s ranch and my god, it’s huge. This really is a stunning creation. Ok game, but a stunning work.
MrTibbs
3087
I can’t get over how well realized the camp scenes are. Nearly every time I return to wherever we’re set up there’s these super detailed vignettes between characters that really help flesh out the personalities of the gang. The amount of dialogue Rockstar recorded has got to be unprecedented, right? Playing this two years after release it still feels like a next-gen game that somehow traveled back in time.
I’m in chapter four and things are starting to go pear shaped. I’m mostly focused on wrapping up the challenges, doing all the side activities and quests and just generally taking my time enjoying this outrageously beautiful open-world.
Know what you mean. Fingers crossed for their next.
JeffL
3089
I would highly recommend taking the time to just get on your White Arabian (or whatever horse you have) and riding off and exploring the world. Just exploring every inch to see what you find. I found some amazing things that I won’t talk about here. That weren’t part of any mission or side mission.
MrTibbs
3090
That seems like the right way to play it. I’ve stumbled across some remarkable things. The random, ambient encounters make the world feel alive in a way I’ve never experienced before, but the attention to detail is unprecedented. In my session last night there was a massive downpour and, being in the role-playing mood, I decided to take shelter an odd little shack where I discovered it not only had been hit by a meteor but there was a hidden robbery haul under the floorboards. I’ve had many other bespoke encounters that felt as special, too. Very few games have managed to continue to surprise me with similar small unexpected moments dozens of hours into the experience. Such a treat! I think when Tom’s review compared it to an art-house auteur receiving the budget of a tentpole blockbuster was so spot on. I’ve never played such a leisurely, somber open-world that’s unconcerned with bombarding the player with flashy action (though the game’s setpieces are brilliant!).
JeffL
3091
Yeah, I hated sometimes to ride back to camp to get back into the mainstream game. I will say, though, that the story developed slowly and I recognized the one game changing moment that occurred during what seemed like a very minor side camp initiated mission, when it happened. I had an “oh crap” moment when it happened, even though you don’t really discover the consequences until much later into the game.
I loved RDR1 for the story, even though the “random” encounters were annoying since there were only about 4 variants and every one played out the same time every time. And Mexico - let’s just forget Mexico ever existed, kind of like Godfather 3. But RDR2 took a while to hook me. For the first chapter or two, I wasn’t sold at all. Then I got to freely roam the world, and oh, what a world. If they had let me do what Skyrim did, find and court and marry a woman, build a cabin on a lake or river, maybe have a couple of kids, I’d have just lived out in the countryside hunting and fishing and selling things to earn money and maybe picking up a bounty or two here and there and exploring the world and been completely happy.
But once the story really picked up, it grabbed me. I still probably spent more time in free-roam mode than game mission mode, but the drama of the story and the main character really developed. The tragedy of his life. I’m doing a second play through which I rarely do in a huge game like this, just because I really don’t want to have to find and gather everything the guy in camp needs to make my storage bag that can hold everything I need, etc. but now, knowing the story from beginning to end, I see the foreshadowing, I want to tell the main character what I know, I hear the comments from the characters in camp and feel sad at what’s coming for me and for them. It’s like going back in time with knowledge of the future but no ability to change it.
MrTibbs
3092
Finished the epilogue. Simply stunning. Arthur, performed brilliantly by Roger Clark, is the best protagonist in video games. Before I played this, I would have never guessed that Rockstar had it in them to create such a well realized character. I knew they were the best in the business when it came to crafting worlds, but I was really moved by their tale of a lost way of life and how people can strive to be try to something more important than themselves. I have a feeling this is an experience that will stay with me a long time.
Omigosh you guys! Zombies!
Haha. Just kidding. It’s more RDO battle pass bullshit.
