Red Dead Redemption 2 - For a Few Redemptions More

Games
1937

Finished up story mode today. Still have just a few things to do in the game, but after all that, my thoughts are this. RDR2 has the better story and game world. But RDR was the better game. Too many of the challenges and trinkets and what not are way too big a PITA to achieve and not worth the effort. I didn’t think the challenges for the first game were ever mind-numbingly boring. I mean, it never made sense why you had to kill cougars with a knife, but it wasn’t boring. Trying to play dominos for hours to get three wins in a row, or blackjack trying to give 3 (?) five-card hands - it’s just tedious filler that, IMO, actively encourages you to non 100% the game. 100%-ing a game should be an effort, for sure, but it shouldn’t feel like a soul-sucking chore. Not one of the challenge lists are free of that sort of task. I also think the game goes a little far with some of the ‘immersion’. Take baths, for example. Sure, you can pay a little extra for a ‘deluxe’ bath - which isn’t what you’d think it’d be, for starters - but all it does is make it so you don’t have to repeatedly tap a button to scrub the parts of your body - you still have to manually select all five parts. If the extra 50 cents was 'just finish the bath for me w/ no more button mashing", OK. But no. This is why, although the story and world are great, and I will certainly play it again at some point, I think RDR was the better game.

Edit: And I really want to discuss the story in more detail, so unless someone else does it, I’ll probably start up a spoiler thread. Kind of surprised there isn’t one already.

1938

It’s funny, the deluxe bath kind of is what you think it is, though it mostly isn’t. I took several baths trying to figure out if I got the right combination of smal talk and scrubbing, maybe I could get the girl to hop in the bath with me, but alas. I got very clean though.

I was mostly fine with the challenges, in fact a bunch are pretty fun and maneuver you through all the various activities the game offers, but yeah gambling is just awful. It’s fun to dabble in but jeez, three wins in a row? Bust out three other players in three different towns? Really tedious and too reliant on chance.

1939

Deadeye also depletes much faster if the core is empty

1940

When do the stables open? Been standing in front of them for like an hour. As best I can tell it’s between 8:00-9:00 am in the game based on position of the sun.

1941

I’ve never found the stables to ever be closed. I’ve pulled in at 3 am. Only time I’ve seen them closed is during a mission

1942

Have you tried to enter the stable?

1943

Anyone have trouble equipping worm bait? I used up my worms during one fishing trip, bought some more and now they aren’t present in the equip bait menu. I can see them in my inventory, though. Maybe this is just a bug in RDO? Edit: Yup, RDO bug, apparently. Starting a new session fixes it.

1944

I’m loving the game, actually in no rush to leave chapter 3, and I’m ignoring the challenges. It just doesn’t fit my role play approach and I don’t see any reason to try to complete them.

1945

Just play the game and do what you want. This game is great for just wandering.

1946

Sometimes I’ll pull up to a stable and the doors will be wide open and other times they’ll be closed. I just push my way in anyway. My horse ain’t waiting to get her hair did.

1947

When you’re in the main camp, where do you craft stuff like improved arrows at?

1948

I think while at the main camp, you can do so at a campfire, or maybe just go into a squat and craft without a campfire. Can’t remember for sure, but worth a try. Otherwise, go to the perimeter and just set up a personal camp.

1949

There are too many goddamn deer and turkeys in this game.

Also I forgot I had a map to all the legendary animals.

Also is wish you could shoot the legendary fish.

Also rattlesnakes are really damn fast even when you are in deadeye.

Also I think there is a kidnapped child I’m supposed to be rescuing or something. Oh there are extra valuable flowers to find!

1950

Is there a way to buy more stalls? I don’t see the option at the moment so it makes me wonder if upgrading the horse tether at camp might let me keep more horses?

1951

Hey, do I ever learn the purpose or function of the Panoramic Map?

1952

Man, if you find out let me know.

1953

I found the exact spot that it is drawn from, but I don’t think it has a purpose. It shows the locations of cities/settlements.

1954

No, it has a purpose.

Light spoiler

If you stand there at a particular time, something happens.

This is exactly what happens:

if you stand there at 2am, an alien spaceship comes down. The timing of this is found out by some notes you find in the cabin with the heaven’s gate cultists who have killed themselves.

1955

Indeed? Hmmmm, I shall have to investigate…

1956

I am but recently come to Red Dead Redemption 2. Please hear the tale of my plight.

Over the past few months I have logged a couple hundred hours (probably) in Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey. PC version. I’m pretty much a 100% PC gamer; the last console I owned was a Wii. And I’d never ever played any of the previous AC titles. I fell in LOVE with Odyssey. Hard.

But all the while I knew RDR2 was coming. Just not for PC gamers obviously. Years ago I borrowed my son’s Xbox and played RDR and I have to say it was a revelation and I’ve been waiting for a sequel ever since. In my pipe dreams I hoped this time Rockstar would put the game out for consoles and PCs. Alas.

Fresh on the success of Odyssey I threw caution to the wind and purchased a PS4 package w/ RDR2 (Cyber Monday special). I am starting to regret that decision. Please help me love RDR2 and/or love the PS4 controller.

It’s impossible not to compare and contrast the two games; Odyssey and RDR2. Well, the start of the two games anyway. Say, the Kefalonia intro of Odyssey and Chapter One of RDR2. In Odyssey I had a lot to learn about game mechanics and it took a while to get comfortable. An avid PC gamer, my forte is RTS and other strategy games, not ARPG or ‘shooters’. I sucked at the combat at first but I progressed and got better and long before the end I was playing on “Hard” and occasionally on “Nightmare” difficulty. Even when I sucked I could see a path forward over which I could and did improve with practice.

But this RDR2 / PS4 control system? Hoo boy. How do people do this? And how long should I expect to struggle until I acquire the skillset to operate a controller? I know that part of it, perhaps the biggest part, is that I have not gamed with this type of controller in a long time and really, barely at all ever. But there’s nothing wrong with my hands and fingers.

And it would not be so bad, I think, if I could easily replay the bits from the game’s first chapter which are clearly the games introduction to its control system. But it’s not. Am I missing something? When I go to the PROGRESS menu and select a section from Chapter One that I want to reply, even when I press X whenever possible to skip cut-scenes, there’s still 5 or 10 minutes (each section) of fluff to get thru before, say, attempting again to shoot the wolves coming after you and John Marston. Or take on the O’Driscoll boys with Dutch and the gang.

Once I wait it out and steer my horse through the snow for the umpteenth time or whatever, I can “fail” and then restart the section at the appropriate place, right before ‘action’ begins. But after I practice a bit with one section trying in vain to raise my progress from Bronze to Silver or Gold, I have to wade through 5 or 10 minutes of fluff all over again in the next section to practice something else.

I’m a mess with shooting and doing anything from horseback like maintain the horse’s gallop and shoot or lasso. I’m a mess with swapping out my weapon in the heat of battle. Everything just seems so ‘clunky’. How am I supposed to move, walk/run/crouch, and draw and aim and shoot? Fucking hands, how do they work? Fuck L1, L2, R1, R2, L3, R3 and FUCK Dead Eye most of all.

Am I hopeless? I want to be engrossed and engaged by RDR2 the way I was by the original. Is there any hope for me?

TL:DR… Help a PS4 noob learn to use his controller and not embarrass himself in RDR2.