Red Dead Redemption 2 - For a Few Redemptions More

Here’s the key:
Let the auto-aim do the work.

RDR is like GTA titles… it’s much less about manual aiming than a real shooter.

You want to generally get your target in front of you, and then aim down the sights with the L2 button. This will snap the aiming reticle onto your target, and it’ll follow them. Once you get the hang of this, shooting targets while you’re on horseback becomes trivial.

Once you get that down, then you can get into more precision aiming.

When locked onto a target, it’ll generally lock onto the center of mass. But you can adjust that aim point by moving the right stick, and it’ll stay locked onto them. So, a general mechanism for fighting, for instance, other humans is to aim at them, then push the right stick up a tiny bit which will move the reticle onto their head, and then fire… boom, headshots all day.

Wow, a rare breed: a PCMR’er who still doesn’t use a controller:) I can’t play mouse-and-keyboard games because of repetitive stress injuries in my wrists. Controllers are the only way I can game, so I don’t really get to play RTS’s and ARPGs. Your gaming world and mine are like completely orthogonal:)

Judging by how fast my kids picked up using a controller, it’ll take 10-20 hours to be comfortable with standard 3D controls. RDR2 is its own beast with a bespoke control scheme that takes a few extra hours to intuit. (And even after 30-40 hours, I’m still pushing the wrong button sometimes.)

Also, don’t replay early sections of the game. That is just tedious. Just ride around on your horse and try to shoot wildlife for awhile with redeye and without. Switch out your guns. Feed yourself and your horse. Use tonics. That’s all you need to do to start to get a handle on it.

Replaying stuff to “learn” is dumb. Just play, get to the open world, go hunt and do some missions. And don’t stress the medals. I had bronze on most missions because fuck arbitrary objective nonsense like “do 297 headshots” or “catch enemy in 10 seconds”, not to mention the game does not even tell you these objectives until after the mission. Just enjoy the story and immersion.

The challenges kind of exist so you can set your own difficulty - I’m maybe midway through chapter four and I’m finding the game pretty easy for the most part, so I’m going through the challenges to add a little spice. Well that and I’m a completionist.

Speaking of which, I knocked out the gambler challenges last night so that’s a load off my mind. I’m not really much of a gambler so this felt like busywork but what are ya gonna do.

If you don’t have baby hands I highly recommend those stick lengtheners from a brand called Kontrol Phreek (if I remember correctly). PlayStation controllers have always been uncomfortable for me otherwise.

I feel your frustration, Mr_PeaCH. I’m in the same camp you’re in, only I broke through somehow.

I’m in my 40ss. I hated, hated, hated controllers of all kinds for YEARS. With the exception of RDR1, I’ve always played exclusively on my PC. Then last spring I picked up a Nintendo Switch as a housewarming present to myself. Didn’t play it for a couple of months, until Breath of the Wild finally lured me in. For a day or two playing was an exercise in frustration, and there were more than a few ragequits. Then I began to relax into it, and after another day or so I was totally comfortable on a controller. Took me another week or two playing to feel like a badass.

This was a huge breakthrough for me, and it changed everything w/r/t my relationship with consoles.

When I picked up the RDR2 PS4 bundle, though, I was still a little intimidated. A little voice at the back of my head, for instance, was suggesting a keyboard and mouse. But I was determined, and repeated my experience with the Switch, and this time the process was faster.

Anyway the tldr is, it’s possible to overcome the issues you’re experiencing. Just keep trying, and eventually you’ll get it and you’ll feel good about yourself.

FWIW, I was adamant for a long time that I’d never move from the PC to a console, probably in some old threads on here. Now I only game on my PS4 (other than the occasional strategy game on my laptop.)

First, the first chapter of RDR2 is, IMO, by far much worse that the rest of the game. I loved RDR but as I slogged through the first part of RDR2 I was wondering if I was ever going to grow to like the game. (Answer: love it, but I had to get into the next chapter and have the world open up first.)

On controls and controllers, I don’t play fast action games because I suck at the controller and probably always will. If I’m in a reflex battle with another person or an AI I will lose. I also thought I’d never get the hang of the RDR2 control scheme. Like many, I far too many times went to say “Howdy, Ma’aam!” and instead pulled my pistol and shot her.

My only advice is just stick with it, and do a lot of exploring and hunting vs. just doing the missions. After a lot of exploration and relaxed hunting (and finding lots of interesting “stuff”) I find the controls pretty well memorized now. I can easily and quickly pull my gun, holster it, use Deadeye to shoot a duck out of the sky that surprised me and took off, etc. Just takes doing it a lot.

Fortunately for me, RDR2 is a game that rewards spending a lot of time exploring.

I want to thank everyone for the advice so far. I’m definitely going to quit trying to re-do Chapter One as a way to sharpen my skills. Also glad to hear it is by far the worst part of the game. I have finished Chapter One and the one thing I did was take Uncle and some women in to town on the wagon. On the way there I ran down a runaway horse. In town I got into a barroom fight. Then I sort of ran out of things to do it seemed. And since I was woeful at much of the game mechanics I decided the way to improve was to replay the first chapter missions. Never again!

https://thumbs.gfycat.com/TatteredCheeryBernesemountaindog-small.gif

:D

The epilogue is basically Rockstar doing an expansion pack and deciding to pack it into the main game isn’t it

Probably, I did a wiki check to see just how far I am in the game. Apparently I am not even half way yet. D:

Ya… I think it also helped tie things into the first RDR.

I ran into a sheep with a pink bowtie wandering around the Heartlands. I started to follow it thinking it might lead me to something interesting. Then I stopped following it thinking it might lead me to something interesting.

Heh, yeah, I saw that sheep too at one point… never found out who owned it.

Another time, I saw a couple get robbed by some random guy… I intervened, but not before the robber had killed the woman.

Then the guy started sobbing and screaming. Then he went and got a horse, loaded his dead wife onto it, and rode off. I tried following him, because I wanted to see where he was going… I followed him for a few minutes, and he eventually started yelling at me to stop following him. At some point, I got jumped by the Skinners, and lost track of the guy, so I don’t know where he eventually ended up.

I want to single out Timex for his excellent advice. It all came together after I stopped worrying about aiming. And it occurs to me that probably at a point in Chapter One when I’m supposed to be learning this that the game spelled this out. But the game has an annoying habit of putting up text in the heat of some action and by the time things calm down a little and I think to read it, it’s gone.

Matt, Paul and others urged just to roam the open world and do missions and do some hunting to practice shooting in particular. See, I thought I had nothing to do because I didn’t think I had the skills necessary to ‘do’ anything. (Scowls at None.) But instead just roaming around I’ve had opportunity to practice some skills, get some wildlife and herb lore, craft around a campfire. And now I’m already thinking I better go and find some larger saddle bags because I’m starting to have to leave stuff behind.

Finally, I think I now ‘get’ the purpose of the permanent camp Dutch’s gang has made at Horseshoe Overlook. Many of the NPCs have a specific purpose which didn’t make sense before. It’s not a matter of doing things in order just whatever you feel like doing. Went hunting with Hosea and there was a blend of cut scenes and dialog and then the encounter with the Legendary Bear or whatnot. After I took the choice to remain while he returned to camp and that’s when I did a lot of exploring. Rode more or less back in the direction of Valentine just exploring all along the way.

Whew! OK, FOMO has passed. I think I am getting the hang of it and I’m loving it that I have a huge world ahead of me to explore. Thanks again everyone. Even you, None. ;-)

Yeah, this is definitely the biggest problem for folks learning the game. It’s a bad way of conveying info to the player.

One thing that is not made clear, is how the inventory works… Every item in the game basically has its own slot in your inventory. As you get improved satchels and stuff, the number of each item you can carry increases… but even when you start out, you can basically carry SOME of everything. When you get a message that you can’t carry any more, it generally means that you already have 5 of that exact thing… so not picking it up isn’t really an issue.

Now that I’m writing this though, I’m not sure exactly what the saddle bag upgrade even does… I got it, but I also got all the satchel upgrades, so by the end of the game I could basically hold infinite everything.

Overall, the best way to play the game is to not really worry about “winning” the game. Just enjoy the world. There’s SO much stuff to find out there.

Saddlebags determine how many changes of clothing you have on your horse.

Ahhh… yeah, ok. That makes sense. The upgraded ones let you have 5 rather than 3.

Anyone else find up north the Frozen couple with the map?

Can anyone give me a good bunny hunting spot. Also need to find some new variety of berries to eat to finish a challenge, but I can’t find anything other than raspberries.