Dude, I hope you're dead wrong here but I'm afraid you will turn out to be right. I adore RDR2 but if there's one negative, it's exactly that. It really could use variety or multiple ways to take on these missions. I truly hole VI will offer that, or at least a big step up from V.
Their worlds are always amazing, but some stuff bring it down too. Los Santos was great, but then we had like a handful of buildings we could enter? I truly hope we can access tons of buildings now, we should.
I do wish that R* would give their audiences more credit. I‘m replaying RDR2 currently, and as much as the game continuously leaves me breathless in how impressive its world building is, it is downright insulting in its mission design. I mean, the game literally plays itself when it comes to any decision of agency that would effect any real consequence or player creativity or ingenuity, relegating them to nothing but a puppeteer through very strict pre-scripted a—>b—>c motions and paths the developer predetermined.
I have no idea how gamers are not fatigued of this shit. Give players a general objective and let them get creative in tackling goals in any multitude of ways that they deem effective using systems built into the world. Let me buy a sniper rifle, study their routine and find a perch. Let me plant an explosive on their car. Let me poison their food. Let me try bribery. Let me put a crew together and let them handle it. There is an entire WORLD to potentially exploit, and it’s so frustrating to look at a potential playground with so many possibilities only to realize it’s all effectively dead. I’m not saying the game should become Hitman, but it is LONG overdue for R* to start to allow the player to actually leverage the world they’ve created in significantly impactful ways instead of it just being a shiny showcase to gawk at and bring superficial destruction to while putting a lasso over their necks and leading them like babies step by step. I genuinely feel insulted when playing the missions in these games because there is no room whatsoever for experimentation. This developer is absolutely terrified of letting people actually
play the fucking game.
I don’t know why R* takes such a design approach, but it‘s my suspicion that they are fearful that a more open ended, player agency mandated angle would scare off more “
mainstream“ casual audiences that they need to recoup such a massive investment as these games entail to create. I suspect this is not a creative choice as much as it is a commercial one necessitated by how big these games have become, and the financial risk inherent in that. Because at this point, R*
has to be aware how boring and rote their missions are.
Eh. Given the reception to these trailers every release it seems I’m largely in the minority on this anyway. Wow the masses with glitter and glamor, and who wants more? And who am I kidding? I’ll probably buy it at some point, simply because I love to gawk in awe at the technical marvels these games are. But it will always be done through the sadness of such missed potential that could be so much greater.