• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Red Dead Redemption II |OT| Who knew horse testicles had such a crunch?

So generally speaking you can complete pretty much all the side quests in the game at chapter 2? That doesn’t sound right
Nope. I'm just finishing up my 100% run.
Most stranger missions are in Chapter 4 and 6 with a select few between.
Chapter 2 has about 10 that can be done. The thing that chapter 2 has is a comfy feel to complete almost all challenges except for 2.(One of the Bandit challenges requires chapter 3 and through a glitch in chapter 4[patched?] you can complete Herbalist 9 before postgame)
The side content available to you in chapter 2 is super tedious(I enjoyed making all the trapper outfits though) and just when you think you're out of the woods for tedious things to do, the game throws another tedious collection at you.


You can do about 50% of total completion in Chapter 2. Not sure how many hours it took me, but it was probably a stupid amount in a single chapter alone.
 
Not sure when the game was last updated but fired up single player after a week or so and I immediately noticed the lighting model seems back to the original release with the thick, bloomy lights and all.

This seems to have a huge effect on skin shaders. NPCs faces look more natural where they've honestly looked bad outside the main cast up till now. After playing so long with the lighting culled it's more obvious than when they initially patched it out.

Surprised no ones mentioned this. Maybe the eggnog's got me seeing things.
 

Raven117

Member
So, I was trying to do a stranger quest (the weird professor guy) and I have to rob some stage coaches (The quest marker is in Rhodes). I picked up a bounty, finished it, but now can't continue the quest.

Any tips?
 

DeepEnigma

Gold Member
So, I was trying to do a stranger quest (the weird professor guy) and I have to rob some stage coaches (The quest marker is in Rhodes). I picked up a bounty, finished it, but now can't continue the quest.

Any tips?

Try talking to Alden (the ticketing/mail guy) in Rhodes Station.
 

MiguelItUp

Member
I just wanted to say that I finally completed the campaign, and ugh, what an experience. I adored the previous Red Dead Redemption, and I love this one even more so. I'll agree that NakeyJakey's video hits SO many things on the head, especially regarding outdated gameplay mechanics and flow. But the final experience it leaves you with, in a wonderful one. It's my game of the year, and it's an experience that will have moments that will sit with me for a long time to come, just as the previous game did.

I will say, I absolutely love that when I began playing RDR2 I viewed Arthur Morgan as a character that would never fill John Marston's shoes. That he would be a decent character, but would always be overshadowed by John in scenes where they're together. I was wrong. By the time the game wrapped, I was left with an even stronger attachment to Arthur as a character, then I originally was with John in RDR. There's some really awesome, and great stuff in the overall experience. Knowing R*, I'm sure campaign DLC is on its way, and I want it more than ever. I just hope it hits just as hard as everything else, if not more so.
 
Knowing R*, I'm sure campaign DLC is on its way

Sadly knowing current R*, I doubt we'd get any. They couldn't even be bothered to put vehicles from GTO into GTAV. Hell, there are already improvements in RDO that aren't in RDR2 such as how equipped weapons are handled on your horse and in towns.
 

The_Mike

I cry about SonyGaf from my chair in Redmond, WA
When signing up for a online game is it possible to skip make it count (last player standing), as I hate that game mode?
 

DeepEnigma

Gold Member
Thanks for the tips. I hope so. I even moved the chapters up and nothing changed. Oh well.

The chapters more than likely made that a no-go for sure. I believe it was only available in 4 (from reading about chapter specific side missions like that), but I am also still on 4 myself, lol.
 
Last edited:

Raven117

Member
The chapters more than likely made that a no-go for sure. I believe it was only available in 4 (from reading about chapter specific side missions like that), but I am also still on 4 myself, lol.
Kind of a bummer, but oh well. Kinda ready to move the story on and take this on home
 

Catphish

Gold Member
Just finished the game tonight.

What a great experience. I can forgive the control and gameplay issues because everything else was just so damn good.

Arthur is easily one of my favorite characters (game, movie, whatever) of all time. I didn't want it to end, and I wept when it did. This game hit me right in the soft spot. I don't normally consider playing any particular game a privilege but, in this case, it certainly was, and I'm thankful to all those involved in bringing it to life.

It will always have a special place in my heart. 👍
 
Completely agree with him. Hope Rockstar is taking notes for GTA VI.

It's not like the game has to have multiple objectives or branching paths, just give players the freedom to experiment or deviate from the content they crafted in minor ways.
A simple objective(s?) that leaves it up to the player as to how they want to solve it. Rockstar's missions and individual mission narratives are not God's gift to the earth, so allowing players the ability to potentially miss out on some of it in favor of creating their own experience should be an acceptable design decision.
Breath of the Wild's shrines are great examples of allowing players to create their own experiences. I watched a friend play through it and noted many times that he would go about solving something in a completely different way than I did which led to a lot of "I didn't know you could do that" or "I'm not certain the developers had even intended for this to work." In this sense, you're creating your own unique experience, everyone plays the same objective, but no one has quite the same experience. (It also offers instant replay value.)
 

Ramzy

Member
When I wasn't busy taking screenshots the only thing I kept thinking about was praying for a PC release sometime soon. There are so many jank things in this game that mods could fix. I'd love to see more animals spawning, a more coherent upgrade system, and most importantly, reworking (or massively reducing the sensitivity of) the wanted system.

Either way, gorgeous game when played in Native 4K on the One X.

HGIgCeM.jpg
 

Zimmy68

Member
I played non-stop until Chapter 4, picked up Assassin Creed Odyssey during BF and haven't gone back except for a quick mission.
These developers really need to respect my time. A mission that should take 10 minutes is artificially extended to 30 minutes because you refuse to give me fast travel.
I just don't understand the logic behind it. Keep it locked until Chapter 2 or 3 but for God's sake, let me play the game like I want after that.
It is not fun to set it to auto pilot and doing something else for 10 minutes.
RDR 1 had it perfect with the fast travel camp.
And by all means, please bring back the magic horse. I want to whistle for it from anywhere and not worry about where I left it.
It's not like GTA where cars are littered all over the place.
 

Catphish

Gold Member
I played non-stop until Chapter 4, picked up Assassin Creed Odyssey during BF and haven't gone back except for a quick mission.
These developers really need to respect my time. A mission that should take 10 minutes is artificially extended to 30 minutes because you refuse to give me fast travel.
I just don't understand the logic behind it. Keep it locked until Chapter 2 or 3 but for God's sake, let me play the game like I want after that.
It is not fun to set it to auto pilot and doing something else for 10 minutes.
RDR 1 had it perfect with the fast travel camp.
And by all means, please bring back the magic horse. I want to whistle for it from anywhere and not worry about where I left it.
It's not like GTA where cars are littered all over the place.
The game has fast travel. I forget when it unlocks, since I never used it, but it involves using a map on the side of Arthur's wagon in camp.
 

Zimmy68

Member
The game has fast travel. I forget when it unlocks, since I never used it, but it involves using a map on the side of Arthur's wagon in camp.
It has a ham fisted, restrictive fast travel. To add to the misery, it is one way only.
I'm talking about choosing any fast travel point at any time outside of combat.
Let me warp to Valentine for a mission that is close, then when I complete it, let me warp back to the camp.
Now, I have to use that fast travel, then ride to a train station, take it to another train station close to my camp, get on my horse and ride 5 minutes to my camp.
I could have saved 20 minutes if I had fast travel points.
 
Last edited:

Horns

Member
Everything about the game is a bit slower. It takes some getting used to. There's no where on the map that should take you more than 10 or 15 minutes to get to until you complete the game. I've begun using the cinematic camera option so Author automatically goes to the destination. It's not fast travel, but allows me to set it up and leave it on in the background. Just be sure to listen to the audio because you stumble on lots of random events while this occurs.
 

TGO

Hype Train conductor. Works harder than it steams.
Okay so set my character to go automatically to a destination and I end up running into a boat...
 

Stuart360

Member
With all the negativity and criticism surrounding the gameplay, does anyone think the inevitable PC and Next Gen versions will have serious gameplay changes, and not just upgraded graphics?.
 

camelCase

Member
Nope. I'm just finishing up my 100% run.
What's up with the gambling sidequests?

Seriously the blackjack 4 card hit thing made me quit it. Did they patch that? The poker one seems easy because you can just bully opponents in Valentine once you're up a few bucks but the blackjack challenge was complete bullshit when I tried it.
 
7ea755f3-cc34-4e41-bcaii0.jpeg
What's up with the gambling sidequests?
Git
Lucky
I found the challenges to be trash in general. Gambler 8 and 9 are particularly garbage.
I maintain that the people who say, of the challenges in general, "They're not that bad, you're supposed to do them during your playthrough" are the same people who have never done them. The way the challenges are set up, you have to go out of your way to do them. You'll never complete most during a normal playthrough and they're not all available from the beginning, because they progress linearly.
Not only that, but Herbalist 9 can't be completed before post game except through a glitch, so many annoying or blatantly poor design philosophies went into crafting this game.
 

AV

We ain't outta here in ten minutes, we won't need no rocket to fly through space
picked up Assassin Creed Odyssey..

..These developers really need to respect my time

You picked up a game that was literally designed with slow leveling in mind in order to sell an XP boost in a single player game. Odd comparison to make.
 

Stuart360

Member
You picked up a game that was literally designed with slow leveling in mind in order to sell an XP boost in a single player game. Odd comparison to make.
Yeah i mean i'm loving Ass Creed Odyssey (my fave game from the last 2 or years, literally), but i'm 35 hours in and done 3 main story quests and still have half the map still unexplored. Odyssey will probably be 2 or 3 times longer than RDR2 if you do most stuff in both games.
 
"They're not that bad, you're supposed to do them during your playthrough"
I have never seen this said. Most of the challenges are incredibly unnatural for a regular playthrough. I did them cause I just had to have maxed stats but now it's killing my drive to ever replay the game cause I don't want to lose those maxed stats.
 

Zimmy68

Member
You picked up a game that was literally designed with slow leveling in mind in order to sell an XP boost in a single player game. Odd comparison to make.
I don't mind a long game, I do mind artificially extending the play time for no reason.
You should not want your player to say to themselves, "what am I doing?" while auto piloting the horse for 15 minutes.
I'm also not saying AC:O is a better game, it just respects my time better.
 

AV

We ain't outta here in ten minutes, we won't need no rocket to fly through space
I do mind artificially extending the play time for no reason.

That's what I'm saying, AC:O artificially extends the play time in order to sell you a ten dollar XP boost. How is that in any way respecting your time?
 

camelCase

Member
7ea755f3-cc34-4e41-bcaii0.jpeg

Git
Lucky
I found the challenges to be trash in general. Gambler 8 and 9 are particularly garbage.
I maintain that the people who say, of the challenges in general, "They're not that bad, you're supposed to do them during your playthrough" are the same people who have never done them. The way the challenges are set up, you have to go out of your way to do them. You'll never complete most during a normal playthrough and they're not all available from the beginning, because they progress linearly.
Not only that, but Herbalist 9 can't be completed before post game except through a glitch, so many annoying or blatantly poor design philosophies went into crafting this game.

Welp. you put it better than I could have lol. That garbage made me so angry when I played and I'm glad someone more articulate than I exists to take a shit on it. That part of the game is a glaring flaw and I think it'll take a remaster/rerelease for anyone to think that it needs reconsidering.
 
I love this game. I just set up camp randomly and all of the sudden a couple of inbreed hillbillies had me at gunpoint and told me that this was their territory, (basically game me a warning) and then proceeded on their way. Once they turned their backs, I threw one knife in each guy.
 
Just finished this awesome ride. Overall an amazing game, honestly lasted way longer than I expected. I still got a few things to finish up and then I guess Ill dive into the multiplayer to see how that is. The story is great, controls need getting used to but I dont get the major complaints, felt like at home after maybe 1 hour of use. The only time I felt they went too far with "realism" was end game:

First off, there shouldnt of been a part 1 and 2, just cut out the cheddar and make it more cohesive. I mean there was like maybe 3 good missions and most are with Sadie and obviously the final encounter with Dutch. The rest was IMO unneeded filler...building the barn/house, farm chores...after such a long adventure with Arthur, this part was such a cock block for me and it felt like more something that should of been at the very beginning of the game and not at the very end where you are far past these simple fetch quests. So yeah thats my biggest complaint because that end part kinda went for too long of a very long game anyway.
 

Verdanth

Member
Well, I sold my game without finishing it.

Could not stand how slow the game makes you go. It really was starting to get boring.

Maybe will repurchased somewhere down the road, but for now it does not get from me the praise most people gave.
 
With all the negativity and criticism surrounding the gameplay, does anyone think the inevitable PC and Next Gen versions will have serious gameplay changes, and not just upgraded graphics?.

I don't think so, as the developer made these decisions based on how they believe the game should play. Making changes to this could impact the vision quite significantly. They make make tweaks, but 'serious' gameplay changes would be unlikely.
 

Mista

Banned
Well, I sold my game without finishing it.

Could not stand how slow the game makes you go. It really was starting to get boring.

Maybe will repurchased somewhere down the road, but for now it does not get from me the praise most people gave.
The pace of the game is really exaughsting but at the end the story was definitely worth it. I had a good time
 

Verdanth

Member
The pace of the game is really exaughsting but at the end the story was definitely worth it. I had a good time

I blame it on Marvel's Spider-man also :messenger_tears_of_joy:. I played both at the same time, and man, Spider-man's transversal is so damn good and fun that RDR2 became a drag. Spider really set the bar for me last year.
 
Last edited:

Mista

Banned
I blame it on Marvel's Spider-man also :messenger_tears_of_joy:. I played both at the same time, and man, Spider-man's transversal is so damn good and fun that RDR2 became a drag. Spider really set the bar for me last year.
I platinumed it but didn’t play the DLCs yet. The games traversal mechanics were ON POINT! So much fun swinging running on buildings
 

Verdanth

Member
I platinumed it but didn’t play the DLCs yet. The games traversal mechanics were ON POINT! So much fun swinging running on buildings

The best way to play the DLC's is all three in a row if you ask me. They are good as a whole.

Just need to make a new game+ to have everything at 100% and Platinum.
 

Mista

Banned
The best way to play the DLC's is all three in a row if you ask me. They are good as a whole.

Just need to make a new game+ to have everything at 100% and Platinum.
I’ll do that when it’s dead and there’s no game releases next to each other👍🏻
 

Azula

Neo Member
I finally beat this last night. I took a 3 month break, as I was getting burnt out at the time. Much to my surprise, the break actually did wonders for this game. Usually I can’t get back into a game if I take a long break from playing it, but with Red Dead, is breathed new life into the game for me.

I think my major issues with the game, is how much time is wasted sometimes doing basic tasks. I cant tell you how many times I want to start a mission, only to accidentally get the law set on me. Then I ended up wasting 5 + minutes shaking it, and paying off the bounty. Sometimes the game just gets clunky, and doesnt click. Other times, everything flows perfectly, and everything seems to fall into place.

Anyways, I just wanted to post quickly about the story. I actually thought the writing in this game, was up there with the Last of Us. It was very mature and nuanced. And something I’ve had trouble articulating to people when discussing video game writing, is how the difference between Film and Video Game writing often comes down to nuance and film willing to let things play out slowly. I saw a lot of complaints about the opening chapter being slow, but I actually was really impressed with Rockstars presentation here, and how it slowly let you get into the world, and the characters. It felt very much like a film.

And the way the story evolves with Arthur Morgan, and all the little things that slowly inform his character, and the changes he goes through (or the clarification of who he actually is as a man). The final mission actually made me tear up. Something games never do. I had grown to love the character so much. And the way they handled everything, was just so perfect. Also hats off to the actors in this game. They absolutely killed it, with their performances.

All I really wanted to say. I know most people have moved past this game. And as time went on, there has been a lot of critics of this game. Trust me, I know. I got burned out around Chapter 5, and took a 3 month break. But in the end, I think the game overall is pretty brilliant. Even if there is some flaws, the actual story and writing is on another leve.
 
Top Bottom