Just beat the game today and love it a lot. This is the first open world game that really grabs me through its story.
What's different between this and GTA is : Personal Attachment.
Everything you do in this game feel personal. One example would be the vehicle. In GTA, I rarely care about the car I am driving as I can simply steal a car and crash it 2 minutes later. In RDR, the horse is truly yours. Even though you can randomly find a horse anywhere, but the horse you break and ride really feel like something you attached to. I felt extremely bad when my first horse was killed by a cougar (though I accidently skinned my horse too afterward :lol)
That's something that could be easily fixed in future GTA games with more customization options. Something like Saints Row 2 does it EXTREMELY well IMO. Tons of clothing options, tons of car customization options, huge garage to save cars, customizing safe houses, etc. Of course, none of it can touch the "attachment" of a horse, or dog in Fable II for example since they're not alive, but it's better than nothing (GTAIV)
Well they tried the car ownership angle with GTA:SA by way of having you bring a souped up low rider to various competitions etc. The problem is it just didn't work as the cars were far too fragile, and after about 5 minutes of cruising round you'd have to limp the damned thing back home again before it blew up and you had to painstakingly steal and upgrade another one. I'm not sure how they could make it work without affecting the core mechanics, where everything is deliberately completely disposable, which is a shame considering how well it works in RDR.
Yes, I enjoyed a lot feeling that this horse is *my* horse. There was a sense of great adventure in some missions where you suddenly had to chase someone and then after whistling there was *my* horse coming so I could chase the bastards.
I even felt they shouldn't give you automatic horses, I think that would make:
a) Money feel less worthless.
b) Give you incentive to steal (as I did not find, in the entire game, one good reason to do something that would affect my honor negatively except "lol mayhem")
Well they tried the car ownership angle with GTA:SA by way of having you bring a souped up low rider to various competitions etc. The problem is it just didn't work as the cars were far too fragile, and after about 5 minutes of cruising round you'd have to limp the damned thing back home again before it blew up and you had to painstakingly steal and upgrade another one. I'm not sure how they could make it work without affecting the core mechanics, where everything is deliberately completely disposable, which is a shame considering how well it works in RDR.
SR2 had it so that if a car you woned was totalled, it stayed in your garage, but you had to pay to repair it. I thought that was a good mechanism that allowed you to feel like it was your car, without too much punishment if you messed it up.
Almost done with the challenges: only Master Hunter to go. Right now I've gotten to the challenge to
kill a bear with a knife. WTF has R* been smoking when they came up with that? Almost nailed it: shot a bear twice in the lower body with a buffalo rifle, fucker ran, chased him down, pulled out my knife, went for the kill and.... BEAR #2 JUMPS ME FROM NOWHERE AND KILLS ME!
Almost done with the challenges: only Master Hunter to go. Right now I've gotten to the challenge to
kill a bear with a knife. WTF has R* been smoking when they came up with that? Almost nailed it: shot a bear twice in the lower body with a buffalo rifle, fucker ran, chased him down, pulled out my knife, went for the kill and.... BEAR #2 JUMPS ME FROM NOWHERE AND KILLS ME!
I just found out about that link on the Social Club web site. It's a checklist of everything you need to do in the game to get 100%. I am so surprised at the incredible level of detail in the online stat tracking of this game.
And the achievement page has small hints as well. In fact, I was reading the Social Club's hint for the Unnatural Selection achievement, and learned that the foldout map that came with the game has information on wildllife locations. I never touched the map before, but I'll use it the next time I play.
I noticed in the above link that my outfits are sorely lacking... only two new outfits unlocked. There's one particular requirement for each outfit that puzzles me. For example,
for the Bollard Twin outfit, it says "search Thieves' Landing." For what
Got the credits to roll yesterday. Phenomenal game. Really enjoyed every minute of it. The story arc is excellent and lightyears above most games out there. Sure the narrative suffers due to lengthening the gameplay but it really comes together in the end.
Amazing characters. John Marston.
Bonnie McFarlane. Drew mcFarlane. Leigh Johnson. London Ricketts. Vincente de Santa. Dutch Van Der Linde. Abigail Marston.
Strong & believable characters that fit perfectly in the world they're in.
The missions were a lot of fun. Controls much better then GTA4. I've complained many times how Niko controls like a boat. Marston turns tighter and doesn't walk into walls half as much. The ragdoll physics make the game. Watching guys fall off their horse or dangle off their saddle never got old. Played with expert aiming. Dead Eye was a bit of a crutch but without it things would've been way too frustrating given the odds.
Graphics were simply jaw dropping. The art style made each sunrise/sunset look like a painting. Insane draw distance. Varied locations. Every area teeming with life.
The only large complaint I have is what everyone else has. The
Mexico
missions were far too aimless and made John look like a fool. Rockstar needs to stop going the do-boy route. Characters should take more control of their fate instead of following orders.
I think the complaints would've been easilly assuaged if players had a choice in either siding with the rebels or the Mexican army.
At least that way it wouldn't have made Marston such a tool.
My small nagging complaint is that the dueling mechanics were stupid. For a western, duels should be exciting and challenging but what we got was a confusing mess.
All in all it's by far my favorite game of the year so far.
What we need next is a prequel with you being a part of Dutch's gang.
Oni-Jazar, I haven't finished the game yet so I'm afraid of highlighting your spoiler text. However, the part where you mention aimless missions and Marston appearing like a do-boy, are you talking about
the ranch missions with his son and wife
? I'm loving those missions right now. I thought the game was over at first but then you get to enjoy
some old, familiar faces, and witness promises being honoured. You buy a bunch of cattle from Bonnie, you finally get to spend time with Abigail and John's son... Marston is finally happy for once. I love his farm
.
I still have done only one of those missions. I don't know where the game is headed after that.
Oni-Jazar, I haven't finished the game yet so I'm afraid of highlighting your spoiler text. However, the part where you mention aimless missions and Marston appearing like a do-boy, are you talking about
the ranch missions with his son and wife
? I'm loving those missions right now. I thought the game was over at first but then you get to enjoy
some old, familiar faces, and witness promises being honoured. You buy a bunch of cattle from Bonnie, you finally get to spend time with Abigail and John's son... Marston is finally happy for once. I love his farm
.
I still have done only one of those missions. I don't know where the game is headed after that.
Maybe I missed something big, but the ending was good but not awesome as many seem to find. Overall, it was a great game, but for some reason, I was not emotionally attached.
Maybe I missed something big, but the ending was good but not awesome as many seem to find. Overall, it was a great game, but for some reason, I was not emotionally attached.
I'm not quite at the ending, but I agree wholeheartedly with the idea that this game is much more personal than GTA. Not only that, but the characters are so much more heartwarming. I don't want to use the words more likable, because there were plenty of likable GTA4 characters. But you really care about the characters in Red Dead Redemption. I'm at a late game mission,
one of the Marston ranch missions
, and I was touched when
Bonnie was all alone at the end of the corn stock mission. John and his wife bring over sacks of corn to the MacFarlane ranch to help Bonnie out, and when they leave, Bonnie is shuffling her feet on the road looking sadly over at the departing couple. She probably loves him. Earlier in the game when she was about to get hanged I was getting angry, and I wanted to in-game kill whoever was responsible pretty badly
I hate it when games just have an endless black screen and scrolling white letters. Make the damn end credits exciting! Assassin's Creed end credits were atrocious. It had an endless array of pointless names, with tons of localization credits for every country you can think of (Japan, France, Germany, whatever), and you can't skip the damn credits because they actually have an achievement for watching it all. :lol
A good end credit sequence doesn't have to be spectacular. Just make it colourful, throw in a good song (like the end of the COD4 credits, which had a funny Sgt. Griggs rap song), or throw in a cool video sequence (like the beginning of the COD4 credits, with AC130 footage).
I loved the GTA4 credits. It was very long, but at least there was eye candy, with tons of nice shots of beautiful Liberty City and an interesting song. There was even a story reveal at the end, a funny little easter egg (
random homeless guy collecting the diamonds
). The fact that there was so much focus
on the diamonds
in Lost/Damned and Ballad Of Gay Tony made it even funnier in retrospect.
I'm not quite at the ending, but I agree wholeheartedly with the idea that this game is much more personal than GTA. Not only that, but the characters are so much more heartwarming. I don't want to use the words more likable, because there were plenty of likable GTA4 characters. But you really care about the characters in Red Dead Redemption. I'm at a late game mission,
one of the Marston ranch missions
, and I was touched when
Bonnie was all alone at the end of the corn stock mission. John and his wife bring over sacks of corn to the MacFarlane ranch to help Bonnie out, and when they leave, Bonnie is shuffling her feet on the road looking sadly over at the departing couple. She probably loves him. Earlier in the game when she was about to get hanged I was getting angry, and I wanted to in-game kill whoever was responsible pretty badly
.
Intriguing. I love good end credits.
I hate it when games just have an endless black screen and scrolling white letters. Make the damn end credits exciting! Assassin's Creed end credits were atrocious. It had an endless array of pointless names, with tons of localization credits for every country you can think of (Japan, France, Germany, whatever), and you can't skip the damn credits because they actually have an achievement for watching it all. :lol
A good end credit sequence doesn't have to be spectacular. Just make it colourful, throw in a good song (like the end of the COD4 credits, which had a funny Sgt. Griggs rap song), or throw in a cool video sequence (like the beginning of the COD4 credits, with AC130 footage).
I loved the GTA4 credits. It was very long, but at least there was eye candy, with tons of nice shots of beautiful Liberty City and an interesting song. There was even a story reveal at the end, a funny little easter egg (
random homeless guy collecting the diamonds
). The fact that there was so much focus
on the diamonds
in Lost/Damned and Ballad Of Gay Tony made it even funnier in retrospect.
Without giving it away, it is not the credits themselves, although they are pretty good, and a great song plays, probably my favourite of the whole game, better than compass even. It is the process of getting to the credits that is so awesome.
Edit: Yeah, one of the few times i have really connected to characters, Bonnie deserves a good man, damn it!
Thinking about using the $10 from Sin & Punishment 2 toward RDR + 3D Dot Game Heroes for TRU's B1G1 40% off PS3 games sale. What are the major differences in performance versus the 360 version, and how's the PS3's online community with this game? Is communication a problem?
and the song starts playing. Really feeling it and then all of a sudden two bears come and kill my horse and almost kill me. The music stops. Goodbye emotional moment.
I'm not quite at the ending, but I agree wholeheartedly with the idea that this game is much more personal than GTA. Not only that, but the characters are so much more heartwarming. I don't want to use the words more likable, because there were plenty of likable GTA4 characters. But you really care about the characters in Red Dead Redemption. I'm at a late game mission,
one of the Marston ranch missions
, and I was touched when
Bonnie was all alone at the end of the corn stock mission. John and his wife bring over sacks of corn to the MacFarlane ranch to help Bonnie out, and when they leave, Bonnie is shuffling her feet on the road looking sadly over at the departing couple. She probably loves him. Earlier in the game when she was about to get hanged I was getting angry, and I wanted to in-game kill whoever was responsible pretty badly
Thinking about using the $10 from Sin & Punishment 2 toward RDR + 3D Dot Game Heroes for TRU's B1G1 40% off PS3 games sale. What are the major differences in performance versus the 360 version, and how's the PS3's online community with this game? Is communication a problem?
more foliage and better draw distance in the 360 version. Not too major, but on the other hand I like the game enough that I'd like to play through the better version at some point.
and the song starts playing. Really feeling it and then all of a sudden two bears come and kill my horse and almost kill me. The music stops. Goodbye emotional moment.
John sacraficed himself to save his family. Remember he said, "This ends here, and now." He knew there was no WAY in hell he could defeat the entire US army and federal marshalls. He realized that he would never escape his past and would always be hunted down, putting his family in harms way as they were during the final shoot out. John Told his family to run away and not look back as a way of saving them. He knew once he died they would not be harassed or harmed. So, he went out in a blaze of glory. I think that made him even more badass and a much more noble selfless character to go out like that.
Maybe you should have rode away or been more aware of your surroundings? Still, I know it sucks.
There is a theory going around that
John sacraficed himself to save his family. Remember he said, "This ends here, and now." He knew there was no WAY in hell he could defeat the entire US army and federal marshalls. He realized that he would never escape his past and would always be hunted down, putting his family in harms way as they were during the final shoot out. John Told his family to run away and not look back as a way of saving them. He knew once he died they would not be harassed or harmed. So, he went out in a blaze of glory. I think that made him even more badass and a much more noble selfless character to go out like that.
Man, I hate duels. I'm still not entirely sure I understand them. Doesn't help that RDR's duel tutorial features small text in the top left corner of the screen talking about a couple of indicators on the bottom right corner
Is it possible to ride on the train without the game glitching out?
The first time I tried I got teleported back into town, I just tried again and the game froze after 30 seconds or so. I was just about to punch the conductor off the side, it pissed me off.
Man, I hate duels. I'm still not entirely sure I understand them. Doesn't help that RDR's duel tutorial features small text in the top left corner of the screen talking about a couple of indicators on the bottom right corner
Man, I hate duels. I'm still not entirely sure I understand them. Doesn't help that RDR's duel tutorial features small text in the top left corner of the screen talking about a couple of indicators on the bottom right corner
The sooner you draw the faster the mark goes from red to white (less accuracy)
The later you draw the slower it goes from red to white (more accuracy)
In the 1st scenario it's harder to get more accurate shots (small and white) but you get more time to pull of more shots
In the 2nd scenario you are giving up precious time while this guy is painting you himself and he may fill up faster/more than you (esp if you draw way too late) BUT you can more easily get more accurate shots (reticule is slower so you can time it for small and white easier)
Pulling the trigger while it is white (and smallest) will fill the meter up fastest. (Yay!)
Pulling the trigger while it is Red (and largest) will fill the meter up the slowest (Booo!)
Pulling the trigger while it is at its smallest and whitest AND targeting their head or hand will cause you to automatically shoot them dead or disarmed in ONE shot (has to be your 1st shot)
Otherwise, you want to be the one to fill up your meter the most/fastest BEFORE time runs out.
Just remember; White reticule = GOOD, Red reticule = BAD
more foliage and better draw distance in the 360 version. Not too major, but on the other hand I like the game enough that I'd like to play through the better version at some point.
Did anyone have a lot of trouble with the treasure hunter ambient challenges? I'm on Rank 6 and I don't know what to do. I'm trying to avoid using a guide for as long as possible but that treasure map does not give a lot of information.
Map shows a tower of rocks and seems to hint that I can use the rocks as stepping stones, like a staircase, to climb to the top of the tower. Can't find it anywhere though
.
----------
Anyone have an estimate of how much time I need to invest in co-op and multiplayer to get 1100 in this game? I've played the game for 30 hours so far, touching nothing but the single player. I think I just need around 5 more hours of playtime max to get 100% and other single player achievements.
Is it possible to ride on the train without the game glitching out?
The first time I tried I got teleported back into town, I just tried again and the game froze after 30 seconds or so. I was just about to punch the conductor off the side, it pissed me off.
Did anyone have a lot of trouble with the treasure hunter ambient challenges? I'm on Rank 6 and I don't know what to do. I'm trying to avoid using a guide for as long as possible but that treasure map does not give a lot of information.
Map shows a tower of rocks and seems to hint that I can use the rocks as stepping stones, like a staircase, to climb to the top of the tower. Can't find it anywhere though
Thanks jwac. And voltron, I thought everything was doable until I got to rank 6. *shrugs* That monument just eluded me. I just looked at rank 7's map and I immediately know where to go and what to look for.
edit: Just got the rank 7 treasure, within minutes of opening its map. And upon opening rank 8's map, I know immediately where to go. You're right, some of these are easy, but rank 6 is a beast.
These are oddly satisfying nonetheless. For rank 7 and rank 8, it feels pretty good to immediately recognize those awesome monuments.
Thanks jwac. And voltron, I thought everything was doable until I got to rank 6. *shrugs* That monument just eluded me. I just looked at rank 7's map and I immediately know where to go and what to look for.
edit: Just got the rank 7 treasure, within minutes of opening its map. And upon opening rank 8's map, I know immediately where to go. You're right, some of these are easy, but rank 6 is a beast.
These are oddly satisfying nonetheless. For rank 7 and rank 8, it feels pretty good to immediately recognize those awesome monuments.
The cliff face after Crooked Toes in Mexico? If so, I agree that was not immediately recognisable. But the fact that a) it was def in Mexico, b) it was on a cliff face, and c) there was water under the cliff made it pretty easy to find IMO.
If the clue didnt include the water under the cliff it would have made it quite difficult indeed.
I really really want some more ambient challenges DLC. Please Rockstar. Tough as shit treasure hunting. Exotic animals that rarely show up and stuff like that.
voltron, did you like the text message car hunts in GTA4? I freaking loved them! They're kind of like RDR's treasure hunts, except you get a photograph of the car and a one line hint through text message.
BTW, rank 6 link (timestamped to a picture of the map).
voltron, did you like the text message car hunts in GTA4? I freaking loved them! They're kind of like RDR's treasure hunts, except you get a photograph of the car and a one line hint through text message.
BTW, rank 6 link (timestamped to a picture of the map).
Finally beat the game. I found the last hour of the game really disappointing. I didn't think I'd have to lasso horses and herd cattle again.
Also, Marston dying sucked. My favorite GTA character and they have to kill him off. Why couldn't they kill off that worthless shit Niko. I hated him in GTA4. The only thing that made me feel better was drowning the agents wife, shooting his brother in the back of the skull, and then pumping that bastards face full of lead.
But despite the lame ending it's still one of the best games ever.
Finally beat the game. I found the last hour of the game really disappointing. I didn't think I'd have to lasso horses and herd cattle again.
Also, Marston dying sucked. My favorite GTA character and they have to kill him off. Why couldn't they kill off that worthless shit Niko. I hated him in GTA4. The only thing that made me feel better was drowning the agents wife, shooting his brother in the back of the skull, and then pumping that bastards face full of lead.
But despite the lame ending it's still one of the best games ever.
