Red Dead Redemption 2 - now available on PC

[Jack Of Owls]

I just finished the main campaign and I'm now in the post-game. Hated it at first because of the "I'm Too Young To Die" difficulty that seemed designed for children from the ages of 5-7 (and there's only ONE difficulty option so you're stuck with it; however, difficulty can suddenly spike especially if you turn off ALL aim assist options and refuse to use retarded Dead Eye magical powers like I did). But slowly but surely I started to get wrapped up in its massive open game world. Technical presentation and visuals/animations are absolutely top notch (I played in 4k with HDR on an RTX 3070 with ray tracing enabled), with incredible attention to detail, and sometimes the towns actually feel alive (I came into Blackwater collecting a bounty with one of the elder Skinner brothers slung over my horse with at least 5 arrows sticking out of him and the town folk all stopped work or strolling and either gasped in horror or stared in approval and commented so I felt like a big man and that I mattered). Amazed that after I finished the main story I still only had 83% completion.

Hunting Legendary animals is fun, crafting is okay, collecting bounties highly enjoyable. Random incidents are sometimes fun to pursue or come across (I found a stuffed taxidermized gorilla in a broken crate in a canyon near some wagon wreckage... had no idea what it was doing there) and it feels less cookie cutter than you might expect though the world still feels a bit empty. The story was okay and the anti-hero Arthur you play was an unexpected type and his fate unusual in a video/PC game.

I enjoyed the game enough so that I may want to play RDR on Xenia soon (which has pretty much been perfected in latest canary builds and runs far far better than on the original PS3 and 360 platforms though it still looks like shit with that non-existent AA and terrible pop-in, even at 4K).

 

[BruceVC]

I just finished the main campaign and I'm now in the post-game. Hated it at first because of the "I'm Too Young To Die" difficulty that seemed designed for children from the ages of 5-7 (and there's only ONE difficulty option so you're stuck with it; however, difficulty can suddenly spike especially if you turn off ALL aim assist options and refuse to use retarded Dead Eye magical powers like I did). But slowly but surely I started to get wrapped up in its massive open game world. Technical presentation and visuals/animations are absolutely top notch (I played in 4k with HDR on an RTX 3070 with ray tracing enabled), with incredible attention to detail, and sometimes the towns actually feel alive (I came into Blackwater collecting a bounty with one of the elder Skinner brothers slung over my horse with at least 5 arrows sticking out of him and the town folk all stopped work or strolling and either gasped in horror or stared in approval and commented so I felt like a big man and that I mattered). Amazed that after I finished the main story I still only had 83% completion.

Hunting Legendary animals is fun, crafting is okay, collecting bounties highly enjoyable. Random incidents are sometimes fun to pursue or come across (I found a stuffed taxidermized gorilla in a broken crate in a canyon near some wagon wreckage... had no idea what it was doing there) and it feels less cookie cutter than you might expect though the world still feels a bit empty. The story was okay and the anti-hero Arthur you play was an unexpected type and his fate unusual in a video/PC game.

I enjoyed the game enough so that I may want to play RDR on Xenia soon (which has pretty much been perfected in latest canary builds and runs far far better than on the original PS3 and 360 platforms though it still looks like shit with that non-existent AA and terrible pop-in, even at 4K).

Thats great news, Im glad you finally got into it and now you understand what fans mean by the enjoyment of the vast, open world and the beauty of that world

 

[Jack Of Owls]

I just finished the main campaign and I'm now in the post-game. Hated it at first because of the "I'm Too Young To Die" difficulty that seemed designed for children from the ages of 5-7 (and there's only ONE difficulty option so you're stuck with it; however, difficulty can suddenly spike especially if you turn off ALL aim assist options and refuse to use retarded Dead Eye magical powers like I did). But slowly but surely I started to get wrapped up in its massive open game world. Technical presentation and visuals/animations are absolutely top notch (I played in 4k with HDR on an RTX 3070 with ray tracing enabled), with incredible attention to detail, and sometimes the towns actually feel alive (I came into Blackwater collecting a bounty with one of the elder Skinner brothers slung over my horse with at least 5 arrows sticking out of him and the town folk all stopped work or strolling and either gasped in horror or stared in approval and commented so I felt like a big man and that I mattered). Amazed that after I finished the main story I still only had 83% completion.

Hunting Legendary animals is fun, crafting is okay, collecting bounties highly enjoyable. Random incidents are sometimes fun to pursue or come across (I found a stuffed taxidermized gorilla in a broken crate in a canyon near some wagon wreckage... had no idea what it was doing there) and it feels less cookie cutter than you might expect though the world still feels a bit empty. The story was okay and the anti-hero Arthur you play was an unexpected type and his fate unusual in a video/PC game.

I enjoyed the game enough so that I may want to play RDR on Xenia soon (which has pretty much been perfected in latest canary builds and runs far far better than on the original PS3 and 360 platforms though it still looks like shit with that non-existent AA and terrible pop-in, even at 4K).

Thats great news, Im glad you finally got into it and now you understand what fans mean by the enjoyment of the vast, open world and the beauty of that world

I'm glad i continued with the post-game content since I just came across the pinhead Bertram and the, um, rather colorful pursuit of Magnifico. Game has lots of weird charm. I think I should try out a few mods since the combat is still way too easy generally (and incredbly unrealistic), and the survivalist aspects are pretty abysmal with having many hundreds of healing items and food. In fact, the worst I've ever seen in a game. Dial that down a bit or offer a Hardcore mode like the original (or similar to TLoU) and it could be much better. I'm thinking maybe mods can fix those two glaring issues.

 

[BruceVC]

I just finished the main campaign and I'm now in the post-game. Hated it at first because of the "I'm Too Young To Die" difficulty that seemed designed for children from the ages of 5-7 (and there's only ONE difficulty option so you're stuck with it; however, difficulty can suddenly spike especially if you turn off ALL aim assist options and refuse to use retarded Dead Eye magical powers like I did). But slowly but surely I started to get wrapped up in its massive open game world. Technical presentation and visuals/animations are absolutely top notch (I played in 4k with HDR on an RTX 3070 with ray tracing enabled), with incredible attention to detail, and sometimes the towns actually feel alive (I came into Blackwater collecting a bounty with one of the elder Skinner brothers slung over my horse with at least 5 arrows sticking out of him and the town folk all stopped work or strolling and either gasped in horror or stared in approval and commented so I felt like a big man and that I mattered). Amazed that after I finished the main story I still only had 83% completion.

Hunting Legendary animals is fun, crafting is okay, collecting bounties highly enjoyable. Random incidents are sometimes fun to pursue or come across (I found a stuffed taxidermized gorilla in a broken crate in a canyon near some wagon wreckage... had no idea what it was doing there) and it feels less cookie cutter than you might expect though the world still feels a bit empty. The story was okay and the anti-hero Arthur you play was an unexpected type and his fate unusual in a video/PC game.

I enjoyed the game enough so that I may want to play RDR on Xenia soon (which has pretty much been perfected in latest canary builds and runs far far better than on the original PS3 and 360 platforms though it still looks like shit with that non-existent AA and terrible pop-in, even at 4K).

Thats great news, Im glad you finally got into it and now you understand what fans mean by the enjoyment of the vast, open world and the beauty of that world

I'm glad i continued with the post-game content since I just came across the pinhead Bertram and the, um, rather colorful pursuit of Magnifico. Game has lots of weird charm. I think I should try out a few mods since the combat is still way too easy generally (and incredbly unrealistic), and the survivalist aspects are pretty abysmal with having many hundreds of healing items and food. In fact, the worst I've ever seen in a game. Dial that down a bit or offer a Hardcore mode like the original (or similar to TLoU) and it could be much better. I'm thinking maybe mods can fix those two glaring issues.

So there are mods that add different levels of survivalism. This is the one I use

https://www.nexusmods.com/reddeadredemption2/mods/322

But this one looks even better but I havent used it yet

https://www.nexusmods.com/reddeadredemption2/mods/1261

But I dont use mods that make combat noticeably harder, Im not sure if there are any? I do use these types of mods that make law breaking more realistic and that makes law enforcement more effective in combat

https://www.nexusmods.com/reddeadredemption2/mods/569

 

[AwesomeButton]

As I said, western stories were much more visual. The characters mostly kept their mouths shut. Men generally keep their problems and complaints to themselves. They don't act like this.

As I've said a bunch of times in this thread: stop playing the story missions. The open world with self-imposed tasks and emergent gameplay is what I found to be the real value in RDR2.

 

[ScarredBushido]

honestly i hated how slow the story was and the way authur died ( cuz some dude coughed on him lmfao ) but i like the gunplay and thats really it.
RDR1 was better. someone said something along the lines of RDR1 is Spaghetti western and RDR2 is more like some other cowboy genre ( i forgot )

 

[Ezekiel]

As I said, western stories were much more visual. The characters mostly kept their mouths shut. Men generally keep their problems and complaints to themselves. They don't act like this.

As I've said a bunch of times in this thread: stop playing the story missions. The open world with self-imposed tasks and emergent gameplay is what I found to be the real value in RDR2.

Forced walking and the general awfulness of how Morgan moves kills that aspect for me. Unless I made my goal getting very high stamina. But dashing all the time really sucks too. I want the standard slow run.

 

[BruceVC]

honestly i hated how slow the story was and the way authur died ( cuz some dude coughed on him lmfao ) but i like the gunplay and thats really it.
RDR1 was better. someone said something along the lines of RDR1 is Spaghetti western and RDR2 is more like some other cowboy genre ( i forgot )

Valid criticism is fine of any game but not understanding historical realities is not a valid criticism

In that era people died all the time from tuberculosis and yes you could get it just from someone coughing on you who was infected

 

[ScarredBushido]

honestly i hated how slow the story was and the way authur died ( cuz some dude coughed on him lmfao ) but i like the gunplay and thats really it.
RDR1 was better. someone said something along the lines of RDR1 is Spaghetti western and RDR2 is more like some other cowboy genre ( i forgot )

Valid criticism is fine of any game but not understanding historical realities is not a valid criticism

In that era people died all the time from tuberculosis and yes you could get it just from someone coughing on you who was infected

i understand the disease and its history but i just didn't like it compared to how John went out in RDR1. that game felt more like a video game.

 

[Jack Of Owls]

Still playing (though much more casually now) the post-main game content. Found the mad scientist guy again (and there promises to be more) and his latest project (fun with electricity Part II). The game just looks and sounds so great here (and everywhere) and the quest itself is short, goofy fun. Was hoping there was a puzzle or two with the real threat of danger with those lightning bolts crashing down around you but they do nothing with it. Official side quests are fewer and fewer now so I installed a couple of mods that add extra bounties or contracts. I must have played 60+ hours of the main RDR2 without a single noticeable bug or crash (did discover the horrible hardware issue of LG OLED TVs with the Variable Refresh Rate flickering bug after a few hours of gaming with dark scenes though but found a workaround) but of course when I installed the mods I got mission-ending crashes up my chute or weird character model positions. Uninstalled right there.

I think I'm finally done with the game though I enjoyed my time with it, however it's probably something I won't ever play again, like Days Gone (another highly enjoyable game with very limited replayability). This and TLoU got me back into gaming after a long runt so I'm thankful for that

 

[AwesomeButton]

hardware issue of LG OLED TVs with the Variable Refresh Rate flickering bug after a few hours of gaming with dark scenes though but found a workaround)

Strange, this never occured to me in over 400 hours

 

[Jack Of Owls]

hardware issue of LG OLED TVs with the Variable Refresh Rate flickering bug after a few hours of gaming with dark scenes though but found a workaround)

Strange, this never occured to me in over 400 hours

You didn't notice any split-second flashing of color-distorted pixels every few minutes the longer you played the game? Do you have an LG G-SYNC/VRR TV or monitor? It's a known issue with LG C1/C2 OLEDs. It happens mostly in prolonged dark scenes, and usually at 120Hz. Apparently a workaround is to disable vsync in-game and enable it in you GPU's CP instead. This has benefits for a lot of games, I noticed, over the years. Ironically, if you enable the built-in vsync in the Xenia Xbox 360 emu to play Red Dead Redemption 1, it runs like crap. But do it in your GPU's CP and it makes things silky smooth with a constant 60+ FPS, even at 4K.

 

[EtcEtcEtc]

I can't stand the simulation, but that just highlights the problem in trying to merge simulation with drama and action-adventure. Nobody wants to watch Jeremiah Johnson cook every piece of rabbit or maintain his core or see every step he SLOWLY takes over that mountain in a 100 hour version of the movie. And people who really are into simulators (I am not.) probably don't want their experience hampered by all the scripted scenarios and forced drama. You can't have both. Pick one.

Well… I actually think the simulation is the only unique and worthwhile thing in the game. I enjoyed RDR 1 because it made the effort to remember it was Cowboys and Indians and Mexicans: The Game. The second game absolutely refuses to do the same. It is a Hollywood soap opera hiding in an American Western disguise. But…

I’d played a bit of RDR2 online for coop and dropped it because online they amputate most of the simulation out and leave a barren wasteland. But I was curious, and made an effort to install a selection of mods and play the embarrassingly bad campaign until it ‘opens up’ and all the henpecking wives that are Rockstar Signature supporting characters can no longer simply drag you into around like a bitch.
And with those mods, it’s a decent western game. Slow, realistic gunfights with kills from a single organ shot of the legendary Spencer Rifle. Good hunting in good country. Good generated open-form bounty hunting. It’s fun to be occasionally hunted by Marshalls, bounty hunters or Pinkertons.

And I can’t help but notice some great, craftsmanlike simulation in the game. It must be what they had all the nerdy guys work on. There’s a fully animated coal mine, down to the coal trains being loaded and driving to an import-export depot in the port owned by the same company. If they won’t really let me play Cowboys and Indians (a serious deficit of injuns in this game, what a waste), they should have just focused on the simulated world they partially made.

But no, they demand you play the garbage soap opera they’ve always dreamed of being producers for.

Hahaha what, in what world is this game a Hollywood soap opera - god you all are such fucking contrarians.

 

[Zewp]

I recently played through this game again after not having played it since its release. It's still head and shoulders above most of the AAA-dreck that comes out regularly (not a high bar, though). The simulation aspect remains my favorite part of the game, but this time around the flaws with it are a bit more apparent. I got a feeling that a lot of it was either rushed or unfinished, or that a lot of content got cut entirely. It's obvious that the game was planned to have a lot more content that couldn't make it in in time. Small things like the interactions with NPCs being pretty shallow or letting you rob stores and trains, but not banks, etc.

Some of the best fun is simply to exist in the world and interact with its various systems, but one of the key problems is that you can spend a lot of time being an outlaw amassing wealth, but there's just nothing to spend it on in the game. You can get the best guns fairly early on and max out the camp upgrades in chapter 3 already. In chapter 3 I also got the horse I used for the rest of the game. A bit of a shame that they went in so hard on RDO, as I'd have paid a fair bit of money for a DLC or expansion that filled the world with a lot more content and went harder on the simulation aspects without any story to distract from it.

Hopefully they learn the right lessons for GTA6 and go even harder on the open-world, free roam content. Not holding thumbs though. GTA6 will probably just be another empty open world that serves as nothing more than a tutorial for the online portion.

 

[orcinator]

Immersionfags should get immersed in a vat of acid.

 

[Konjad]

 

[Ezekiel]

Can only play the new Zelda on my weekends, because a little bit can turn into three hours easily. Meanwhile, I can't play Red Dead 2 for five minutes without getting annoyed and being bored. Don't know if I've touched it since my last post. Rockstar are assholes. Their mission structure and obsession with realism are so dull. Wish they made linear games again, but they'd probably play poorly too after so much encouragement.

 

[Ezekiel]

I'm into it now. Played a couple of hours on my days off. But everything I said is still valid. Zombra is right: it IS better with a controller. Which is shameful.

 

[Ezekiel]

I don't know why the HDR turned back on. I started the game from windowed mode. Not the first time it turned back on by itself. The game's HDR is bland. This washed out, dim look. Prefer Windows 11's automatic implementation.

Five dollars for a mustang? That's not even worth the time it took me to break it and ride it to Valentine.

 

[Ezekiel]

This game logic is so strange. Convict in striped prison uniform asks for help. I hogtie him to bring him to the law. Stranger witnesses me "kidnapping" him. I kill him. Then another witness, then another, and pretty soon it's that scene from Mulholland Drive. Think I killed four witnesses, out in the empty plains.

 

[AwesomeButton]

Nothing strange about it. The convict in striped uniform is a "stranger" encounter, and he is a good guy underneath. The folks you catch in bounty missions are invariably bad guys:

Spoiler

If it's not obvious, I'm joking and it's indeed stupid.

 

[KVVRR]

The game completely falls apart the moment you try to deviate from the straight path the developers have layed for you, yes. It's very annoying considering this is an open world game.

 

[PorkyThePaladin]

Understatement of the year above. Two steps off the developer intended path, MISSION FAILED. The worst case of linearity I've ever seen in any open world game.

 

[Zewp]

Five dollars for a mustang? That's not even worth the time it took me to break it and ride it to Valentine.

Yeah, selling wild caught horses is a waste of time. You unlock a horse fence later that gives you a bit more money, but it's not much better.

Not that it matters, because there's very little you can actually spend your money on. You have most of the best weapons and (arguably) best horse by chapter 3, as well as max out camp upgrades in the same chapter. Like GTA5 that came before it, it doesn't seem like Rockstar intended players to do much more than the story in the singleplayer mode. The intention was probably for players to finish story mode and then immediately move on to Red Dead Online.

 

[AwesomeButton]

If you play this game for the story missions, you get... story missions. And you miss about 75% of the game that way.