Red Dead Redemption 2 Catch-All

Apologies if repeat theories posted earlier in this thread. I've been avoiding reading it over the holidays lest I encounter any inadvertent spoilers.

It was partway through Chapter 5 that I understood one of the games key themes. I was on one of those long rides when I realised, "Everyone else is working!" The Van De Linde gang aren't just outlaws in a legal sense; they're also socio-economic outlaws. They offer neither goods, nor services, nor labour to what is clearly a fast-growing American economy. They take from the economy, but contribute nothing in return.

I think that one of the reasons why Rockstar are so keen to have players ride everywhere initially is so that we see this changed economic world. And early on we're given little clues to the importance of taking the time to observe the world around us. Everyone sees the two stags, locked together by their antlers (I suspect there's some symbolism here). Everyone also sees the man kicked and killed by the horse.

When we see the logging camp, the enclosed fields, the abandoned water mill, we're being shown commerce and industry... and the world of productive work.

Spoiler:

And the Epilogues confirm this. John Marston's redemption comes only when he accepts the need to join this world.

I'm still gathering my thoughts about the game (and I think that providing time and space to think about your character and the game is the other reason for those long, long rides), but I believe that RDR2 might be quite political. It's definitely much deeper than it first appears.

Much earlier in this thread, I expressed concern that Rockstar might neglect women, Native Americans and black Americans. They most definitely did not. What they did do is discovered a refreshingly mature approach to story-telling.

Spoiler:

I particularly enjoyed the fact that I was allowed to say goodbye to even minor characters - like photographer Albert Mason - after I finished their side quests. In previous games it was simply 'Mission Complete'. I hope this stays in future games.

I suspect that I'll be returning to RDR2 from time to time just to drink in the world Rockstar have created.

Absolutely my Game of the Year.

I rode past a guy napping and his horse. I stopped and petted his horse. The guy woke up to a burly Arthur petting his horse. I was a little worried he would start shooting me. He didn’t.

JohnKillo wrote:

I rode past a guy napping and his horse. I stopped and petted his horse. The guy woke up to a burly Arthur petting his horse. I was a little worried he would start shooting me. He didn’t.

I'm actually surprised that the worst random encounter I've had so far is being left with no recourse but to suck the snake venom out of someone in Fake Louisiana. That's leaving out the ambushes, of course.

Rat Boy wrote:
JohnKillo wrote:

I rode past a guy napping and his horse. I stopped and petted his horse. The guy woke up to a burly Arthur petting his horse. I was a little worried he would start shooting me. He didn’t.

I'm actually surprised that the worst random encounter I've had so far is being left with no recourse but to suck the snake venom out of someone in Fake Louisiana. That's leaving out the ambushes, of course.

SO far i've just felt bad for anyone foolish enough to ambush me. That lady who needed help pulled a gun on me, after i was just traveling and all my stuff was nicely topped up... all the happened was her and her two friends got bullet-timed in the head. It was like when that highwayman still comes at you in act 3 Skyrim.

thrawn82 wrote:
Rat Boy wrote:
JohnKillo wrote:

I rode past a guy napping and his horse. I stopped and petted his horse. The guy woke up to a burly Arthur petting his horse. I was a little worried he would start shooting me. He didn’t.

I'm actually surprised that the worst random encounter I've had so far is being left with no recourse but to suck the snake venom out of someone in Fake Louisiana. That's leaving out the ambushes, of course.

SO far i've just felt bad for anyone foolish enough to ambush me. That lady who needed help pulled a gun on me, after i was just traveling and all my stuff was nicely topped up... all the happened was her and her two friends got bullet-timed in the head. It was like when that highwayman still comes at you in act 3 Skyrim.

That lady in particular was dumb because I was so close to her. I just punched her.

*says nothing about the guy who successfully jacked my starter horse in Chapter 2, leaving me with a 20 minute walk back to Valentine*

that def would havce happened to me if someone (i think on the podcast?) hadn't mentioned that if you whistle, your horse will throw the horsenapper

thrawn82 wrote:

SO far i've just felt bad for anyone foolish enough to ambush me. That lady who needed help pulled a gun on me, after i was just traveling and all my stuff was nicely topped up... all the happened was her and her two friends got bullet-timed in the head. It was like when that highwayman still comes at you in act 3 Skyrim.

Like this cheeky bugger:

I was like a level 70+ Vampire Lord and yet he still wasn't intimidated.

Hmm, finished this the other day and I have mixed feelings about it. The world and the technology are spectacular, the characters interesting and acted superbly. It is too long though, and not paced particularly well. I found I was forcing myself to play by the end just for closure.

There was just something missing overall for me.

I'm about 30% through according to the game and my only complaint so far is that like almost every other Rockstar game I've played the controls feel cumbersome at first, so cumbersome I can see why Sands and Julian bounced off. But once I got the hang of it and learned to lean on Dead Eye where appropriate, I got past that particular hump.

Wast that PMJ I heard taking Arthur's ex to the Saint Denis' theater?

TiggyP wrote:

It is too long though, and not paced particularly well. I found I was forcing myself to play by the end just for closure.

I have a lot of sympathy for this view. It's something that I've thought about a lot in the last two weeks. RDR2 definitely feels like a long game.

Spoiler:

Late in the game there's a mission involving the Native American chief, Rain Falls, that begins with a 10 minute ride... which then leads into a 10 minute ride, in which Rain Falls pauses the conversation in order to collect herbs. I felt there was a whiff of Rockstar trolling...

But I do wonder whether unfavourable perceptions about the game's length and pacing reflect the distracting nature of the open world rather than the number, length and organisation of the actual main missions.

A friend of mine completed the main story in around 25 hours by focusing on it exclusively. Whereas, at one point over Xmas, I spent three hours trying to catch a cougar so that I could craft the best satchel!

I also made my own game longer and slower by role-playing Arthur. So I would sleep after a completing a few missions, because my Arthur would be tired and would need to rest. I'd also hunt regularly and return to camp with provisions and money. And I'd also do chores around the game.

By the time, I reached the Epilogues I too was keen to see the end, but I never felt the story itself was too long.

Rat Boy wrote:

Wast that PMJ I heard taking Arthur's ex to the Saint Denis' theater?

Yup.

I think I'm nearing the end of chapter 2, just have John Marston's mission available in camp. Also have a stranger mission northwest of Blackwater. If I head into the bounty area and turn myself in, will that clear that $300 bounty in that area?

beanman101283 wrote:

I think I'm nearing the end of chapter 2, just have John Marston's mission available in camp. Also have a stranger mission northwest of Blackwater. If I head into the bounty area and turn myself in, will that clear that $300 bounty in that area?

I'm pretty sure they just kill you in blackwater

Rykin wrote:
Rat Boy wrote:

Wast that PMJ I heard taking Arthur's ex to the Saint Denis' theater?

Yup.

There is a prompt that says "make a move" if you focus on Mary L. It is pretty cute.

I wandered into Strawberry to see if I could surrender in order to clear my bounty. The town was locked down, so none of the shops were open, and nobody was at the jail. The jail still showed evidence of my antics to break Micah out, but it it seems like for now I'll just continue the story and see how things go.

I also finally managed to pick up a rifle, got my first perfect pelt, and finally figured out how to acquire the small game arrows, so I can start going after some of these challenges and crafting upgrades now.

I'd suggest not worrying too much about the (admittedly, massive) the bounty from that mission. IIRC, the area covered by the bounty is avoidable until you get the cash together to pay it.

Of course, you could always commit a series of robberies, but then you'd be risking even more bounties and - crucially - being denied safe access to other parts of the map... You're right to just play on.

But I understand that psychological impact of a $300 bounty. When even a perfect pelt earns only a few dollars, legitimately earning enough money to pay it off feels like a Herculean task.

On the perfect pelts, I really struggled with hunting using small game arrows; mainly because I lacked the patience to hunt properly using them. I was trying to shoot squirrels from horseback as I was travelling to and fro, and it was very difficult.

There is a way around this...

Spoiler:

It is, however, possible to have a Fence craft a Trinket that sometimes improves the quality of animal skins. This allows you to use the Varmint rifle on small game, and still - sometimes - receive a perfect pelt.

As long as you take your time and aim for the head you can do most of your hunting tasks with the Varmint Rifle, a repeater, and the Springfield rifle if you have that Trinket. Just use dead eye to slow things down.

Rykin wrote:

As long as you take your time and aim for the head you can do most of your hunting tasks with the Varmint Rifle, a repeater, and the Springfield rifle if you have that Trinket. Just use dead eye to slow things down.

At a certain point of study, dead eye also gives you a red high-lite on the best place to shoot the animal.

Remember, you don't really need to pay the big bounties, especially early game when you don't have a lot - spend all your cash on hand so you won't lose much, then ride into the bounty area, get yourself arrested and the bounty will be paid off for you.

So that’s what I thought to do, but there were no lawmen around so I couldn’t turn myself in. Should I have just punched a random civilian and waited for the crime to be reported?

thrawn82 wrote:
Rykin wrote:

As long as you take your time and aim for the head you can do most of your hunting tasks with the Varmint Rifle, a repeater, and the Springfield rifle if you have that Trinket. Just use dead eye to slow things down.

At a certain point of study, dead eye also gives you a red high-lite on the best place to shoot the animal.

Which is always the head plus a secondary location of the heart depending on the angle you are viewing the animal from so I never found it to be very useful. On gators just aim for the eye. On birds it doesn't really matter you always get the same amount of feathers no matter the quality of the body.

beanman101283 wrote:

So that’s what I thought to do, but there were no lawmen around so I couldn’t turn myself in. Should I have just punched a random civilian and waited for the crime to be reported?

Yep - any minor crime that won't result in insta-shooting (breach of the peace, unarmed assault) will hopefully allow you to surrender. The law will show up if a witness is able to report the crime. And you can commit the crime anywhere in the county, you don't need to go into Strawberry itself.

detroit20 wrote:

But I do wonder whether unfavourable perceptions about the game's length and pacing reflect the distracting nature of the open world rather than the number, length and organisation of the actual main missions.

I didn't do any of the hunting, as I don't have to patience or time for it. Animating the loot sequence was annoying enough for me!

I did do quite a lot of the side missions though, so that may have contributed to my fatigue. There were too many of Dutch's "we just need to pull off this one extremely convoluted, risky mission with little chance of success as per the plan, and we'll be ok" missions for me as well.

And don't get me started on

Spoiler:

Guarma

, that whole thing was an unnecessary mess and killed my enthusiasm.

Finally got level 50 in online, so I can quit that forever. Even got to make a sh*t-talking 5-year-old cry at the end.

5 years old? Geez. Why let them even near a video game much less an M rated one?

On a sillier note.
https://twitter.com/mrrojan/status/1...
Ditch, Dutch of the swamp. Look out for that horse!

JohnKillo wrote:

5 years old? Geez. Why let them even near a video game much less an M rated one?

On a sillier note.
https://twitter.com/mrrojan/status/1...
Ditch, Dutch of the swamp. Look out for that horse!

!!!! In my own story missions I’m surprised more stuff like that hasn’t happened. They seem to have done a pretty great job (at least from what I’ve played) of avoiding those things when it really seems like a lesser game would have broken under the weight of all that they were trying to accomplish.

JohnKillo wrote:

5 years old? Geez. Why let them even near a video game much less an M rated one?

On a sillier note.
https://twitter.com/mrrojan/status/1...
Ditch, Dutch of the swamp. Look out for that horse!

I think it was a case of his mom's boyfriend wanting him to shut up and stay occupied, so he bought him the game.

I came back from helping my wife to find myself hogtied over this kid's shoulder while I'd been idle, so I broke free, aimed my shotgun straight up, and fired a warning shot. He immediately killed me, then went off on a rant about how it was unacceptable for me to attack him for just playing the game.

I immediately spent the next half hour playing The Yeehaw Predator, hunting him down and killing him before he ever saw me. If his vocabulary included "parley", he could've stopped me after 4 kills, but instead, he screeched "I NEVER DID ANYTHING TO YOU! WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO ME?!"

He finally dropped while I was about 700xp from level 50, so I just killed a few cops on the docks in St. Denis until the trophy popped, then immediately quit out to SP.

Shame the online wasn't fun in the slightest until right at the very end. If anyone on PSN playing RDO sees a player named "slcmobbin", give him a double-barrelled smooch and tell him it's from me.

I’ve made it to lvl 69 and it has been a slog. Seems playing before Christmas was the best time for online cause after has brought in a bunch of hyper aggressive folk.

I am wondering if ppl want me to chase them or something? It never fails that some random shoots me mid animation of skinning or pulling herbs. Then runs off. It isn’t worth the time to chase and I am trash at the pvp.

Usually I join quick story missions to get away from griefers, also to travel around the map.