Red Dead Redemption II

[Neon Ignition]

A full week after the sun set on the release date for Rockstar's epic western release, that may yet prove to be their sole contribution to this generation of machines, and it seems appropriate that we should mosey on up into the First Play section.

Already impressing many a gamer with its highly detailed rendering of the brutal dusty landscape of the west and its emergent gameplay, Red Dead Redemption II has provided what is probably the most exhaustive use of current generation hardware from a third party developer. It's already proving to be a very long and slowly unfurling adventure so there'll undoubtedly be lots for us to chew over before spitting out our thoughts of the game into the golden spit bucket of the thread.





I'm still waaaay back wandering through the early stages of Chapter II, I'm actively trying to take my time and not rush the experience because the game feels built for that approach and as though it's actively pushing you to play in that manner all the time. Thanks to playing it with HDR enabled initially I was fairly glad to get out of the snow environment that would have been less hazed if I'd have turned HDR off. I thought I'd experienced my first emergent quest as well as Dutch told a guy to send someone reliable to go back to a farm and bury a body, I set my marker to go there and see if the task was open only to get a little down the road to see my horse instantly die because of a snow storm, I ran a few yards back and the storm subsided. Figuring it to be a freak event I turned back and sure enough a few yards more and the storm appeared from nowhere. Sad face.

But I'm out in the main game area now, still being hand held and still finding some of the controls to be overly cumbersome. The trouble mostly being that it feels like the kind of game that benefits from having the player sit down for 3-4 hours and delving in, something I can't do which may be behind some of the disconnect as well.

[hudson]

Lenny!

This was great.

[Zen Monkey]

Has it really been out a week already? I waited so many years for this game, even pre-ordered it (an exceedingly rare act for me), but in an entire week have spent maybe 5 hours playing it. I can't seem to play it for more than 45 minutes at a time. I load it up with sincere intention to try and sink my teeth into it and suck out the rich marrow I know is in the game, but I just find it boring and end up thinking I could be playing Mario Kart 8 instead, or playing Splatoon 2 instead, or Dark Souls III, or baking a cake, or anything. And so I turn it off and do something else.

[Finsbury Girl]

It's janky as hell, but my word what an amazing looking game. It is frustrating, infuriating and glorious at times. I'm having fun most of the time but I've done feck all of the story am still only on chapter 2 I reckon I'm about 30 hours in. Too busy hunting and cruising around looking at **** and doing chores around the camp.

Bounty system is completely borked seemingly get bounties for accidents and stuff it is very very annoying as I'm playing a "good" person. I'm rocking some funky outfits with full beard and buzz cut. Oh and having the special service bath is pretty cool, though I'd prefer a "happy ending"

[Yakumo]

Lenny!

This was great.

I had a good laugh during this section. Hope there's more fun like this later on.

So far halfway through chapter 2 enjoying everything it has shown me. I do find the controls to be fiddly at times but I'm sure they'll eventually grow on me. Must have accidently killed 4 people up till now.
I've not found any of the horse maintang to be time consuming at all. That was one concern I had from reading people's views on the game.

[MartyG]

I think this is one of those games that people are going to look back at the reviews on in a year's time and go, this really wasn't a 10/10 game, we were just entranced by its western thrall.

As great as this game looks, much of it simply isn't that much fun to play, which is a shame as I enjoyed RDR (which was far less encumbering). Yes it still had overly long animations, but at least the game wasn't fighting against you when you played it, something I am finding RDR2 does and it's reached the point of annoying with me.

So, yes, underneath there is a great story and characters and a fabulously realised environment - but this is at the expense of a game that's not so enjoyable to play.

8/10.

[Zen Monkey]

Oh and having the special service bath is pretty cool, though I'd prefer a "happy ending"

[Neon Ignition]

Friday Night - I tried, I mean I tried, but I just couldn't muster up the will power to even turn the game on
Saturday Afternoon - Knackered, I knew better than to even try
Saturday Night - Urgh... why does pressing X on the PS4 UI to boot the disc feel like such an effort?
Sunday Afternoon - God, I'd rather have an afternoon nap
Sunday Night - Click.

Finally. Good god. I finally played an hour or two and just outright enjoyed it. Nothing amazing happened either, I think I was just finally in the right frame of mind and I spent the whole time dealing with a couple of side missions and exploring a nearby town but the slow pacing felt comfortable, like when you're taking your time with an Elder Scrolls game or something. I now have a Bear skin on the back of my horse that everyone at camp says the meat/skin guy there will gladly take yet he won't touch it so I need to find somewhere to offload it. Returning from the kill I stumbled on an old farm with some guy farming chickens and cows, passing closely by I kindly said Hi and he grabbed a nearby shotgun and walked me off his land, warning me not to return.

Arthur, well, Arthur can stand many things but not rudeness. I parked up the horse, snuck up nearby then took him down with a headshot from my rifle. I looted his body then turned to the farmhouse, there wasn't much inside other than some basic supplies and a mantle with several photo's of the farmer and his wife. I looked through the back window and could see a makeshift grave and cross under a tree... well, at least they can be together now.

[QualityChimp]

Going out for Fireworks tonight, so it'll be a straight week before I'll have chance to play it!

[capcom_suicide]

About 15 hours in, and I am loving the game more and more. Weird, after 10 hours of struggling with it things just clicked and the world seemed to open up, same time I felt an emotional connection with the characters and desire to learn more about each of them. I used an hour hunting for a perfect hide, and just enjoyed the atmosphere. From time to time I go into FPS mode and just soak up the atmosphere. I wonder if my 8 might be bumped up later. Hard to explain, it was a sort of «Ahhh! Thats what its all about» moment.

[Yakumo]

I threw a few corpses on to a camp fire then cooked my dinner over their burning carcasses. Yep, very disturbing but wow, I was surprised I could do that.
Love the game but I still can't get in to the controls. Yesterday I wanted to greet a passer by. So I held down the RT button to bring up the greeting menu but ended up shooting the poor sod in the face!

[QualityChimp]

*mental note*
Don't try to high-five Yakumo in the street.

[fishbowlhead]

I spent 3 hours on Sunday just riding around the snow capped hills and mountains of the start area, was looking for a rare horse, and just soaking up the atmosphere. Hearing the calls of a big elk off in the distance makes me all tingly, it’s so earry.

So I put the controller down and go for a pee break. When i come back I the room I find my other half with a big grin on her face swimming around in a lake,

I wanted to see if the horsey could swim 😁, she says, oh and I found a fishy!

Turns out in her mini adventure she’d found the one lake in the game with the legendary fish in it.

[Brad]

Gavin!

Lmao

[Atticus]

I was just asked to follow a dude out of Valentine and I went to the wrong spot on the map (I went to the bottom of a cliff and he was on the edge at the top) and by the time I got back up top he fell and died. The game then told me my honour had taken a hit. And then it auto saved. I hate that. This is a gaming IRK of the highest order. The highest!!