Red Dead Redemption 2 - Fall 2017

[btimbit]

I personally love the immersion. What's kept me from getting into a lot of popular games lately is not really feeling the world around you is alive. I know it's a balance and there's a lot of people that think that a game is a game and doesn't need to be realistic, and just find it annoying, but in this scenario it works for me. I love getting sidetracked in a saloon and ending up playing poker for 20 minutes then starting a fight. The fact that I haven't done many story missions in 3 days doesn't bother me at all. I like that ditching my horse and not having it magically re-appear makes me think about my actions. I could see that being annoying in some games, but in one where I appreciate the immersion, I find it actually adds to it

But I realize I'm wired differently than the mainstream these days. I'd take Arma over Call of Duty any day, for example.

[Rhettzky]

I did my first deer lasso take down last night. That was mildly disturbing.

[Inferno]

I just had something weird happen to me. I was feeding my horse when all of a sudden I heard punching sounds and it freaked out and started kicking. Then after it ran away I started getting punched by an invisible entity.

[Swift]

Took a while for me to get into the controls (still struggling a bit with gunfights) but damn I'm loving this game. I've barely done any missions, constantly getting sidetracked by random encounters with people and animals. Some highlights so far:


- The drunken mission with Lenny was genuinely very, very funny. Had me laughing out loud.
- Anytime I'd ride into Valentine, I'd accidentally commit a crime and have to scarper. Accidentally ran a guy over, mouthed off at the sheriff, gave a horse a kick, shot a chicken (that last one was on purpose)
- Read in the newspaper that dinosaur bones had been found in the area, and then later ran into the paleontologist who has enlisted me to help her find more
- Found a decrepit building that was the site of a suicide cult with the skeletons all over the place. Very creepy.
- Ambushed some O'Driscolls, killed a guy via headshot with the shotgun and whatever way he landed (there was a box behind his back) his body ended up sitting up straight with half his head missing. Incredibly gruesome. To add to that, the wind started picking up and black clouds rolled in as I rode off. Was quite a dark, atmospheric few minutes.
- A glitch where there was a random beer bottle floating mid air at the camp. The reverend shows up drunkenly singing and the bottle transfers to his hand. I follow him and he eventually walks off leaving the bottle again floating in the air.
- I play the game as an honourable character, but the debt collector missions are quite mean spirited. There's no way to let them off the hook (so far) and the game encourages you to beat these poor civilians. I think Morgan feels it too because after the last one, the music became melancholic and it turned to cinematic mode as I rode off.
- The one intentionally dishonourable thing I've chosen to do was after killing a hog farmer, I figured why let his hogs starve to death so I killed and skinned them. Wasn't sure if I'd lose honour for that but I did. They weren't clean kills and the hogs squealed and squealed until I put them out of their misery. Wasn't nice.


All of that and I've barely gone further north than Valentine and not much further south than my camp. What a game.

[LWcrowfoot]

Originally Posted by Cameron Swift

dishonourable thing I've chosen to do was after killing a hog farmer, I figured why let his hogs starve to death so I killed and skinned them. Wasn't sure if I'd lose honour for that but I did. They weren't clean kills and the hogs squealed and squealed until I put them out of their misery. Wasn't nice.

Rode up on a house, could hear the father and son arguing inside. Went in to check, the dad got made quick. Shot him down.

Son hide under bed, begged for life.

Shot him down.

[Swift]

Yeah, but you're a psychopath apparently.

[gottabekd]

The "karma" system is one mechanic I could do without in this game. The missions have you going off and beating people, killing 10s of lawmen. You are a bad guy. But then you can also rescue people in danger, give them medicine if they are sick, return stolen property. This doesn't seems to match the character we see in the cutscenes.

I don't remember this conflict in the first Red Dead Redemption. John Marston is a guy trying to go clean but gets pulled back in. From what I remember, you mostly end up killing gang members and the like. And even if an innocent gets caught in the crossfire, your family is being held hostage, so it makes sense you'd do whatever it takes to ensure their safety. (I can barely remember that game, so maybe I'm way off here).

Arthur Morgan seems like a friendly enough around camp, but he also just seems to be OK with robbing trains and banks and killing the people who were just doing their job. And hey, maybe that's fine. But outside of story missions, you should just be the same black hat badass.

I haven't read what effect your karma has on the game, just that it has some effect on how the NPCs in the world react to you. Mostly I've been pretty neutral, doing some good deeds to balance out the times when I've been bad. But part of me thinks I should just give in be bad.

If I just robbed a bank and killed a bunch of people, wouldn't I also just randomly attack a stranger on the trail for his pocket change?

[btimbit]

I do wish you only got negative honour if people see you. How would it effect your honour if there' no witnesses?

[Yamer]

Originally Posted by gottabekd

The "karma" system is one mechanic I could do without in this game. The missions have you going off and beating people, killing 10s of lawmen. You are a bad guy. But then you can also rescue people in danger, give them medicine if they are sick, return stolen property. This doesn't seems to match the character we see in the cutscenes.

I don't remember this conflict in the first Red Dead Redemption. John Marston is a guy trying to go clean but gets pulled back in. From what I remember, you mostly end up killing gang members and the like. And even if an innocent gets caught in the crossfire, your family is being held hostage, so it makes sense you'd do whatever it takes to ensure their safety. (I can barely remember that game, so maybe I'm way off here).

Arthur Morgan seems like a friendly enough around camp, but he also just seems to be OK with robbing trains and banks and killing the people who were just doing their job. And hey, maybe that's fine. But outside of story missions, you should just be the same black hat badass.

I haven't read what effect your karma has on the game, just that it has some effect on how the NPCs in the world react to you. Mostly I've been pretty neutral, doing some good deeds to balance out the times when I've been bad. But part of me thinks I should just give in be bad.

If I just robbed a bank and killed a bunch of people, wouldn't I also just randomly attack a stranger on the trail for his pocket change?

Higher honor gets you a discount at shops.

[gottabekd]

Originally Posted by Yamer

Higher honor gets you a discount at shops.

Well that's silly. With low honour, everything at the shops is free!

OK, so I looked it up. As you said, high honour unlocks 25% then 50% off in stores. And also unlocks some costumes. I've never been one to care about in-game wardrobe. And there doesn't seem to be any negative effects from low karma. I guess it's back to leaving no witnesses!

[KelVarnsen]

You can do chores around the camp to raise your honour level

[Yamer]

Originally Posted by KelVarnsen

You can do chores around the camp to raise your honour level

And gain Dead Eye experience.

[LWcrowfoot]

Easiest way to raise honour is just greeting random people. Howdy, hello, how are you. Being nice.

[getbak]

Originally Posted by LWcrowfoot

Easiest way to raise honour is just greeting random people. Howdy, hello, how are you. Being nice.

Make sure you're not holding a weapon when you do though. The button combo for "greet a stranger" becomes the button combo for "aim your gun at a stranger" if you're holding a weapon.

[Hockeyguy15]

Ha, a woman back at camp asked if I wanted to talk. I said yes assuming I would get a buddy quest, nope it was literally just a chat. She said I’ve been gone a lot, what have I been up to? My reply was I’ve been killing animals for no reason, and I’ve also killed innocent people.

[Street Pharmacist]

Originally Posted by Hockeyguy15

Ha, a woman back at camp asked if I wanted to talk. I said yes assuming I would get a buddy quest, nope it was literally just a chat. She said I’ve been gone a lot, what have I been up to? My reply was I’ve been killing animals for no reason, and I’ve also killed innocent people.

I know which conversation you're talking about. I think she is there to give you an idea where your honor is at?

[Ozy_Flame]

Originally Posted by getbak

Make sure you're not holding a weapon when you do though. The button combo for "greet a stranger" becomes the button combo for "aim your gun at a stranger" if you're holding a weapon.

This had needlessly turned friendly situations into committing murder and having state bounties on my head in mere seconds.

[timun]

Originally Posted by gottabekd

The "karma" system is one mechanic I could do without in this game. The missions have you going off and beating people, killing 10s of lawmen. You are a bad guy. But then you can also rescue people in danger, give them medicine if they are sick, return stolen property. This doesn't seems to match the character we see in the cutscenes.

...

Arthur Morgan seems like a friendly enough around camp, but he also just seems to be OK with robbing trains and banks and killing the people who were just doing their job. And hey, maybe that's fine. But outside of story missions, you should just be the same black hat badass.

I haven't read what effect your karma has on the game, just that it has some effect on how the NPCs in the world react to you. Mostly I've been pretty neutral, doing some good deeds to balance out the times when I've been bad. But part of me thinks I should just give in be bad.

If I just robbed a bank and killed a bunch of people, wouldn't I also just randomly attack a stranger on the trail for his pocket change?

Trying to not spoil anything, but this dichotomy becomes more relevant as the story proceeds...

[Ozy_Flame]

When I see O'Driscoll boys robbing or harassing someone, I usually lasso/hogtie both of them, trample one of them with my horse, then take the other to a gorge and throw him off the edge alive.

[-TC-]

Originally Posted by Ozy_Flame

When I see O'Driscoll boys robbing or harassing someone, I usually lasso/hogtie both of them, trample one of them with my horse, then take the other to a gorge and throw him off the edge alive.

wow, dark