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The Last of Us Director Criticises Lack of Player Freedom in Red Dead Redemption 2

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RevengeTaken

RevengeTaken

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Bruce Straley, game director of The Last of Us and Uncharted 4: A Thief's End, has criticised some of the gameplay decisions in Red Dead Redemption 2.

Straley responded to Naughty Dog game designer Matthew Gallant, who praised Rockstar's decision to keep one of the game's most cinematic sequences of Red Dead Redemption 2 "on the stick"—meaning to keep it as gameplay instead of a cutscene. In his response, Straley noted that "the game killed me when I tried to flank in that mission — like so many RDR2 story missions."
 
modiz

modiz

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Oct 8, 2018
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"lack of player freedom in missions" you mean, and he would be right. the mission design is very problematic compared to how open the world is.
 
Temp_User

Temp_User

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Alienous

Alienous

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Oct 25, 2017
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You aren't really playing a mission, you're an actor in a scene, following a script with important stuff highlighted in yellow.

At least that's how I had to play it.
 
ArmGunar

ArmGunar

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Oct 30, 2017
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He's right

But Rockstar is Rockstar, it's a linear game in an open world, mission failed if you don't follow Rocksar's path
 

Ninjimbo

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Dec 6, 2017
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If the story they're telling is a good one, I don't mind doing exactly as I'm told. Haven't played Red Dead yet, but I wasn't stopping to explore nook and crannies in an Uncharted chase sequence. I did what the game was asking me to do all the time.
 

Dark1x

Digital Foundry
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Oct 26, 2017
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It's interesting because they basically designed Naughty Dog style missions which only becomes annoying in the context of an otherwise open ended game.

I still prefer smaller scale, high freedom games - freedom within a linear framework a la Deus Ex and the like.

PatMan said:
This is rich coming from the creator of another cinematic corridor shooter
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That's what those games are designed to be, though, and honestly, The Last of Us offers more freedom within its combat sequences than RDR2.

Red Dead is basically Uncharted 3 era Naughty Dog design.
 
Decarb

Decarb

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Oct 27, 2017
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This has been the case with most Rockstar open world games, including GTAV. Incredible freedom when you're in open world, but incredibly restrictive when you start a mission.

PatMan said:
This is rich coming from the creator of another cinematic corridor shooter
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Another? I didn't know RDR2 is a cinematic corridor shooter.
 
Lashley

Lashley

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Oct 25, 2017
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Spot on, but it's not like Last of Us was exactly freedom personified anyway.
 
modiz

modiz

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PatMan said:
This is rich coming from the creator of another cinematic corridor shooter
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but exactly because last of us is a "cinematic corridor shooter" is why it is fine to criticize it. in red dead unlike TLOU all the battles are being done in an open world, meaning that there is a clash between two components, as in an open world game you are usually encouraged to approach the levels in any way you want, because as the name suggests they are open.
 
DominicanGlory

DominicanGlory

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PatMan said:
This is rich coming from the creator of another cinematic corridor shooter
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You can melee guys, flank them, use grenades go from one end of the area to another, leave your AI companion behind... No fail states. You can run and gun, melee, cover a bit, get in cover to focus some headshots, etc. Uncharted/TLoU are linear but they are many times more dynamic than RDR2
 
ara

ara

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Oct 26, 2017
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The incredibly strict mission structure is definitely one of the game's biggest flaws. Doing exactly what the devs wanted me to got annoying during the first playthrough already, can't see myself replaying the story due to it.
 
Karu

Karu

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Oct 25, 2017
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I hope no one falls for the obvious "oh but the last of us"-argument here as that is totally irrelevant to the criticscm here whether you agree with him or not.
 
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RevengeTaken

RevengeTaken

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Aug 12, 2018
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Straley also responded to that video by Jacob "NakeyJakey" Christensen regarding Rockstar Games's "outdated" game design .
 
Kolx

Kolx

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Oct 25, 2017
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doppelganger said:
4 and LL aren't any different than 3 in terms of player freedom, though.
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The Wide Linear design with the grappling hook offer way more freedom in encounters. If anything it forces you to move and flank enemies or risk dying instead of just sticking to a cover and peeking over a cover every 5 seconds and shooting enemies.
 
ghostcrew

ghostcrew

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Oct 27, 2017
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Industry members play video games too and a tweet about their experience is not a strong enough basis for a topic.
 
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