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RDR2 lacks mission freedom.

Deleted member 5148

User requested account closure
Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,108
During missions, I get that the game has certain rules you must strictly follow, but sometimes it's too anal for is own good.


Here, I was robbing a bank and we engaged in a shoot out right outside the building, my instinct was to go right behind the building to avoid the shoot out.

Game over you abandoned the gang.

Okay retry.

This time I'll shoot the guy on my right and sprint towards the horses. Apparently I got to the horses to fast.

Game over you abandoned the gang.


Okay I'll try and shoot everyone and stay behind so the gang can proceed.

Game over bill has died.


So okay I'll walk at the same pace shooting and getting shot (for no reason ) get on the horses (all of us) avoid the lawman. Get to a safe spot, I see a 3 star jack rabbit go a bit of ths trail to try to hunt the rabbit. And game over you abandoned the gang.

For a game so free, it really lacks creativity when doing missions.



I don't think A.i members should die and I feel that a.i members should follow you or wait for you if you decide to slightly alter your course.


Anyhow I gave up trying to be creative and now I just follow yellow dots on the radar and follow instructions like a good boah.

Anyone else with such an experience?
 
GarthLordOfTheSith

GarthLordOfTheSith

Member
Oct 30, 2017
5,006
I loved RDR2, but it has a ton of annoyances I don't like. (For instance, get ambushed on the road? That's most likely a quick death because fuck you.)
 
Landy828

Landy828

Member
Oct 26, 2017
13,395
Clemson, SC
I actually don't mind AI characters dying. Laughed the first time it happened, but hey..someone got a headshot on the AI I was with. That SHOULD kill them.

I don't think I've had as much trouble as you have though. I've only had the AI die twice, and only "abandoned" my gang once, that I can remember. I'm 52% done with the game.
 
Hella

Hella

Member
Oct 27, 2017
23,397
When playing a mission, I always felt like I was just getting in the way due to the constant fail states or dead ends whenever I tried to play on my own. And yeah, the failures you run into early on just lead to you giving up and doing things EXACTLY as told. It's so bizarre, because it runs counter to how the open world is, well, so open; it makes the transition between out-of-mission and in-mission feel very jarring.

Ultimate, it makes me think that RDR2's missions --as they are in-game--would be better as cutscenes. They wouldn't be any more fun, but at least they'd be less frustrating.
 
super-famicom

super-famicom

Avenger
Oct 26, 2017
25,151
I had a similar experience in The Last of Us. I stealthed through the entirety of the Philadelphia section (bandit ambush and wherehouse base) without killing anyone at all except the 1-2 guys that were actively hunting you in the beginning after the cutscene. The game wouldn't let me progress until I killed everyone in the wherehouse. I didn't like that.
 
Neuromancer

Neuromancer

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,754
Baltimore
I remember a mission where I was robbing a stagecoach and I instafailed and had to start over because the stage coach crashed. I mean what the fuck
 
Landy828

Landy828

Member
Oct 26, 2017
13,395
Clemson, SC
GarthLordOfTheSith said:
I loved RDR2, but it has a ton of annoyances I don't like. (For instance, get ambushed on the road? That's most likely a quick death because fuck you.)
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There are two solutions to this. Immediately enter Dead Eye and tag everyone you can, or immediately dismount from your horse and find cover.

I've started doing the dismount and get cover with the random ambushes. Works great...haven't died once since I started doing that.

Neuromancer said:
I remember a mission where I was robbing a stagecoach and I instafailed and had to start over because the stage coach crashed. I mean what the fuck
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Haha, I've had similar things happen. Again, though, I love this stuff...it means things aren't hard-wired to go right. Hey, if you're supposed to get a stagecoach and deliver it somewhere...and it crashes/something goes wrong...you failed. I love the randomness. It leaves you on edge that something could go wrong at any second.

Surely many of us were around for when you basically played entire games where you only advanced by failing over and over. This game isn't even close to that, but it seems people don't want to be bothered with something going wrong now days.
 
mxbison

mxbison

Banned
Jan 14, 2019
2,148
This is the game's biggest flaw by far. I never understood all the complaints about the gunplay, I think its fine, controls are alright too after some time, but the mission design is horrible and goes completely against the living open world approach.

Tie your horse to the post. No not that post. Noooo, the one with the yellow x on the minimap dummy.

What the hell are doing behind that cover? You should've taken the other one. Mission failed.
 
Bucca

Bucca

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,225
This is a central criticism of every Rockstar game that comes out. Sky is blue
 
dancingphlower

dancingphlower

Member
Oct 27, 2017
12,055
That's basically been my brother's experience with the game. For a game set in an open world, it sure doesn't like to give you freedom huh.
 
Acetown

Acetown

Member
Oct 28, 2017
1,296
Did people not notice that Rockstar games (or open world games in general to be honest) don't have mission freedom until now? You just shoot the red dots and follow the onscreen instructions, it's window dressing for the story.
 
Deception

Deception

Member
Nov 15, 2017
8,424
Or one of the opening missions have you run into a bear and you're supposed to avoid it but I wanted to kill it and attacked it and almost killed it but it ran away so I started to chase it and "mission fail you abandoned ___". Completely took me out of the game.
 
Vire

Vire

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
5,591
No one else has made this commentary before certainly...

Worth noting there was a mission towards the later portion where there's a dude on a gatling style machine gun. So I thought... okay sure I'll go around the back of this train and surprise him from behind.

As soon as I crossed the train tracks: MISSION FAILED.

Instead the game wanted me to idiotically and brazenly run up directly down the middle. I was so frustrated that I seemingly for no reason lost 10 minutes of progress - shut down the game for that day.
 
Tetra-Grammaton-Cleric

Tetra-Grammaton-Cleric

user requested ban
Banned
Oct 28, 2017
8,958
I'm fine with how the story missions play out (they are restrictive) because the rest of the game gives you the freedom to do just about anything you want.
 
ckareset

ckareset

Attempted to circumvent ban with an alt account
Banned
Feb 2, 2018
4,977
Good.

Mission freedom sounds like a good idea in theory but always makes things end up more generic. Same with these new skill trees and choose your playstyle builds. It wines up making all the enemies beatable by basic attacks

and BOTW was guilty of this as well. Because they allowed you to go anywhere right away they could only give you about 4 items and the shrines lack progression. Great puzzles in them but alot of them just feel the same

I will say that the enemy spawn in RDR2 is garbage. If I go off the path an enemy should spawn right next to me. That's the level of freedom I should have
 
Cactuar

Cactuar

Banned
Nov 30, 2018
5,878
You're pretty late to the party, OP. Why do you think this game missed on overall GOTY when it had everything going for it and was essentially ordained as such before it was even released? I don't know how it scored 97 metacritc, but when the actual fans played it we called it like we saw it. Not just anally strict mission structure, but piss poor controls ruined what should have been a GOTG candidate.

 
OP
OP

Deleted member 5148

User requested account closure
Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,108
Cactuar said:
You're pretty late to the party, OP. Why do you think this game missed on overall GOTY when it had everything going for it and was essentially ordained as such before it was even released? I don't know how it scored 97 metacritc, but when the actual fans played it we called it like we saw it. Not just anally strict mission structure, but piss poor controls ruined what should have been a GOTG candidate.

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I know I feel dumb for being so late on this.

I get to play on the weekends, that's all.
 
NDWest14

NDWest14

Banned
Jan 8, 2019
141
Tetra-Grammaton-Cleric said:
I'm fine with how the story missions play out (they are restrictive) because the rest of the game gives you the freedom to do just about anything you want.
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This.

I never minded, and likely never will mind. I have no issue with the story being told to me through a corridor because the story IS that good.

That's the issue with games with freedom, they are harder to follow the story. I can probably write a summary of every mission in RDR off memory, but ask me to do that with AC, it's impossible. Partially cause AC's writing is trash, but also because the freedom I have during the mission distracts from the points that are being presented.

I have the rest of the sandbox to be free, but when I commit to doing a mission I knew I was entering R*'s narrative and not mine and I was totally fine with that.
 
Jaded Alyx

Jaded Alyx

Member
Oct 25, 2017
35,351
Strat said:
It lacks a lot of things, but it's big and expensive so who cares.

Also, you can't say this because it's been said already. You're only allowed to repeat the same talking points if they're positive OP.

Ah, there we go.
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No need to be defensive. I don't own the game and have never played it and have no real desire to, but if it's anything like GTAV then I would agree with this view.

I just found it funny that I've seen this come up in so many places and OP presents it as if it's a new or unique viewpoint.
 
Tetra-Grammaton-Cleric

Tetra-Grammaton-Cleric

user requested ban
Banned
Oct 28, 2017
8,958
NDWest14 said:
This.

I never minded, and likely never will mind. I have no issue with the story being told to me through a corridor because the story IS that good.

That's the issue with games with freedom, they are harder to follow the story. I can probably write a summary of every mission in RDR off memory, but ask me to do that with AC, it's impossible. Partially cause AC's writing is trash, but also because the freedom I have during the mission distracts from the points that are being presented.

I have the rest of the sandbox to be free, but when I commit to doing a mission I knew I was entering R*'s narrative and not mine and I was totally fine with that.
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Honestly, the scripted story missions account for probably a third of the gameplay and as restrictive as they may be, they are also usually awesome, varied and interesting.
 
HardRojo

HardRojo

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
26,096
Peru
All this criticism toward basic controls and lack of mission freedom kind of turns me off the game tbh, and I fucking loved the first RDR back when I played it like 6 or 7 years ago. Was the first one like this as well? Becasue honestly I don't remember having a hard time with it or it being so restrictive, I just enjoyed it and did my thing.
 

Deleted member 4093

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
7,671
Why yall act like everybody played the game already? Shit like that just add to the whole release day hoopla nonsense.

"You gotta buy it and play now with everyone else or else you're gonna be LATE!"
 
Falconbox

Falconbox

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
4,600
Buffalo, NY
I'm ok with this.

It's a linear game set in an open world. Not a sandbox. If you want sandbox gameplay, stick to Breath of the Wild or MGSV.

Maybe I just play the game "correctly", but I never encountered any of these weird fail states everyone else comes across.
 
NDWest14

NDWest14

Banned
Jan 8, 2019
141
Tetra-Grammaton-Cleric said:
Honestly, the scripted story missions account for probably a third of the gameplay and as restrictive as they may be, they are also usually awesome, varied and interesting.
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2 games this year gave me goosebumps playing:
  • Rise of the Tomb Raider - Oil Rig/Factory Lara underwater really angry.
  • RDR2
    • Braithwait Manor - Rounding up the Posse
    • Braithwaite Manor - Walking up to it, everyone in tow. The Music hits, Dutch calls them out.
You aren't getting these moments if you're trying to flank to the other site. R* is telling you a BADASS story, allowing freedom there would rob you of that huge moment. The time when everyone dropped everything, like a family, to save one of their own.

And that's just one example. The game is overflowing with them and it's what makes the story so damn good.
 
Ryo

Ryo

Member
Oct 28, 2017
1,523
Falconbox said:
I'm ok with this.

It's a linear game set in an open world. Not a sandbox. If you want sandbox gameplay, stick to Breath of the Wild or MGSV.

Maybe I just play the game "correctly", but I never encountered any of these weird fail states everyone else comes across.
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It doesn't have to be a pure sandbox just less strict like most open-world games.
 
Aurc

Aurc

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Oct 28, 2017
6,890
Jaded Alyx said:
Gee, never heard that one before.
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And it can't be said enough, because if Rockstar needs to hear this shit 500 billion times to actually change their decade+ outdated game design for their next big title, then so be it. They've gotten away with this every time, because Rockstar.
 
ket

ket

Member
Jul 27, 2018
12,949
I agree with the OP but this subject is well-trodden territory at this point.
 
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