What system are you playing on? What new content are you specifically looking for (missions, weapons, etc.)?
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Red Dead Redemption 2 |OT2| For A Few Hours More
- Thread starter More_Badass
- Start date
Yep. RDR2 is one of my favorite games ever, and that review just about nails it.
On Xbox one. I'm looking specifically for "To the Ends of the Earth" stranger mission and the new bounty missions.
I haven't done the new bounty missions, so I can't speak to those. "To the Ends of the Earth" starts from a stranger camping in the heartlands. After you meet the stranger once, he will appear again at random locations in the world, but it's not a multi-part mission. He just randomly keeps showing up.
Got it figured out, thanks for your help!
Finally nice to have a proper photo mode in the game as well. Been taking some shots and adding them to the console screenshots thread. It's making me want to start up a new game.
There's really not much of value on bodies after the opening hours. Just grab the chests and get the hell out of there. You did just murder dozens of people in a massive shootout after all.
Honestly, it depends on the mission. Sometimes the law shows up immediately or relatively quickly. Other times, especially outside of missions like in random encounters or gang hideouts, the law will never turn up, so you can spend time looting every body there. It's inconsistent, which is annoying. But I would prefer it be the case that the law or witnesses were likely to turn up relatively quick, because it doesn't make any sense to encourage that videogame-y behavior of "I'll just stick around the scene of this heinous crime for a few minutes to ensure I loot everything possible," as it doesn't jive with the realistic tone the game is trying to take in other ways. But I think the timer should be a little less aggressive than it is now; as it stands, it tends to make the world feel relatively small as opposed to large and spaced out. If you think of your average Western film tropes, if an eyewitness stumbles across a criminal act out on the plains and goes to get the Sheriff, the criminals knows that they've got at least an hour or two til the law gets on them; shrinking this process to 15 seconds makes the world feel tiny.
Yeah kinda depends on the mission, some that are near civilization you're more likely to get heat looting bodies, even if someone assaults you first. In the styx you rarely get heat for it.
Bodies really don't carry much at all, chests are usually decent pickups, but you can also go the whole game not looting anything and have plenty left over.
End of 2, through 3 and the beginning of 4. 3 is the consensus for doing the bulk of stuff though.
As Rex_DX said, end of Chapter 2, all of 3 and the beginning of 4. The thing is that in many ways Chapter 2 serves as an extended tutorial a la Chapter 1, just with the map opened up. Many abilities aren't opened up until late in Chapter 2 or subsequent chapters (e.g. fishing, legendary hunts, fences / wagon fence, scoped rifles, certain dead eye modes, camp upgrades, better weapons and horses). You'll hit a wall with what you can finish in Chapter 2. Chapter 3 is the best; it's the prettiest camp, you'll have unlocked basically every major ability and you should be able to complete most challenges. Some stranger missions are chapter-gated as well, so some stuff can't be done until Chapter 4 or later. But throughout the entirety of 3 is a pretty good time to focus on side content such as challenges and crafting.
Thank you for the responses!
You're welcome. It's also worth noting that unless you're playing as evil Arthur (and who could do that?) it's worth it to do most of your evil deeds early in the game (I.e. Bandit Challenges, robbing townsfolk etc.).
Without spoiling the story, it will make a lot of sense narratively if Arthur stops doing heinous shit for the most part by mid/late chapter 3. Not essential by any means but it's how I've played my last 2 playthroughs as honorable Arthur and it will make sense when you're deeper into the story.
I think I may begin a new single player play through this weekend. Been meaning to for months just don't have the consistent time to do it. But, if I don't start now then when will I.
WHEN WILL I.
WHEN WILL I.
Chapter 6 also hands out honor like candy on Halloween. You can be an evil dick through most of the game and get all your honor back in like 4 missions. Some of the bandit challenges won't be available until you've unlocked the wagon fence midway through Chapter 2, but after you've done that, I highly recommend taking on all the bandit challenges and getting them out of the way. As a bonus, the bandit equipment at the trapper is the best looking in the game and the full set gives a permanent boost to dead eye, so well worth getting early.
So I'm replaying RDR2 and there's some things that irk me around the collectibles.
Is there any rhyme or reason for where any of them are located? In my first playthrough of the game I got the Dinosaur bone collector challenge pretty early because that mission giver is so close to your first camp. But, over 80ish hours, I never found any dinosaur bones, not once. I was never really looking for them but I never even stumbled upon them.
Now, I'm more interested in finding them the second play through. But... is there any rhyme or reason for where they appear? ANything I should look out for while galloping around the map? Googling this is just all or nothing, if you google "How od you find dinosaur bones" it just brings up a thousand results for "ALL THE LOCATIONS OF DINOSAUR BONES," instead of like, "Look for markers on rocks or dry river beds, those might contain dinosaur bones..." I don't want the locations all just given to me via a location map, I want to discover them.
So before I waste my time trotting around ... are these just scattered around in pointless locations or is there some rhyme or reason for it? Clues, markers that can point you in the right direction, etc? Ideally I'd like them to be similar to the treasure maps, which I think RDR2/RDR does SO WELL, but my hunch is that this is more like the "secret packages" in GTAIII->SA, which are just randomly dropped in dumb arbitrary locations... Like "oh here's a magic horseshoe at the bottom of a random pool in a random house."
Is there any rhyme or reason for where any of them are located? In my first playthrough of the game I got the Dinosaur bone collector challenge pretty early because that mission giver is so close to your first camp. But, over 80ish hours, I never found any dinosaur bones, not once. I was never really looking for them but I never even stumbled upon them.
Now, I'm more interested in finding them the second play through. But... is there any rhyme or reason for where they appear? ANything I should look out for while galloping around the map? Googling this is just all or nothing, if you google "How od you find dinosaur bones" it just brings up a thousand results for "ALL THE LOCATIONS OF DINOSAUR BONES," instead of like, "Look for markers on rocks or dry river beds, those might contain dinosaur bones..." I don't want the locations all just given to me via a location map, I want to discover them.
So before I waste my time trotting around ... are these just scattered around in pointless locations or is there some rhyme or reason for it? Clues, markers that can point you in the right direction, etc? Ideally I'd like them to be similar to the treasure maps, which I think RDR2/RDR does SO WELL, but my hunch is that this is more like the "secret packages" in GTAIII->SA, which are just randomly dropped in dumb arbitrary locations... Like "oh here's a magic horseshoe at the bottom of a random pool in a random house."
There are a handful of bones in low-lying places like in wells, mine shafts, caves, under an oil derrick etc., but other than that extremely thin logic they are completely random and nearly impossible to find without a guide. Same goes for dream catchers.
It's a shame as, you mentioned, the treasure maps are so nicely implemented that all this busy work just sucks in comparison. I feel the same about the fetch quests to find dozens of orchids etc.
The dream catchers are at least roughly in the shape of a cave drawing of a bison (although nothing in the game indicates that until you've found them all; they aren't even introduced by anybody). The dinosaur bones have no rhyme or reason, and even though they have the yellow indicators in eagle eye, they're often impossible to spot until you're right on top of them. I found a couple by chance, but there are some that took me a while to locate even using a map that clearly indicated where they were supposed to be. I can't imagine trying to find them all without a guide. Add exotics and rock carvings to the list as well. At least you can brute force the cigarette cards by just spending a shitload of money on premium cigarettes.
Thank you for making me feel better lol. I'm surprised the horse didn't immediately die.
Interesting. I know a lot about this game but I didn't know about the bison pattern. That's pretty neat but like you said it's only interesting after the fact. Assuming you found them all without a map, I wonder if you'd even realize there was a pattern if you weren't leaving pushpin type markers on a map.
I love this game but I think it would've been better with only one kind of hidden object and the ability for challenges to track cumulatively and not only the unlocked ones. That's really all I want from this game. That and maybe more opportunities to score unique/powerful weapons early/ before they unlock in the gun store.
Experienced a really annoying bug today. If I'm in the middle of a shoot out while on my horse, when I spam the 'x' button to speed away, it's like my horse has forgotten how to use its rear legs, dragging them behind him, kind of stuck to the ground, like its legs weigh heavy on its soul. Really annoying!
What's everyone's favourite town in this game? For me so far I think it's Strawberry. It's got this cozy feeling about it, reminds me of Skyrim. Not just because it's nestled close to mountains, but because the frame rate drops to sub-10 FPS. Just like the good old PS3 days... :|
What's everyone's favourite town in this game? For me so far I think it's Strawberry. It's got this cozy feeling about it, reminds me of Skyrim. Not just because it's nestled close to mountains, but because the frame rate drops to sub-10 FPS. Just like the good old PS3 days... :|
I think I'd go with Valentine. Everything is centrally located so it's real easy to stock up on supplies, get ammo, get health items, get food and a bath and a room, get your horse taken care of, and it's a stone's throw to get to the post office / fast travel options. The only downside is no fence, which you honestly aren't visiting all that frequently, and no trapper, which you might be visiting frequently depending on playstyle. Saint Denis is a close second because it has those things and the gun shop there is the best, and the city at night is absolutely breathtaking. The only thing knocking it down a touch is that the various shops are spread all over, so it's not as convenient as Valentine. Strawberry is a little convoluted and the streets are just slightly too narrow so it's too easy to knock people over. It also has no gun shop, no health shop, and the only table game is five finger fillet. It's pretty enough, but it is not a terribly functional place.
Yeah it really sucks. Even if you elude the heat and try to escape through to Thieve's Landing or New Austin, where your bounty should be gone because now you're in a new state, ghost bullets start hitting you. Basically noone will be around you but you'll start getting shot at from bullets from the sky that headshot and kill you.
Really pisses me off that they did that and it's another example of Rockstar kinda losing track of what fans loved the most about some of their games, now kind of forcing you to "enjoy the game as we want you to enjoy it." Like, in GTA SA, one of my favorite things to do with friends early on was to steal a plane from the airport, then fly into San Fierro or LAs Venturas and time ourselves trying to escape the cops, to see who could do it the longest. It was a blast to fly up, parachute out at the right time to try to avoid getting shot down, and then try to evade the cops... you never could truly evade them (well, maybe therre was some glitch or something where you could but we couldn't), but it was a lot of fun to try.
Narrative wise I really don't think there's any reason why Arthur couldn't explore New Austin, either. Meanwhile, in RDR1 John says he's never spent much time there, yet in the epilogue you obviously can explore all over New Austin (even though there's almost nothing to do).
I just wish that they let you *Try* to get through West Elizabeth / Blackwater, and if you made it through you could explore, but dying would bring you back to the outskirts of West Elizabeth / Big Valley or wherever, or maybe dumped off in Valentine... Like it'd be so cool if you died in New Austin that when you'd come back there'd be a short segment of a lawman dumping you off the back of a wagon or something saying, "And you're not welcome back near Armadillo!" or something. Instead... ghost bullets that head shot you from the sky if you happen to make it across the border.
Lol, this sounds like me trying to run in dreams/nightmares. I'll start running then my legs will get out of sync and I'll end up doing this bizarre skipping, unable to keep picking up momentum, then I'll wake up.
Are you playing on PC? I had heard about bugs like this when the game first caame out, related to ... framerate or clock speed or something. BAck then it was mostly with moving arthur, he'd walk in a weird skipping/stumbling animation because the framerate and clock speed of the CPU wee out of sync (or something, I don't know the technical details, talking out my ass... but google that)
I'm on PS4. Weird bug, can't replicate it, just random.
I used to have dreams where my feet couldn't touch the ground, because I was weightless like a balloon rising to the sky. I had to grip stuff around me to get around, like I'm hovering around on a space station or something. But in regular environments, like a street or inside a building. I really didn't like those dreams, thankfully haven't had one in years!
I will always have a soft spot for Blackwater, although it depresses me that you can't visit it until the epilogues. I get this strong tinge of nostalgia when walking around it at night. It also has, IIRC, poker and blackjack, plus dominoes just on the outskirts of town.
Exploring Blackwater and West Elizabeth/New Austin is able to transport me immediately back to 2010 playing RDR1 and just how amazing those areas felt. I also really love how wide open all of the terrain is there, which is something that the rest of RDR2 really isn't, it's much more claustrophobic and dense. This was likely a technical limitation that drove design decisions in RDR1, which iso why the landscapes of most of the game are pretty consistent throughout (Tall Trees is really the only area from RDR1 that is different landscape wise, and appropriately it's also the only area that really suffered from poor technical performance).
I love walking around Blackwater, love standing on the dock at night and looking out over Flat Iron lake. I love going into the bars and playing poker, I love that your residence isn't far from Blackwater, it really, really brings me back to RDR1. It's just a shame you can't get over there at all with Arthur. RDR1 was also a time in my life when I was young, single/not committed, living on my own, going to bars all the time and then going home and playing videogames till 4am and then sleeping till noon without any responsibility...... Now I'm old, married, kids, responsibilities, and if I can escape to go out to the bar once in a while, I usually can't have more than a couple beers, and I definitely can't play past 1am because my toddler will be awake at 6 (if I'm lucky!) and I'll be on dad duty. OF course, I wouldn't trade it for the world, and also I strongly associate RDR2 story mode with my daughter being a newborn/infant (Sleepless nights she'd fall asleep on me in the living room and I'd go ... play cards in Valentine with headphones on or explore the map)... But, Blackwater oddly takes me back as much as any videogame can. I wish Mexico was explorable for the same reason.
For cities in RDR2 proper that you can visit with Arthur, I'll probably settle on Valentine or maybe Rhodes. Valentine has it all for the most part, and everything is near by. Saint Denis is obviously a marvel but the story is getting so depressing at that point, that you kinda feel (somehow) the weight of that oppressive, humid air, plus Arthur's condition, like... taking a toll on how I think about the area. Mixed in with the weather where it's almost never clear but usually some amount of fog and humidity, or storms, and the smoke, it *feels* claustrophobic to me.
Valentine still gives me that sort of "Fresh country air" feel to it.
I love Strawberry too for that reason, but I just wish it had more. I didn't know that Strawberry is a dry-town, too, that's part of the lore. It's why there's no bars and saloons, they're trying to build it up as a vacation destination for wealthy do-gooders... ANd of course, it's the place where you run into Micah Bell and start that whole saga, so it's appropriate that he'd be locked up there.
I wish they did more with Annesburg and the towns in the north east. They're fine, just nothing to do really.
Hey guys! Finally took the leap with this game for the Critics Choice sale going on. I have kind of a rocky history with Rockstar games (Love Bully/GTAV, Didnt like GTAIV/RDR1, haven't played any others). Nevertheless, I've had interest in all of their games and I'm excited to dive in this evening.
Was curious if anyone has some tips to maximize the game/my enjoyment of it? Or perhaps a link to a well written post somewhere with tips? Really happy to take any advice/recommendations regarding this game tbh. 😊 Thanks in advance!
Was curious if anyone has some tips to maximize the game/my enjoyment of it? Or perhaps a link to a well written post somewhere with tips? Really happy to take any advice/recommendations regarding this game tbh. 😊 Thanks in advance!
I just experienced a creepy hour of playtime, yeesh.
First off, I hate the Bayou. I hate swamps. I hate gators.
In the middle of a storm, I stumbled upon a tiny church, which was creepy as fuck.
Then I think Arthur got molested after walking into a cabin.
Finally in the middle of leaving a mission area, I stumbled upon a crazy lady locked up in an outhouse.
I need a break.
I finished a chapter 2 mission on top of a train, and my horse was miles away so I decided to wait for the train to pull in at the next city, which ended up being Saint Denis. I walked through it to get to the nearest stable and rode out, as I'm just trying to experience the story via available missions rather than fully explore the world. But my brief time in the city was quite memorable, like you say, there is a stark contrast with that oppressive city and the rest of the map which is free from encroaching urbanisation for the time being. Can't wait to explore it properly whenever a mission has me go that way.
Random tip: on console (dunno PC), if you hold down the down arrow, you'll get different compass options. I'm playing the majority of the game with the minimal compass which hides everything until missions where it gives you a simple arrow to follow. You can also push down once to bring up the regular compass briefly. Really great setting for my purpose, because I generally hate minimaps in games as it keeps diverting my attention from the world.
First off, I hate the Bayou. I hate swamps. I hate gators.
In the middle of a storm, I stumbled upon a tiny church, which was creepy as fuck.
Then I think Arthur got molested after walking into a cabin.
Finally in the middle of leaving a mission area, I stumbled upon a crazy lady locked up in an outhouse.
I need a break.
I finished a chapter 2 mission on top of a train, and my horse was miles away so I decided to wait for the train to pull in at the next city, which ended up being Saint Denis. I walked through it to get to the nearest stable and rode out, as I'm just trying to experience the story via available missions rather than fully explore the world. But my brief time in the city was quite memorable, like you say, there is a stark contrast with that oppressive city and the rest of the map which is free from encroaching urbanisation for the time being. Can't wait to explore it properly whenever a mission has me go that way.
Random tip: on console (dunno PC), if you hold down the down arrow, you'll get different compass options. I'm playing the majority of the game with the minimal compass which hides everything until missions where it gives you a simple arrow to follow. You can also push down once to bring up the regular compass briefly. Really great setting for my purpose, because I generally hate minimaps in games as it keeps diverting my attention from the world.
I love the tiny church.
The swamp is pretty awesome... the most creepy/super natural stuff in the game takes place in the swamp. I strongly recommend wandering around there at night with the lights off and headphones on.
It's why I'm so mad at Rockstar for not doing an Undead Nightmare 2 or something similar.
First thing you need to do is change the controls; the default settings for look sensitivity make everything feel muddy and slow. Aim / Look Acceleration should be maxed, Dead Zone should be set to zero. Then you can play around with the sensitivity sliders to find something that's comfortable for you. But those two settings are a must.
To be frank, if you didn't like GTAIV or RDR1, I have a hard time believing you'll enjoy RDR2. It's a more mature story than GTAV, less humor, and it has a very plodding pace for most of the game. It doesn't encourage treating the world like a sandbox, so if you go in with that expectation, you're going to be disappointed. Chapter 1 is especially slow, so you shouldn't judge the game based on that, but if it's not clicking for you by the time you're finishing Chapter 2, I don't know that it'd be worth your time to continue (it is a very long game).
In Chapter 2, you unlock the ability to upgrade your camp. Get the leather working tools and Pearson will be able to craft satchel upgrades that increase your carrying capacity. These are wonderful to have, as the initial carry limits are really low. Getting the Buck Antler Trinket from hunting the Legendary Buck will make the hunting challenges for these upgrades significantly easier as well.
Use eagle eye (press in both sticks) frequently. Items that you can interact with will be highlighted and alert you to things you may have overlooked.
Most any side mission where someone asks you to collect a bunch of things or "find these things and let me know when you get them all" collectathon quests aren't worth the effort. The exception is the treasure maps. These are fun, they can all be completed without resorting to a guide and they're lucrative, which is especially nice early in the game. After a while, the game starts handing out money like candy, so it becomes less an issue, but early on it's real nice to have a little extra cash on hand.
You usually won't have to bother spending any money on guns; most will be given to you for free as you progress through the story. Make sure you've always got your ammo topped off; it's cheap, and it's annoying to run out of. Gun shops also sell reinforced equipment that increases your ammo capacity and decreases weapon degradation; these are worth getting.
Yeah, I read/watched a lot of reviews that mentioned the controls feeling muddy. Hoped there would be sensitivity settings, so I'll definitely be doing that!
Fair enough. Although I should probably clarify, I liked the stories of GTAIV and RDR1 (especially the latter) but ultimately the gameplay limitations those games had kept me from finishing them. Im hopeful I wont have those same issues with RDR2 bet recognize that it's a possibility, maybe even a probability.
Thanks for mentioning the slow start! I'm not necessarily opposed to that. I'm actually one of the seemingly few that really enjoyed Days Gone (enough to platinum it which is rare for me) and that one has a notoriously slow start lol. It is good to know that going in though.
Are there obvious quests related to hunting legendary animals, or is that something I'm going to have to take more initiative/investigation into achieving? I'm totally fine either way, just curious if the game will make it clear to me when hunting them will be an option or if I'm going to have to figure it out myself.
Thanks for the detailed response!
This is one of the most annoying videogame-y things in a game that is trying to push the boundaries of the medium in so many other ways. And it's not even consistent with the game's own internal logic. The robbery in Saint Denis is described, as it is happening, as "worse than Blackwater," and yet when you return to Saint Denis late in Chapter 5, you have no bounty at all. Blackwater, meanwhile, still permanently off limits. Then, as you progress through Chapter 6, you get the Wanted: Dead or Alive status across the entire Eastern half of the map, but you can still go almost anywhere without consequence; New Austin though, a place you have NEVER been, nope, instant death to even try. It's solely done because of some stupid idea that videogames need to gatekeep some things and it doesn't make any sense at all.
A lot of things have been said about Chapter 5, and as I was replaying it just last week, it dawned on me how I would change things. Things in Saint Denis go down the same, they make it to a ship to escape, that part's all the same. Except this ship isn't bound for the Caribbean, it's headed to Mexico. And then, for whatever reason (shipwreck, discovered as stowaways and violently chased off), you have to abandon the ship and you pull yourself out of the Rio Bravo and onto the banks of New Austin south of Plainview. And now, instead of this weird aside where you leave the map completely, you have to find a way to work your way back to the gang (because you still need to figure out what happened and bail John out of prison). But now Arthur has access to New Austin and you can do all the various side content and collecting there without needing to wait for the epilogue. And, honestly, Chapter 6 could have been better served by, rather than another shootout on a train, using the distraction of an Indian war to return to Blackwater to get the supposedly enormous score. Now, granted, it pokes some holes in the "no, I don't have anywhere hot and dry to rest" theme, but it makes as much sense in the story as having John complete all the fetchquests years later in a map that, by the events of RDR1, he seems to have forgotten ever visiting.
Midway through Chapter 2 there's a story mission that introduces the concept of "Legendary Animals." After that you'll get a map (not terribly detailed, but a map) that you can use to go find additional legendary animals to hunt.
WHen I was playing RDR2 the first time, this is how I thought they'd introduce the rest of the map. I knew the rest of the map was there from a spoiler, and I kept expecting the mission that brings me on a boat and I wash up in or near Mexico in the US... and then it brings us back through Blackwater, etc.
I even thought maybe Arthur gets separated from the gang and he ends up there... Especially because you *can* take a boat over the falls...
But yeah. Disappointed they never did that too.
I got the map spoiled because they included a physical fold-out map in the game box on PS4. It's like "oh neat, I can go to Armadillo... in 60 hours or so."
Did they make it easier to keep weight on? I'm late in Chapter 6 and I'm pretty consistently overweight, and I seem to recall that not even being an option at that point in the game before.
Not sure, I'm in chapter 2 of my replay and for the first time I got an indicator that Arthur gained weight. No memory of that before.
I'm still in chapter 3 of my replay but I noticed that on Xbox at launch, I would eat three-five pieces of cooked meat every morning and supplement that with the camp stew and canned foods when I was traveling and that absurd amount of food kept Arthur at average or underweight. Post-diagnosis it was impossible to be anything other than underweight.
On my replay on PC I had been following this regimen once again and for the first time I realized I was significantly overweight. Something must have been changed.
Yeah, it took me until my third playthrough to realize you can keep cooked meat on you indefinitely. So I cooked up dozens of seasoned big game so I could constantly be chowing down and getting gold on all my cores. I had never been able to get overweight in my first few games, but in this playthough I spent half the game overweight without really realizing it. Once I did I was actually able to find that window where my weight was "perfect" and keep it there fairly consistently until the last chapter.
So I wrapped up chapter 6 last night. I was just starting the final mission and my wife asks "are you crying already?" Uh, duh. Come on now. My heart's not made of stone. Only thing I forgot to do post-epilogue was kill the damn legendary gator. Oh well.
Ah. Chapter Six is part of the reason I'm dragging my feet so long in Chapter Three. Just thinking about having to sit through that horse scene again makes me a little misty.
I liked this Youtube comment:
Dutch: Stay calm John
5 Seconds Later
Dutch: GET DOWN HERE NOW YOU INBRED TRASH!
I'm glad I decided to stop playing other games just to focus on this, otherwise it'd take me the whole year to finish it. Making a lot of progress lately.
One thing I'd like to address is a common complaint I've seen about the game and that is that it's 'slow paced' to the point of being boring for some players. I think personally the pace of the game is perfect for the story its telling.
How many games have we played, especially open world, where the fate of the world rests in our hands, but we spend 80 hours doing meaningless side quests collecting iron for a blacksmith or gambling in a casino? That kind of gameplay sabotages the narrative, we break any sense of urgency or momentum.
But some games, like RDR2, have the gameplay work in tandem with the narrative. There's nothing abnormal about my character spending weeks in Valentine doing random shit and staying overnight at the hotel, because the gang's purpose is to hustle and make money any way it can. (Witcher 3 is another good example, as much as Geralt needs to find Ciri, he has a day job that pays for meals and roof over his head, so it doesn't break immersion if he needs to hunt a monster while he travels)
Anyway, I love the pace of the story, and find the writing excellent. Arthur is one of the best characters I've had the pleasure of playing. Rockstar are gonna miss Dan Houser a lot now that he's left.
I mostly agree, but there are certainly times in RDR2 where the open world nature is in direct conflict with the narrative. For example, the end of Chapter 3 / start of Chapter 4 (unmarked spoilers). Jack gets taken, you go to get him back from the Braithwaites, then from Bronte. It's multiple missions. But you can make the choice to say "well, I'm going to leave that alone for a bit and focus on finishing some crafting and side quests." From a narrative standpoint, that doesn't make sense. Like, if I show up with a bunch of pelts and ask Pearson to make me a new satchel, I would expect him to make a comment about how this doesn't really seem like the highest priority right now. I actually like it when the game takes control away from you as far as exploration when it directly conflicts with the narrative (as with Guarma or the final two missions in Chapter 6). Because there are other times where it feels silly. The gang is falling apart and treachery abounds... fuck that noise, I'm three states over picking orchids for a fashion designer to make something pretty for a contessa. And this falls back into "playing the game the way the designers intended," which I think is a valid complaint in RDR2. The open world stuff mostly makes sense in Chapters 2-4, and makes almost no sense later on (with a few key exceptions for Chapter 6 strangers like Charlotte Balfour or Hamish Sinclair).
Yeah I've only just started chapter 4 and visited Saint Denis for the first time properly, and this is the first time in the overarching narrative that there's a sense of urgency, but it's also offering stranger missions and such.
btw, me after spending 10 minutes in this city:
