The lack of a useful fast travel really makes it last forever.
I replayed RDR 1 like fucking crazy because it's not as huge and has a very reliable fast travel mechanic. Shocked they went so fucking far from that mechanic by having it only be possible from the caravan camp and nowhere else
I have said it many times, but RDR1’s story is miles better. It focuses on a single character that explicitly wants something, and questions if redemption is possible. The others characters help and hinder that goal at different points in fun, often tense ways.
2 just has the whole cast reacting to things. There was an initial goal, but 90% of the game is things happening to them with very little agency in the story. Which is a fucking shame because the characters are compelling.
An RPG (role-playing game) is defined by character progression, stat-driven mechanics, and an overarching story where your character's abilities grow through numbers, levels, and equipment rather than just your own physical reaction time.
So with that definition in mind, Arthur’s skills progress in the game, there are different weapons and clothing options that buff skills, you can choose to max these by completing side quests or choose to rush the main story.
If you mean dialog choice, there are quests that can be skipped resulting in different character reactions and you miss some of the background behind the story.
It’s an RPG lite at the worst, after playing videos games for 40 years, I’m going to call it an RPG.
It depends on what you enjoy in a game. It’s got a great story with incredible acting, but gameplay wise the main story missions are pretty on-rails. I say that as someone who fucking loves this game. It’s just the truth.
That being said, I adored just living in that world. Exploring the beautiful landscapes, filling out the animal compendium, finding gang hideouts and treasure, hunting legendary animals, coming across all the weird, creepy things hidden around the map. Those are the things that really made me fall in love with the game. If you’re only playing the story, you’re missing out on some of the best parts of the game.
The world is so detailed and alive. At 500 hours of exploring I feel like I’ve squeezed pretty much everything I can out of it, but it’s making me look forward to GTA6 and I don’t even like GTA games.
I haven't tried that one yet, but from a little glimpse that I watched (a few hours or so), I remember it had a reeeeaaaallly slow feeling start. I have a tricky time with games like that, they have to hook me right away xD
Only interesting activity is hunting in the whole game. All the mini games suck. Stealing carts, dominoes, poker, etc. Probably the worst set of mini games ever.
They should of adding farming into the game / owning and operating a farm or cattle ranch and left out all the other crap
Do you have any recommendations for which Fallout to try out first? I've steered clear of em for ages because while I love retro-atomic style things, if a game's going to do apocalyptic, they've gotta make it look really cool and dystopian, otherwise 99% of the time I find the environments ugly and that hugely affects whether or not I enjoy a game (I love worldbuilding and exploring places that I feel intrigued by). Wanna give em a whirl, but I'm proceeding with caution as my valuable time is at stake xD
Honestly Fallout 4. The story is not good but gameplay, mechanics wise, it’s the best truly single player Fallout game. Plus has the best modding. Fallout New Vegas has great story and environment and characters, but it’s dated with mechanics, graphics and just overall gameplay.
Just remember not to play on PC and stick to console since NV constantly crashes and 3 is literally unplayable without a specific file download you need to scour for.
4 is…a poor Fallout game (I said what I said, wanna fight about it?) I bought the Pip Boy Version, it’s sitting in my closet. I played the game for 35 hours and hated damn near everything about it.
If you can deal with dated graphics (it was technically unimpressive even on premiere, but had low requirements), try OG Fallout.
It's short (you should play below 20 hours going blind), it's bleak (it's gritty humor is very sparse, Fallout 2 overdid it) has interesting lore (if you can find it) and one of most atmospheric loactions in video games ever (The Glow). Oh and it's not this 50s Americana aesthetic that modern Fallouts push so hard.
As a Fallout fan from the first hour, I despise any FPS fallout and can't recommend them, even if I think most people will. I find the OG Fallout to be vastly superior to everything else, but again, by today standards it may feel clunky to play and underwhelming. Same with Fallout : tactics, which has the best gameplay but the most minimalist story, it was great then, but a hard sell nowadays (and a lot of people just hate how different it is for some reason, so you likely won't hear anything good about it).
It depends on what you're looking for. Fallout 3 and New Vegas are a bit more difficult, very atmospheric, have great character interactions and world-building and lore. The graphics and occasional old-school glitches throw some people off, but they are imo necessary games for someone who really wants to get into the series. New Vegas is my favorite, I like the main story and side lore, interesting encounters, the perk and character trait system. The game makes you feel like you have a lot of freedom and agency to impact things.
However if you're looking for a game that plays more modern and is easier to pick up and get into, with better graphics, than Fallout 4 would be the right choice. The main story of the game in nonsense in my opinion, I don't vibe with it, but everything else about the game is really good. You have interesting places to explore, better handling and mechanics than the previous games, totally new additions like settlement building - which can get insanely addictive, once you introduce mods (like Sims building but make it post-apocalyptic). With that said, there's a ton of cool mods for the game avaliable that can take the game into all kinds of new directions. I probably have like +500 hours on Fallout 4 already for these reasons. One thing I don't like about this game is that they watered down some of the rpg elements and interactions feel more simple have less depth compared to previous games.
Thank god somebody said it before I did (thought it would have got more hate tbh haha)
But I'm totally with you.
I adored the first one but the second is just such a snooze fest. I've never actually completed it (despite multiple attempts) because I just get so bored and turn it off after 20 mins.
thats whats insane to me, they spent all this wasted time on useless shit but couldnt be bothered to improve their shooting mechanics from 20 years ago
This is how I feel seeing all the leaks from GTA 6, gas mechanics? Really? The thing that I absolutely hate having to deal with every week in real life?
It just feels like they lean way too hard into the simulation and immersion now and completely forget that games are kinda supposed to be fun to play, not a chore. Not every aspect of a video game has to be a perfect simulacrum of real life
I played red dead 1 recently for the first time and enjoyed it. I was mainly playing it to build up to red dead 2.
Then I played red dead 2 and I just felt it was really complicated . I played through the tutorial area and was at the camp and there was just a million things to do and I just wasn't bothered!
I love Skyrim to oblivion and back, but from what I seen rdr2 is better. Skyrim is better for mods afaik, played splitscreen with my cousin the other day. Shit rocked!
It’s something I have to be in the mood for. I’ve tried to start playthroughs at the wrong time and just couldn’t get rolling. Other times I’ve started fresh playthroughs that have been 400 hour runs. I just have to be in the mood to go live in the woods for a while, and when that mood strikes red dead delivers. I’d be lying if I said I could jump into that slow, methodical immersive gameplay absolutely whenever though, it’s just not always the right vibe
I played most of RDR 1 when it was remastered and knowing the ending, DECIDED to not finish it. Overall I give it 8.5/10.
Gotta say it's a bit of a cake walk on normal: both the shooting and the economy were forgiving enough that if I wanted to, I would never run out of Deadeye or bullets; so I could just reduce the game to clicking on heads (playing with a mouse surely helped). So I decided not to spam Deadeye and take more risks with my covering to give the NPCs a chance, without having to push the difficulty.
The story was golden though. And the world was ok, despite Mexico being mostly a massive desert and taking a tad bit too long for me.
All to say that I fucking hated the pacing and mission design in RDR2. Never managed to commit my rather limited time to all that stuff.
Never got through the horse chasing tutorial in the snow. Just couldn't ride fast enough. Steam refunded me, though, so that was nice. But yeah. Even without that what I played was boring.
I liked RD1 and all the GTA games, but RD2 just felt like such a slog. I feel like the massive open world was just too massive and lacking in stuff to do.
I attempted to start it like 4 times before I actually got into it, it's not that bad and was way ahead of it's time in terms of graphics and optimization (it plays and looks beautiful in 4k on an old Xb one x) , but I phased out and never finished it, like I do with every game that requires multiple dozen hours to finish.
For me it was the godawful clunky controls. That game was not designed with keyboards in mind and I really wish I knew that before I bought it with no controller available to me.
all rockstar games play like ass. The worlds are amazing but interacting with it always feels slow, floaty, and counter-intuitive from beginning to end and every combat/gun feels the same.
"Red Dead 2, I think, was the best thing that I worked on. [It's] the best single kind of realization of open-world storytelling thematic consistency, and understanding how the games are assembled to take you on an emotional journey."
This is the opinion of someone who desperately wants it to not be yeehaw GTA, but as someone who's dumped 200+ hours into it, and I'm gonna hold your hand when I say this... it's yeehaw GTA.
There’s absolutely zero emotional weight, the dumbass main character were just going through stages of grief for being a jackass following an idiot like the rest of the main cast and just died sooner
Bought it day one on PS4 and again years later on PC. I download it once every like 6 months because I keep convincing myself I’ll get into it the next time. I never do. I’ve definitely played it and it’s definitely not for lack of trying.
The pacing is deliberately slow because they have no story to tell, it’s precisely why most sequels fail. Basically forcing you to love the dumbest group of rejects and keeping a main character the exact same way he was in the first game because they had no idea where to go with things.
I don't mind a slow burner if it's good, I think I enjoy slower games than you, but the beginning is a big drag, I can never defend that when people criticise it.
Beyond that for me I think the game is incredible, I fucking love Arthur man
Sorry I meant pacing because I love a slow story, kcd2 was amazing but so was its pacing. Meanwhile in rdr2 there is literally a shootout every mission no matter how slow the cutscene is, way worse somehow than rdr1.
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u/Dependent-Maize4430 Aug 19 '26
Read Dead 2, I’ve tried so many times to get into it but can’t, it’s just yeehaw GTA.