I did not like the story of Red Dead Redemption 2

[AnimalFather]

 

The game was advertised about a gang of outlaws robbing banks raising havoc and kinda being the bad guys of the wild west. Bank robbing, train robbing, killing, sleeping with women/"prostitutes".

Something close to Young Guns (1988). Even the promotional material, posters, trailers alluded to that.

Look at this picture:

 

But instead what we got was you babysitting a community of women, child, and old folks. Doing mundane tasks. Very PG rated. I remember in RDR1 they talked about sharing women (johns wife) it sounded a lot more X-rated.

This is what the true promotional poster should have been.

 

 

So let me dig a bit deeper. The game starts off with the group stranded in a snowed in mountain and you do a bunch of tasks to get familiar with the controls i thought it was fine. Chapter 1 was great its my fav chapter by far. Chapter 2 was a total messup story wise. You are in Rhoades and there are 2 waring families and there is supposed gold somewhere. but non of that ever materializes you do a bunch of nonsensical missions and at the end there is a big revenge scene as the gang attacks one of the families and its totally undeserved. And thats the feeling i got from the entire game a bunch of missions that didnt lead to anything or anywhere and i understand that was the intent of the story but don't shaft the player out of a great story because of it.

The game also ran waay too long. the exotic island missions should have been cut completely the epilogue ran waay too long. It was cute in RDR1 you had 3 short missions, but here why am i bounty hunting wth sadie why am i building a house to that awful honky tonky song it was cringeworthy. And at the end of the main quest they shoved down some Indian/Native American stuff down out throats that should have been cut as well. It reminded me of AC3 and what clusterf*ck that was. Trying to tell too many stories is always detrimental to the core. This is the worse told story by rockstar since GTA4 that too shoved a bunch of stuff that didn't match.

 

Lastly the main arch-nemesis of the game Colmes Driscoll, what to say you had so little contact with him that his hanging didn't have the same high as rockstar anticipated. Would have been cool if he actually did something to you, killed someone you loved or raped someone that made you really hate him.

 

Overall I will say its not the story that i wanted or expected. I feel like the story before there was a camp before blackwater would have been a better story. Dutch and young arthur young john riding robbing. I would have been ok with the base camp stuff if the game started without it atleast for a chapter but we never got that. The story feels very edited and then mish mashed together.

 

Ok sorry for the rant and I doubt i was able to get my point across entirely but it had to be said. Its not a bad game just i feel like there was a better story to be told with the characters.

[Xerukal]

Both AC3 and RDR2 did the Native American stuff really well & tastefully so I'm not sure what you mean there. Some of my favorite dialogue in the game stems from Arthur and Rains Fall interacting during their relaxing herb-picking trip. 

 

Sorry you didn't like the story.

[Meekail]

22 minutes ago, AnimalFather said:

why am i building a house to that awful honky tonky song it was cringeworthy.

You take that back! That's one of the best songs in the game.

[Zello]

I would have liked more heists but I guess they were trying to avoid it being a lot like V. Colm O'driscoll, Cornwall, and Agent Milton were pretty terrible antagonists because we hardly saw them but maybe that's a good thing or a bad thing depending on how you look at it. We needed more of them or at least more threats from them.

 

There were a couple of areas in the game where it felt too short. We should have had more missions in Annesburg and Arthur should have definitely done some stuff in New Austin so that was disappointing.

Edited December 19, 2018 by KY Jello

[Gray-Hand]

22 minutes ago, AnimalFather said:

 

The game was advertised about a gang of outlaws robbing banks raising havoc and kinda being the bad guys of the wild west. Bank robbing, train robbing, killing, sleeping with women/"prostitutes".

Something close to Young Guns (1988). Even the promotional material, posters, trailers alluded to that.

...

22 minutes ago, AnimalFather said:

 

Lastly the main arch-nemesis of the game Colmes Driscoll, what to say you had so little contact with him that his hanging didn't have the same high as rockstar anticipated. Would have been cool if he actually did something to you, killed someone you loved or raped someone that made you really hate him.

 

Ok sorry for the rant and I doubt i was able to get my point across entirely but it had to be said. Its not a bad game just i feel like there was a better story to be told with the characters.

If your point was that the story would have been better if it was more like Young Guns and had more rape in it, then ... well, I know opinions are obviously subjective and everything - but that’s just flat out stupid.

[Bad Azz]

Rockstar's storytelling has always been slightly overrated, in my opinion. 

 

They quickly solidified their reputation with the consecutive and successful releases of GTA IV, Red Dead Redemption, L.A Noire, and Max Payne 3. 

 

These were the four Rockstar aces of the PS3/Xbox 260 generation. In my view, 2008 to 2012 was that time when Rockstar was riding that wave. That's when they cemented their reputation.

 

GTA IV arrived in 2008. No prior Rockstar game had ever been praised for its story content, and as much as I would like to declare myself a Vice City and San Andreas fanboy, only a severe case of blind nostalgia could turn these amazing games into amazing stories. Same for Bully and Manhunt. 

 

In all honesty, GTA IV and the coming of the HD era is what turned Rockstar into movie producers. GTA IV was the game, and rightly so. Still to this day, Rockstar has never came close to replicating GTA IV's quality of writing. GTA IV is the game tha kicked the ball into motion.

 

Red Dead Redemption (2010) is not a game that I play for its story. Wave and waves of ennemies is what makes Red Dead to me, and that's exactly what this game is about. L.A Noire (2011) is mostly another studio's work, and Max Payne 3 (2012) was solid but nothing more.

 

Now here comes GTA V (2013). Story wise, GTA V is a major flop here we are 5 years later (2018) with no new releases. Plenty of studios have learned from the success of Rockstar's games and stepped their game up. Now the competition is fierce.

 

I think that's the climate into which RDR2 was releases earlier this year. Rockstar needed a good, quality story to regain their status at the top. I think that with RDR2, they did a great job with the supporting cast and they're definitely once again showing their tremendous ambitions. All in all RDR2 is truly Rockstar's masterpiece to date, quality wise.

 

Let's be honest, Rockstar's stories and writing is not the best in the industry. But what makes a Rockstar production a top notch quality production is the big budget acting and voice recording. 

 

I would love to see some other studios working with GTA-esque budgets. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited December 19, 2018 by Bad Azz

[~INDIO~]

Never get it when I see people complaining about a game being too long. You're getting more for your money, what's the problem? It's better than being a 50 mission uneventful experience like most games. I do think that some missions were bordering on being too slow though

[Dick Justice]

26 minutes ago, KY Jello said:

Colm O'driscoll, Cornwall, and Agent Milton were pretty terrible antagonists because we hardly saw them but maybe that's a good thing or a bad thing depending on how you look at it. We needed more of them or at least more threats from them.

Colm, Cornwall, Milton, Bronte, even Braithewaite are not really the main antagonists though. They're more or less obstacles that bring out the true heroes and villains of the story, being Arthur/John and Dutch/Micah respectively. I think the game spent enough time on them considering their purpose.

[Nutduster]

Wow. I can't agree with much of anything said here.

 

1- Colm O'Driscoll is like fifth on the list of nemeses, after Cornwall, Milton, Micah, and Dutch. The setup of him as being important in the first act is intentionally misleading.

 

2 - That song rules, how are you going to play a Western with no appreciation of Country & Western music? The whole soundtrack is great.

 

3 - Rhodes is chapter 3, not chapter 2.

 

4 - PG rating? You must have missed the overwhelming amount of violence and gore. Tired of people complaining about the lack of prostitutes - they weren't in the previous game either and the real reason for it is that Rockstar is trying to make something with a more mature tone vs. GTA, not a cartoon you can whack it to. If things get too PG for you, go blow some limbs off, or do the serial killer storyline.

 

5 - The Young Guns movies are laughable. Westerns for girls raised on Teen Beat magazine. They sucked when they came out and they still suck today.

Edited December 19, 2018 by Nutduster

[Blasterman4EVER]

To the OP:

 

Seriously, no kidding whatsoever, what you posted is offensive.

 

It is offensive to women, it is offensive to Native Americans, and it’s offensive to critically thinking video gamers with intelligence.

 

Your reasoning is poor and your criticisms are riddled will fallacies and arbitrary bias.

 

It is tragic that I have to read hateful, disgusting perspectives like yours and stay polite in this forum. Your perspective on this game is absurd, gross, and immature.

Edited December 19, 2018 by Blasterman4EVER

[GTAgamerWyald]

2 hours ago, KY Jello said:

I would have liked more heists but I guess they were trying to avoid it being a lot like V. Colm O'driscoll, Cornwall, and Agent Milton were pretty terrible antagonists because we hardly saw them but maybe that's a good thing or a bad thing depending on how you look at it. We needed more of them or at least more threats from them.

 

There were a couple of areas in the game where it felt too short. We should have had more missions in Annesburg and Arthur should have definitely done some stuff in New Austin so that was disappointing.

Disagree with Milton, I think he played his role very well and didnt feel cookie cutter. He also had the right amount of appearances. Appearing rather non violent at first wanting to settle things by discussion than brute force with subsequent appearances using a more heavy handed approach to capture the gang. Him killing Hosea had an impact on both Arthur, Dutch and the gang as a whole. Colm was definitely a waste though.

[TheSantader25]

AnimalFather is at it again. 

[BretMaverick777]

god, why did I bother reading that OP.

[Rammer2k]

I always felt Micha was the main villain from the moment Arthur busts him out of jail.

[Ayesha]

8 hours ago, AnimalFather said:

This is the worse told story by rockstar since GTA4 that too shoved a bunch of stuff that didn't match.

How dare you!

[saintsrow]

All I know is, I invested two years of significant emotional energy in anticipation of RDR2, the way it was hyped, the reasonable expectation that it would be like RDR1 on steroids, but I felt like most of that emotion was wasted, when I finally played the game, I felt let down.  Never will I let Rockstar hype me up again.  

 

When we finally got the story, it was 5 long chapters of repetitive whining, with a few good missions, I'll admit.  And the game world design is mind-blowing, I will also admit.  But only Chapter 6 had the density and mission scale and mission diversity I expected, and by then, the story was such a nihilistic downer, that i played it pretty much devoid of real enthusiasm.  

 

Edited December 19, 2018 by saintsrow

[Gray-Hand]

15 minutes ago, saintsrow said:

All I know is, I invested two years of significant emotional energy in anticipation of RDR2, the way it was hyped, the reasonable expectation that it would be like RDR1 on steroids, but I felt like most of that emotion was wasted, when I finally played the game, I felt let down.  Never will I let Rockstar hype me up again.  

 

When we finally got the story, it was 5 long chapters of repetitive whining, with a few good missions, I'll admit.  And the game world design is mind-blowing, I will also admit.  But only Chapter 6 had the density and mission scale and mission diversity I expected, and by then, the story was such a nihilistic downer, that i played it pretty much devoid of real enthusiasm.  

 

What do you mean by nihilistic?

Because the story of RDR2 is absolutely not nihilistic in any way.  

[Gtaman_92]

The only thing I didn’t like about the story was the Island missions. It felt kinda pointless tbh. 

[Guest Guest176525326]

I have never bought a single Rockstar game for its story.

 

It’s all about the gameplay. And that’s what Rockstar excells at! 

 

I would give 7/10 for RDR2’s story(kinda lame and boring)

 

But the gameplay deserves a whopping 10/10

[Zello]

1 minute ago, Gtaman_92 said:

The only thing I didn’t like about the story was the Island missions. It felt kinda pointless tbh. 

It was funny seeing Dutch with messed up hair when Arthur showed up.

[Mac-]

9 hours ago, AnimalFather said:

 

The game was advertised about a gang of outlaws robbing banks raising havoc and kinda being the bad guys of the wild west. Bank robbing, train robbing, killing, sleeping with women/"prostitutes".

Something close to Young Guns (1988). Even the promotional material, posters, trailers alluded to that.

 

But instead what we got was you babysitting a community of women, child, and old folks. Doing mundane tasks. Very PG rated. I remember in RDR1 they talked about sharing women (johns wife) it sounded a lot more X-rated.

This is what the true promotional poster should have been. 

Oh dear Animal Father, there's no way Rock Star was going to let us sleep with women and prostitutes, never mind share John Marston future wife .

 

I like you would have like to seen more gang related robberies off banks/trains, cattle and sheep rustling was another disappointment for me, I thought there would have been a lot more of it.

[Xerukal]

Gurama could've been better served as a one mission type of deal. Like Michael's return to North Yankton in GTA V. 

 

Making it open-ended seemed pointless. All you had to find there was some animals and hats that dropped from soldiers. The final mission with the cannon was f*cking great though. The entire section also gave me cool Mexico vibes, since it's a bunch of Americans caught up in a foreign war for control (right down to the dickhead Colonel). 

Edited December 19, 2018 by Xerukal

[UKPortista]

I thoroughly enjoyed it until the point of no return at the end Chapter 6 and that's where the game lost me (for reasons already stated on other threads).

 

 

[mde2]

This looks like it's been copy+pasted from somewhere, but I'll respond to it as if it's you that wrote this.

EDIT2: Lmfao it is copy+pasted (courtesy of Meekail). I really hope someone locks this thread that is now proven to be bait. As it stands though, all of my below criticisms of this post still apply because someone out there probably does believe this drivel. OP is also an idiot.
 

11 hours ago, AnimalFather said:

The game was advertised about a gang of outlaws robbing banks raising havoc and kinda being the bad guys of the wild west. Bank robbing, train robbing, killing, sleeping with women/"prostitutes". 

It's called subverting expectations. + it was already predicted (and leaked) that it would be about the downfall of the gang. Were you really expecting it to be so black and white? Either way you can still do all of those things (minus the last one). It's just not a focus of the story.

By the way, Rockstar literally said you would not be able to sleep with prostitutes.

 

11 hours ago, AnimalFather said:

Something close to Young Guns (1988). Even the promotional material, posters, trailers alluded to that.

Promotional art has never been indicative to what the game is about in Rockstar's history and I'm pretty sure most artwork is conceptual.

 

11 hours ago, AnimalFather said:

But instead what we got was you babysitting a community of women, child, and old folks. Doing mundane tasks. Very PG rated. I remember in RDR1 they talked about sharing women (johns wife) it sounded a lot more X-rated.

There is literally only 1 chapter dedicated to doing mundane things then a few missions afterward. After that you need to voluntarily participate in what you describe as "mundane tasks", especially in relation to character building and development with the gang members.

 

11 hours ago, AnimalFather said:

So let me dig a bit deeper. The game starts off with the group stranded in a snowed in mountain and you do a bunch of tasks to get familiar with the controls i thought it was fine. Chapter 1 was great its my fav chapter by far

By the way, you have your chapters all mixed up, when you say chapter 1, you mean chapter 2. By Chapter 2 you mean 3 and so fourth. Odd you'd make this mistake but I guess it's just indicative of the fact you've probably just rushed through the game without even giving it a chance.

You complain about all these mundane tasks and boring plot development yet you say chapter 2 (1) is your favorite? You've completely contradicted yourself here. The chapters in question, whether you really meant 1 or 2 are both FOCUSED on introducing the main cast.

 

11 hours ago, AnimalFather said:

Chapter 2 was a total messup story wise. You are in Rhoades and there are 2 waring families and there is supposed gold somewhere. but non of that ever materializes you do a bunch of nonsensical missions and at the end there is a big revenge scene as the gang attacks one of the families and its totally undeserved.

It's completely deserved. Theres a subtext/deeper story about how cracks are forming in the gang and how their plans are beginning to fail and all that which right now is too much to get into but everything had a point and eventually it begins a war with these two families...

 

They kidnap Jack for f*ck sake, did you not play the game?  It's not a revenge scene it's a scene of them coming together to take on a threat that took away Jack.

 

11 hours ago, AnimalFather said:

And thats the feeling i got from the entire game a bunch of missions that didnt lead to anything or anywhere and i understand that was the intent of the story but don't shaft the player out of a great story because of it. 

Absolute drivel. Every mission was leading up to the climax.

 

11 hours ago, AnimalFather said:

The game also ran waay too long. the exotic island missions should have been cut completely

This...I actually agree with. Chapter 5 was so hamfisted and poorly executed that it either needed a desperate revision or to have been cut entirely. Completely ruined the pacing up until that point. Good work you actually had a good point.

 

11 hours ago, AnimalFather said:

the epilogue ran waay too long. It was cute in RDR1 you had 3 short missions, but here why am i bounty hunting wth sadie why am i building a house to that awful honky tonky song it was cringeworthy.

Again, did you play the game? There is a reason you were doing bounty hunting with Sadie. Now Epilogue 1, sure it didn't need to be in the game but everything past Pronghorn ranch had a reason to be in the game and it was set up to explain later events in the entire Red Dead Redemption arc. And seriously, you wonder why you're building a house?

 

Also, that honky tonky song was brilliant.
 

11 hours ago, AnimalFather said:

And at the end of the main quest they shoved down some Indian/Native American stuff down out throats that should have been cut as well. It reminded me of AC3 and what clusterf*ck that was.

Xerukal said it best. No need to elaborate on what he said. The Indian subplot was a metaphor for a theme that is very heavily explored in both RDR1 and 2. But again, you pay no attention to the story.
 

11 hours ago, AnimalFather said:

Trying to tell too many stories is always detrimental to the core. This is the worse told story by rockstar since GTA4 that too shoved a bunch of stuff that didn't match.

There was only 1 story with 1 subplot. Not sure how it was trying to tell "too many stories". And what you're saying about GTA4 is just bait at this point.
 

11 hours ago, AnimalFather said:

Overall I will say its not the story that i wanted or expected. I feel like the story before there was a camp before blackwater would have been a better story. Dutch and young arthur young john riding robbing. I would have been ok with the base camp stuff if the game started without it atleast for a chapter but we never got that. The story feels very edited and then mish mashed together.

Nawww baby didn't get his mindless AAA action game and actually had a game present a deep, well told narrative that explored deep philosophies and a satirical take on America and the general idea of civilization. This game was actually a pretty ballsy move on R*'s part. This game was never advertised as being a fast paced action title. And I think the point remains that RDR2 has been the ultimate pleb filter of this generation judging by this post.

 

11 hours ago, AnimalFather said:

Ok sorry for the rant and I doubt i was able to get my point across entirely but it had to be said. Its not a bad game just i feel like there was a better story to be told with the characters.

You didn't get your point across in this poorly written "rant". I would honestly not be surprised at all if this was just bait meant to stir up idiots like me but either way congratulations. You made a poorly written and completely uninformed, ridiculous and unnecessary post that got absolutely 0 points across while being as bias as possible. I mean I know I've said it multiple times in this post already but it's honestly like you didn't pay attention to the story at all and when you initially decided the game was not to your liking, you switched your brain off and just ignored it.

The point of Westerns has never been just to sit back, switch your brain off and be a big blockbuster action movie (or game in this case). I mean they've always been slow, focusing on characters and you're fundamentally missing what many people appreciate about them. R* used that to their advantage in this game to subvert expectations and tell a story that was different to the regular "gunslinger kills a bunch of outlaws" type Western. Games not perfect and it has its flaws but this post is just...bad.

EDIT: Just a sidenote, but @AnimalFather you keep making these baity poorly written threads about nothing. Please next time you make a thread put some thought into it.

Edited December 19, 2018 by mde2

[Guest Guest176525326]

8 hours ago, Nutduster said:

4 - PG rating? You must have missed the overwhelming amount of violence and gore. Tired of people complaining about the lack of prostitutes - they weren't in the previous game either and the real reason for it is that Rockstar is trying to make something with a more mature tone vs. GTA, not a cartoon you can whack it to. If things get too PG for you, go blow some limbs off, or do the serial killer storyline.

I agree to some point, however the first thing I did when I went to my first saloon, was I walked up to a woman and wanted to see the game options. When I saw reject or decline, I thought to myself, surely this is just because I’m in the beginning of the story and this feature will be unlocked later on...

 

Unfortunately it never happens, I have to say it’s disappointing to say the least. The Wild West and the oldest profession to man kind should be included. They don’t even have to show anything(like GTAV), just make them walk into a room, your health goes up a bit and that’s it.

 

Not having the option kills the immersion actually imo. 

[Lonely-Martin]

More tripe about no hookers, lol. When was it advertised we'd be doing so? Plus you complain about an undeserved attack, while wanting outlaws to be outlaws, lol. (And it's chapter 3 not 2, oops)

 

Can't read on, laughing too much. Thanks for the giggles.

 

Or is this Woggleman with more bait.

9 hours ago, Blasterman4EVER said:

To the OP:

 

Seriously, no kidding whatsoever, what you posted is offensive.

 

It is offensive to women, it is offensive to Native Americans, and it’s offensive to critically thinking video gamers with intelligence.

 

Your reasoning is poor and your criticisms are riddled will fallacies and arbitrary bias.

 

It is tragic that I have to read hateful, disgusting perspectives like yours and stay polite in this forum. Your perspective on this game is absurd, gross, and immature.

Re-read most of the offensive stuff you posted on the GTA threads dude, you are as bad if not worse.

 

You seek to offend. You reject opinion. And you genuinely miss the point if a forum. Not everyone shares your opinions (that you state as fact). 

Edited December 19, 2018 by Lonely-Martin
Wording.

[Meekail]

44 minutes ago, mde2 said:

This looks like it's been copy+pasted from somewhere, but I'll respond to it as if it's you that wrote this.

Yep, you're definitely right. This was copy+pasted from Reddit

[burger_mike]

Thank you AnimalFather, very cool!

[AnimalFather]

2 hours ago, mde2 said:

This looks like it's been copy+pasted from somewhere, but I'll respond to it as if it's you that wrote this.

 

ya i wrote the same thing on several other forums.

[Halal Cyborg]

2 minutes ago, AnimalFather said:

ya i wrote the same thing on several other forums.

What a full life you’re leading