Is it just me or does RDR 1 feel more like a western game?

[Gtaman_92]

I like RDR 2 far more but after playing both games back to back I can’t help but notice that RDR 1 had more of a classic western atmosphere to it. I don’t know if it’s the desert setting or the bounty hunting/revenge story but it just seems more of a Wild West game to me. 

 

Anyone else share this this same opinion?

Edited March 27, 2019 by Gtaman_92

[i2sm92]

I agree with the environment of the second opus (apart from New Austin) does not give the impression i play a cowboy game for me

I agree with you*

[Gray-Hand]

Well, RDR1 is actually set in the West, as opposed to RDR2, which is set largely in the South, so that’s probably not surprising.

[HarryTVisitor]

I like to think of RDR1 as a Wild West-type game, whereas RDR2 feels much more like a Great Outdoors-type game

Edited March 27, 2019 by Sonicdude

[Jabalous]

2 hours ago, Gray-Hand said:

Well, RDR1 is actually set in the West, as opposed to RDR2, which is set largely in the South, so that’s probably not surprising.

This, in addition to the fact that the free-roam soundtrack in Redemption's NA and NP is more influenced by the typical music that you can hear in Spaghetti Western movies, which also largely have a desert-based setting. It's partially a movie-music effect. 

 

Of course this should not be a complaint as each game stands behind its own atmosphere. I like how R* don't repeat themselves in this regard. What is atmosphere, anyway? IMO, it's largely a combination of the setting and music, which is again why each Redemption game feels different.  

 

 

[Syrens]

I've never thought of it like this but yeah it's very true, RDR felt like you were in an old western movie.  For the most part RDR2 isn't quite out west, but they do reference about heading back west alot, so it's not really supposed to feel like a "western" in it's setting...I guess.

[Algonquin Assassin]

Red Dead Redemption only feels more like the "old west" during the New Austin and Mexico parts IMO. When it gets to West Elizabeth and especially when you ride in the back of a Ford Model T knock off with Ross and Fordham then it really doesn't feel like the "old west" anymore, but I guess that was the point to show how the west dying out and welcoming in the modern age.

 

I put it down to mostly setting. In Red Dead Redemption 2 we spent 90% of the game in open plains, forested, swampy areas etc. The classic tumbleweeds, desert, cacti etc doesn't really exist until of course the very end. Howeveer in saying that I think New Austin in Red Dead Redemption 2 feels more like the "old west".than it did in Red Dead Redemption.

 

It feels way more dangerous with Armadillo being a lawless sh*thole overrun by outlaws (ironically a bit like Thieves's Landing). However just as a side note for the next Red Dead game I realy hope it's set during the west's peak (1870s-1800s). The "The west has been tamed" trope is getting old now.

[Lemoyne outlaw]

yes red dead redemption 2 does lose some of that western feel. but there are some areas that still give off that classic western vibe. mostly the heartlands. valentine really feels like an old west town. hopefully the next red dead gives us a new desert area. i like new austin but when i heard that rdr2 had a desert i assumed that it was a new region.

[LittleJesus]

Still feels like a western to me just like The Hateful Eight & Django Unchained 

[Cutter De Blanc]

Soon as that hat falls off it turns into GTA 1899

 

I said it before the game came out: "What's a cowboy without his hat? Just a man on a horse shooting people."

[Gray-Hand]

5 hours ago, JC_HUMBLE said:

Still feels like a western to me just like The Hateful Eight & Django Unchained 

Tarantino actually refers to Django Unchained as a “Southern” film.

[Oldsport]

yeah rdr felt like more of a classic western. they had the soundtrack and i really liked the duels

[RJX74]

10 hours ago, confederatestatesgta said:

yes red dead redemption 2 does lose some of that western feel. but there are some areas that still give off that classic western vibe. mostly the heartlands. valentine really feels like an old west town. hopefully the next red dead gives us a new desert area. i like new austin but when i heard that rdr2 had a desert i assumed that it was a new region.

Yeah I loved the Heartlands too. My big issues are trees, I prefered the wide open landscapes of the heartlands. I hated Cumberland Forest.

[El mercenario]

RDR1 : Spaghetti western simulator.

 

RDR2 : 1899 simulator.

[donnits]

I like to think that RDR1 fits the three main Western genres into its chapters. New Austin is your classical Hollywood Western, John being the quintessential good-guy helping farmers and lawmen. Mexico is your Spaghetti Western, where John is more morally grey working both sides in a civil war. West Elizabeth is your Revisionist Western, where good and bad is blurred, also bringing the death of the Wild West theme to the forefront. This is also reflected in each state's soundtrack styles.

 

RDR2 breaks out of the Western genre entirely and simply becomes a period piece on the turn of the century.

[El mercenario]

On 3/27/2019 at 11:41 PM, dognuts said:

I like to think that RDR1 fits the three main Western genres into its chapters. New Austin is your classical Hollywood Western, John being the quintessential good-guy helping farmers and lawmen. Mexico is your Spaghetti Western, where John is more morally grey working both sides in a civil war. West Elizabeth is your Revisionist Western, where good and bad is blurred, also bringing the death of the Wild West theme to the forefront. This is also reflected in each state's soundtrack styles.

 

RDR2 breaks out of the Western genre entirely and simply becomes a period piece on the turn of the century.

This

[Countryfried]

True.

[tonko]

It does. When i played RDR 1 i always imagined Dutch's gang were some badass outlaws, guns blazing through West. Then i RDR 2 there it was, a travellng carnival with almost every robbery failed.

[KingAJ032304]

When I play RDR 1 I feel like I'm playing some western revenge story in 1861

When I play RDR 2 I feel like I'm playing a crime simulator in 1899 (as El Mercenario said) in the form of a movie

I love how they different from each other however

Edited June 18, 2019 by KingAJ032304

[Guest Guest176525326]

On 4/4/2019 at 7:03 AM, tonko said:

It does. When i played RDR 1 i always imagined Dutch's gang were some badass outlaws, guns blazing through West. Then i RDR 2 there it was, a travellng carnival with almost every robbery failed.

So ture, it was like playing GTA V all over again - doing heists after heists without any rewards... so god damn boring.

 

Don't even mention the Van der Linde gang, one the worst gangs in the history of mankind... Gang? More like travelling gypsies 

[Oldsport]

yeah the van der linde gang sucked . i wanted the game to be more dark and gritty

Edited June 19, 2019 by Oldsport

[7th Ward Charizard]

there’s also far too many inconsistencies in connecting the two games. just look at the retcon thread for example. when I play RDR1, it feels like an entirely different universe from the second game. The dark & gritty just feels so detached from the traveling carnival that others described above. 

[Cutter De Blanc]

Sometimes the game feels like its set in 2018 pretending to be 1899 like one of those tourist towns where they act all old timey and sh*t but then discuss current politics while checking their digital watch

[tonko]

4 hours ago, Cutter De Blanc said:

Sometimes the game feels like its set in 2018 pretending to be 1899 like one of those tourist towns where they act all old timey and sh*t but then discuss current politics while checking their digital watch

[~INDIO~]

13 hours ago, Oldsport said:

yeah the van der linde gang sucked . i wanted the game to be more dark and gritty

Hopefully RDR3 is darker and more wild. 

Further West + Mexico I say, but brand new areas obviously

[Allynbrant]

That has been noticed a lot, I thought the best reply was “rdr2 is later in history, transition time from the Old West and true to its era.

[Guest Guest176525326]

3 hours ago, ~INDIO~ said:

Hopefully RDR3 is darker and more wild. 

Further West + Mexico I say, but brand new areas obviously

 

And a new story/characters...

[GinsengElixir]

16 hours ago, Cutter De Blanc said:

Sometimes the game feels like its set in 2018 pretending to be 1899 like one of those tourist towns where they act all old timey and sh*t but then discuss current politics while checking their digital watch

I don't get this. Can you be specific? Otherwise it's just words which don't necessarily mean anything.

[Ironside]

40 minutes ago, GinsengElixir said:

I don't get this. Can you be specific? Otherwise it's just words which don't necessarily mean anything.

Maybe because the moral codes, ethics and social behavior of the main characters are more in tune with the political correctness of today than how people actually behaved during the era in which the game take place? 

[jje1000]

8 hours ago, ~INDIO~ said:

Hopefully RDR3 is darker and more wild. 

Further West + Mexico I say, but brand new areas obviously

Just New Austin, a California region with a San Francisco analogue, and an expanded Mexico region that includes a major city would be perfect. 

 

Maybe set it around the 1860s- early 1870s so the land is wilder, the Indians are still a force to be reckoned with, the railway is being built, and there are still some gold rushes occuring. Those are all the ingredients for classic Western that begs to be messed around with.