RDR2 PC First Story Impressions

[seldo]

Played something like 4 hours today and I think I only did two missions.

I fancy the compendium, and I already have something like 60/500 !

but I still don't get how I have to study high flying birds.

The world feels a lot more lively than RDR1 with more random encounters (I already have 16 or 18 strangers just by staying around NH/Heartlands).

not having plants showing at all on the map is hard. Some clearly loom like flowers but I can't (yet?) pick them while I can for some other. I did enjoy picking tobacco with that dude next to the bend. 

 

I finally found the ledger, but I thought I was spending the camp money, but it was mine. Now I'm at $0.

i found the trapper (but I looked it up online, since I was told in game but 1) it wasn't shown on the map, 2) I didn't quite get was was being said, and I couldn't find the transcript). Now I have to make 3* shots. 

I still find the cores very disturbing. Stamina keeps climbing. It's always almost full and I'm at 75% of the circle. Dead eye is almost always empty. Horse is almost always full. Only life suffers when I keep thinking that I can fire 50 bullets in a few seconds. 

 

weirdly, the train stopped and I had enemies when I started shooting at birds fro the train roof. Was it because I didn't pay? Anyway, still 4 birds to shoot. 

 

The satchel is is so small. What do you do with it? You sell all except food? You craft/cook all?

Edited November 7, 2019 by seldo

[Armerius]

35 minutes ago, seldo said:

Played something like 4 hours today and I think I only did two missions.

I fancy the compendium, and I already have something like 60/500 !

but I still don't get how I have to study high flying birds.

The world feels a lot more lively than RDR1 with more random encounters (I already have 16 or 18 strangers just by staying around NH/Heartlands).

not having plants showing at all on the map is hard. Some clearly loom like flowers but I can't (yet?) pick them while I can for some other. I did enjoy picking tobacco with that dude next to the bend. 

 

I finally found the ledger, but I thought I was spending the camp money, but it was mine. Now I'm at $0.

i found the trapper (but I looked it up online, since I was told in game but 1) it wasn't shown on the map, 2) I didn't quite get was was being said, and I couldn't find the transcript). Now I have to make 3* shots. 

I still find the cores very disturbing. Stamina keeps climbing. It's always almost full and I'm at 75% of the circle. Dead eye is almost always empty. Horse is almost always full. Only life suffers when I keep thinking that I can fire 50 bullets in a few seconds. 

 

weirdly, the train stopped and I had enemies when I started shooting at birds fro the train roof. Was it because I didn't pay? Anyway, still 4 birds to shoot. 

 

The satchel is is so small. What do you do with it? You sell all except food? You craft/cook all?

con check pearson you have to bring him materials to upgrade the satchel...once you bring them all you get the best satchel with 99 items per slot you can do all that in chapter 2. just need to hunt a lot. (that is fun)

to study the birds use your binoculars , sometimes you can find those birds in the mountains just standing there. eagles etc. 

 

for money do treasure hunting .. you can find a few guys around the map that will sell you 1 map  and start a treasure hunt..or kill them and loot the map.  besides that you can check some youtube videos that show you the location of a few chests in the word that give you gold bars that you can sell for 500 dollars each. up to you if you wanna check videos or wait to see if you can find them on your own. (those are separate from the treasure hunt quests)

 

about the cores you will get the hang of it ...after a few days with no sleep they depleet faster and takes longer to get them full.  etc.  if you wanna hit 100% i recommend using a guide cause some collectables are a pain in the ass to find.

 

for free good weapons some unlock in story quests later on..and others you can get right away if you know how to get them...for example there is a secret room you have to uncover in VALENTINE and there is some disturbing secret in rhodes... find those and you get 2 damn nice weapons for free.  ( i dont give specifics to dont spoil anything)

Edited November 7, 2019 by Armerius

[seldo]

9 hours ago, Armerius said:

to study the birds use your binoculars , sometimes you can find those birds in the mountains just standing there. eagles etc. 

that makes sense... thanks!

[sorder]

I've spent 25 hours in the game and still didn't complete all available missions in the first chapter
 Such an amazing experience! 

[PolishRye]

4 hours ago, sorder said:

I've spent 25 hours in the game and still didn't complete all available missions in the first chapter
 Such an amazing experience! 

first chapter?

[sorder]

27 minutes ago, RuskiChleb said:

first chapter?

Oh sry, I mean in the chapter 2 

[Spider-Vice]

Man, the fog in the Bayou and the night lights in Saint Denis are like I've never seen before in another game. Jesus Christ. The way it accurately goes around trees and buildings and everything. Still findnig a ton of chance encounters and Stranger side missions as I traverse the wilderness, there's so much to do. Taking my sweet old time in Chapter 2, although I think I'm almost finishing it - just collected Strauss' last debt...

 

10/10 experience so far. Just a little overwhelmed about some of the collections and such available, but I'm sure I'll manage.  Also, some raiders just came out of nowhere in the Bayou among the fog, that was awesome.

[Mustyfacecloth]

1 hour ago, Spider-Vice said:

Also, some raiders just came out of nowhere in the Bayou among the fog, that was awesome.

That encounter made me jump despite them just walking at me

[Spider-Vice]

13 minutes ago, Mustyfacecloth said:

That encounter made me jump despite them just walking at me

They make it pretty tense as the red dots appear surrounding you and you can't see anyone because of the fog. 

[RedIndianRobin]

2 hours ago, Spider-Vice said:

Man, the fog in the Bayou and the night lights in Saint Denis are like I've never seen before in another game. Jesus Christ. The way it accurately goes around trees and buildings and everything. Still findnig a ton of chance encounters and Stranger side missions as I traverse the wilderness, there's so much to do. Taking my sweet old time in Chapter 2, although I think I'm almost finishing it - just collected Strauss' last debt...

 

I have 30 hours in game time now and 35 percent completion but I am still in Chapter 2 and haven't even been to 50% of the map including St. Denis, lmao. 

[seldo]

I'm at 40% (30% story wise) and left chapter 2 yesterday. Played a little more than 30 hours.

I'm not yet so much into chapter 3 (I did 2-3 missions to get to know the area before roaming alone), and I've been roaming as far as the bayou, but haven't entered St Denis area (I that part of the map, that's what's left unseen, as well as everything left (south west I believe) of the Blackwater/Strawberry axis. 

I was happy to move on as I felt the chapter 2 area (didn't go back to the grizzlies) was getting a little dry (agreed, not all is done).

 

Somehow I really enjoyed the chapter 2 area, but chapter 3, I still haven't found it to be my thing beyond the bayou. I did know the bayou from a brief play on PS4 and already enjoyed it, so I was glad to return there.

 

I really enjoyed the gunslingers pictures missions, but haven't figured it out yet with the bride. 

And that one in the grizzlies, fantastic trip! Especially coming from Rhodes

 

Fishing is new to me, but I got this morning the legendary fish map, so that might be the next thing I do. 

Maybe ill break my controller. 

I realised I have the legendary animals map, but I don't know how I got it. Was it the trapper?

 

I do enjoy more looking at the animals than hunting them, and I think I have 2/3 of the animal compendium done. However I like using the Springfield when I need it As good as it was in RDR1!

 

I had this mission where you get to see Blackwate from away. What an upgrade from RDR1!!

 

The stranger missions are so diverse, and the camps as well. That's a much nicer feeling that the woman crying on the side of the road before being attacked when approching. 

 

If St Denis is smooth like the rest of the game, I'll keep my 980 and will take the opportunity of a new graphic card later to replay the game. 

 

I'm now taking a 24/48 hours break for it, resuming Monday evening latest. 

Edited November 9, 2019 by seldo

[cp1dell]

2 hours ago, seldo said:

I realised I have the legendary animals map, but I don't know how I got it. Was it the trapper?

Hosea gives it to you in the mission where you go hunting for that huge bear, which is actually the Legendary Bear.

[Spider-Vice]

I realised I f*cked up by denying to help someone in Chapter 2 (someone told me I should have), I guess I'll live that down like I do with other choice based games. Still in Chapter 2, did some hunting with Charles, got Sean back which prompted a large party at the camp, robbed a homestead with Javier, explored some more abandoned places...

 

There was this one place with a tiny little arrow made of sticks right by a cigarette card. I followed it for the heck of it. It led me to a hidden stash of money. Rockstar the freaking details!

[Gforce]

Have to admit, I like this one, I bought the last RDR for XB360 but could never get into it, ignored this one on console because my PS4 makes so much noise compared to the PC I don't even use it any more, anyway when they announced for PC they got my attention, after watching day one gameplay footage I got the Special Edition because it's supposedly got extra SP content.

I'm in chapter 2 afaik, got drunk with Lenny and that was insane fun, also managed to have a full speed crash into the back of another horse while being chased by bounty hunters, my horse got wiped out instantly as did the horse I hit along with the guy riding it, drove into one of those covered wooden bridges at night and got held up at gunpoint, unlucky for them I had my new shotgun in hand and survived, been some real hilarity and funny moments for me so far, starting to see some of the GTAV formula with the random strangers dotted around, in fact there's other aspects too, but I like the formula, really enjoying this game

all I need now once I complete the game is a DeLorean, hoverboard and a flying train

I think R* no longer has an excuse for not doing an RDR Remaster now they have a next gen engine that can really do it justice, maybe that's why they stopped that RDR on V engine mod happening, I hope so.

[RedIndianRobin]

1 hour ago, Spider-Vice said:

I realised I f*cked up by denying to help someone in Chapter 2 (someone told me I should have), I guess I'll live that down like I do with other choice based games.

What's this choice you are talking about in Chapter 2?

[NightmanCometh96]

25 minutes ago, RedIndianRobin said:

What's this choice you are talking about in Chapter 2?

I believe it’s 

Spoiler

Mary Linton’s mission. If you refuse to help her, 

Spoiler

you miss out on a neat side mission in Chapter 4. 

 

 

[RedIndianRobin]

7 minutes ago, CartmanKusanagi said:

I believe it’s 

  Hide contents

Mary Linton’s mission. If you refuse to help her, 

  Hide contents

you miss out on a neat side mission in Chapter 4. 

 

 

Ah yes. Guessed it lol. Just did the mission yesterday because I don't want to miss out on anything. But if I roleplayed as Arthur, I'd have rejected it.

[seldo]

That man on the side of the road that asks you to suck poison out of his leg... then gives you a free weapon.

I could get all $0 in one batch without paying. So I ended up with 3/4 weapons instead of one.

im so glad I've done that side event

 

9 hours ago, cp1dell said:

Hosea gives it to you in the mission where you go hunting for that huge bear, which is actually the Legendary Bear.

Ah, I didn't kill the bear and chose to go back with Hosea, as I tough I was not well equipped to kill it. 

Edited November 10, 2019 by seldo

[Spider-Vice]

Just got into Chapter 3. Dutch gets on your nerves since the beginning of the game tbh, wish I could fast forward to RDR1.   Keep finding more and more stuff to collect, strangers to help, bounties to collect, aimlessly roaming around is really rewarding in RDR2.

[RedIndianRobin]

And I still haven't

Spoiler

busted Micah out of jail yet lmao! Loved the Sean Rescue mission and its OST BTW.

 

[seldo]

So I ended up playing today...

 

Maybe one or two missions, but mostly roaming for legendaries. Got three animals and four fishes. 

First time I fish out of a mission, I get a 18 oz + fish in the swamps. I thought either my controller or my hand would give up before the fish got out of the water. 

I also got three of the four lengendary fishes on my first bait. Well, that was easy. 

I have one fish I already sent by the post/in compendium but it is not crossed on my map. Weird. 

I lost my legendary bear pelt (I fell off a cliff), and I had to search online what happens with it. Turns out here is a rockstar support article for that. It's not lost, and it is directly sent to the trapper. You only lose the sale price. 

 

I got two times to st Denis, and the first time was through a stranger event. That was better than roaming alone there. 

Its really impressive, and I only regret that it is not a tad more contrasted (darker in shadows). 

I also had my first game crash while fishing in the tiny islands south of the railways bridge. Then the game put me back there, but without a boat. I had to cross by foot, looking for gators. Mmmm.

 

I tried to do the horseman challenge with the lasso drag, but it doesn't count more than 50 ft even if the person is still alive. Strange. 

 

Also, I got a cloud sync discrepancy, and I had to resolve it through the launcher's gui. The cloud save was two minutes newer than the local one (??!). Picked the local one and started the game. Anyway, the launcher has a nice interface for it in case this happens to you. 

 

I'm glad there is so much more to do in the world than in RDR1, and this fits with what spider-vice said above.

i might resume missions soon though, after fishing/hunting few more legendaries.

 

one last thing: why does my horse sound like a pig when I tap faster than it's pace? It could have been a different sound!

 

6 hours ago, Spider-Vice said:

Just got into Chapter 3. Dutch gets on your nerves since the beginning of the game tbh, wish I could fast forward to RDR1.   Keep finding more and more stuff to collect, strangers to help, bounties to collect, aimlessly roaming around is really rewarding in RDR2.

I might be in camp every couple of game days, so I rarely see him. 

The camp is fun and is a nice place to come after roaming but I don't see myself spending so much time there. 

However, I can drop all my loot, and it makes it rich!!

 

from what I see, I might have the game completed, except for the cards and bones that I might look for online. 

 

---

 

just realized using the social club webpage that I missed (??!) one story mission in chapter 2, the 10th if you count line by line: https://socialclub.rockstargames.com/games/rdr2/story

Edited November 11, 2019 by seldo

[Xerukal]

Had something very interesting happen to me yesterday, and it seems to be at least somewhat story-related so I'll post it here. Random encounter spoilers below.

 

 

I was riding out just in the middle of The Heartlands, when Javier tracked me down in the middle of the night to tell me Bill's been captured by Bounty Hunters. 

I initially thought this was just a clever way to start one of the main story missions I must have forgotten about, but no! It was actually a slightly story-based random encounter that I have never gotten before on console. I think this might be new, or I simply don't remember seeing it in any videos. 

There were even small amounts of unique dialogue regarding Bill & Dutch and tensions in the camp. I wonder if this only happens during Chapter 2? Here's Bill after we saved his ass.



 
 

 

 

It just amazes me that I've never seen this before. I bet there's tons of stuff like this still left unexplored. Pretty amazing. 

 

 

Edited November 11, 2019 by Xerukal

[Spider-Vice]

Might just have been missed from console. I honestly think RDR2 is one of those games that will continue to reveal itself for years. I mean, even certain details in the world of GTA V were missed for quite a while, imagine RDR2.

[Jimbatron]

17 minutes ago, Xerukal said:

Had something very interesting happen to me yesterday, and it seems to be at least somewhat story-related so I'll post it here. Random encounter spoilers below.

 

  Reveal hidden contents

I was riding out just in the middle of The Heartlands, when Javier tracked me down in the middle of the night to tell me Bill's been captured by Bounty Hunters. 

I initially thought this was just a clever way to start one of the main story missions I must have forgotten about, but no! It was actually a slightly story-based random encounter that I have never gotten before on console. I think this might be new, or I simply don't remember seeing it in any videos. 

There were even small amounts of unique dialogue regarding Bill & Dutch and tensions in the camp. I wonder if this only happens during Chapter 2? Here's Bill after we saved his ass.



 
 

 

 

It just amazes me that I've never seen this before. I bet there's tons of stuff like this still left unexplored. Pretty amazing. 

 

 

This can happen at different areas in the map - on Xbox One X I’ve had it twice in big valley, but also in the heartlands in my 3 100% playthroughs. I have also missed it once, actually my first play through where I focused on story missions (seriously, avoid that temptation if you can). The criteria seems to be don’t rush through chapter 2, if you spend enough time outside the camp you’ll almost certainly encounter it.

 

In general you are right, the game is full of great touches like this.

Edited November 11, 2019 by Jimbatron

[seldo]

19 minutes ago, Xerukal said:

Had something very interesting happen to me yesterday, and it seems to be at least somewhat story-related so I'll post it here. Random encounter spoilers below.

 

It just amazes me that I've never seen this before. I bet there's tons of stuff like this still left unexplored. Pretty amazing. 

 

I think I had this one. At least, I got picked up in the middle of nowhere and was asked to rescue a gang member.

 

I had two KKK things yesterday, one with the complete group, and I blew them off all in one shot, except the group leader, with a dynamite.

But no achievement for that

The other one where two putting up a cross and one leader talking to them. I talked to them and because of the surprise, the cross smashed them. héhé

 

In south St-Denis and in Chez Porter in the North, I heard tunes similar to the one from RDR1. Strange feeling.

 

One thing I like: wildlife doesn't mind you unless you attack them (except for wolves), what an upgrade! I feel better riding at night.

Edited November 11, 2019 by seldo

[Xerukal]

I'm delaying moving past Chapter 2 for as long as possible. It's a really good spot story-wise to just explore and take it easy. Even though lots of things are locked in terms of items and guns, I'll make a point of having a separate save at Chapter 2 so I can always go back to that state. 

 

There is a certain benefit to having already beaten the game, since there's no reason for me to rush anything, and I already know some of the cool spots I should revisit for good items and discoveries. But there's still a ton of stuff I didn't get to do on console that I'm really looking forward to getting to in later chapters.

 

I really recommend this to anyone playing the game for the first time, though. Take advantage of the fact that the game lets you have sh*ttons of separate save files. Make one save for at least every chapter in the game. You'll thank yourself later if you want to go back and engage with some of the different camp locations. 

[seldo]

I already have 4 saves, two in chapter 2 and two in chapter 3.

Thanks to the socialclub website, I now know how much missions are left, which is more than enough.

 

Are the special lure a cheat?

I forgot to mention that yesterday, but I've only been fishing with that, and that's how I got my legendaries so fast.

Forget it, they are mandatory for legendaries.

Edited November 11, 2019 by seldo

[RedIndianRobin]

1 hour ago, Xerukal said:

Had something very interesting happen to me yesterday, and it seems to be at least somewhat story-related so I'll post it here. Random encounter spoilers below.

 

Ditto happened to me too last night. I was blown away. This game makes GTA V look like some miserable nutcrack lmao.

[seldo]

20 minutes ago, RedIndianRobin said:

Ditto happened to me too last night. I was blown away. This game makes GTA V look like some miserable nutcrack lmao.

Also, random events that keep appearing with the same person with a different context (the veteran in Valentine) is much nicer than many random single events.

 

However, that's not always perfect:

- I picked up the same person to Strawberry two times with exactly the same talk

- I talked to a woman in Lagras, which then I met further down the road, but I kept following that road (it could have been a different npc, but same cloth, same voice)

 

The regions transitions are so well made, even from places that you wouldn't suspect to go together. From Rhodes (or North of it) to Bayou in particular! Or Bayou to suburbs to St-Denis. I find it even more subtle than the RDR1 transitions which were sometimes a little bit short in distance (tall tree to snow area for exemple).

I remember the red to white desert transition in AC:O, it was a line separating the two in the middle of nowhere.

Edited November 11, 2019 by seldo

[Spider-Vice]

Man, the RDR2 side missions go from 0 to 100 so quickly and I love it. From desecrating a grave to get debt, to saving circus animals, to finding out some duce was leading a slavery operation. 

 

10/10 stranger and side missions.