What didn't you like about RDR2?

[billiejoearmstrong8]

On 10/13/2024 at 5:34 PM, Silver said:

I don't mind Sadie too much but I agree that her character going from a mourning rancher to a bloodthirsty killer wasn't handled super well.

 

If anything I think we needed more scenes with her, like Arthur and others teaching her how to shoot, how to hunt, then to rob and get her own scores, y'know, stuff that'd make her a proper member of the gang. Arthur training Charlotte is what I would've liked to see for Sadie but on a bigger scale.

 

She's kind of a wasted character in my opinion. She spends the entirety of Chapter 2 mourning her husband then once you go get groceries in Chapter 3 she's now become the expert marksman (markswoman?) that we see for the remainder of the game. Not to mention that she's kinda just there, she guards the camp, wants to kill O'Driscolls and that's pretty much it. Not counting her role in the Epilogue, she's not really involved in anything meaningful other than Colm's hanging and John and Abigail's rescues. She doesn't seem to have much opinion on Dutch's descent into madness either, instead when the time comes, she's automatically by Arthur's side which I kinda get but at the same time it feels like she's on the good side at the end only because she has to, for some reason. I don't know, she becomes a member of the gang from the very beginning of the game but at the same time she seems oddly uninvolved in it if that makes any sense.

 

A part of me wishes they had done something else with her character. With Arthur and John we know they've been part of the gang for a long time and are loyal to Dutch from the start of the game, but the point of Arthur's story is how he slowly becomes disillusioned with Dutch's antics and the life he's led. How interesting would it have been to see from Arthur's perspective how someone new and easily impressionable like Sadie, joining the gang after experiencing intense trauma, ends up becoming a fervent believer in Dutch's cause right around the time he's actually becoming more and more reckless? Her being at her lowest point would be the perfect opportunity for Dutch to advantage of, showing her only his good side by taking her under his wing, making her a part of this tight-knit family, and having her do his bidding all the while older and wiser members like Arthur and Hosea start noticing the cracks in his persona. I think there's an interesting parallel to be found here between the old and the new guard in a time when the outlaw lifestyle becomes increasingly more perilous.

 

By the end she could've stayed in Dutch's camp and opposed Arthur and John or leave the gang altogether, her story could've gone any other direction and feel much more relevant that it does now if she had a proper role in it to begin with.

 

Sadie already knew how to shoot and hunt. She was a tough and capable person who survived in a very harsh environment, lived off the land (which would have included hunting for the majority of their food in winter and possibly protecting the ranch from outlaws) in an equal role with her husband which was rare at that time, and her experiences growing up could have been even tougher. She's only quiet and meek in chapter 2 because her husband was murdered in front of her and she was raped and whatever else while being held captive for three days. She's not young, not inexperienced, not impressionable, she is a strong and capable person from the start and just had to get past trauma. While she was getting past it she was living with a gang of criminals perhaps picking up some information and influences from them and building up resolve for revenge. I don't think it's at all unbelieveable that a character like that would be able to put her existing skills plus some stuff she picked up from living with the gang to use the way she does once she's recovered from her immediate trauma.

 

I don't think she was ever really interested in joining the gang or Dutch's "cause", she was there because they wanted to help her and ended up fighting for them and siding with certain members in the end because she wanted to repay them and had formed some strong friendships. She wasn't doing anything out of loyalty to the gang itself but rather to help the people who helped her and who she saw as being in the right. I think it makes sense that one of the few people who was never under Dutch's spell wouldn't side with him.

 

On 10/23/2024 at 2:33 AM, suika_ said:

Arthur accepting prostitutes offers' would be wildly out of character, that's why. Not only has he not moved on from Mary, but there's also Eliza to consider. His time with Eliza resulted in his personality changing massively as a result of what happened, him risking that same situation again would be kind of contradictory. I think that's pretty solid reasoning, personally. He's just not that type of person anymore.

He also almost certainly has depression and he has a very poor self image and low self esteem as we can see from some journal entries and his mirror comments. He's confident about his outlaw skills and ability to act intimidating but not much else. And the entire game he's very preoccupied first with just the gang's situation and later with his illness. And he really never comes across as a "ladies man". Easy to believe this guy wouldn't have a high sex drive or see sex as a priority (at this time in his life at least) for multiple reasons.

Edited October 25, 2024 by billiejoearmstrong8

[Silver]

3 hours ago, billiejoearmstrong8 said:

Sadie already knew how to shoot and hunt. She was a tough and capable person who survived in a very harsh environment, lived off the land (which would have included hunting for the majority of their food in winter and possibly protecting the ranch from outlaws) in an equal role with her husband which was rare at that time, and her experiences growing up could have been even tougher. She's only quiet and meek in chapter 2 because her husband was murdered in front of her and she was raped and whatever else while being held captive for three days. She's not young, not inexperienced, not impressionable, she is a strong and capable person from the start and just had to get past trauma. While she was getting past it she was living with a gang of criminals perhaps picking up some information and influences from them and building up resolve for revenge. I don't think it's at all unbelieveable that a character like that would be able to put her existing skills plus some stuff she picked up from living with the gang to use the way she does once she's recovered from her immediate trauma.

I'm not against a character being experienced in some shape or form when we first meet them but the way Sadie was introduced to us (so Chapter 1 and 2) always made me feel like she wasn't the toughest woman around from the start. Now granted we meet her in a very vulnerable position after going through a traumatic experience and I'm sure knowing how to shoot could only get her so far when a bunch of outlaws are invading her ranch, but her becoming a markswoman by Chapter 3 has always felt very sudden to me, regardless if she truly had experience in the matter before that. It's not the most unbelievable thing but I never really bought it.

 

3 hours ago, billiejoearmstrong8 said:

I don't think she was ever really interested in joining the gang or Dutch's "cause", she was there because they wanted to help her and ended up fighting for them and siding with certain members in the end because she wanted to repay them and had formed some strong friendships. She wasn't doing anything out of loyalty to the gang itself but rather to help the people who helped her and who she saw as being in the right. I think it makes sense that one of the few people who was never under Dutch's spell wouldn't side with him.

And that's my main issue with Sadie. Since she doesn't really have an opinion on Dutch or believe in his cause, she ends up being rather irrelevant to the main story despite the fact that she chooses to stay in the gang until the very end. I think that's a shame because she could've been more than a passenger fueled by revenge that we help out.

 

I expected her to be a more important character based on how we meet her and how she's got a good reason to fully join the gang after that. If anything her situation would've been a good way for us to see how people become attached to Dutch and are willing to follow him in the first place, and perhaps, why they'd be willing to keep their faith in him while everything is starting to fall apart. Her actually being inexperienced and/or impressionable could've been a good way to start that type of journey for this character, and her believing in Dutch's ideals could've added to the tragedy of it all from our perspective. People like Arthur and John end up being disregarded by Dutch for their growing lack of faith in spite their history and loyalty for the man, meanwhile newer members like Sadie for instance could've stayed by his side because of that time he rescued her. Or perhaps their mutual hatred for O'Driscolls could've been the starting point to her newly found loyalty, with Dutch taking the lead on her search for Colm and his men and being the one who ultimately grants Sadie her revenge.

I don't know, I'm just spitballing here, and I'm just using this particular approach as an example of what I think could've made her character more interesting had things turned out differently. But at the end of the day anything was possible for Sadie to be more involved in the story and in my opinion, more interesting.

[Karen Jones]

I really wish there was a second playable character in the main story alongside Arthur, especially Sadie. That would have been so interesting, and I think it's a missed opportunity. Overall, I was very satisfied with the game, especially focusing on the main storyline. Online is a whole different story. A pretty grim one.

Edited November 24, 2024 by Karen Jones
Edited to fix a repeated section within the same post.

[ClimateLockdowns]

Only able to use a horse in the year 1899 we had bikes and even the first cars and flying machines prototypes all could have even be added to RDR2 Online would be more realistic than flying bikes and rocket powered cars in GTA Online 

[Thelema93]

Just started playing this game this year after having it installed since it's release ( never got around to it) and I love it to death. All criticisms I have are rather petty but here we go. 

 

The random events/ambushes are rather over saturated and over-done. It's not uncommon for me to get ambushed twice on one trip, depending on how far I'm travelling. They're just an annoyance, especially if I've got a task/mission in mind. 

 

It's really the only thing that makes me reluctant to play/go on long horse rides. Fast travel is a way around this thankfully. 

[Pistol Bobcat]

Just a plot nitpick regarding the whole situation with Blackwater being a danger zone for Dutch and most of the gang.

 

Why not just send someone nobody has seen before like Charles or Sadie to sneak in and grab that money?

[The-Ghost]

On 12/20/2024 at 11:12 AM, Pistol Bobcat said:

Just a plot nitpick regarding the whole situation with Blackwater being a danger zone for Dutch and most of the gang.

 

Why not just send someone nobody has seen before like Charles or Sadie to sneak in and grab that money?

I think it might be a question of Trust? I guess Dutch doesn't trust either of them going for the money.

[BennyGod]

I kind of wish Saint Denis was bigger. It was such a nice city, so I wish the neighborhoods were expanded, that way you felt like you were traversing a city with more distinct and larger neighborhoods. For example, they should've had a unique French Quarter neighborhood with mostly Cajuns/Creole. 

[Lemoyne outlaw]

2 hours ago, The-Ghost said:

I think it might be a question of Trust? I guess Dutch doesn't trust either of them going for the money.

what about the non gunslinger members? like strauss, pearson, any of the girls. they all could have gotten it without causing a ruckus. they are all extremely loyal to dutch. so i doubt that they would steal it.

 

27 minutes ago, BennyGod said:

I kind of wish Saint Denis was bigger. It was such a nice city, so I wish the neighborhoods were expanded, that way you felt like you were traversing a city with more distinct and larger neighborhoods. For example, they should've had a unique French Quarter neighborhood with mostly Cajuns/Creole. 

yes i feel the same way. saint denis is such a beautiful city. but it should have been a bit bigger. even though it's the biggest city in the red dead series. it still feels pretty small. even lemoyne as a whole is smaller than the other states. i would be happy to not have new austin. if they would make the other states bigger. and for goodness sake we need a town or two in ambarino. 

[Jisoo]

Is it mentioned exactly where, or how, the money from Blackwater is hidden? If its in some basement thats now guarded by lawmen at all times without them knowing the money is there, then it wouldnt be possible to send someone else. Could be hidden somewhere outside of town, but then Trelawny could just pick it up when he is there since he says he just returned from Blackwater and can clearly walk around freely. I dont think they spent time properly hiding it somewhere or digging it in the ground since they had to immediately flee after the robbery went south

 

The money could also have been found by someone else the next day or something, but ofcourse theres no way for the gang to know that

 

 

[Lemoyne outlaw]

50 minutes ago, Jisoo said:

Is it mentioned exactly where, or how, the money from Blackwater is hidden? If its in some basement thats now guarded by lawmen at all times without them knowing the money is there, then it wouldnt be possible to send someone else. Could be hidden somewhere outside of town, but then Trelawny could just pick it up when he is there since he says he just returned from Blackwater and can clearly walk around freely. I dont think they spent time properly hiding it somewhere or digging it in the ground since they had to immediately flee after the robbery went south

 

The money could also have been found by someone else the next day or something, but ofcourse theres no way for the gang to know that

 

 

I've seen some people theorize that the money was hidden in Dutch's moms grave. i don't know how likely that is. but it is interesting that she is buried all the way out there. wouldn't she have been buried in Pennsylvania? or was she trying to go out west and find Dutch for something? and she somehow got killed in blackwater? or for all we know she could have found him. and he killed her. maybe she tried to stop him from being an outlaw. and he felt threatened so he killed her. (we already know they didn't get along very well.) we all know how crazy Dutch gets. i know my idea is unlikely. but I'm just shooting the breeze since there isn't much to talk about.

[Max Payne]

Water = Lava. Where does Rockstar's hate boner for water come from in Red Dead series? So okay your protagonist can't swim in the first Red Dead Redemption game because you didn't wanna bother copying the animation from GTA IV, right that's cool huh? What about in RDR II? Forget John, Arthur drowns after 25 seconds because reasons, that's brilliant really. I'm sure someone's gonna jump into topic to tell me that back in the wild west days, people's stamina wasn't good and it's realistic or somesh*t, rEalİSm my ass. Best water physics in any game ever but can't swim, classic Rockstar. 

oH bUt hOrSeS cAn SwIm aNd tHerE aRe BoaTs T00

At least it takes a minute for PC players to drop a simple script in the folder to get around this. On console though...

[propanecocaine71]

I have always disliked the legend of the east outfit, the legend of the west outfit in rdr1 was a much better outfit for completing all ambient challenges, the outfit itself was so badass it made me want to do the challenges, the legend of the east though ? Meh. The fact that arthur can't complete all the challenges has always bugged me as well. 

[Lemoyne outlaw]

30 minutes ago, propanecocaine71 said:

I have always disliked the legend of the east outfit, the legend of the west outfit in rdr1 was a much better outfit for completing all ambient challenges, the outfit itself was so badass it made me want to do the challenges, the legend of the east though ? Meh. The fact that arthur can't complete all the challenges has always bugged me as well. 

i actually like the legend of the east more than lotw. red is one of my favorite colors. so I'm a bit partial to it. although i do agree that arthur not being able to get it legitimately is so dumb. arthur is the main character. but he can't even become a legend? that's awful. to make matters worse you have to play as the ugly thing that is epilogue john.

[propanecocaine71]

11 minutes ago, Lemoyne outlaw said:

i actually like the legend of the east more than lotw. red is one of my favorite colors. so I'm a bit partial to it. although i do agree that arthur not being able to get it legitimately is so dumb. arthur is the main character. but he can't even become a legend? that's awful. to make matters worse you have to play as the ugly thing that is epilogue john.

Oh for sure it's a very nice outfit, just not my favorite,  I think I'd like it more if the hat & pants were a darker color I love the red. 

[propanecocaine71]

Something that has always been a nitpick of mine is that money is absolutely way too easy aquire, it's become even more apparent on my recent playthrough. It kinda breaks immersion with the gang supposedly just barely getting by taking whatever jobs they can when arthur has close to $3,000 in his satchel!

 

This is something I really appreciated with rdr1's hardcore mode, money was alot harder to earn and things were more expensive, it makes me sorely wish rdr2 had a hardcore mode because to be frank to the Game is way too forgiving sometimes regarding money/ammo/consumables. 

[The-Ghost]

Red Dead Redemption II, a nearly flawless and one of most beautiful games ever made, with a lot of care and attention put into its details, a brilliant handcrafted map that looks breathtaking at all times, a fantastic set of characters that deliver an impactful and moving story, but there's a catch... it has some breaking-bad style time changes where the day-night transitions are almost instant.

 

Seriously, talk about immersion breaking, this one does it for me and I really hate it.

[Lemoyne outlaw]

5 hours ago, The-Ghost said:

Red Dead Redemption II, a nearly flawless and one of most beautiful games ever made, with a lot of care and attention put into its details, a brilliant handcrafted map that looks breathtaking at all times, a fantastic set of characters that deliver an impactful and moving story, but there's a catch... it has some breaking-bad style time changes where the day-night transitions are almost instant.

 

Seriously, talk about immersion breaking, this one does it for me and I really hate it.

what do you mean breaking bad style? i don't remember any times in the show where it suddenly turned night or day. but i do agree about rdr2s day and night transitions. the sunsets are beautiful in this game. but you hardly get to enjoy them. and i also notice the rain is weird too. it sometimes rains even when it's not cloudy or when the sun is out. then there is a weird glitch where the rain looks like the gta definitive edition rain. it's so weird that a masterpiece can still have minor stuff like that. it seems like it would be easy to fix. but sadly rockstar doesn't seem to care.

[The-Ghost]

Just now, Lemoyne outlaw said:

what do you mean breaking bad style? i don't remember any times in the show where it suddenly turned night or day. but i do agree about rdr2s day and night transitions. the sunsets are beautiful in this game. but you hardly get to enjoy them. and i also notice the rain is weird too. it sometimes rains even when it's not cloudy or when the sun is out. then there is a weird glitch where the rain looks like the gta definitive edition rain. it's so weird that a masterpiece can still have minor stuff like that. it seems like it would be easy to fix. but sadly rockstar doesn't seem to care.

I meant time progressing fast like it does in GTAV during certain missions.

[Agent Edward]

On 4/23/2025 at 6:52 PM, propanecocaine71 said:

I have always disliked the legend of the east outfit, the legend of the west outfit in rdr1 was a much better outfit for completing all ambient challenges, the outfit itself was so badass it made me want to do the challenges, the legend of the east though ? Meh. The fact that arthur can't complete all the challenges has always bugged me as well. 

This is an issue which also plagues a lot of other outfits in this game too.

 

The default outfits of Arthur/John and the trapper outfits are fine, but the general store/tailor ones are a mixed bag, some look like they actually got some thought put into making them and others just look like the developers used a randomizer to make them.

 

You're better off just making your very own interpretation of how the Legend of the East outfit should look like and save it as a custom outfit, use John's Legend of the West from the first game or even Calloway's outfit as a inspiration.

 

 

Edited April 27 by Agent Edward

[billiejoearmstrong8]

I don't like how when you're bringing a bounty in you can only hit them while they're still talking so you have to choose between hearing all the dialogue and hitting them. Let me hit them after they finish talking please!

 

On 4/26/2025 at 3:53 PM, Lemoyne outlaw said:

what do you mean breaking bad style? i don't remember any times in the show where it suddenly turned night or day. but i do agree about rdr2s day and night transitions. the sunsets are beautiful in this game. but you hardly get to enjoy them. and i also notice the rain is weird too. it sometimes rains even when it's not cloudy or when the sun is out. then there is a weird glitch where the rain looks like the gta definitive edition rain. it's so weird that a masterpiece can still have minor stuff like that. it seems like it would be easy to fix. but sadly rockstar doesn't seem to care.

It's more subtle than in GTA V (where it just shows you time fast forwarding/sky changing in fast foward before the opening cutscene). But if you start a mission where it's supposed to be daytime during the night or one where it's supposed to be nighttime during in the day (and it's one that doesn't have a special extra scene where Arthur says they'll go in the morning etc to move the time) it will instantly become just before sunrise/sunset and immediately start getting bright/dark as soon as the opening cutscene finishes, regardless of the time you started the mission.

 

Sunrises and sunsets are also very short in free play because they screwed with the time and made it go much faster at some times than others. I wish they just did a 48 minute day with every in game hour equaling 2 minutes (or even better a longer version with each hour 3 minutes or each hour 4 minutes). But they decided they needed to make nights super short and mess with it so much you can't even figure out how it works for some reason.

Edited May 3 by billiejoearmstrong8

[Max Payne]

The two handed weapon that's being held teleports to character's back if you reload the currently used handgun. Same thing happens when the player switches to first person then back to third person. It probably wouldn't stand out so bad if the game didn't have a detailed animation for everything but it does, so it really catches the eye when some things teleport instead of the character actually putting them away.

[GRUMPY_CAT]

My biggest and probably only problem, maybe it's just my feelings, but I didn't feel the "euphoria" engine in this game at all, like in GTA 4, for example. All the animations, although very nice and realistic, gave the impression that they were scripted and predefined, as if they were glued to the ground.
Maybe it's just the result of the people in this game being extremely slow and sluggish.

[Lemoyne outlaw]

22 hours ago, GRUMPY_CAT said:

My biggest and probably only problem, maybe it's just my feelings, but I didn't feel the "euphoria" engine in this game at all, like in GTA 4, for example. All the animations, although very nice and realistic, gave the impression that they were scripted and predefined, as if they were glued to the ground.
Maybe it's just the result of the people in this game being extremely slow and sluggish.

could you explain this more? i thought rdr2 had euphoria and rage already? the animations seems fine to me. are you talking about peoples death animations? or ragdolls from falling? all of it seems pretty good to me. i know its not exactly like gta 4. but I've never had any complaints about it.