Red Dead Redemption 2

[bboyer66]

Is it purely a Western, or is it an rpg/action game with some western flavor? Or is it something else entirely?

It isn't like GTA set in the 1890s American West, is it?

It is one of my favorites of all time. It's a slow burn story wise, but that is good. You will be doing, and discovering a thousand things, that have nothing to do with the main story. It's biggest weakness is that you still have the rigid Rockstar style mission structure (pass or fail), to advance the main story line. But other then that, the game is a masterpiece. I'm big on games that can totally immerse you, and this is one of them. Scenery, hunting, so many different characters, and side missions. It's the closest you will ever get to a Western themed RPG.  For fucks sakes, it actually made me tear up a little at one point, it's that immersive.  So many little nuggets of fun as well, from trying to track a serial killer, to possible vampire killings in Saint Denis. The world is so fleshed out that you just don't want to leave.
But the most entertaining part overall for me is just travelling around the different landscapes, either hunting, or looking for lost treasures possibly. At one point I was on a cliff face of a mountain looking across almost half the map area thinking to myself , this is pretty fuckin cool.

[Dammit Carl!]

Is it purely a Western, or is it an rpg/action game with some western flavor? Or is it something else entirely?

It isn't like GTA set in the 1890s American West, is it?

It is one of my favorites of all time. It's a slow burn story wise, but that is good. You will be doing, and discovering a thousand things, that have nothing to do with the main story....But the most entertaining part overall for me is just travelling around the different landscapes, either hunting, or looking for lost treasures possibly. At one point I was on a cliff face of a mountain looking across almost half the map area thinking to myself , this is pretty fuckin cool.

Yup.  Sums it up pretty dang well (and I'm just going off of the first RDR's memories for me).

Makes me hanker for a good western pen & paper rpg...

[Tpek]

Is it purely a Western, or is it an rpg/action game with some western flavor? Or is it something else entirely?

It isn't like GTA set in the 1890s American West, is it?

It's a pure Western, no Sci-Fi or Fantasy elements as far as I can tell.

I've only played it for a few hours so far, but it runs smoothly on my very aging rig (though it does make my GPU run hotter than it usually does, ~62C).

The beginning really reminded me of Tarantino's Hateful Eight.

[Gusington]

Thanks guys. Sounds like there are some 'out there' elements...like the (possible) vampires that Boyer mentions above.

[JasonPratt]

Is it purely a Western, or is it an rpg/action game with some western flavor? Or is it something else entirely?

It isn't like GTA set in the 1890s American West, is it?

The first game was very much "spaghetti western" in flavor (and everything I've seen of the prequel confirms); and consequently there are some supernatural elements on occasion. Ghosts mostly, and a mysterious guy dressed like a funeral-home director who appears and disappears and knows WAAAAAAYYY more about people than he should. Is he a ghost of someone slain by your character before the game started? Death? the Devil? God? (Probably God, putting all the things he says together, but he's written to be vague.)

There's creepy spaghetti western music throughout the whole game which gives the whole thing a spooky edge even when supernatural things aren't happening.

The alternate-canon extension to the end of the first game, Undead Nightmare, takes all those more subtle factors and ramps them up to 11 starting with a zombie outbreak. It's still very much in a spaghetti-western mode though.


Other than that, I'm not sure what you mean by "purely a Western". The setting is totally a western in every regard, and you go around doing "western" things of all kinds. You could mostly ignore the main story and just go around towns and settlements playing blackjack and poker in tournaments if you wanted to. I let my nieces ride around the map on a horse, with the provision that THEY MUST NOT STOP AND GET OFF FOR ANY REASON! -- because this is a hard-R rated game. One of them was showing off for the grandparents and parents while I was off entertaining the other niece, and when I came back into the room she had stopped to see what was up with a guy who was crying over his dead wife slain by bandits. Before I could get her back on the horse and away, he had shot himself in his grief. That put an end to them playing this game for the foreseeable future. ;)

[SirAndrewD]

Thanks guys. Sounds like there are some 'out there' elements...like the (possible) vampires that Boyer mentions above.

You pretty much have to actively go looking for them for the most part.  It's not as front and center as GTA games. 

Lets just say that you should be careful staying in the Swamp north of St. Denis at night.

And if you find the right burnt out cabin that takes you into the mountains at a certain time, you might get the answer to the question "are we alone?"

[Gusington]

^Cool...by 'purely a Western' I mean it doesn't have any other themes going on, spooky or otherwise.

Also - I have never played a Rockstar game.

[JasonPratt]

The Undead Nightmare expansion for the original game pushes it, but even that's very much western-themed -- including how it was caused and solved.

The epilogue to the original game (which has one new mission and otherwise an open sandbox to mess around and fill out lingering things), is set in 1911 at the start of WW1! -- but is still very much western-themed.

This is why many fans, myself included, were hoping for a true sequel (maybe not with Marston's whiny-sounding son ;) ) set during WW1 and America's tensions with Germans in Mexico, such as our invasion of Valencia. (Or Vera Cruz or whatever that city was, I forget. It was the last invasion of Mexico by the United States until now.)

[Gusington]

Vera Cruz, IIRC. That's in this new game?? Please say yes even if it isn't.

[JasonPratt]

YES!

(No, this is a prequel taking place 10+ years before the first game.)

[Gusington]

 :-[

[bboyer66]

In RDR2 lets just say that you might wind up on a jungle island off the coast of Cuba, helping a revolution against a tyrannical dictator.  Similar somewhat to the missions in RDR1 Mexico, but with more jungle, and less desert.

[Gusington]

^This is the kind of info I am looking for. That sounds...incredible.

[JasonPratt]

Also still very spaghetti westernish. 

Gus, loin thyself with this RDR1 / Humbling River trailer.

[al_infierno]

I do gotta say that the lack of Mexico is still by far the biggest letdown of RDR2.  They even added New Austin from RDR1 to the RDR2 map, but lopped off Nuevo Paraiso.  You can at least hear the old Mexico music in the new game if you hang around the river that separates New Austin from Mexico for long enough.

Speaking of music, I can't wait for the inevitable mod to come that adds the ambient music from RDR1 to the RDR1 areas of RDR2.   :dreamer: