Hard gameplay in a beautiful world

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While many critics have already taken more than 80 hours to sink Red Dead Redemption 2I could not get an exam copy. So I started early in the morning, like other players who skipped work, and I'm progressing like the general public.

First day with Red Dead 2 It took about 12 hours of play, which is enough to break free from the linearity of the initial missions and to start exploring the colossal world that Rockstar has created here.

Overall, I appreciate a lot Red Dead Redemption 2so much so that I would like to continue playing it instead of writing this article, and yet this game looks somewhat schizophrenic. It's a beautiful world, filled with beautiful characters and stellar writing, supported by interesting and engaging missions that rarely play as you wish. And yet the real act to play the game itself is so laborious, thanks to the flawless concentration on Rockstar's 'realism', that it can often seem like a chore to do … well almost anything.

We play the role of Arthur Morgan, a lieutenant in Van der Linde's Dutch outlaw group who is on the run after botched work. The gang is big, made up of the men who steal and kill and the women who support them at home at the camp, a camp that you can enlarge and improve by bringing money and valuables to the general "pot" so to buy upgrades to make everyone a little more comfortable.

I adore Arthur Morgan so far, a reasonable cowboy who is actually a bit hilarious, and my initial fears about his possibly being boring have already been erased. The writing in Red Dead it is of course, but it has even exceeded all my expectations. I have enjoyed virtually every mission and interaction with the gang so far, and in 12 hours I have not seen any repeated lines of dialogue. The Van der Linde gang feels like a family, a family that plays two (I'm scrambling with a gang member in a bar on a hilarious mission) and fighting with each other (I'm constantly trying to beat with Micah, hot head) more aggressive passive relationship with John Marston himself, which I found interesting), and this is by far the most appealing part of the game.

Likewise, I very much appreciate the current missions in Red Dead, who do their best to surprise me at every turn, and I am surprised at the depths of almost everyone. Nothing at home gives the impression of playing video. Indeed, there is a little quest at camp where my American friend, half black and half Aboriginal, asks me if I want to go hunting. In a normal part of the open world, he would stay there and be asked to go out, get a skin and bring it back to him. In Red Deadhe's coming with me, taking a group of bison so that I can take away a latecomer, kill him and strip him. And then we discover that some a-holes have killed bison for pure sport, letting them rot all around the plains. We follow them, find them, confront them, then you can see how that goes for you. But the fact is that what would have been a quest to search in any other game is something much more complex than I would have expected.

In 12 hours, I have not seen anything yet as a search quest. Even the little quests you find on the road with strangers, ie. If someone needs an elevator to get to town, let them know because it will tell you stories about the corrupt mayor of a local town in which you should register, or on the house of a rich person who seems to be able to fly. And the big quests? They are an explosion. I have already stolen two trains, cleaned up hiding places and stole a bunch of sheep. Nothing seems repetitive. Everything seems fresh and interesting.

And yet, as I said, Red Dead Redemption 2 often feels like an absolute task when it comes to controls, mechanics and the game's user interface. And we have the impression that it lacks a third pillar of the game when other titles high quality have a beautiful story, great graphics and stellar gameplay, as God of the war, when this ax returns to Kratos' hand, or Spider Man, while you loop around the skyscrapers on your canvases.

But Red Dead insists that Arthur Morgan controls like a steamboat. Everything you do in Red Dead feels about half as fast as it should be. In your camp, you can not even jog because it was decided that it would "break the immersion", so walking from one end to the other of the camp hurts you (and you will be there often). My own complaint is the disconcerting decision of having to crush the A button to sprint both on foot and on horseback. While you can make sure that A or the left stick a rocker to jog in the settings, to actually sprint, you have to type A relentlessly whatever, so much so that I'm not sure. Seriously worried about the health of my controller after 80 hours. . Why you can not jog by holding the left stick forward, then sprinting and draining your stamina with an A rocking button, it's beyond me.

Rockstar constantly feels like trying to reinvent the wheel for no reason. The prompt to speak to a person is LT, who opens a dialog menu. Unfortunately, LT is also about "aiming for someone with a gun" when you shoot one, resulting in some bad situations. I heard gunshots on a hill once, I took out my rifle and went to investigate. There, I saw a Mexican shoot bottles. "Hey amigo!" He said, "want to make a bet?" I pressed LT to try to answer him, but instead, I pointed my rifle on his face, causing him to kill immediately. I have reappeared elsewhere and have never seen him again. Why did we have to reinvent "press A to talk to someone," exactly?

Likewise, there are mechanisms that can encourage "realism" but are exhausting in practice. Storing loads on your horse may seem logical, but when I'm on the rifle hunt, I'm still pissed off and I see an elk that I'd like to shoot with my bow, but wait, my bow is still on my horse and my horse is now too far to whistle. And even if I do not regret Red Dead waiting to unlock Fast Travel for a long time (and it also hides it), once it arrives, it sums up pretty much everything about these confusing user interface and gaming decisions.

Fast travel allows you to travel of camp in places you have discovered, but not at he. This leads to bizarre situations like what happened on my mission. I had to steal a cart on a farm. I quickly went to the camp, left my horse there to steal the cart, and then brought it back to the camp. I could not travel quickly return on the farm because you must have your horse nearby for a quick commute to work. I could not whistle because it's not Assassin's Creed and it is illegal for your horse to Apparate near you (break by immersion !!). I could not take one of my gang's horses to go get my horse because you apparently can not borrow their horses. So I panic had run All the way back there, grabbed my horse, then bring him back to the camp. It's just … why? Why?

One aspect of gameplay that I do not really have a problem with is combat. It's not something super spectacular. You cover yourself, you use automatic aiming to hit the chest and head shots as best you can. You use Dead Eye to make things easier. There is sometimes a new killcam that looks like VATS on enemies, but other than that, it's pretty standard. Nothing different from other games, but it's not as clumsy as many other aspects of gameplay. It's good and things do not bother me.

Over time, irritating orders begin to fade as you get used to them. Not that they are secretly well decisions and you just need to understand them, but rather do something enough and you will get used to it, no matter how boring. Aside from sprinting, it remains frustrating, no matter how many hours I put. Sometimes, Rockstar's obsession with realism gives rise to neat details that I like, such as four different log splitting animations, or each plant and animal has its own skinning animation (though I know that many people hate it), but often an effort to escape the traditional "video game stuff" it does Red Dead less amusing and more laborious than it would otherwise be.

Red Dead Redemption 2 is both fantastic and disconcerting. I will definitely play enough to reach the end in 60 hours or whatever it takes, but I have to admit that really confusing game decisions were made along the way. More soon.

Follow me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Read my new detective science fiction novel Herokiller, now available in print and online. I have also written The trilogy born of the earth.

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While many critics have already taken more than 80 hours to sink Red Dead Redemption 2I could not get an exam copy. So I started early in the morning, like other players who skipped work, and I'm progressing like the general public.

First day with Red Dead 2 It took about 12 hours of play, which is enough to break free from the linearity of the initial missions and to start exploring the colossal world that Rockstar has created here.

Overall, I appreciate a lot Red Dead Redemption 2so much so that I would like to continue playing it instead of writing this article, and yet this game looks somewhat schizophrenic. It's a beautiful world, filled with beautiful characters and stellar writing, supported by interesting and engaging missions that rarely play as you wish. And yet the real act to play the game itself is so laborious, thanks to the flawless concentration on Rockstar's 'realism', that it can often seem like a chore to do … well almost anything.

We play the role of Arthur Morgan, a lieutenant in Van der Linde's Dutch outlaw group who is on the run after botched work. The gang is big, made up of the men who steal and kill and the women who support them at home at the camp, a camp that you can enlarge and improve by bringing money and valuables to the general "pot" so to buy upgrades to make everyone a little more comfortable.

I adore Arthur Morgan so far, a reasonable cowboy who is actually a bit hilarious, and my initial fears about his possibly being boring have already been erased. The writing in Red Dead it is of course, but it has even exceeded all my expectations. I have enjoyed virtually every mission and interaction with the gang so far, and in 12 hours I have not seen any repeated lines of dialogue. The Van der Linde gang feels like a family, a family that plays two (I'm scrambling with a gang member in a bar on a hilarious mission) and fighting with each other (I'm constantly trying to beat with Micah, hot head) more aggressive passive relationship with John Marston himself, which I found interesting), and this is by far the most appealing part of the game.

Likewise, I very much appreciate the current missions in Red Dead, who do their best to surprise me at every turn, and I am surprised at the depths of almost everyone. Nothing at home gives the impression of playing video. Indeed, there is a little quest at camp where my American friend, half black and half Aboriginal, asks me if I want to go hunting. In a normal part of the open world, he would stay there and be asked to go out, get a skin and bring it back to him. In Red Deadhe's coming with me, taking a group of bison so that I can take away a latecomer, kill him and strip him. And then we discover that some a-holes have killed bison for pure sport, letting them rot all around the plains. We follow them, find them, confront them, then you can see how that goes for you. But the fact is that what would have been a quest to search in any other game is something much more complex than I would have expected.

In 12 hours, I have not seen anything yet as a search quest. Even the little quests you find on the road with strangers, ie. If someone needs an elevator to get to town, let them know because it will tell you stories about the corrupt mayor of a local town in which you should register, or on the house of a rich person who seems to be able to fly. And the big quests? They are an explosion. I have already stolen two trains, cleaned up hiding places and stole a bunch of sheep. Nothing seems repetitive. Everything seems fresh and interesting.

And yet, as I said, Red Dead Redemption 2 often feels like an absolute task when it comes to controls, mechanics and the game's user interface. And we have the impression that it lacks a third pillar of the game when other titles high quality have a beautiful story, great graphics and stellar gameplay, as God of the war, when this ax returns to Kratos' hand, or Spider Man, while you loop around the skyscrapers on your canvases.

But Red Dead insists that Arthur Morgan controls like a steamboat. Everything you do in Red Dead feels about half as fast as it should be. In your camp, you can not even jog because it was decided that it would "break the immersion", so walking from one end to the other of the camp hurts you (and you will be there often). My own complaint is the disconcerting decision of having to crush the A button to sprint both on foot and on horseback. While you can make sure that A or the left stick a rocker to jog in the settings, to actually sprint, you have to type A relentlessly whatever, so much so that I am seriously worried for the health of my controller after 80 hours. Why you can not jog by holding the left stick forward, then sprinting and draining your stamina with an A rocking button, it's beyond me.

Rockstar constantly feels like trying to reinvent the wheel for no reason. The prompt to speak to a person is LT, who opens a dialog menu. Unfortunately, LT is also about "aiming for someone with a gun" when you shoot one, resulting in some bad situations. I heard gunshots on a hill once, I took out my rifle and went to investigate. There, I saw a Mexican shoot bottles. "Hey amigo!" He said, "want to make a bet?" I pressed LT to try to answer him, but instead, I pointed my rifle on his face, causing him to kill immediately. I have reappeared elsewhere and have never seen him again. Why did we have to reinvent "press A to talk to someone," exactly?

Likewise, there are mechanisms that can encourage "realism" but are exhausting in practice. Storing loads on your horse may seem logical, but when I'm on the rifle hunt, I'm still pissed off and I see an elk that I'd like to shoot with my bow, but wait, my bow is still on my horse and my horse is now too far to whistle. And even if I do not regret Red Dead waiting to unlock Fast Travel for a long time (and it also hides it), once it arrives, it sums up pretty much everything about these confusing user interface and gaming decisions.

Fast travel allows you to travel of camp in places you have discovered, but not at he. This leads to bizarre situations like what happened on my mission. I had to steal a cart on a farm. I quickly went to the camp, left my horse there to steal the cart, and then brought it back to the camp. I could not travel quickly return on the farm because you must have your horse nearby for a quick commute to work. I could not whistle because it's not Assassin's Creed and it is illegal for your horse to Apparate near you (break by immersion !!). I could not take one of my gang's horses to go get my horse because you apparently can not borrow their horses. So I panic had run All the way back there, grabbed my horse, then bring him back to the camp. It's just … why? Why?

One aspect of gameplay that I do not really have a problem with is combat. It's not something super spectacular. You cover yourself, you use automatic aiming to hit the chest and head shots as best you can. You use Dead Eye to make things easier. There is sometimes a new killcam that looks like VATS on enemies, but other than that, it's pretty standard. Nothing different from other games, but it's not as clumsy as many other aspects of gameplay. It's good and things do not bother me.

Over time, irritating orders begin to fade as you get used to them. Not that they are secretly well decisions and you just need to understand them, but rather do something enough and you will get used to it, no matter how boring. Aside from sprinting, it remains frustrating, no matter how many hours I put. At times, Rockstar's obsession with realism gives rise to neat details that I like, such as four different log splitting animations, where each plant and animal has its own stray animation an effort to flee the traditional video game stuff it does Red Dead less amusing and more laborious than it would otherwise be.

Red Dead Redemption 2 is both fantastic and disconcerting. I will definitely play enough to reach the end in 60 hours or whatever it takes, but I have to admit that really confusing game decisions were made along the way. More soon.

Follow me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Read my new detective science fiction novel Herokiller, now available in print and online. I have also written The trilogy born of the earth.