Red Dead Redemption

[El Capitano Gatisto]

I've played this a bit since the weekend. It's got a great atmosphere and presentation, really good package all round but the gameplay is pretty disappointing. It really is just GTA in the Wild West. I think that works better as a concept than the original setting but it's tired as a gameplay format. It's still "go here, cut scene, take a while to get there and have a chat along the way, cut scene, do this, shoot everyone, go back, cut scene." There's a lot of ropey stuff that is familiar to GTA as well, like the "super-imposed" feeling of the character on the environment, some annoyance with the 3rd person perspective, horses being novel forms of cars rather than behaving like actual horses. The scale is impressive, but spending 90% of the game running along barren roads to get anywhere is a poor pay-off.

I appreciate all the work that has gone into it and it's enjoyable, but it's not no where near as absorbing as Fallout 3 was.

[Requiem]

Originally Posted by El Capitano Gatisto I've played this a bit since the weekend. It's got a great atmosphere and presentation, really good package all round but the gameplay is pretty disappointing. It really is just GTA in the Wild West. I think that works better as a concept than the original setting but it's tired as a gameplay format. It's still "go here, cut scene, take a while to get there and have a chat along the way, cut scene, do this, shoot everyone, go back, cut scene." There's a lot of ropey stuff that is familiar to GTA as well, like the "super-imposed" feeling of the character on the environment, some annoyance with the 3rd person perspective, horses being novel forms of cars rather than behaving like actual horses. The scale is impressive, but spending 90% of the game running along barren roads to get anywhere is a poor pay-off. I appreciate all the work that has gone into it and it's enjoyable, but it's not no where near as absorbing as Fallout 3 was.

Considering it's not an RPG, I don't know what you were expecting out of it. Adding certain FO3 features would change the game's genre and scope completely, and I don't think they were trying to go for that. Far too much of the game would need to be different.

The only time you should really be spending 'mindlessly running' is during a mission. The rest of the time, stagecoaches and quick travel from camp take a LOT of the downtime out of the game. Best, and probably most 'taken for granted' feature in the game is easily the quick travel/save from your camp.

[Kane Knight]

Originally Posted by Requiem Considering it's not an RPG, I don't know what you were expecting out of it. Adding certain FO3 features would change the game's genre and scope completely, and I don't think they were trying to go for that. Far too much of the game would need to be different. The only time you should really be spending 'mindlessly running' is during a mission. The rest of the time, stagecoaches and quick travel from camp take a LOT of the downtime out of the game. Best, and probably most 'taken for granted' feature in the game is easily the quick travel/save from your camp.

I know I'm probably going to get another round of "you obviously suck at the game," but he raises a valid point. Especially when a lot of the missions end up being "travel halfway across map to kill X at point Y."

the fact that so many missions do require you to spend a lot of time "mindlessly running" means that the "only time" you do it being in missions doesn't really change much. It's still common and it's still bad. It also hurts the storytelling and the experience.

Seriously, this is still an awesome game. Its flaws don't kill it for me, but it does have flaws, and defending them serves little purpose.