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I've been playing the game again for the first time in a while. It's still a lot of fun. I know you can't really compare it with GTAV, but I'm struck by how addictive things like the mini-games or challenges still are in comparison. I like both games, but I feel RDR makes GTAV feel... I don't know, emptier, in a way. I have a question that's probably been asked countless times over 250 pages, so sorry in advance (I did quickly search the most recent pages... bet I missed it still). I put the game in recently and downloaded the most recent patch, for online stuff I understand, which I don't need because I don't play online. It also gave me the ability to pick up the Deadly Assassin outfit, and when I looked through the achievements earlier (I apparently still haven't got the "skin 18 bears" one) I noticed it listed a bunch of the DLC ones. I also have the War Horse (love that thing). Thing is, I'm almost certain that I never got any of the DLC. I borrowed Undead Nightmare from a friend once, but that was that. I didn't connect myself to the Social Club until GTAV came about, so maybe that's why I have this stuff now? I just thought it was really weird, did they just start giving these out at some point or did I unknowingly buy the Game of the Year edition or something? Thanks y'all.
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Jul 27, 2014 18:49
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| # ¿ May 15, 2024 18:42 |
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Crappy Jack posted:The most recent patch basically unlocked everything since they're shutting down the Social Network servers for the game. Ah, okey-cokey, I suspected that this was the case. Thanks again! Guess I should keep my eyes peeled for that jackalope then...
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Jul 27, 2014 19:35
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I think the Stranger missions, in RDR and in both GTAIV and GTAV, are nice little ways that build up the mood of the world. I'll agree that they don't really do much else from a gameplay standpoint, and judging by how miserable the vast majority of them are they're not exactly subtle either. I feel like they're at least memorable though. RDR is probably one of the more sensible Rockstar stories, but I do struggle to think of more than a handful of memorable main story missions. I sort of had an unintentional effect of not doing the Stranger missions until the end-game: when you do them as Jack, he seems almost even more confused and disgusted by all the strange things that happen in them. It reminded me of how he grew up wanting to be a writer of westerns, only to find now that reality is too bizarre and cruel even for fiction. I thought that was kind of neat.
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Jul 28, 2014 10:22
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The dynamite one's great. The most recent random encounter moment that stands out for me was when I was hanging at MacFarlane's Ranch. I got the one where the nun approaches you for a donation, which I think you only get if you have decent honour? Either way I'd never gotten it before. I've gotten it a few more times since then (I like how you can sometimes get a Mexican nun who explicitly mentions she comes from the church where you can play horseshoes), but that first time I chose to give her some money because I'm a kind and gentle soul. Immediately after she walked off and stood under a shelter, where she pulled out a cigarette and began to smoke. It was just... strange. Like, I know people smoking is just a standard NPC animation (like the guys who get off their horses to take a piss in the bushes), but for some reason the image of this nun smoking stayed with me. 
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Jul 30, 2014 12:04
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Narcissus1916 posted:I'm always surprised at what parts people of the game really enjoyed. Most critical response initially argued that the mexico sections were the weakest. Mexico is probably my favourite part of the game and the story too. It's there I think that there's a bit of a change of track, using the Mexican Revolution and the ultimate futility on both sides to mirror Marston's inner struggle. You get to see the darker ways in which he's willing to bend to get what he wants, and then you have side characters like Ricketts to comment on America's troubled relationship with Mexico and socialism (I'm one of those people who would argue that westerns tend to comment somehow on American society first and foremost... in this case, Ricketts' philosophies would seem to foreshadow Ross' manipulation of Marston). It's not like it's completely original to use the history like that in a western (looking at, I don't know, Duck, You Sucker and presumably many other - largely non-American - westerns from that time) but it feels fresher nowadays. There are one or two memorable missions in the first chapter I think, like the aftermath of Williamson's raid on Ridgewood Farm and the attack on Fort Mercer, but I feel like Mexico is more vibrant throughout. As a side, I don't really buy the critic discussion of the whole area chapters being representative of the history of the western. I can see Mexico being representative of spaghetti or Mexican westerns and West Elizabeth being newer, revisionist material (I think people tend to cite Unforgiven or the Coen True Grit), but New Austin is too consumed by bleakness to, one, be retroactively developed in any meaningful way come the Mexico and West Elizabeth sections, and two, have any sort of semblance with even the most introspective classic American westerns. And Mexico has such wonderful ambient music (them horns...). And you can get a bandito outfit... and a Man with No Name poncho.
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Jul 31, 2014 11:31
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| # ¿ May 15, 2024 18:42 |
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It's largely unintentional, but I like the effect you get from having Jack do the stranger missions post-story. I left them all until then, since you can still do them all except for the ghost one, and it sort of made a new story of a once-idealistic young man trying to live with what little he has more intriguing... helped by his utterly bewildered reaction to everything that happens in those missions. I can understand why that's a minority opinion though.
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Aug 29, 2014 10:41
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