For a game that has gotten almost universal critical acclaim I’ve got to say that it hasn’t quite grabbed me like I hoped it would. I mean the graphics are generally fantastic and the concept is great I’m just not getting into it.
There are a couple of things I think that stand out as obstacles in the path of being completely drawn into the game. The first is the controls which I’m not enjoying at all. I haven’t checked but I expect you can remap the controls as you can with a lot of games these days. But even so there is so much wrapped around what you can do that remapping would ultimately prove just as confusing without a lot of planning.
I’m sure given a bit more time I will get used to them and become more efficient but I find myself scrabbling to work out the draw and firing buttons and have blown a couple of mini missions because of this.
I find moving the horse around tight spots is annoying but again the more I do it the more comfortable I’m getting.
The second thing and I guess this is really a very minor point and one that I’m sure a lot of people won’t agree with but there are a lot of cut scenes. A lot of storyline which is good I’m sure but I feel like I spent the first twenty minutes playing watching cut scenes. This doesn’t suck me into the game.
I’ll get over all of this I’m sure, but with so many games vying for my attention it’s hard not to throw this back into the pile and pick up another.
I’m having issues with the controls, too. My main problem is with the lasso and hog-tying. And, no, I don’t believe you can remap the controls.
If it’s any consolation, though, the cutscenes do ease off later on. They’re only there for stuff that relates to the main storyline.
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Lee Reply:
August 15th, 2010 at 12:19 pm
The horse doesn’t move naturally in close corners and it throws me out as far as driving it forward when in a corner and needing to turn.
I expected that the cut scenes would eventually thin out, it’s just that in their way of getting you familiar with the controls and establishing the storyline I’ve felt a little left out of it all
Actually what I kept doing was after a save point I’d ride off and just try and fight some people (with the expectation of getting killed) just to get a better feel for it all with affecting my stats.
I’m told online is quite impressive so we’ll have to give that a go (I was going to say “shot” but even I’ve got my limits).
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It’s the same as most Rockstar games. They’ll spend the first half an hour or so telling you how to play the game, introducing you to some important characters, and basically setting the scene. I actually thought that RDR was better than previous rockstar games in this scene-setting cutscene-heavy introduction.
It took me a while to get used to the controls as well, but once you’ve figured it out – it all becomes second nature. That goes for pretty much everything. Lassoing, Horse riding in close quarters, Firing. All sorts of things.
It’s the same as any game, normally you don’t notice it because all the games are basically the same. Left trigger aim, right trigger fire, A accelerate. So you sink into the controls straight away because they’re so familiar.
When you think about it, RDR Isn’t all that dissimilar. It’s just horses instead of cars, and some cool gunplay.
My suggestion, is to the missions for the travelling salesperson as soon as you can. He unlocks the different ‘deadeye’ levels, which in my opinion is one of the best aspects of the game.
Stick with it. RDR is one hell of a gaming experience.
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Lee Reply:
August 15th, 2010 at 2:55 pm
Actually I remember Bully took a while for me to get into as there was a lot of setup in that games as well and I didn’t stick with that in the long run, I think I started abusing the open world environment and just fought a lot of people!!
Once I’m playing RDR for a while and only it I’m sure the controls will become second nature and the sheer size of the world is impressive. Though sadly I let a gentleman get hanged the other night because I fumbled with the controls, that death will haunt me for the rest of… the next twenty minutes or so I guess
I’ll check out those missions though if you think they’ll boost the gameplay a bit!
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