Red Dead Redemption 2 – Impressions So Far

Red Dead Redemption 2 has been on the minds of a lot of people since the game was released back in October. It has actually been pretty divisive in the gaming space. People not feeling the groove of it at all, and others just blowing through the game and living in this world that Rockstar Games has created. 

I for one was giving the game the benefit of the doubt right from the beginning. I have a great time with Rockstar games in general. GTA, Bully, and of course Red Dead Redemption have been fondly remembered for me personally. But there is one thing that cannot be denied:

Red Dead Redemption 2 is slow as hell.

I even talked about this on my podcast a few weeks back when I was first diving into the game. It takes you forever to get anywhere. Riding a horse is one of my least favorite modes of transportation honestly, and when you are absolutely forced to ride this animal for 90% of the time you play this game, it starts to get to me. And I understand this is deliberate. You’re a cowboy. This is what they did. It makes sense in a giant world like this. But when they randomly gate off any sort of fast travel at all, it can be frustrating. 

I think this is truly my only issue with the game. I love the characters, I love the settings, and I enjoy the mission structures even if they are relatively the same. The story is what keeps me going here. Even the mechanics, although definitely outdated by today’s gaming standards, do not bother me at all. It feels true to a Rockstar game, for better or worse. 

That being said, I skip every other week playing RDR2. I can’t get myself to play longer than maybe a mission or two in the game itself, because that alone takes 3 hours to do and I just don’t don’t have that amount of time, or patients with a game to really dive much further in a single sitting.

I just recently finished act 3 in the game, and it definitely had a huge impact on me at a specific point. I’m obviously not going to spoil anything here, even though I’m sure whoever is reading this right now has already beaten the game at this point. But it hit me hard and fast and it really made me want to keep going with this story. I know I won’t finish Red Dead Redemption 2 by the end of the year. There’s no way. But I do plan on beating the game and finishing the story. I have no real desire to explore the world though. It’s never been something in a RockStar game that I felt compelled to do at all. 

Side note: Eating food, petting your horse, or cleaning your guns are not something anyone should really complain about. It is not intrusive. It’s just an added layer that really adds more than takes away any sort of experience.