It's pretty typical Rockstar stuff. They enjoy making fun of both sides, which I hope they continue to do for a very long time, anyone complaining about SJWism or celebrating it are fucking morons as far as I've seen.
Pretty much this. In that way Rockstar reminds me of South Park creators : they poke fun at everyone and while they tend to have a core message of fairness and equal treatment for people,
they strive to be funny / entertaining first and foremost and aren't afraid of being politically incorrect or irreverent if need be to achieve that.
As far as RDR2 goes for myself :
Hoo boy
There are VERY few games I'd rate as high as I'd rate Red Dead Redemption 2 after my first playthrough. Literal 11/10 for me. Just about everything about the characters, the story, the character / gun / gameplay / setting customization the gunplay, pacing, THE GAME WORLD / ATMOSPHERE and the massive depth in everything from survival mechanics to how the game world and interactions with people go just screams "perfection" for me.
There are some frustrations or things I'd like to have been improved on. Some of my mild gripes are just stuff where it'd be nice to have but I understand why they didn't : Mostly I'm kind of miffed that there aren't repeatable bounty missions but at the same time each of the existing bounty missions has unique dialogue to them and the game overall has a massive amount of content so maybe they figured they'd make each and every bounty memorable and interesting that way.
Then there are things that I found genuinely irritating for the sake of gameplay. One of the annoying tendencies of the game was your weapons being swapped out for no reason when you entered a mission or did anything. I understand when the game wants you to use specific guns for specific sequences when it comes with a reason (i.e you enter the area unarmed and you need to use stuff you pick up or need a sniper rifle to cover someone) but in a lot of missions there wasn't a lick of sense why my sniper rifle gets suddenly replaced by an unupgraded Carbine Repeater and the shotgun on my back unequips. Then the game locks me out of using my horse to retrieve the guns from it even though it's right there????? It's so inconsistent and thoroughly annoying when customizing,storing and taking care of your firearms is such an integral part of the game.
Another, although more understandable annoyance has to do with the movement of your character and how he's slowed down at camps and certain segments in missions which is understandable probably so that you can't just run over your friends with the horse or knock them down etc but it sometimes makes walking in safe camps ultra irritating when I'm just mashing X furiously trying to try and walk a tiny bit faster but it's a smaller frustration than the game being inconsistent on your equipped weapons is.
I want to give a HUGE shoutout to the gunplay. The guns feel incredibly satisfying to use. Pulling the trigger again to re-cock single action revolvers or operate the lever on the lever-actions is a nice touch of added authenticity, the guns look and feel great (and there's a lot of appropriate-looking customization) to use, the weapon sounds are satisfying. And the gore... The gore and ragdolls are really good. The entry / exit wounds and blood effects from weapons look brutal but not excessive and putting a bullet in someone's skull shows a decal and looks like some deformation as well i.e it looks like the bullet takes bits of the poor feller's skull off. Shotguns de-limb people and they fall to the ground screaming after their body parts were cut off and often accompanied by a very satisfying kill cam (I kinda wish you could turn off the gray effect on the kill cams but oh well) that even changes depending on your honor situation.
The game world also deserves a
big shoutout, while the promises of "in-depth world simulation" were in my opinion a bit exaggerated by previews, the reality of what IS there is still massively immersion-enhancing with almost every settlement having tons of different atmospheric events and there is a lot of room for stuff that happens as a spur-of-the-moment kind of thing, you can end up in bar brawls or shootouts and the reaction from the environment to your (and sometimes other NPCs') actions is really on point and makes you forget you're playing a videogame at times. The massive amount of dialogue and being able to greet / antagonize people will often create really funny situations or lead into conflict when someone gets butthurt about you antagonizing them. NPCs will also reference stuff you did in the town which further makes you aware of the impact you're having on the game world and the people living in it. The larger towns have hangings taking place at the local gallows sometimes from bounties you take in or other NPCs. I remember taking someone in, then checking into the sheriff's office a few days later and the person was still physically in the jail cell. Then a few days from that I walked by and they were holding a public hanging for her. Stuff like that makes the towns feel very much alive and it feels like every corner of the world has something going on that is keeping you on your toes in case something happens. Because there are a TON of encounters you can find in the game that feel like an integral part of the game world instead of being carefully masked scripted sequences.
The bounty system for the player is also pretty awesome. For those who don't know, if you commit crimes in the open world, you don't generally just get a magic "wanted" meter like you did in the GTA games for example. In RDR2 if you commit a crime, usually it needs a witness to see it and they'll run off to tell the po-po. You can intercept and intimidate people into silence (or just kill them lmao) and even if a crime gets reported it doesn't mean you get chased down by completely psychic bounty hunters. The lawmen come to investigate the area and you might bump into them but they don't automatically know it's you and even if you cock up if you're in open country you generally can just leave the area and avoid the bounty hunters / deputies. In cities / towns though good luck : you'll very likely get boxed in and filled with lead from all sides but at the same time I think it makes for a nice balance since towns / cities have a lot of soft targets for robbies with big potential payoff but the risks are also far greater than robbing folks / trains in the backwoods.
I could gush about the game forever and ever (and probably will) but those are my initial first impressions of RDR2 after my first complete playthrough. I will be doing many, many more playthroughs as this is one of those games I'm just gonna play forever and ever so I'll probably update my impressions at some time as I go along.
