User blog:Rvb forever/What Red Dead Redemption 2 Got Wrong.

I want to preface this by saying. I love Red Dead Redemption 2. I love the story, I love the gameplay and I think it is generally an improvement on the first Red Dead Redemption. Easily one of the best games ever made.

However, I thought it would be an interesting post to change my attitude and discuss somethings the game got wrong. So first off, i'm going to split my criticisms of the game into two sections, Story and gameplay. Each point will be what I believe to be a negative aspect of said story or gameplay. Mind you, these points are more minor gripes I have with the game as I do love the game and have no serious problems with it.

Story

 * The total absence of John Marston's daughter. Yes it's slightly bizarre hearing about the daughter of John Marston in the first game only to play the prequel and learn absolutely nothing about her. Rockstar added roughly 20 characters to the backstory of the Van der Linde gang but didn't want to explore John's daughter? I really feel like John's daughter could have been a very interesting character. Or at the very least, deserved some minor role in the story. It's disappointing that she was forgotten about.
 * No resolution with Bill or Javier. I don't like how Bill and Javier simply vanish from the story after Beaver Hollow. You could argue that because they both appear in the first Redemption game, they didn't need to be resolved as characters and you would be somewhat right about that. But still, Javier and Bill simply running off during the Pinkerton attack doesn't do anything to serve this game's narrative. They are simply two main characters who vanish with no resolution or conclusion. The story just gets rid of them to focus on Dutch and Micah. Every single gang member gets some sort of conclusions to their character. Except for Bill and Javier. Even Karen who vanishes after Beaver Hollow, gets the implication that she likely drank herself to death.


 * Landon Ricketts not being in Blackwater. The first game mentions that Landon Ricketts was involved in the Blackwater Massacre. Red Dead Redemption 2 reveals that the massacre happened because of the Dutch's gang. So what about Landon Ricketts? Why not actually follow up on this? I'm not saying put Landon Ricketts in the game but why not have a newspaper article elaborate on his presence? Because as it is now, RDR 2 makes no effort to explain how he was involved and it comes off like a retcon.


 * Too Much Recycled Dialogue. This happens somewhat often in the story. Maybe too often. Powerful quotes from the first game like "People Don't Forget. Nothing Gets Forgiven" or "It's either you or me. Way I see it, mine as well be you." and "Can't fight change. Can't fight gravity. My whole life all I ever did was fight." A lot of dialogue from the first game got referenced in cutscenes. And i'm not a fan of it. I understand wanting to reference the first game but they overdo it in a few places.

Gameplay

 * The Multiplayer. Yeah i'm not a fan of Red Dead Online or it's gameplay. I don't find hunting or scavenging fun. It is slowly getting better though but I don't like the emphasis on microtrancatios and the broken economy is inexcusable. Money in RDR online is built around microtransactions and building barriers to progression in order to entice players to buy content. No i'm not a fan of it.


 * The Cover System. One of the few things I think the first game gets 100% better then Red Dead Redemption 2. In the first game, with the click of a button, John snapped to cover. That's all it took. Was it realistic that John suddenly became glued to whatever he was taking cover behind? No but it got the job done. When John took cover behind a wall or box, he took cover. In RDR 2, Arthur doesn't snap to cover. Instead the player needs to be much closer to whatever object he chooses to hid behind. As well as the animation taking much longer and the wrong button click can easily take Arthur or John out of cover. It's much more slippery and is not reliable. The first game did it better. Realism be dammed.


 * Aiming. I'm sorry but it's true. The aiming is ridiculously automated. You aim at someone and everything focus' on the person you're aiming at. Everything. The camera, the direction of your gun. It's not fluid enough to be changed by player input. Aiming should be fluid. I should be able to quickly designate and pick my targets in a gunfight. But RDR 2 doesn't easily allow for that. It's very much reliant on auto locking aim and conversely you better pray the game aims at what you're hoping to shoot. If not, you can't easily correct yourself. Luckily options in the pause menu can fix this but still, should that be the case? No it shouldn't.


 * John's hair. Why Rockstar? Why did you give John Marston Arthur's hairstyle instead of his original look from the first game? Fortunately when you play as John you can somewhat fix this but it will not look the same. The only way you can 100% give John Marston the classic John Marston long hair from the first game is with mods on the PC. This complaint got so rampant in the community that even a Rockstar employee came out on the Rockstar newswire and agreed with fans. That alone means it belongs on this list.

So that's it. My nitpicks on Red Dead Redemption 2. Feel free to discuss and leave your thoughts below.