So. This is my second post on the wiki, continuing my journey to 100% Red Dead Redemption 2. Part of achieving 100% is the "Challenges," like Hunting, Sharpshooting, Flower-Picking...the treasure-hunting one I'm pretty sure I forgot existed it was so strangely simple.
Probably the worst one of all of them though? Gambling.
Now look, I can handle games of chance, and I'm not THAT reckless. Hell, I'd say I'm pretty good at Poker, and if it wasn't for my PC's abysmal lag, Five-Finger Fillet would be really fun. And Blackjack...well, who cares about Blackjack?
But Dominoes...Freakin' dominoes -- I didn't even remember dominoes was a game before Tilly peer-pressured me into playing it at Clemens Point.
Dominoes...is a game straight from Hell.
Is that an overreaction? Maybe. Maybe, but I have been learning the rules slowly but surely and, hey! I finished the first challenge where you gotta win three rounds without drawing from the boneyard. How hard could one more measily challenge be?
Well, lemme tell you...The tale of Dominoes is the REAL redemption-story of this game; while nowadays they're basically only known for those neat YouTube videos of people stacking them up in long, convolluted chains, the actual game itself is anything but fun and harmless.
I basically just learned the rules a day or two ago when I did the first Dominoes challenge, so don't take me to be some sort of guru -- but the goal is to be the first player to place all of your dominoes, placing any numbered side next to one on the board of the same number, with double-edged tiles going horizontally, because they're too cool to conform to those other guys. If you got no dominoes you can play, draw from the boneyard of shame until you get one that's "close enough."
That said, while strategy and planning are involved to some degree, taking note of the board when your opponent dips into the boneyard to see what numbers they don't have, so you can be the devious little gremlin you are and position your tiles so as to screw them over, it is almost ENTIRELY luck-based. From what tiles you start with, what your OPPONENT starts with, what's in the boneyard, and which of your opponents has the most punchable face. (I swear that's important.)
And yeah, there is luck-involved in every other minigame, except for FFF, unless you don't count not having using a NASA computer to play RDR2 without copious amounts of lag and stutter. But Dominoes? Dominoes takes that a step further. If you Bust playing Blackjack it's "Oh well, lost my bet. Better luck next round." If you lose in Dominoes, your bad luck is weaponized twice against you. One to...well, make you lose, and twice when factoring how many points your opponent earns.
Because, oh yeah, for some reason rounds and games are separated.
And to finish the Gambling Challenge Number 9, you have to win three games of Dominoes in a row. Not rounds by the way, games. You have to win three games of the most luck-based, least skill-involved gambling activities in all of the Wild West IN A ROW.
Oh and by the way, there's a good solid chance you don't just have ONE opponent. There could be three, so if you don't ride away, let 'em despawn and come back until you find that one of the guys was abandoned by his friends and is playing Dominoes by himself for...some reason, you basically have a 33%, or potentially 25% of actually winning.
Oh, but don't worry...They knew how frustrating they were making it. So enter the eponymous character...
Cleeve.
"There I lay at twilight's bloom, starlight reflecting in my eyes and the moment of truth; glorious progress so tantalizingly close -- singing sweet nothings, a calming lullaby. Victory, completion in sight.
'An hour or more, a half-hour or two! Claim victory thrice, and hope I'll renew.'
O what childlike innocence; sickening naivity. I am certain that is what thought coursed through their mind. A man of five-foot eight; comb-overed black hair and a glassy-eyed stare.
Drunk on whiskey, bourbon, Guarma Rum? No...'Twas sadistic eagerness I spied within those lifeless eyes.
'Domino, domino, domino.'
Minutes to hours, hours to days...
Not a hint of mercy or pity within those lifeless eyes.
'Cleeve' they called that beast in man's skin.
Never did I see his hand wander through that dark boneyard. As I would know...that place was where I seemed to spend most of my time. And yet my hand looked the same every time. Sixes...a great burden 'pon my head.
There was but one time a crack greeted me from that devil's armor. I had him cornered; thought I had won!
But I was wrong...oh so wrong, for this was his ploy all along. To hold victory in front of me -- let my nose tingle with the smell...and rip it away.
From the boneyard, naught remained. At his hand, a veritable collection of tiles of every shape, size, and number.
In my hand, there was only one. Double-Threes. This he must have known...preying upon my naive self.
I could do nothing but watch as the board filled with tiles, and my barren hand stood idle.
Though I had won the battle, Cleeve had won the war. Twelve points I earned, less than half his thirty-two the round before.
He reveled in every second; the starlit eyes draining away into sullen despair.
If one should ask by what name goes the most despicable figure in the West, many names come to mind. Van der Linde, Bell, corrupt colonels of every shape and size. Perhaps a Sadie or Williamson scattered about.
But such a dishonor, one man can achieve.
Heed my words well...
For his name...
Is Cleeve.'
...
Did that make sense?
No?
Okay, in English, this one NPC, Cleeve, won every single round and was taunting me the entire time. I eventually got fed up and threw a molotov cocktail at him, and unloaded two entire revolver clips into his charred corpse.
There was another guy at the table named Hyram who just kinda sat there and watched awkwardly as I recited Shakespeare and butchered his friend -- pretty sure that was more wisdom than obliviousness.
I just think it's funny to blame all my frustrations with this god-awful challenge on this one Gambler NPC.
So, anyway, uh...
Fuck Dominoes.
