I love you, I hate you Red Dead Redemption II

Few games like Red Dead Redemption II make the impact they do in the gaming world. It was a game that was highly anticipated by millions of players, including myself. Cooking in the development oven for the past 8 years, Rockstar Games set out to make their most ambitious game yet. With time, patience, and plenty of hard work, Rockstar finally released the Western-themed Red Dead Redemption II to the world - and it unsurprisingly rocked it. Within three days, RDR2 earned over $725 million worldwide sales, making it the second-highest grossing entertainment launch of all time after Grand Theft Auto V, another Rockstar title. On top of that, RDR2 became the highest scoring game of the year with a 97/100 on Metacritic.

It's one of the most impressive feats I've seen. So undoubtedly, my anticipation was peaking. Hell, I was even excited to see that the game's physical version came on two discs.

So over its launch weekend, I dove into Red Dead Redemption II. After sinking in close to 20 hours, my experience can be summed up from one random encounter with an NPC in the game -

And thus begins my conundrum: it's not that I'm trying to figure out why I'm not enjoying my time with Red Dead 2 as much as I expected, but rather I already know and I don't know if I should drop the game and move on or keep going.

To start off, I'm completely entranced by this game. It's presentation package is on a whole new level similar to, and some would argue even more than, 2018's God of War. The writing, sound, and acting are excellent. The sandbox open-world is immersive, genuine, and an evolution of open-world games. From the first handful of hours, it felt like I was experiencing an open-world game for the first time, something I didn't think possible given how many games in the genre I played.

But not all is right in RDR2. Movement in the game is extremely dated being slow and clunky. Gun play is rigid and hard to control, making it down right frustrating to play at times. Changing some settings can definitely help smooth out the gameplay, but the core of it will never change. Least to say, I'm disappointed, and end up finding myself playing more for the experience RDR2 offers rather than for why I play games - to have fun.

So yes, my time with the game has been a mixed bag. I love so much of Red Dead 2, but I'm equally frustrated. At this point, I'm in it more to sate my curiosity of the overwhelming and unpredictable Western world. Fun factor is, more or less, taking a back seat here.

And it's much more than just the game having an incredibly slow start. To be fair, some of the greatest games have slow burns. Sometimes in games, the deliberate journey is greater than the moment to moment thrills. I completely understand this, but it's something that won't be for everyone.

Now, some of my complaints, and even nitpicks, are obviously personal. I've been in this weird and confusing conversion into full adulthood where choosing how I spend the little free time I have is anxiety-inducing. Like most, I want to spend it having fun and stepping away from the pressures of responsibilities and reality. With so many options, you can't help but wonder if binging a Netflix show was worth over reading the entirety of a good book or having an all-day gaming session.

Red Dead Redemption II is one of those games that's best taken in long sittings than short bursts, The game won't ask for your attention - it demands your attention. With its intense and impressive focus on realism, the game can be exhausting.

To add to this, my job requires a lot of micromanaging. In Red Dead Redemption II, there's also a fair amount of micromanaging such as taking care of your character and your horse, which includes properly feeding, bathing, sleeping, and cooking. So naturally, after coming back home from micromanaging and completing tasks at work, the last thing I wanted to do was something similar in a video game. Perhaps then, Red Dead 2 is, in my scenario, best served as a weekend game to play than playing during the work week.

Now after playing more of Red Dead 2, I found the in-game responsibilities to thankfully be not as obtrusive. That's not to say I now love the feature, but more of I'm content and accept it. Regardless, this nitpick heavily factored into my early impression of the game because it stems from personal life, and it's something to consider if you plan on playing.

A big element of Red Dead 2 is its immersion. Rockstar tries really, really hard to break down the barrier between you and the Western landscape in RDR2. Best of all, their hard work completely pays off. The way characters walk, the way NPCs remember who you are and what you've done, the look and feel of small towns or vegetated plains. All of those factors work in tandem to sell to you that this place exists and is teeming with personality and life like we've never seen in a video game.

It just absolutely sucks that the gameplay can be so tedium and sluggish. Gameplay is the very connecting tissue that ties the player to the game, and it's absolutely frustrating that Rockstar couldn't smooth this out or just plainly didn't want to. I guess it's sort of their "thing" to have the character feel slow (which confused me because I recently played Rockstar's 2006 Bully and the main character feels great to play but whatever), but it brings down the experience. So much, that it can be immersion-breaking.

I'm sure I'm not the only one who accidentally fired a gun off in a town because of weird button mapping. Or get annoyed with the sensitive bounty system in the game. Or died in gun fights because I'm also fighting the rigid controls. All of the situations I mentioned are tied to this hyper-realism Rockstar decided to be a core, which can be more of a detriment than a praise. Again, the realism in RDR2 is magnificent, but it's also can be highly inconvenient when the game needs to be a game. Realism shouldn't be an excuse for poor game mechanics.

And in a world where games like Horizon Zero Dawn, The Witcher 3, and Assassin's Creed Origins exist, you can't help but ask why Rockstar couldn't make Red Dead Redemption II feel as great to play as they do. However, a convincing point for me to keep playing Red Dead 2 is to explore its world and uncover its secrets. It is, in fact, one of the most enjoyable parts for me about the genre - exploration.

A great narrative device that Rockstar uses is having Arthur (the main protagonist you play as) keep a journal. This journal is not your basic video game log recounting story or side missions. Arthur is constantly writing your adventures as they happen, making every player's journey in the wild west unique. I realized this awesome storytelling mechanic when Arthur's latest pages were filled with animal sketches, recounting the latest hunting marathon I literally just went on. Before that, Arthur jotted down his thoughts on prior events, relating to the story missions I completed. I hope more video games use this mechanic so that we have a way of telling our own story and not just talking about the protagonist's journey.

Red Dead Redemption II is such a wonder. A video game is defined as a masterpiece because of the overwhelming experience it provides while pushing the boundaries of convention - something that Red Dead Redemption II does partially well along side a handful of games from this generation. Knowing this is why it's quite upsetting that I'm not having as much fun with the game because of bad controls and shallow gameplay that's wrapped around a pretty bow.

Regardless, I'm going to keep playing because I want to see more of Rockstar's majestic wild west even if I find myself not being drawn in to the story or gameplay as much as I expected. The world itself is alone for me to keep playing, but that may not be enough for other players.