Red Dead Redemption 2 & Forced Slowdown
ALEX: Red dead Redemption 2 is an incredible game that may go down as one of the best games of all time. From top to bottom the depiction of 1900s America is dense and incredibly captivating. Large forests, snowy mountains, and sprawling wilderness littered about creating one of the most beautiful engrossing worlds I’ve ever had the pleasure of exploring in a video game.
The “pleasure” of exploring the world in Red Dead Redemption 2 though can be a mixed bag. Instances of forced slowdown, hinder the gameplay to a staggering degree, in which I’ve never quite experienced in any game, let alone an “open world” game. Arthur is forced to walk once he steps foot in camp, which is quite a frequent occurrence as the gang’s camp acts as a hub world for many of the game’s activities, and mission start points. This may seem like a nitpick, and it probably is however given the amount of time spent in the various camps throughout the story, it all adds to the bloated feeling that is an unfortunate part of Red Dead 2.
Another aspect of purposeful hinderance appears to be tied to the games horse mechanics. Throughout the game your horse frequently becomes dirty and requires “brushing”, nothing immediately appears off about that, especially considering Red Dead 2 is partly an immersive sim, and this contributes to the feeling of a living breathing world. However, it does become tedious once you realize your horse’s stamina drops at a faster pace when they have not been cleaned for some time, aggressively incentivizing you to pay close attention to your horses cleanliness. So, you stop for a moment or two, and you brush your horse. There’s also the gun cleaning mechanic, which lets you oil your weapons, otherwise (you guessed it) their stats also deplete. These two factors alone introduce a stat decay that require you to invest small chunks of time here and there to maintain your stats (gun & horse stats respectively), and work a bit here and there to keep them as high as you can. So, you brush your horse, oil your guns, and don’t forget to keep Arthur clean. While I’ve found this to be a lesser inconvenience, some of the gang members at camp will scold you for being dirty and smelly. That one I can live with though!
The more I focus on these issues the more I realize that none of them are inherently bad. They all contribute to the one of the greatest depictions of an open world game ever in my opinion, and also have (some kind of) reason to be in the game. Keeping your horse healthy, clean and in tip-top shape is important for any good outlaw, and I imagine cleaning your guns is also important. Maybe the issue isn’t with these specific slowdown events that grind you to a halt, but the collective pot of these things mashed together in a very dense, AAA open world game. I’m sure there are more examples in this massive cowboy simulator, however I don’t want to pick the game to pieces, I think my point has come across that there may be a little too much realism going on. Only thing seemingly missing is Arthur taking a shit!
Red Dead Redemption 2 is a wonderful game, full of beauty, interesting characters, great writing and fantastic music as well. However even the best open world games I often find too packed to the brim with content for me, Red Dead 2 seems to have that, and some on top. Making it a top contender for one of the bloatiest of bloaty AAA Open world games out there.