Red Dead Redemption 2

So, apparently... Rob Wiethoff is back! As John Marston! For RDR 2!

I'm kinda relieved - don't think it'd feel right to have a different voice.

Also, a link to an IGN recent playthrough - sounds pretty cool the features in there:

- In depth gestures / conversation systems - Emotes and ways to non verbally communicate outside of NPC chats - "Core" stats - sounds similar to San Andreas, but hopefully less fluid - "Core" stats for your horse - The relationship management with your horse - Your horse being inventory - Horses being downright awesome - Gunplay is more brutal, as you have less ammunition, but more varieties of it - Hunting is more in depth - Clothing actually matters depending on your location

http://uk.ign.com/articles/2018/09/20/we-played-2-hours-of-red-dead-redemption-2-heres-what-happened

How? Isn't he dead? Or is this set earlier?

It's pretty blatantly a prequel. Guessing you haven't watched any of the trailers.

Huh, I felt like the first game was set much earlier than 1911.

I mean, they had automobiles, semi-auto handguns, and that whole "dying gasp of the old west" vibe.

I must be going crazy, then, because I only remember driving horses and horse-drawn carriages in that game.

You may wish to consider checking yourself into an asylum.

It'll be interesting to see what the theme for the game is. Rdr did the death of the West thing. Maybe this is more the halcyon days - where we start to see those early chunks get bitten away.

And Rob only really did Marstons voice before he quit voice acting. cant remember quite why. But it's cool they brought him back.

And considering this is the story of the van der lind gang yeah deffo a prequel

Well, it WAS extremely rare, and non-driveable, so it's hardly a wonder I didn't notice.

Yeah, if you didn't find the bits with Ross specifically memorable for some reason, you'd forget.

I’ve been thinking that the theme is centered around the group’s illusion of honor and the slow realization that the good times won’t last forever (and possibly were never good in the first place).

After all, this all ends with the group breaking up, the band of idealistic bandits devolving into honorless murderers and cowards, Dutch falling into a suicidal depression in search of some righteous cause somewhere he can die for, Marston realizing that there was never really any honor there and ditching them all, and that’s all before the first game. Then there’s Ross hunting them down and finally the glory days of the West disappearing entirely.

Edited by KnownUnknown on Sep 21st 2018 at 3:06:34 AM

And that's what I'm worried about...

We know where this ends. We can spitball every guess we can about the fate of the game because we know just enough important events that I don't know how the game will make it interesting.

Dutch will have his merry little gang of robbers, probably with us recruiting most of them as the game progresses. We'll slowly do bigger and bigger heists and the tensions will rise. John will be shot, left for dead, and Abigail and Uncle will go with him. And then ALL of the crew except for Dutch, Bill, and Javier will probably get killed off because it'll fulfill the premise of the original.

I doubt we'll be able to build to an emotional climax like the original did with this kind of a set up. We won't have the shock everyone did when John actually died. The only similar move I think they could make is Arthur somehow surviving... But since he's Dutch's dragon and an outright Villain Protagonist, it'd ruin the ending of RDR since Arthur gets to live while John dies. And doesn't deserve it in the slightest.

And a big theme of RDR was 'People get what the deserve, eventually'.

Don't think he's all that bad, the premise describes Arthur as being conflicted between his loyalty to the gang and his own ideals. Since Arthur doesn't seem to be interested in some redemption story, and if the premise is a literal one, probably doesn't think he deserves it, I think this game's end he'll end up having to sell the gang out, and live with the guilt. Death has been done, why not a worse fate? You await a judgement that never comes, and you have to deal with it.

Edited by UltraWanker on Sep 22nd 2018 at 9:08:19 AM

Idealistic bandits? So they are basically the Pirates of the Carribean in the wild west?

It is the same problem as Star Wars had: if you had seen the original trilogy, there were no surprises in the main story beats. Except when you start with the prequels, like I did, and have no clue who Palpatine even is. Though I did figure out who Anakin was going to become thanks to the name.

The 'idealism' is more of a delusion than anything. It's not all bad if the bad stuff don't happen to you. Then it does, and you realize you can no longer ignore you were a piece of shit.

This will be more about the never mentioned Arthur though, so they have some leeway to an extent.

Edited by UltraWanker on Sep 22nd 2018 at 9:15:38 AM

At the same time, keyword her is 'never mentioned'. And the first was pretty clear that the government wanted ALL of them dead. Its a Foregone conclusion. Even if he sells them out, we know his fate.

Disappearing could go either way, at this point. The reason I'm on the fence is due to Rockstar saying the game will be less dark to some extent, though I guess faking death could be on the table.

My second reason behind is that death by itself is somewhat of a release. Arthur doesn't appear to be interested in a redemption, possibly due to not thinking he deserves it. A worse punishement would be a lifetime of paranoia. We'll see how it is when it comes out.

Edited by UltraWanker on Sep 23rd 2018 at 9:33:38 AM

How can it be less dark if their deaths are preordained by the plot?

The magic word here is tone, and it can work as a heavier hit for the endgame to remind those who got hypnotised by it.

Though all we know we might get an ironic twist on the western movie ending, with the hero(es) shown in the last shot being federal agents.

Edited by UltraWanker on Sep 23rd 2018 at 10:19:22 AM

Or we could switch to the viewpoint of those federal agents and bounty hunters in the third act of the game. That would be an interesting twist as well.

I'm wondering if we will get a protag switch earlier than expected. There may be a reason Arthur doesn't get mentioned - complete infamy or contempt. He couldjust be the first act protag.

Or, as suggested above, maybe he BECOMES a lawman. And the twist is then how do you in authority shape the world around you - do you become a Javert, sacrificing all in the search for justice? Do you become a noble exemplar of a Sheriff?

Could be interesting. If this goes more Support Your Local Sheriff than Spaghetti Western.

Rockstar pulling a Kojima is something I wouldn't mind, if only to see people going apeshit.

Edited by UltraWanker on Sep 23rd 2018 at 11:49:10 AM

I could be down with the lawman twist, though I sincerely doubt it considering how much they've hyped heists and other lawless activities. If Arthur becomes a Sheriff, then those things can't really get focus and we run into the same problem John had in the original.

I don't like the idea of Arthur getting away with it or faking his death. Even if he does something to find 'redemption', I genuinely believe it would just end up weaker than John's attempt at redemption (i.e. The entire game) meaning that Arthur having less of a redemption and still getting away with it/surviving would be more of a spit in the face of the original and its themes; The evil of the past will eventually catch up to you and redemption is achieved internally rather than looking to others.

Has a surreal dream about a Playable Epilogue. So you get to play as Arthur post-game but you're under a 5 stars manjunt by federal agents. Eventually after some time Edgar Ross is programmed to show up and you get this mini-cutscene where he talks about how the gang is doomed no matter what. Arthur, knowing he'll lose either way, challenged Ross to a duel. The game then switches to Ross, and if you intentionally screw it up the game rewinds with Ross saying "of course, that's how he wished it'd happen" until you get itover with.

The final ending is Morgan dying in a pool of blood, with an ironic twist on the classic western ending with Ross as the hero of the shot as he's informed John Marston has been found.

The surreal part? The game then deletes your saves and crashes.

Arthur Morgan has departed from the living world.

Edited by UltraWanker on Sep 24th 2018 at 10:29:02 AM

That first part sounds pretty good, actually.