Sometimes I get hit by a whim and have to indulge it. Last night was one of those nights and the particular whim was to boot up Red Dead Redemption II and see if I could get into it. There is something about the style of game that Rockstar makes that I do not love. Namely, I greatly prefer the open-world questing style of something like Witcher 3, where I can load up on a bunch of quests and then do them willy-nilly as I roam the countryside. RDR2 however requires you to focus on a single quest chain until it is complete and harkens back to an older on-rails style of mission-based questing. I think this realization ultimately caused me to bounce from this game when I first attempted to play it. However knowing this and expecting this, I had hoped that maybe I could return with the right frame of mind and actually enjoy myself.
In the grand scheme of things I think it worked. I enjoyed my evening roaming around on horseback and doing small adventures, including busting a character that I do not like very much at all… out of a jail. That mission was “a lot” but we survived… but I am guessing I won’t be able to go back to the town of Strawberry very soon. I also spent some time saving a drunkard preacher from getting hit by a train and am slowly working my way through the quests that I know I have. I am guessing there are also bounties that I can run for the local sheriff, which might be a good idea given that I have done a few unsavory things lately.
Arthur Morgan is a really interesting character because he is not exactly what I would expect from the hero of a western adventure. He seems like one of the background characters from something similar to a Bioware game… that has been suddenly thrust into the forefront of the adventure. He is not unlikeable but also not terribly charismatic either. I guess this quality makes it fairly easy for you to insert your own intentions into his character because he doesn’t seem to have any particularly strong leanings from the start. It seems like his defining characteristics are his reliability and willingness to do whatever needs to be done. I have a feeling before we finish this adventure that those traits are going to be used and betrayed.
I am uncertain how often I am going to be returning to the winding world of Red Dead Redemption II, but I enjoyed my time spent better than my last foray.