Why do so many people say Red Dead Redemption 2 is boring?

I've read a lot of reviews by people, and they say the game is boring. They say the story is slow and the travel is slow.

What many people fail to realize is, if there were no story, there would be no goals. There would be amazing graphics, but no story or goals.

A lot of people seem to want to just do whatever they want on the map, with no story involved. I find that ridiculous. Without story or goals, the game would have no purpose. The story gives the game meaning as well. It may be boring, but story, character development, etc, is important. Like I said, without them, the game would have no purpose or meaning.

What do you think? Is the game really boring?

R* simply made a open world story game with nothing to do but trot about a wilderness and a predictably p*ss poor story. But... Graphics!

It's a walking simulator. Walk, shoot, watch scenery. C'mon man. This game will be forgotten in 3 months. I don't even have to play it to know it's boring.

I'd didn't find the story that engaging TBH. The combat is the same piss poor standard Rockstar puts out in all there games. In other words not really fun, more something you put up with.

Last was it all seemed like one pointless fetch quest.

@qx0d: Because rockstar games have mediocre controls and combat. Only extreme casuals adore their games because ooo open world ooo graphix.

@jackamomo: Is the story that bad? Media are calling it their best storytelling to date. (pls no spoilers)

That's a really good way to put it. The combat is just something you put up with. I sold my copy after about four hours. I almost never sell games, but the gunplay just brought down the whole experience. It's super weird that they made my favorite shooting mechanics ever in Max Payne 3 but otherwise are failures. But why focus on the controls if you're getting 98 score averages and selling tens of millions of copies anyway? More and more, I find myself disagreeing with critical responses.

"More and more"? If you're the guy I think you are - banned from GB and Escapist, does nothing but champion MP3 and post 360 no scopes - then you've been on the same frequency for years.

Every popular game has its fair share of haters. Uncharted has the same thing.

Westerns in general are boring.

@qx0d: I think enough threads of Red Dead Redemption 2 on GD have been made that'll give you the answers without making a fresh one.

But to sum up these seem to be the issues I've noticed people claim on the internet, keep in mind I have not played RDR2 or ever plan to-

• Shooting is bad, with fans stating "you get use to it", but bad usually means bad.
• Cleaning, shaving, are time wasting editions needed for certain progression. This seems like a pacing issue.
• Shooting a bandits horse will get you a bounty because cruelty to animals is bad, despite this game returning the hunting feature.
• Hunting seems repetitive and A.I. for animals strings from stupid to crazy. Claims of prey vanishing has been noted commonly.
• movement apparently feels clunky and unresponsive.

Fans have claimed all of this is creators intent for realism, and maybe it is. But doesn't read like something that's very fun does it?

But then I suppose for openworld immersion and story telling of the wild west I can see the appeal, a good shooter or a game with tight and polished gaming mechanics? Go some place else.

Even though I enjoyed the game I agree with this statement I'm way more excited for CyberPunk 2077 just on setting alone.

It's very tedious. I like it, but it is.

Yes, it’s boring if you’re 14.

But your opinion can’t be taken seriously either.

Anyone who finds it boring needs to re-evaluate gaming as a hobby. The game is incredible I'm sad I finished the story might have to replay it soon. Thinking about going back to finish 1 again. Felt Arthur was a great character.

Yeah, the guy on The Escapist with two of the biggest ongoing threads in both General Gaming and Off-topic Discussion. My threads usually sparked discussion. But clearly that place was better off without me. Their moderation and policies are poor. Many of the members who have left and stayed think so. My final strike came for calling someone who was continually acting like a jerk a jerk. I talk about plenty of stuff besides MP3. Rockstar's other shooting systems are poor, though. That's really easy to argue.

I got banned from GB too like a year ago lol I remember you my SN use to be jec03.

The GB community is too positive and agreeable with each other. They're group-thinkers, one of the only places that collectively use the ridiculous term character action. I never felt my ban was justified. Complaining isn't against the rules, but they use the term "troll" to justify any ban.

Agree can't stand what the site has become it was alot better in the early years the mod there is ban happy.

@Longsnout: Actually, I'm pretty sure you are the jerk I mentioned, Johnny Novgorod. He too kept mentioning my no-scope, said that all I ever talk about is MP3 and keeps talking about his girlfriend, whom I see mentioned in your short post history here. You write like him too. You followed me from thread to thread, dropping your sarcasm and snark on me repeatedly and often adding nothing else to my topic. My calling you a jerk was completely warranted.

People were on my side. They didn't want me banned. The moderation is bad.

https://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/18.1055188-In-Regards-to-Wild-West?page=10#24239002

https://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/18.1055188-In-Regards-to-Wild-West?page=11#24239197

https://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/18.1055188-In-Regards-to-Wild-West?page=12#24239313

https://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/18.1055311-We-need-to-talk-about-the-mods#24239645

https://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/18.1055311-We-need-to-talk-about-the-mods#24239660

@qx0d: For the record, I like RDR2. But just because a game has a story doesn't exclude it from being boring. Which weirdly seems to be your point. I can totally understand people finding it boring. I got bored a few times myself. I think the everyday cowboy-tasks were boring. I don't like hunting, fishing or collecting flowers. I don't mind them being there for people who enjoy that sort of thing, but I didn't enjoy being forced through these boring tasks multiple times while playing the main story and side quests. I'm kinda a completionist when it comes to open-world games. I like finishing every side-missions. So when I was finished with the main-story and side-missions I was "forced" to fish and hunt multiple times I really didn't want to do. That was unnecessary.

@jackamomo: So... like many other open-world games? Cause you've just described the majority of them.

Aimless open-world games have become boring, tedious toil. You can't even call them "work" anymore (this is after we stopped calling them "fun") because work can actually be fun at times; nope, this design has turned what should be enjoyable into a chore.

RDR2 might have been a better game if the market was not saturated with huge open worlds, but unfortunately it is, so RDR2 is just another big boring world to become enslaved to. Catch that fish, find that horse, blah blah blah.

If you're merely referring to its combat gameplay mechanics, then yes, but what kind of variety would you expect from a game that tries to more or less faithfully represent, tho fictional, some past reality? Special effects, flying vehicles, aliens and light sabers?

The game relies on narrative aspects and interaction, exploration and discoveries in an immersive, detailed world. It has to be slow,

it's not Bayonetta.

The gameplay just ties in with the setting, lore and story of the game.

@pitty8982: Speaking of which, is there a fast travel system at all (other than taking the train)?

@ezekiel43: I'm sure there's more than one person in the world who has a girlfriend and likes The Sopranos enough to remember an avatar. Anyway, good luck fighting the good fight.

Well, here in the west we got this thing called freedom of speech. So if we find a game boring, we are allowed to say it without nutty fanboys jumping down on us with knives.

Because people have differing opinions.

@Longsnout: Yes, after unlocking it by completing certain missions, from your tent you can travel to different destinations that you've already visited.

Is it because the game is long is aspects of story?

Do you cut yourself on your edginess, oh hardcore one?

I understand this game can be tedious if you don't feel invested and captured by the world in it for you to explore and tamper with, but for me the key is approaching it with a different mindset, that of an explorer rather than one who just wants to quickly get into the action.

I like to tackle different generes depending on my mood and time/energy I want to invest in a certain videogame, or I just alternate between them while I'm playing, i.e. switching from Red Dead Redemption 2 to Metroid Fusion to avoid redundancy.

Gamers love having something to whine about. I'm loving the game and I feel it was worth every preordered penny. My only gripes are the distance limitations on horse whistling and the fact that you can't carry all of your weapons at once. It seems like I'm always getting stuck on a mission with just a pistol and a sawed off shotgun with like 6 bullets lol

@hyperbertha: I watched someone play it on Twitch for about 30 minutes. All the men have the same gruff voice. It's just dumb. Everything takes ages to happen. Then when the action came along it was just shooting passengers down in cold blood for no apparent reason. It was just mega slow. Big game like this need proper real story writers/novelists, professional screenwriters, that kind of thing because the stories are sixth grade level every time in my experience and end up being more dull than wacky because it's all just cookie cutter stuff.

@jackamomo:

The story actually is quite amazing after a while. It affects you more if you finished Red Dead Redemption 1 though. But I definitely feel that the new story arc of Arthur Morgan is more than good enough to stand on its own. But games like this are best to be experienced first hand. You're not going to enjoy anything by watching. No wonder so many lems and hermits thought Uncharted is boring since all most of them did was watch a playthrough.

Agreed. I've been wishing for years that Dan Houser would just hire professional writers instead of taking on the responsibility himself.

@ezekiel43:

As well as producing video games, Houser is the head writer for Rockstar Games, being the lead for Bully, Red Dead Redemption and Max Payne 3. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Houser

I think you have identified the problem here...

Because it is.

@qx0d: Ignore what some other people say. It's an old-western game, and anyone who played the first game won't complain. The first game had a slow beginning to and this game improves upon the aspects of the last game.

Most people aren't use to slow-paced games. Everyone just wants the action right away. Red Dead 2 is an amazing game. The game does need fast travel and Rockstar needs to fix the controls(input lag) in my opinion. But besides that there's not much to say.

Rockstar chose to make an innovative game that differs from the mainstream. They could've streamlined the game to make it accessible to a wider audience like GTA 5 is, but luckily they didn't. This is exactly why games are getting streamlined, and anything that differs from the norm is seen as irrelevant for some gamers.

I'm enjoying the hell out of this game. I haven't sunk this much time into a game in a long time. I'm doing my best to slow the story progression because I don't want it to end. I've spent at least 20 hours ignoring story missions and just exploring.

This is by far the worst game I've played and the game is frustrating. Movement and controls are clunky, game mechanics are terrible. The graphics are decent for the world but the graphics look terrible for the character models. The only thing I like about this game is the dialogue. ROCKSTAR* need to go with an entirely new engine for their next game because it's old and outdated.

Maybe it just because they are not good at open world.

I didn’t care for RDR2 either. I tried but the story and the game play didn’t hold my attention. It felt like GTA with horses.

After playing W3 I think I’m spoiled when it comes to open world story games.

Personally its open world fatigue. I already hate the repititve task in other open world, RDR2 just makes them even slower in the name of in depth experience

Here’s a balanced blog about Red Dead Redemption 2. Take a read. http://anenglishcentrist.com/2019/01/25/the-good-the-bad-and-the-boring/

I think it is fair to say westerns are kind of boring. I watched Sergio Leone's trilogy last year and have to admit I kept going to do other things. I was kind of cooking at the same time.

Ponderous in tone.

I think, they have already played lots of actions and can't stand not so fast rhythm of RDR2 anymore. For those who are newbies in gaming, it's not boring at all. Open world, missions and western atmosphere fell totally new for us. But what if oldfags have already seen that somewhere else?