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everything feels sluggish in RDR2

Controls are awful. GTAV had the same clunky controls. All Rockstar games on console do. 30fps feels horrific on them. If you can play them on PC do. Higher framerates alleviate it but it's far from perfect.
 

RyRy93

Member
I took my time with it and thoroughly enjoyed it despite the sluggish feel to every aspect of the gameplay, if you try to rush this game you will hate it.

I agree with the general sentiment that the linear mission design is bad though, getting punished for coming up with a solution to a problem goes totally against what a modern open-world game should be.
 
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cormack12

Gold Member
You need to accept the tempo and speed of the game. If you try to rush from place to place and play it like a shooter then you'll miss the whole point of how it was designed. It is one of the best and most immersive gaming experiences I've had and much is thanks to its controls and longer animations.

Take some sessions when you only ride somewhere, set up camp, go and fish, come back to the camp to cook the fish and end the evening with a bottle of bourbon by the fire before going to sleep. On your ride back to the big camp look for some herbs so that you can cook some good venison and maybe stop to play cards at a saloon on the way.
Pretty much this. If you're just going to mainline it and want to get through main quests without the horse travel and camping you're going to be miserable. I wasn't sold on it at first tbh.

The best way to treat the game is in two parts - The main missions are like episodic western tv shows. You play through a little predetermined western story and then get put back into the main world. It's not a third person shooter, it's a peep and pop shooting gallery.

The second part is getting to your mission. This is an emergent journey where you'll get random encounters, camp at night, hunt for rations and skins etc. If you just hold down gallop between places you will hate it.

Sure it forces you to adopt a playstyle but if I do think it's a 'you get out what you put in' type of game.
 
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Pretty much this. If you're just going to mainline it and want to get through main quests without the horse travel and camping you're going to be miserable. I wasn't sold on it at first tbh.

The best way to treat the game is in two parts - The main missions are like episodic western tv shows. You play through a little predetermined western story and then get put back into the main world. It's not a third person shooter, it's a peep and pop shooting gallery.

The second part is getting to your mission. This is an emergent journey where you'll get random encounters, camp at night, hunt for rations and skins etc. If you just hold down gallop between places you will hate it.

Sure it forces you to adopt a playstyle but if I do think it's a 'you get out what you put in' type of game.
I've found have the most fun avoiding the incredibly linear missions and just doing my own shit.

I have been sorta roleplaying a serial killer. my bounty is insanely high and I make virtually no money because doing anything that makes me money is incredibly boring and tedious. I don't know if I'm ever going to be able to clear my bounty. it's gotten worse ever since I found the hatchet. killing random people with a hatchet is just too much fun.

I don't get how the fuck people find out that I did it though just because they discover the body. I can be totally hidden far from the corpse, yet somehow this jackass stumbling on it causes my bounty to go up. it also feels like wearing the mask does nothing.
 
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KyoZz

Tag, you're it.
Jake Gyllenhaal No GIF


I swear some of you want this game to feels and control like Fortnite.
 

Danjin44

The nicest person on this forum
I always say this, this game is a Western/Cowboy/Wildlife Simulator. It's NOT an action game.
EDIT: I forgot to say it's FUCKING AMAZING!! I took my sweet time and loved it all!
Except is not really, the whole point of simulation is different system working together but in RDR2 the wanted system is busted and makes zero sense, no matter what you do in camp and you can be total dick but story is not effected and when you do story mission the whole "realism" and "immersion" goes out the window.

What RDR2 is really Tarantino style hollywood western movie simulator rather actual realistic western cowboy simulation.
 
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Bert Big Balls

Gold Member
Yeah, it can be sluggish, but I loved the game after i actually started playing it like a cowboy. Slow walking through towns like I was a fucking badass. Getting hammered in bars. Fucking incredible game, and to think the first time I played it I dropped it. 2nd time I played it through and was blown away.
 

KyoZz

Tag, you're it.
having never played Fortnite, I'm willing to say yes because literally anything would be an improvement
Or maybe it's good to have both? Not everything has to be about running around and jumping and shooting while doing a 360 like a headless chicken. You don't like it? It's fine, there is plenty of other game that will better fit your playstyle.
For once we have a studio that doesn't compromise on its vision to please the masses, and I'm so happy that RDRII is the way it is because I was very afraid before release that it would just be a watered down version with easy gameplay, especially after loving the first RDR so much.

So yeah, it's just not for you (and again, it's fine).
 

rm082e

Member
I started this game years ago and got about 10 hours in, then fell off. Just picked it up again last week and yeah - it's ssssllllllooooooooooowwwwwwww.

I'm leaning into it though. I'm trying to spend more time just appreciating the art, music, etc. It's holding my interest for now. That's basically how I felt for all of RDR.
 

Shaki12345

Member
RDR2 is the type of game you show to your dad to tell him look at how gaming has become so realistic and mature, but you know it deep down that its just an average game with high budget.
I mean i like it, its good, but yeah its not the peak of gaming like many casual gamers claim, i noticed a lot of RDR2 biggest fans are the type that played total of 30-50 games in their life.
What is the peak of gaming?
 

Fess

Member
Yes it s.

And it’s still sooo good.

Took me a couple hours to get used to it. But after that I loved the game until the very end and it became one of the most fantastic playthroughs I’ve experienced in my whole life.

I was literally getting depressed afterwards because there was nothing else that could match it. Everything else felt so incredibly unpolished and static with zero life like playing 8-bit games with a coat of paint.
 

DaciaJC

Gold Member
Never troubled me none. It's a game meant to be taken at a more measured pace. Sluggish, I feel, is not the right word - grounded would be more appropriate.
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
Maybe it was the 30 fps frame frate or perhaps latency too, but in the tutorial levels at the beginning like the part where I think it's you running through the snow and wolves are chasing you it felt like shit.
 
Never troubled me none. It's a game meant to be taken at a more measured pace. Sluggish, I feel, is not the right word - grounded would be more appropriate.
Nope, sluggish is definitely the right word. The game's input latency and animation latency is too high even at higher framerates.
 

AMC124c41

Member
I think there's a general confusion here between the terrible input lag and extended animations for every little thing your character does and the pace of the game. I don't think the OP is complaining about the game's pace but rather the terrible input lag and indulgent animation overdose which combine to constantly get in the way of you actually playing the God damn game.
In a lot of ways it felt like playing GTA IV again for the first time with their first implementation of the Euphoria physics engine. Having a slower game pace is all fine and dandy but having it feel like the character you control is actively fighting you for said control does not make for good gaming feel.
 

RJMacready73

Simps for Amouranth
I gave up after about 20hrs because of it and decided to wait for an improved 60fps PS5 patch... That never came because R* are the greediest fucking ungamer Devs out there
 

Codes 208

Member
Thats part of why RDR1 is better. RDR2 is pretty but its like they focused a little too much on the immersion than faster streamlined gameplay
 
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This is why I couldn't complete the game. The ass controls really ruin an otherwise beautiful game

I loved RDR1, for the record, and completed it
 
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I think it feels slower because things were slower in the time period the story occurs in. Horses and steam locomotives, everything is lower tech. I always thought that was part of its charm.
Lol

Or maybe it's good to have both? Not everything has to be about running around and jumping and shooting while doing a 360 like a headless chicken. You don't like it? It's fine, there is plenty of other game that will better fit your playstyle.
For once we have a studio that doesn't compromise on its vision to please the masses, and I'm so happy that RDRII is the way it is because I was very afraid before release that it would just be a watered down version with easy gameplay, especially after loving the first RDR so much.

So yeah, it's just not for you (and again, it's fine).
Exactly.
 
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In some time I adjusted to it somewhat.

What still bothers me is long treks on horseback. Overly simplistic gameplay. That feels like 90% of the game.

I prefer GTA5 cause car driving is atleast fun.
 
Reminds me of my experience playing it. Was one of my biggest disappointments from last gen.

What still bothers me is long treks on horseback. Overly simplistic gameplay. That feels like 90% of the game.

I prefer GTA5 cause car driving is atleast fun.
Ya being able to drive different cars and listen to the radio makes GTA a lot more fun to play. Without those travelling is so tedious and boring.
 
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FoxMcChief

Gold Member
You mean it doesn’t feel arcadey/twitch shooter like?

Once you accept RDR2 as a western simulator and not a GTA, the better.
 
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ahtlas7

Member
I used to turn the game on and ride my horse through the woods for 30 min just for the calming effect, then turn it off. It’s sluggish so use that to your advantage.
 

Hudo

Gold Member
Yeah, RDR2 feels really sluggish to control and really disconnected w.r.t to how the open-world does not mesh with the mission design. It's easily the worst game by R*. It's as if they've forgotten how to make these kinds of games with RDR2. Would be really cool to get some behind the scenes of the development one day.
 

kiphalfton

Member
Oh FFS. In the inital tutorial, like the first mission in the game. The game suggest you loot all cupboards, because that's what you should do. At the same time, your team is yelling "what's the fucking holdup? Get over here!". But I can't get over there, because for Arthur has to place himself very strictly in front of a container, probably taking a few steps in place just to get it right, before I can actually even initiate the looting animation.

Don't give me the "it's realistic!" answer, because it isn't. I personally don't pace myself before opening a drawer, I just, like, open it. It's just a waste of time. It in no way adds to the experience.

Rockstar set up these stupid gameplay systems for looting/etc. only to have Dutch screaming at you the whole time to hurry up. Makes perfect sense.

I was playing one mission and had to put it on mute as I was trying to read a series of notes, that Rockstar very purposely placed within the game, and the other characters wouldn't STFU. Which in and of itself is a big problem (and seems to have manifested itself in a lot of games the past couple generations; characters that never STFU).
 
Beautiful game and world, absolutely trash to play for my tastes. I gave it 30mins before I realised the slog involved and bailed on the game permanently.

Even picking up items is completely tedious and time intensive.
 

Larxia

Member
I've always been a bit surprised by how people are bothered with that, because I'm someone who usually mostly like fast paced gameplays, but in RDR2 I really didn't mind at all. It's so immersive and realistic, I was just fully immersed in the world and sometimes there's some stuff where I wanted even more role play options actually lol I really loved that.

The two main problems for me with the game are :
- The mission design. It didn't bother me much because I really spaced out the missions, so I didn't even notice it that much, I'd play in the open world for hours, then do one mission, then free roam again for hours etc... So the missions were more like intense moments every now and then. But if you do only play the missions one after the other, then yes, it's incredibly scripted and limited, you're basically on rails. The freedom in the open world is on such a different level that it's why I wasn't bothered too much by this in the missions, but I can understand the complaint.

- The police / wanted system, biggest problem in the game for me. It's an incredibly immersive world, yet somehow, if you kill someone in the middle of the forest and someone sees you, suddenly there will be cops appearing out of nowhere and following you in the wood, knowing already exactly where you are... I hate this, absolutely immersion breaking and I have no idea why they did this.
I remember one mission in the online where I was supposed to steal things in a house, I tried to go stealth with a bow, took everyone down silently, no alert, but at some point suddenly I'm wanted, someone outside probably saw a body. I was at the second floor of the house, inside a bedroom, and I saw the police on the minimap entering the house, and coming directly in the room I was in... It's terrible, as soon as you're under alert, every NPCs will all know exactly where you are, all the time, like if you had a gps chip on you. I hate when games do this, with all NPCs being all knowing and all sharing the same infos.

Outside of these 2 issues, absolutely fantastic game for me. But these issues can be annoying, especially the second one for me.
 
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mdkirby

Gold Member
unnaturally slow? Have you ever tried to mount a horse? It’s slower than red dead🤣…or skin an animal? I’ve not skinned an animal but I’m pretty sure it takes longer than in the game.
 
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