Many a critic will discuss a game’s verbs: the things you do in the game. That’s too general an approach for me. I’m here to praise Red Dead Redemption 2’s present participles.
If you’ve played Red Dead Redemption 2, you may have not noticed them. You may have not noticed them because you can’t see them while playing Red Dead Redemption 2. Unlike the Rockstar western’s excellent implementation of deep snow, its instructional take on hair growth and its generally compelling depiction of a crumbling micro-society, this new Red Dead’s superb present participles appear outside the game.
I saw them when I checked my PS4 dashboard (I’m told this can also be seen on Xbox.)
A friend who is playing Red Dead Redemption 2 might have a status report next to their name that states they are “moseying in Horseshoe Overlook” or “ambling in Clemens Point.”
Recently I saw that a colleague was “tarrying in Rhodes” and that a former co-worker was “sauntering in the wilderness.”
This is, of course, a tiny thing, the kind of added touch that shows a game has been made with extra resources and attention to detail.
It’s also the mildest counterbalance to all those cutesy pun-filled trophy and achievement names that show up in so many games, tiresome lines that suggest that the only creative tone game makers can muster for their meta-text is embarrassing dad. (Looking at you, Tomb Raider trophy writers.)
“Sauntering” and “Moseying” are good words. They are also great words to describe the languid pace that one commits to when playing Red Dead Redemption 2.
Rockstar games have long been known for having tiny, unexpectedly well-crafted touches. Some are in the game. But one of my favourites, this time, is outside of it.
Comments
5 responses to “One Of My Favourite Red Dead Redemption 2 Details Exists Outside The Game”
Meh, this has happened with plenty of games and isn’t really some creative genius move from R*
Red Dead is the best though, so shoosh.
Whilst I thank Kelvin for his above insight, Stephen, I thought you might like to know that I enjoyed the piece you wrote and fully agree with you. ‘Tis indeed oft the little details that make the difference. Cheers!
Don’t get me wrong I love this game and my role-playing cowboy style but my biggest concern with this game is the use of systems and mechanics from GTA5. They may be updated for new use but it’s still essentially the same AI and physics from GTA5.
I can’t speak for the AI, but the physics are not from GTAV.
RDR2 uses the same engine as GTA5 (and most every other game Rockstar has made), I’m not really sure why people are surprised that it has the same subsystems. The physics engine is Bullet, it’s pretty solid and is used in film special effects as well as games.
The other complaint I see sometimes is the medal system, but I think people forget RDR1 had that too.
Not to mention also, that sometimes, too many people spend too much time comparing new games to old games, instead of just playing and enjoying those new games. Personally, I don’t care how similar RDR2 is to anything or whatever. It’s a great game and I enjoy playing it.