I’ll have to try and finish it up as Arthur so i can do that. I’m trying to experience everything i can without over extending myself, if that makes sense
I’ll get through the RDR2 story one day. I played it for two stints last year but I just space out and lose immersion every time the main story forces you to kill one hundred lawmen in the middle of a town. For a game that put so much effort into making the open world vibrant, alive and dynamic you face very little consequences for committing what can only be classified as genocide in the main story.
It might well be a me-problem. I had the same issue with Sleeping Dogs that I just finished last week. So I might just have a fundamental problem with the type of gameplay design these kinds of games go for and the fundamental ludonarrative dissonance you have to be able to look past to enjoy them. I just have a hard time squaring off war crime levels of mass murder as “getting into a little too much trouble”. Killing a lawman or two as things get out of hand in Valentine? That’s getting into a bit too much trouble. But Arthur Morgan literally kills hundreds upon hundreds of people and that just breaks my immersion.
The gameplay is definitely way exaggerated because it would not be very engaging to get into one gunfight per chapter. I interpret these parts of many games symbolically—the amount of violence is to make a point. The game would be very short or really boring if it was realistic in that regard.
Arthur is a really complicated character who, despite being sometimes sympathetic, is ultimately not a good person. Even if you make only “good honor” choices, his story is still filled with points where he struggles to reconcile his actions with his beliefs. You wouldn’t want to live near a person like Arthur in reality, and he doesn’t like being that person.
RDR2 is ultimately a story about bad people struggling against other bad people. One group represents the lawless banditry that is dying out, while the other is the capitalist yoke that wears a nice suit. Lots of normal people get caught in the middle, and they usually suffer for it.
It succeeds for me because it still keeps the humanity in focus. Bad people are humans too. It does not absolve them, but it underscores the conditions that can manufacture them.
I don’t really disagree with you about the nature of the story, and I don’t have anything against the overall narrative. I just personally think the story could have been told with fewer bloodbaths and outright massacres and still be compelling. In fact, for me every innocent you kill would feel more impactful morally and narratively if there were fewer of them.
But maybe I’m out of touch with the attention span of the modern mind.
There’s nothing wrong with having different preferences. It doesn’t have to be because someone has a worse or better attention span.
I personally do think the number of enemies that had to be killed should have been decreased. For me, it was mostly because it became comical sometimes that more guys kept coming out of the woodwork. After the fiftieth O’Driscoll you kill, you start to wonder if it’s a gang or a country’s military.
I’m sorry. The attention span comment wasn’t directed at you personally, it was reflecting on your point that people would find it too slow and boring with fewer kills. It wasn’t meant as a jab at all.
I think it sounds like we’re mostly in agreement. And yeah, the O’Driscolls spawning in and popping up like whack-a-moles is another great example!
I mean it is an era where up and moving 100 miles basically meant you started your life over. But that was kind of the plot: they were a gang of that era where they could run in a town, wreak havoc, disappear, and the infrastructure didn’t yet exist to reliably track them across the gigantic land mass that is North america.
But by the time the game rolls around the beginnings of the modern federal government are happening and agencies to track people like them across the country are in full swing. So all of a sudden their way of life is coming to a close, quickly. Instead of just some pissing off a sheriff in a town and never being able to go back there, occasionally having a bounty hunter after you, you now have a huge team of people with the resources of a government coming for you.
I think part of it that’s understated is the size of the map. The map is obviously big for a game but it’s supposed to be a huge chunk of America. When you compare the geography of the map to America it’s somewhat clear that it’s supposed to be a gigantic swath of America, from like Montana down to Louisiana and across to Texas. You can ride across the map in 20 min but obviously this would take months irl. Obviously this is about gameplay balance but as a result you lose the sense that Arthur is going extremely far away when he’s going from valentine to st denis, when in reality that would be like a month of riding and crossing several states. Even if he did a genocide that would probably shake the heat for a little while back then
They did obviously play it up of course. If you literally murdered everyone in a town back then there would probably be more of a response from the surrounding towns to find you. But gamers like violence and it’s again about balancing gameplay vs authenticity. usually gameplay wins because otherwise you end up with a boring game
I really like Unity. I’ll always have a special nostalgic feeling about the Ezio saga that makes me hold them in especially high regard, but even so Unity is probably my favourite to play. Revolutionary Paris is an amazing setting and it’s so beautifully realised too, and the parkour system with free run up/down and all the myriad animations lets you do some of the most slick things in the entire AC series if you get good at it. I’ve linked AC Unity choreography before, but just look at what people can do when they’re good at this game.
I still to this day have never played the Ezio saga outside of revelations. It’s on my list, but I’ve always favored the AC Games in the modern era more. I think I might try and go for it after Unity
And yeah, I agree. Unity’s setting is amazing and Parkour system is so badass with how smooth it is. I wish I had the patience to reach that skill level of Parkour in the game
I have no idea how AC2 holds up, honestly. I’ve never replayed it and it was my first game in the series - I didn’t own a Playstation when the first one came out so I only experienced it through being over at a friend’s house and watching him play it, occasionally taking turns for missions. Playing AC2 was an incredible experience back when it released and I’m full of fond memories, but I don’t know how well it’s aged. It’s probably a less impactful experience now than it was 15 years ago.
Hopefully it holds up as well as other games of its age I’ve found then, because I’ve heard such amazing things about the Ezio trilogy and I’m excited to pick it up one day, despite how I keep putting it off
I must say I e never played Skyrim, and I didn’t know how beautiful it could be. I might have to have a closer look.
I play a game called “The Long Dark”, and the first screenshot with the aurora made me do a double take. In that game you are alone in a northern Canadian region that has been abandoned both due to economics as well as some in game magic that makes electricity not work. The survival mode is just “live as long as you can, then die.” It’s permadeath and can be incredibly frustrating and cruel, but the beauty in that game is unreal. I’ve ended a 6 day run (nothing to me now, but a big acheivement at the time) because I was watching the Aurora on a clear winter night. The music was somber and I thought I might freeze to death as I crossed this long rope bridge. I should have been looking at the bridge, because staring up into the sky I suddenly was getting further away from it … It was maybe a 3 second fall as I realized I either walked off the bridge or maybe there was a gap or something.
“You have faded into the long dark.” -wasn’t even mad.
I must say I e never played Skyrim, and I didn’t know how beautiful it could be.
Modern texture packs, replacement models, and lighting mods make it even more so.
On top of that, Skyrim’s soundtrack is outstanding, and conspires with the scenery to make it a game world not easily forgotten. I’m sure I’ll be going back.
I’m playing two different saves in Skyrim right now, and I still thought it was The Long Dark when I saw the thumbnail. Seriously underappreciated title!
That’s ultimate my goal (though I’m not planning to quit after that if I make it). I figured having some sort of goal to work towards would be a good thing
Looking at the Steam news they still seem to be a bit slow. There was a six month gap between a minor version and version 6. That could be just because Version 6 is a major update though
One of my favorite parts was my first visit to the Lost Woods, and the experience of finding my way through. A darkened room and surround sound made it all the better.
I remember doing the lost woods. OoT’s will always be my favorite but damn will I say that BoTw gives it a run for its money with the puzzle to solve it and atmosphere
Yes. I loved the tension-filled atmosphere as a backdrop for not knowing what threat was going to get me, and the subtlety of the puzzle was brilliant.
Though Unity will always have my favorite game play(…)
I love seeing another Unity enjoyer around here. That game is severely underrated and had it not had that disastrously buggy launch the AC franchise could have gone in a completely different direction than the open world RPG flavour we ended up with. Plus, revolutionary Paris is one of the best realized video game cities of all time, it’s just beautiful.
the launch definitely killed Unity’s success. Syndicate was still in a similar vane but i miss the outfit customization and the multiplayer. The online aspect brought a lot of fun to the game
I tried the Jukeboxes but just couldn’t really get into them as much as i wanted too. Which is a shame because i love the Quarry and the combat is really satisfying to pull off
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