Source
r/reddeadredemption•
rxan

Frustrating controls in RDR2

Discussion

Not sure if I'm crazy or inexperienced. I'm about 30% through my first play through, and the controls seem very frustrating. What are other folk's thoughts on the control system?

Whenever there's a game mechanic or a control decision that stands out in a game, I question what it's adding to the experience. And some of these are very questionable.

Nevertheless, the game is still holding my attention.

  1. Fast travel is unnecessarily complicated. Sometimes you fast travel in cinematic mode for 8 minutes only to have your horse jump off a cliff 200ft from your destination.
  2. It takes way too many steps to sleep or take a bath. After doing the whole dance of pay-walk to room-sleep-walk back one time, it should be a quick-sleep.
  3. Lots of times times when you can't run on foot or on your horse, and no UI indication that you can't do so or when/where that restriction ends. Other games usually solve this by (1) not preventing you from running or (2) audio/visual indication.
  4. Times when you can't open item wheel during a fight to take a potion, but again no UI indication that you can't. Just died in a knife fight on a train because of this.
  5. Horse does not auto-follow paths unless in cinematic mode.
  6. Needing to hold the A button to run on foot. Solved by accessibility setting.
  7. Needing to tap the A button to run on a horse. I feel that this mechanic doesn't add any value to the game. But if it must be here *please* pick another button like a left/right trigger. Also, why is there no accessibility setting for this.

Posted May 20, 2021, 5:24 PM UTC

011
MijnEchteUsername•

Or when you run out of a building and quickly hit triangle because you know you left your horse right there only to takedown whoever is behind the door.

4
Tvveaking•

now this one i can actually get behind lmfaoooo

3
rxanOP•

Lol I will try this...

2
Daniel-Clasico:arthur_morgan: Arthur Morgan•

You are the first person I have seen complaining about the controls

3
[deleted]•

Definitely not, everyone hated them at launch. Gameplay was actually the biggest criticism of the game.

2
rxanOP•

Yeah maybe I'm still being used to it

2
NishinoHuo•

I feel you, it takes a while to get used to but it will be fun when you do

1
Tzifos150•

One of the top posts of all time on r/truegaming is a post critiscizing rdr2's controls.

1
DadofJackJack:uncle: Uncle•

Ok I sort of get what you’re saying but a lot of games just take time to get used to the controls. Once you master them you’ll be loving it.

Some counter points:

  1. Fast travel for me (PS4) hasn’t taken 8 mins, maybe the game got stuck loading? the longest time it takes is when travelling from St Denis to Tumbleweed as it’s showing me little snippets of areas I’m travelling through. The longer the joinery the more snippets you see so longer fast travel takes. Do “shorter” journey manually and enjoy the countryside.

  2. I don’t sleep at a hotel, don’t see the point when you set up a camp it’s one of first options alongside cook / craft. The hotel rooms are useful for doing longer tasks like putting weapons in/out of locker or messing about with outfits. As for a bath just walk into a river, you’ll come out clean or have a few outfit stored on horse and switch to a different one, boom clean.

  3. You can’t run with horse in gang camp, I suspect as you might knock a gang member only, seems a reasonable mechanic to need to be out of camp before running. But agree it’s annoying you can’t run on foot.

  4. You can’t take a potion during a knife fight as you use your hands to pull a bottle out of satchel and then drink… you can’t do this as you’re holding a knife and in a fight. It real life you wouldn’t be able to do this.

  5. If you’re not in cinematic mode you’re in 100% control of the horse, that includes steering. The horse goes where you point it. Seems realistic to me rather than a game issue, as a cowboy you’re free to roam rather than stick to the roads. There’s hundreds of Easter eggs and points of interest out there, please explore.

  6. No real comment on this.

  7. You’ll get used to this as if you tap in rhythm with the horse you’ll go faster. Just mashing run will drain horse’s energy.

In no way am I trying to come across as a nob lecturing. Just want you to enjoy the game as it’s terrific. Take it slow and shoot people rather than knife fights, Indiana Jones style.

3
rxanOP•

Yeah you don't seem like you're lecturing. It's all good :)

Interesting about fast travel. It has never just shown snippets for me, always the full journey. I'm playing on Xbox so maybe it behaves differently there.

I guess my main point isn't whether these things are realistic, it's whether they are fun and make me want to play more.

The fast travel and running mechanics aren't adding anything to the game for me. In other games you just pick up to the speed you want and then go from there on. Or you hit up a fast travel location and can go to any other fast travel location. Witcher 3 and HZD are both like this as far as I remember.

I'm pretty sure I've taken a tonic while in a gun battle before, so I'm not sure why a knife fight is any different. The game has a ton of "gotcha, you're restricted from doing X at the moment, but we aren't going to tell/show you in any way" moments. It gets a little frustrating.

I'll keep playing and maybe I'll get more used to it. I just realized you can fast travel from a campsite!

1
DadofJackJack:uncle: Uncle•

I’ve been playing for a few years now so maybe it’s just a experience thing and I’ve forgotten all the things that annoyed me and just accepted them.

When I first played I don’t think fast travel from a campsite was a thing, only do it from gang camp. That really was annoying especially as I had the big slow shire horse so was a slug to get back to camp for next mission. Maybe google Xbox fast travel to see why showing whole journey? Does seem weird.

You can take tonics during a gun battle, but if you watch you’ll put your guns away first so your hands are free to drink.

Hope you enjoy the game as much as I do.

2
NishinoHuo•

Personally the horse riding portion only got fun for me when I realized I can tap accordingly to the horse's rhythm to go faster and not lose stamina if done well. It's more immersive than just holding onto a button imo

1