Where many game developers find a thick wall of impossibilities, Rockstar usually bulldozes past any inconvenience to make titles that redefine not only their genres, but the industry as a whole. Red Dead Redemption 2 — now considered among one of the best games in history — was no exception to this rule, though to say that the game had its fair share of exasperating gameplay mechanics would be to undersell the frustration that many players felt in their 50-hour playthrough across the Wild West.
Patting and brushing a horse is fine. Even feeding it to keep up its vigor can be a fun little side activity. Where we all ought to draw the line, however, is when an open-world game released in 2018 asks us to do without fast travel or any convenient means of traversing from point A to B in a quick fashion.
But it looks like that only grazes the edge of the problems players have with Red Dead Redemption 2. Recently, one user over at the game’s official subreddit asked people to reveal the things they genuinely hated about the Rockstar game, thus opening a can of worms that has spiraled into a viral debate. The responses will give you a good chuckle, too, so we’ve naturally listed some of them down below.
Apparently, a lot of folks take issue with the game’s broken stealth mechanics. I’d even go so far as to argue there really isn’t a stealth mode because as soon as you come near enemies’ field of vision, they will spot you from three hundred yards away like birds of prey on a personal mission of vendetta against Arthur Morgan.
And while we’re at it, could someone explain why Arthur has to do that little nauseating dance every time he wants to loot something off a person or a drawer?
How about NPCs who suddenly decide from a few feet away that it’d be fun to trample you with their horse?
Don’t get fans started on the game’s broken notoriety system. Every time you work up a bloodthirst and decide to randomly kill an NPC — as us gamers are in the habit of doing — there’ll always be someone to report you to the authorities. And it doesn’t matter if you’re standing in the middle of the town or some godforsaken middle-of-nowhere mountain peak.
Rockstar might be adhering to realism almost to a fault, but we can’t, for the life of us, begin to explain why they thought players should be able to cook only one thing at a time.
There is a slew of other responses on the thread, so be sure to check them out if you wish to get a grasp of the full frothing rage and contempt Rockstar fans secretly hold for Red Dead Redemption 2. But who are we kidding? At the end of the day, Arthur Morgan’s journey is still one of the best stories we’ve had the privilege of experiencing in this medium.