Red Dead Redemption 2...lacking in imagination

Hey all,

I've been playing Red Dead Redemption 2 for several weeks now, and while the graphics, physics, and hardware performance are utterly amazing, I'm left cold by mountains of bizarre design decisions.

To pick one that others have already touched upon: looting. In order to loot a body, you must HOLD...no hold it longer, idiot...the triangle button, then wait for the looting animation to finish...just a little longer... yeah, OK... no sorry it's not done yet. If this was some momentous occasion, the waiting and drama involved in this SIMPLE BANAL ACTION might seem appropriate, like the hubbub that Santa Monica Studios makes of Kratos patting his son on the back. However, that is not the case. You will loot hundreds, perhaps thousands of bodies in RDR2, and you will have to hold triangle, and wait for the animation for all of them. If you are looting a building, may God have mercy on your immortal soul. Going through a wardrobe involves holding that same triangle button FOR EVERY SINGLE DOOR/DRAWER in the wardrobe, and FOR EVERY SINGLE ITEM you will have to HOLD square...no, don't fucking tap it...this requires some consideration...I mean, if you didn't really mean to pick it up then you can still change your mind...AND WAIT FOR THE GODDAMN ANIMATION to finish.

Yes, I do understand that in the "real world" if I want to open a wardrobe and go through it, I will have to open every single fucking drawer in the fucking thing, and one by fucking one take out the items I want...I'd like to point out that RDR2 is not the real world, but a piece of entertainment software that emulates certain aspects of it. How entertaining is looting in RDR2? As this is a great way to support your gang, restock on bullets, and sometimes even necessary for story missions, why make it so boring? Why discourage players from doing it by making it take so much time? Why not streamline it? It is like coating a dildo with sandpaper: it just introduces friction where and when you least want it.

To pick another example, one which I haven't seen discussed, the way items attached to your horse react in a crash. Say you have a deer carcass tied to the back of your horse when you suddenly crash into a tree. This carcass will go flying and you will have to go find it, pick it up (by HOLDING THE FUCKING SQUARE BUTTON....WAITING FOR THE ANIMATION...), and put it back on your horse (by FUCKING HOLDING THE FUCKING SQUARE BUTTON....FUCKING WAITING FOR THE FUCKING ANIMATION...). Why? Your saddle didn't come off. Your guns and inventory items didn't go flying all over half of Creation...just the carcass. Now, if you had skinned the deer instead, you could have put the skin on the back of your horse (by FUCKING HOLDING THE MOTHERFUCKING SQUARE BUTTON....GODDAMN WAITING FOR THE SHIT FUCKING ANIMATION...), which now acts as if it is epoxy bonded. You could even have a stack of skins and they will not come off in a crash. Only carcasses and hogtied people act that way, and to make it more interesting, they can even be washed off if your horse gets into water that is too deep. Is it realistic? In a limited way, yes. Does it make for fun, interesting gameplay, with engaging choices? No. It means you waste more time holding buttons and waiting for animations to finish. It means you may lose carcasses and hostages in a crash or in death.

Just one more example: autosaves. If you decide to manually save your game, you might be asked whether you really want to overwrite the previous autosave. To do this, contrary to what you'd expect, you simply press X. However, when you load that save file and the game asks whether to autosave over it, now you must HOLD x. Why the difference? How exactly is making the first decision to overwrite an autosave different from the second one?

In Polygon's wonderful piece about the design choices of RDR2, they mention the seemingly complete lack of thought that went into the user experience. Your character moves stiffly, slowly, and is awkward to control in tight places. It is easy to accidentally shoot someone who you just wanted to talk to, because shooting and talking are literally controlled by the same button (it just depends on whether you have a weapon equipped or not). Or when you go fishing, baiting and putting the rod away are mapped to the same button, the difference being held or pressed.

 A little more than half way through the game, the leader of the gang, Dutch, makes this remark  "Real? How I detest that word. So lacking in imagination." How wonderful for a game that has gotten press coverage for simulating how a horse's testicles will retract in cold weather.