Welcome to the new and super fat Video Game Round-Up! Or more accurately titled, Redemption Cannot Be Earned: A Red Dead Redemption 2 Essay. Just kidding, I will talk about other games before we get into the weeds with RDR2 (especially since this is going to be a two-months-in-one situation because I took so dang long to write this stupid essay, though I lay most of the blame at Facebook Mobile’s feet because it doesn’t allow access to Notes for some reason), but really, there’s going to be a lot about RDR2 here. So much, in fact, that there will be some story and gameplay spoilers, so if you are still playing, or plan to play it in the near future, don’t read the essay. There will be a warning after the non-RDR2 game write-ups letting you know you should go hang out in other, non-RDR2 places on the Internets. Okay, here we go!
Marvel’s Spider-Man: The Heist and Turf Wars DLC (PS4) - The first DLC pack dropped in October and the second in November, and I got to be Spider-Man again, Spider-Manning all over Manhattan! It was more of the same, but with some extra Black Cat and Hammerhead thrown in the narrative. It was a lot of fun, and I liked that new Screwball challenges were added in so that I could get more Challenge Tokens and unlock more things. Also, six new Spidey costumes! There is one more DLC chapter planned for end-December, and I am very much looking forward to it, as the story got really good during the second chapter (the first one seemed almost self-contained). I want more excuses to come back into this game and Spider-Man about (especially now that Stan Lee has passed away), so even though I know nothing else is planned after this last DLC chapter, I’m still hoping for more.
Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey (PS4) - I didn’t think I’d be able to do it before RDR2 dropped, but I did end up finishing the story and platinuming the game (i.e. getting every PSN trophy possible). It was very, very fun to run around ancient Greece Spartan kicking people and murdering them all quiet-like. A bit of free DLC dropped, but it was more of the same, really (which isn’t a bad thing). Some missions with killing things and some with fetching things, but I did get to kill a Cyclops, so that was neat.
After I finished RDR2, the first part of the story DLC Legacy of the First Blade dropped, and that was a lot more fun. The main game had the Cult of Kosmos, which was harassing Kassandra all over Greece. In order to defeat them, I had to hunt down various clues to unmask them all and then murder them all. This was one of the more fun bits in the main game, and I was pleasantly surprised to see that return in a limited form with the Persian version (hey, that rhymed!) of the Cult, the Order of the Ancients. I hope there will be more to hunt down in the second and third parts of this particular DLC (and maybe something similar for the second DLC next time).
Super Dodge Ball (NES/Switch) - Because I started going back to work, I was able to play on the Switch to and from (and sometimes at) work (being at work meant I couldn’t play on the PS4, which meant no RDR2), but instead of doing more Undertale like I should have been (especially since Deltarune dropped for free on PC), I instead played a super old NES game on the NES Switch Online platform. Super Dodge Ball is a game I played as a child, after renting it from one of the few video rental places in my tiny hometown. Even though I never beat it then, I loved this game to bits. Basically, you play as a young, up-and-coming American dodge ball team challenging various teams around the world, culminating in a world championship grudge match against, who else, the USSR. I have since made up for never beating the game as a kid by beating it a total of three times. There really isn’t very much to do in this game. You throw the ball and try to hit the opposing team members until they all run out of health while dodging or catching the balls they throw at you. It is very simple, but I still can’t get enough of this game. I also like that a lot of the opposing players seem to have large, deformed, bald heads. I assume that’s just thanks to the 8-bit graphics, but they’re fun as hell.
Celeste (Switch) - I also played Celeste on the Switch, which is a rock-hard platforming beast with an excellent story about mental health and forging ahead. The story is very, very good (an anomaly for a platformer), but I won’t talk about that too much and instead focus on the mechanics, which is a lot of jumping, wall-crawling, and aerial ballet. Beyond the usual run and jump, Madeline (the main character; Celeste is the name of the mountain she’s climbing) also has a special air dash jump (basically a double jump) that she can use for longer chasms or higher ledges (which becomes a triple jump later on, i.e. you can use the air dash twice in a row). Like double jump-type actions in most games, she can only use it once before she has to land on a surface, but in later levels, the game introduces special crystals that refreshes your air jump without having to land, and then the game becomes a mad dance of precision air dashes around a space avoiding hazards, enemies, and falling into the void. It gets really freakin’ hard, really freakin’ fast. But I am proud to say that I did beat it, and I even got all the B-Side cassettes (unlocking even harder versions of the various levels), and a bunch of strawberries (the collectibles in the game that are located in more difficult paths/areas). Celeste has a special death count, so you can see just how many times you died throughout the game. I’m sure there are some ridiculous people with ridiculous reflexes who kept their death count in the double-digits (I guess it’s technically possible not to have died once in a playthrough, but I won’t believe anyone’s actually done it until I see proof). I am not one of those people, and I died a whopping 2605 times. I wear that as a badge of honor, though. Like Madeline, I persevered and climbed that damn mountain even though 2605 deaths were telling me to quit. Hey, maybe that was the point all along.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider (PS4) - Some DLC dropped for this game as well. There’s a bit of story, but it’s really about the new Challenge Tomb within the story. Challenge Tombs are optional puzzle-y bits in the main game (in which Lara totally raids and destroys some ancient stuff for her own gain), but they are by far the best parts of the game. And every bit of the DLC for SotTR is going to be a Challenge Tomb. The story around this is about Abby and the very elaborate scavenger hunt her deceased grandmother left for her. I won’t discuss the story (except to reiterate that this is a VERY elaborate scavenger hunt), but the Challenge Tomb at the center of it is quite fun. There’s a central elevator-type thing that you have to get all the way up by using various switches and controlled explosions. It’s not very difficult or anything, but there are timed and scored versions of this (and every other Challenge Tomb in the main game) which can up the difficulty considerably. I look forward to future DLC Challenge Tombs so I can destroy more ancient things :P
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (Switch) - So I haven’t played a Smash Bros. game since Super Smash Bros. Melee (GC), and I have never been particularly good at it, but something about a bunch of Nintendo characters battling it out in a very abnormal fighting game has always appealed to me. Ultimate is not kidding with the name. Every character who has ever previously appeared in a Smash Bros. game appears in this one, including non-Nintendo characters like Solid Snake, Cloud Strife, Ryu, and Pac-Man. Also, every stage, every item, and every music track. Plus, a bunch of new stuff too because of course it does. Gameplay is pretty similar to every other Smash Bros. game, but I know they made a lot of tweaks because Nintendo put out a lot of videos explaining those tweaks. They also added a new thing called Spirits, which if I’m being perfectly honest, I don’t really understand how they work, but you can unlock most of them in the new adventure mode called “World of Light”. It’s got a little overworld map so you can see exactly what’s next in your hunt to free every spirit and fighter (more on this in a bit), and there’s a bit of RPG mechanics in that Spirits gain XP and level up when you use them.
You don’t have access to the whopping 74 fighters right form the get-go, however. You only have access to eight fighters (Mario, Donkey Kong, Link, Samus Aran, Yoshi, Kirby, Fox McCloud, and Pikachu), and you have to unlock the rest by either playing through the “World of Light” adventure mode and rescuing specific characters as they show up, or by playing any mode for a set amount of time, exiting said mode, and then battling a random “new challenger” that will spawn. If you beat the “new challenger”, that fighter gets added to your roster, and they will become available for you to use (though not for “World of Light”; for that you can use only the fighters unlocked there). I’ve unlocked 19 fighters so far (Bowser, Sheik, Sonic the Hedgehog, Lucario, the Inkling kid, King K. Rool, Jigglypuff, the Mii Swordfighter, the Mii Gunner, Dr Mario, the Wii Fit Trainer, Peach, Marth, the Villager from the Animal Crossing series, Pac-Man, Mega Man, Solid Snake, the Ice Climbers, and Captain Falcon), but I haven’t played with most of them yet (my main has surprisingly been Kirby).
There are a bunch of other modes that I haven’t really explored yet, and a ton of characters and Spirits I need to unlock. This is a game that I hope to play on and off for a very long time, so expect to see it in Video Game Round Up for awhile, even if it’s only to update on which characters I’ve unlocked (and any interesting Spirits I find, like Hal Emmerich from the Metal Gear Solid series; this is a weird game).
Omensight: Definitive Edition (PS4) - I reviewed this game for Geek Culture, and you can read more about it there (as well as the original review by my colleague). Basically, it’s an awesome game, and it’s billed as an action murder mystery. Yeah, doesn’t that sound frickin’ fascinating? It’s available for PS4, PC, and the Switch, so go get it and play the heck out of it.
Katamari Damacy REROLL (Switch) - I loved the heck out of this lovably weird game when it first came out for the PS2 sometime in 2004. It is this ridiculously odd and ridiculously simple game in which you basically have to roll up everything you can to make the biggest katamari possible. The story, such as it is, is quite simple. The King of All Cosmos got drunk one day and accidentally knocked down all the stars from the sky. He then forces his son, the Prince of All Cosmos, to make new stars by rolling a bunch of stuff up on Earth using a katamari, all the while being just the worst dad possible. You play as the Prince and levels require you to get your katamari to a certain size in a certain amount of time. The special Constellation levels are a bit different. They’re still timed, but instead of making the katamari as big as possible, you instead have to roll up as many of a certain thing as possible. For example, in order to make Pisces, you have to roll up a bunch of fish.
And the soundtrack is exquisite. Every single song is fantastic and perfectly captures the game in general.
This is a mad game that should never have made it to the west because we in the west are usually idiots who think all games need killing and/or fighting in order to be games. I highly recommend this game if you’ve got a Switch (or a still-working PS2).
Okay, if you don’t want to be spoiled for Red Dead Redemption 2 (PS4), then I will say good-bye to you now. Thanks for stopping by, and I’ll see you next month, when I will play more things that do not feature cowboys. You will have noticed I played a bunch of Switch games these past two months and not a single one of them was Undertale (Switch). This may continue next month as I got a bunch of new Switch games on sale. I also got a bunch of new PC and PS4 games as well (there were a lot of sales). Plus, Gris (Switch) is coming out, as is new DLC for Spider-Man, Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey, and Shadow of the Tomb Raider, so who knows what I’ll be playing next month (well, those four for sure)!
Though I may decide to just read a bunch of comics instead :P
Now, it’s Cowboy Time!
Red Dead Redemption 2 (PS4) - I have played over 150 hours of this game, finishing the main story and epilogue, and a fair amount of endgame secrets and exploration (though not anywhere near all of it). My thesis for this game is thus:
While Red Dead Redemption 2 is an amazing game, it is not a fun game.
In both narrative and mechanics, RDR2 strives for realism, and realism is rarely fun. Oh sure, being an outlaw cowboy robbing trains and banks, and shooting up small towns is incredibly fun, but that makes up such a small amount of the totality of this game, that it’s almost like we were all sold a false bill of goods. Instead of getting the cowboy RPG shooter we thought we were getting, we got a morality play in which we had to do a lot of chores. I mean, even some of the outlaw stuff felt like chores.
An example: during one side mission, Arthur Morgan, the main protagonist and playable character, has to steal a wagon carrying expensive antiques. It takes me about 3-4 minutes real-time to ride my horse from where I got the mission to where I’m supposed to ambush the wagon. Once I arrive, I have to wait around another 1-2 minutes for the wagon to arrive. Once it arrives, I have the option of shooting them immediately, or engaging in a bit of subterfuge to make the encounter easier. I opt for the subterfuge and tell the wagon driver there’s something wrong with one of the wheels. He tells his shotgun rider to jump down and take a look. The two outriders have also stopped and are distracted by the apparently broken wheel. They are all much easier to gun down, and I kill them all in about 10 seconds (the entire encounter from start to finish takes about a minute). I hop off my horse and jump on the wagon and start driving it to the drop-off point. Because the wagon is full of expensive antiques, I was told to drive slowly so I don’t damage any of them (and a screen prompt reminds me of this), so I drive slowly to the fence. Driving takes 10-12 minutes real-time. That means that this entire encounter took about 15-19 minutes, only one minute of which was interesting gameplay. The rest was riding from point A to point B, waiting, and then driving from point B to point C. This is not a fun mission to play (except for that one minute), and yet it is exemplary of like 85% of this game.
“Why play this game at all?” I hear some of you asking. Because the narrative is so damn good. And much of the narrative comes through in the mechanics of the game. A lot of people who don’t play many video games, if any, think of narrative in traditional terms. In video games, that would translate to dialogue and cutscenes (the more filmic moments of a game, where all control is taken away from a player and given over to the game in order to give a bit of story). Basically, the parts that don’t actually require a player. However, gameplay is a very important way in which many video games tell their story. What your characters can do, and how they do it helps to tell the story (at least, the better games tend to).
I sat on a Worldbuilding in Video Games panel recently, and I got to parrot some really good game design info that I recently learned at from a Narrative in Video Games class that I took (and also from Evan Skolnick’s excellent book Video Game Storytelling). Gameplay is thought of in terms of verbs; what a character can do and how it can interact with the world it’s in. For example, in Super Mario Bros., the verbs include walking, running, jumping, swimming, shooting fireballs (sometimes), etc. In Night in the Woods, the verbs are more limited: walking, jumping, talking, and “interacting” (basically pushing the same button to do different things depending on the context of what the character is interacting with). In Red Dead Redemption 2, there are a lot more verbs: walking, running, cleaning, riding, bathing, shooting, punching, playing games (each game has its own set of verbs), greeting, antagonizing, hunting, tracking, aiming, etc. (there are so many verbs, some of them are mapped to the same button on the controller; more on this later). These very mechanical verbs dictate not only what the character can do in game, but what kind of story can be told as well. If the only verbs at our disposal are walking and jumping, the narrative cannot have the character running or shooting. If a narrative designer suddenly writes in something about running or shooting, he’ll most likely be asked to rewrite that so the character only walks and jumps (the other option is that everybody else working on the game will be asked to add in the ability to run and shoot, but that’s a lot less likely as that would require a ton of work from programmers, animators, artists, etc.)
What does this mean for RDR2? Thanks to the ridiculous amount of verbs available to a player, an incredibly rich story can be told. Arthur Morgan is an outlaw cowboy, and a member of Dutch van der Linde’s gang. As the de facto second-in-command, he has certain responsibilities to the gang beyond shooting and robbing. The gang settles down in different camps as the story progresses, and Arthur has to make sure there are enough provisions in the camp, including food, medicine, and ammunition. He is also in charge of the camp’s finances, deciding whether to spend the money on better food stores, better ammunition, or upgrading Dutch’s tent. He’s asked to do various chores around the camp (like chopping wood or moving hay bales closer to the horses), go hunting and fishing for food, and to go on various errands to bring back things for the camp members. Sounds like tons of fun, right?
These things are optional, however (you don’t have to do them if you don’t want to, but not doing them can affect your Honor, which will make the rest of the game world negatively interact with you; that said, there are other ways to gain Honor around the gaming world, so yes, very optional). But a lot of the story and stranger missions feel like busywork and chores too (stranger missions are other optional things you can do, but these tend to be a lot more interesting, from a narrative standpoint if not a gameplay one). So why is this game so good?
Before I answer that, let me tell you about some other mechanics that make this game just super unfun to play.
There is no real fast travel in this game, which means getting anywhere takes FOREVER. If you’re not familiar with this term, fast travel is a video game mechanic in which your playable character can nearly instantaneously go from their current position on the world map to any number of predetermined spots that you have unlocked. In Marvel’s Spider-Man, these were various police precincts in Manhattan’s neighborhoods. In Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey, these were a ridiculous amount of synchronization points around the ancient Greek world (like three or four per region), as well as your ship, which you could park in any part of Aegean Sea. In RDR2, the only fast travel you have is from your camp to any of the major towns you have already visited (and only after you purchase the upgrade to Dutch’s tent, and then purchase the upgrade to your own tent). But you can’t fast travel back to your camp, or anywhere else, really. You can take trains or stagecoaches to various towns or outposts, but that costs money you may not necessarily have, and there are plenty of places inaccessible via any of these methods and very far away from any town or outpost, which means you have to ride your horse there, no matter what. And it’s not like this is a small map, easily traveled. It is far larger than Spider-Man’s Manhattan and comparable to God of War’s Norselands, and they both have tons of fast travel spots.
There are times where you will actually play as a rootin’ tootin’ shootin’ cowboy, and you will kill some bad guys (and occasionally innocent people because whoops). After this fresh bit of murder, you can loot the bodies for various goodies, like you do. Looting bodies is also a video game staple that gives players extra ammo, new weapons, health items, etc. Usually, a player just needs to walk over or near to the body to loot. Sometimes, like in Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey or God of War, you have to press a button to loot a body. In Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey, Kassandra can loot every nearby body instantaneously and at the same time for whatever items they might have. In God of War, Kratos has a short stomping animation and fills up one of two meters (health or rage), depending on the item. But Arthur Morgan has to be difficult about it. You have to press a button, but instead of it being instantaneous or after a short animation, Arthur instead goes through a very long animation of bending over and picking up the body, rifling through the pockets, dropping the body, and then putting whatever he found into his satchel. And he does this for every single body. A similar situation presents itself when he goes searching through homes or trains: he has to search through every drawer, cupboard, and desk one by one, and with a corresponding lengthy animation. Worse, when not searching a body, Arthur tends to pick up items one by one as well, necessitating more button presses to pick up more items. Sweet Jesus, why? You’re only making a long game even longer. This is especially annoying if the law is on its way, or your gang mates are harassing you to hurry up.
So how do these often infuriating mechanics enhance the narrative? Like its predecessor, RDR2 is a story about redemption. I mean, it’s right there in the title. Arthur is trying to be a better man. Even though he knows he will always be an outlaw, he at least wants to be an outlaw with honor. You can play against this, of course, and just deal with the ludonarrative dissonance this will cause, but thanks to aforementioned mechanics, Rockstar developers have made it pretty unfulfilling to play as an asshole. If it takes forever to loot every body, there’s no real impetus to shoot everyone you come across (especially as it will almost certainly lead to your death as various lawmen and bounty hunters come after you). If you can’t fast travel, then it’s going to take you a long time to get to a safe space (i.e. your camp) after you do your shady shit (plus, there is an automatic fail state if you lead anybody chasing you to your camp). Further, if you’re an asshole and your Honor falls below that halfway mark, you can’t purchase certain outfits in the world (which don’t give any bonuses or anything like that, but they do look cool), and you have to pay full price for everything because the shopkeepers won’t give you discounts. Sometimes, entire towns go on lockdown if you do anything really terrible. If you try to go back before paying off what is definitely going to be a very expensive bounty, you will be wanted dead or alive and everyone will shoot you on sight. These mechanics push players to play honorably, and earn that titular redemption in the story. There is also another interesting bit related to Arthur’s dreams. If your Honor is above 50%, Arthur dreams of a majestic stag, but if your Honor is below 50%, Arthur dreams of a growling wolf. This doesn’t actually change anything about anything, it’s just a cool thing to clue in a player about their Honor.
Most of the story missions won’t affect your Honor because they’re pretty linear and you have no choice about the things you have to do (though I do remember a few of them affecting my Honor one way or the other, even if I didn’t have a choice in the ultimate resolution). Some of those things are pretty dishonorable, especially in the early hours, but Arthur can always rationalize them by telling himself he’s doing it for the gang. Same goes for the Stranger Missions; there are no real decisions to make. You just follow whatever mission prompts there are to complete them. It isn’t until quite late in Arthur’s story that you as the player can make a couple of decisions in one of the more important Stranger Mission strands.
The money-lending missions given to you by Herr Leopold Strauss, a member of Dutch’s gang, are arguably the ones designed to make players feel the worst about doing (which is doubly odd as they’re the only legal things Arthur is asked to do). Only the first one is required (because it’s story critical), and it’s a pretty good introduction to just how terrible this is all going to be. Basically, Herr Strauss lends money to some pretty unfortunate souls at some ridiculously high rates (Arthur even says something about how only the really desperate would borrow from Strauss at his exorbitant rates at one point). In that first mission, Herr Strauss asks Arthur to take money from a farmer named Downes. This farmer is sick, and cannot pay the money back. Arthur roughs him up and tells him to have the money next time he comes by. During this altercation, Downes accidentally coughs on Arthur, infecting him with the tuberculosis that is already killing Downes (though neither of them realize this at the time). In a later money-lending mission (this one is not required), Arthur visits the Downes farm and finds out that not only has the farmer succumbed to his sickness, his wife and son have lost the farm. Arthur still takes what money he can from the widow, even going so far as to threaten the son’s life (with a pretty badass quote: “Maybe I’ll keep [your mother] in black, on your account,”). Thanks to this series of events, Arthur contracts the tuberculosis that will affect him in the second half of the game. He can also find the Widow Downes prostituting herself in a mining town in order to earn money in a separate set of Stranger Missions. Arthur feels terrible about this, and tries to give money to not just the widow, but also her son so they can leave the mining town and start fresh. During the last set of money-lending missions, Arthur has to collect from two more people. The first is an army deserter who objects to the army’s treatment of Native Americans as his wife is one, and she is pregnant with their child. You are given the choice of collecting the debt, or absolving him of it. The second is a miner who you find out has already died through the course of trying to track him down. Arthur visits his widow and her now fatherless son who have just lost their house, and if you don’t see the resemblance, Arthur certainly does. Your options this time are to absolve the debt, or to absolve the debt and give the widow money so she can start a new life before she hast to prostitute herself. After this, Arthur heads back to camp and promptly kicks Strauss out, telling him this was something he should have done long ago. Because there is no fast travel, Arthur has to ride to the various places, and that gives both Arthur and the player a long time to really think about what they’re doing.
While all this is happening, Dutch is getting crazier and crazier, while Arthur is trying to help people in the story missions, even going so far as to ignore Dutch’s various crazy orders. Dutch is always talking about having a plan, and needing only one more score, and for everyone to have some goddamn faith. He’s charismatic and friendly, especially in the early hours. Soon enough, however, Dutch reveals himself to be nothing more than a petty, paranoid, narcissistic user, pushing people to do what he wants while often not doing anything himself. He murders for sport, or to somehow prove he is better than the person he is murdering, he suspects various characters of being spies and traitors (except for the one who actually is one), and cannot stand it when other characters (Arthur included) ignore his orders, or worse, tell him what to do.
Dutch and his partner Hosea (who is actually a wonderful character who’s ending still makes me a little sad) basically raised Arthur and Jack Marston (protagonist of the first Red Dead Redemption (PS3)), so it’s understandable that even as I, the player, can see Dutch very clearly becoming the horrible asshole from the first game, Arthur wants to rationalize Dutch’s behavior. He tells himself this is just stress, or the situation they find themselves in. But as the story progresses, Arthur realizes this was always who Dutch was; he just used to be better at hiding it. There are multiple points in the story where Dutch leaves various gang members behind (Arthur himself included), saying there’s nothing he could have done. He is always lying in these situations. He leaves others behind because he only really cares about himself. He’s only ever cared about himself.
By the end, Arthur knows Dutch does not have anybody’s best interests at heart, but he still tries to pull him back from the brink. This might even be part of Arthur’s redemptive arc, saving a friend from himself. But he ultimately fails, and dies alone on a mountaintop, looking at the sunrise, his tuberculosis running its course (if you finished with more than 50% Honor, at any rate; otherwise, Arthur gets unceremoniously shot in the head). He helped save John Marston and his family, but
I have gone on and on about this game, and I’m pretty sure I have not properly explained my thoughts on it beyond gushing about how great it is (mostly because writing essays is hard, and I haven’t done it in a long time), but trust me, the emotional gut punch of Arthur’s realization of what his and the gang’s actions have wrought, with Dutch’s mania and delusions of grandeur always at the forefront, is powerful, and it is made all the more powerful by the game’s often frustrating mechanics (and I didn’t even talk about the hunting or the quite substantial epilogue).
I will likely play this again some time next year, and take it a bit more slowly than this first playthrough. I tended to zip through the story missions, especially at the beginning, and apparently missed a lot of really good character moments with other gang members. I may even try my hand at Red Dead Online (PS4), though I do hate other people, so maybe I won’t? We’ll see.
If you made all the way to the end of this rambling nonsense, thank you. I know it wasn’t easy, and I wish I could give you a PSN trophy. If you have any specific questions about any of the things in the game, please ask. I would be extremely happy to keep talking about this game.
No comments:
Post a Comment