[tkiley]

I haven't played a big-budget game in years, but I decided to give RDR2 a try, specifically because reviewers described it as slow and boring.

I think it's great, for the exact reason that other people think it's slow and boring. It's specifically designed to quash your tendency to speedrun or minmax: It requires you to simply come along for the ride.

On the one hand, this is a bit annoying sometimes. On the other hand, it revives the sense of wonder that I haven't felt since I learned to treat games as something to win rather than something to get lost in.

[kingbirdy]

My main problem with the game was how willing it was to fail you on whatever your current objective was. For example, I passed a woman on the side of the road with a broken leg who needed help. Easy enough, I stopped and offered her a ride. She couldn't get on though because I had pelts on my horse. In the time it took me to walk back to my horse and drop the pelts, she'd yelled at me "Fine, I'll get home myself" and walked off, and wouldn't speak to me anymore. I've had similar experiences with several other side-encounters, and even main story missions where I had to replay 10 minutes of riding somewhere because I got off my horse midway to shoot a deer and failed out of the mission because of it.

Also, the controls are quite bad - it suffers from the "Rockstar Claw" just like all their other releases. Overall, I want to enjoy this game, and I love the characters and the immersiveness of the world they've crafted, but the game containing the world is hard to play.

[w0rd-driven]

Rockstar Claw is fixed via the ‘Standard FPS’ setting with toggle to run. You click the left thumbstick once to jog and twice to sprint just like FPS games like COD. Pulling fully in a direction sprints and just barely touching it walks. I liked the change but it felt weird and I worried that I would just run off every cliff I came to.

[onlyfortoday2]

Rockstar have not innovated on their open world format

[mercer]

Why is it called 'Rockstar Claw'?

[ui-explorer12]

The newest Zelda is like that as well. I finished in a couple of weeks; my wife has been playing for almost a year and just finished the main quest. My daughter just enjoys exploring and cooking dishes with all the ingredients. The attention to detail at every level is what makes it work as a free-world. I'd argue this aspect is better than the traditional main-quest story line and execution, but the entire game is an amazing experience.

[freewilly1040]

I've never played a game that offered more enjoyment in simply moving around the world than in Zelda. Putting yourself in the headspace of climbing up mountains and paragliding for transportation is so fun.

[lancesells]

Slow and boring is what sold me on it as well. Early on I was getting frustrated with having a bounty on my head but I've learned how to avoid that (stop committing crimes). Now, I slowly explore the map and occasionally complete a mission to move the story forward.

[abledon]

I feel the Internet has quashed my enjoyment of single player games ... it’s like I gotta have a multiplayer competitive at all times , if a tree falls in the forest and no one hears , Meh who cares not fun haha

[frabert]

Interestingly, the Internet has quashed my enjoyment of multiplayer games: so many people are playing them, there's no chance I am going to be able to compete, given that I only play occasionally. When "multiplayer" meant "lan party" or "friends come together and play a skirmish" you actually had a chance, but now? Not so much.

I really prefer single player games with a nice story and an action that's not too hectic that I can enjoy at my own pace.

[barbecue_sauce]

As a debilitatingly asocial person (even online), I have the complete opposite position. I dislike the industry shift towards games that focus on multiplayer and sometimes don't even have a single-player mode.

[ajmurmann]

That is a shocking statement. You are there to hear the tree falling in the forest. Are you saying that your reason of playing video games is to get acknowledgement from others?

I find this shocking because it's incredibly in line with discussions and articles that claim that a large portion of younger men had been deprived by society from getting a sense of belonging and accomplishment and is now using video games as a bandaid for that.

[Invictus0]

It's a fair sentiment and I don't think you deserve to get downvoted for expressing it. Years ago when I still had an Xbox 360, I remember Microsoft had implemented a system where all of your friends would be able to see your in-game achievements on Xbox live, even in single player games. I'd actually say it goes even farther back to the days of arcades: sure, it's fun to play arcade games on your own, but really you just wanted to beat your friends' high scores.

[billfruit]

I don't feel that way about single player games, but I do find narrative based games less enjoyable than story-less games/story-poor games where the game play mechanisms are at the forefront: like Enter the Gungeon, the new XCOM, Prison Architect, Oxygen Not Included, KSP etc.

Games with stories and narratives feel like chores and are restrictive.

[Merad]

So your own enjoyment of a game is meaningless unless someone knows you're enjoying it? I suppose that's your prerogative, but it sounds like we play games for different reasons.

[TimesOldRoman]

I'm still on Witcher 3. Hopefully it will last until Cyberpunk 2077..

[pier25]

The other day I saw that hour long gameplay video 2077 and it was mesmerizing. I can't wait to play it, will probably even upgrade my PC just for that game, but OTOH the world looks so immersive and deep I fear that I'd need a couple of weeks off.

[pimeys]

Witcher 3 was the game that put me back to play games and I still love it and all its DLC. And after Witcher 3 game the new Zelda, which reimagined the whole idea of an open world adventure. Waiting for Cyberpunk 2077 now...

[noir_lord]

Check out no man's sky, since the Next update they've fixed all the missing stuff and it's brilliant, it's almost Zen gaming.

[nikofeyn]

red dead redemption was slow as well, but much better paced. at the time, it seems the tech and general style of red dead redemption made a strong departure from gta iv. the gunplay was very fun in my opinion in red dead redemption. the euphoria physics engine was really fantastic. when i got gta v, it was surprising how sluggish and clunky the gameplay was. it seems they didn't keep or integrate any of the tech from red dead redemption. maybe they did, but it wasn't noticeable. gta v was faster paced, particularly the driving, than gta iv, but the gunplay was still the same old. i was worried that red dead redemption 2 would follow more in the footsteps of gta v than red dead redemption, and that seems to have been the case. the gunplay in red dead redemption 2 is noticeably sloppier and more clunky than in red dead redemption 2.

i played red dead redemption for hundreds of hours, both in single player and in the online multiplayer, which was a blast. i haven't even finished red dead redemption 2, and have found myself very bored with the story and side missions. it's the same formula rockstar has used for years, and the AI is as superficial as ever. it can be a real slog riding around between missions. even though the guns look great, they and the aiming system is not as fun as red dead redemption.

[thirdsun]

If you enjoyed the slower pace I'd recommend Kingdome Come: Deliverance [1]. It doesn't have the same level of polish or the production values of a Rockstar game, but really surprised me with it's realistic, historic, non-magical setting that actually brought something new to the familiar table of open world RPGs.

[1] https://www.kingdomcomerpg.com