Red Dead Redemption II’s Design: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
I find Red Dead Redemption II frustrating. On the one hand it’s an unbelievably detailed and immersive world full of things to discover and experience, and on the other it’s a restrictive, hand-holding, constraining experience that punishes the player for thinking.
Rockstar Games seem to be torn between two types of gaming; one focused around a pre-determined story-telling experience with a focused mission structure telling a carefully constructed story. The other; allow gamers to play how they want and discover things for themselves, creating unique experiences for everyone.
Constantly switching between these two styles leads to a frustrating experience sending the player conflicting messages.
I will say many aspects of this game are incredible, and I have experienced some wonderful moments while playing. However, I can’t ignore this nagging feeling I get whenever I play Red Dead. I wanted to delve deeper and figure out what was causing this rift.
Before I focus on the problems, let’s start with something I love about Red Dead Redemption II (RDR2).
Some of the tutorial designs in Red Dead are good. Others are tedious and frustrating.
The Challenges
These challenges are arguably my favourite part of the game. You can unlock these simply by playing the game, no prompts required. This discoverability is a great way to teach the player in-game rules and mechanics.
I remember unlocking one set of challenges completely unprompted. It happened while I was fishing along a riverbank — one of the more sedate things you can do in a game about outlaws on the run.
I hooked a fish and started reeling it in. Upon catching it, a notification popped in saying I’d caught 1 of 3 Bluegill. A series of notifications started popping in on the top left of my screen saying I’d unlocked the Survivalist Challenges — I was intrigued. I continued fishing and after a while managed to catch the third Bluegill. Survivalist Challenge Level 1 complete. What’s the next challenge I wondered, eagerly awaiting the next task.
After unlocking a few more challenges I realised I had been shown an aspect of the game through my own actions. I was discovering elements of the game and how the world of Red Dead worked.
This is effective game design; showing how the game works through playing it. A show don’t tell approach.
The difficulty of each challenge escalates with each level you complete. There were times I was tempted to trawl the internet for quick solutions to some of the challenges. I resisted the temptation because I knew the reward was in achieving it all on my own.
Tutorials are fundamental to help ease the player into how a game works. If a tutorial can be invisible; teach the player as they play instead of pausing the game to read some text, then it’s done its job perfectly.
This is extremely difficult for AAA titles like RDR2 with complex mechanics and massive open worlds, so understandably some compromises have to be made.
Some of the tutorial designs in Red Dead are good. Others are frustrating.
While the challenges are an effective way of teaching the player how the game works, the constant stream of notifications feels like a lazy way of teaching the player.
This leads me on to an aspect of the game I think is out-dated and ultimately bad.
This method of teaching a player is, in my opinion, bad design.
The Tooltips
These have been a frustration of mine since Grand Theft Auto III. Every time you perform a new action in the game, a box would pop in the top left of your screen, accompanied with a sound effect and a some text explaining the new mechanic you just discovered. Sometimes, these would be several boxes appearing one after the other, each one with the same sound effect (which can get annoying).
This method of teaching a player is, in my opinion, bad design.
Every time a tooltip appears, your eyes are pulled from the game and you’re frantically reading instructions. This can break the flow of the game and ruin the immersion. My eyes shouldn’t be darting from the centre of the screen to the top left while in the middle of a gunfight.
Sometimes the game will repeatedly show the same instructions every time you performed a certain action. I noticed this whenever I picked up a health tonic. Each time a tooltip would appear to explain how they worked. I already knew how they worked as I’d been playing the game for several hours and had picked up hundreds of tonics before. The game however felt I needed reminding, again and again.
Every action the player could do was considered and allowed you to do those things, completely unprompted.
Exploration
Outside of the main story missions, this game wants you to explore. Rockstar state this in one of their trailers:
With so much to discover, the world feels huge. Rockstar put a lot of care into the details, accounting for the player’s actions and considering the consequences that could ensue.
For example, while travelling across the map you might encounter a prisoner who escaped a chain gang. You could shoot the ankle chain setting him free and in-turn he’ll reward you with a robbery tip. Alternatively, you could hogtie him and stow him on the back of your horse and take him to the nearest Sheriff’s office for a reward. Or, if really wanted to, you could do both; wait for him to reveal the information and then take him in.
This is excellent game design. Every action the player could do was considered, and you weren’t told what you could do. And if you did discover this option, you start to believe it’s possible in other situations.
Another time I stumbled upon a pig farm with a suspiciously welcoming man lounging on his porch. He invites you in to his home, you can accept, simply walk away, or shoot him dead.
The game doesn’t tell you anything. No prompts, no instructions, the choice is yours.
I was intrigued by the situation and headed in the house. I quickly became suspicious of the overly friendly man. I was tense, I didn’t know what to expect. The situation escalates to a point where you need to make a choice.
The game is teaching me I can make my own decisions. I’m free to choose.
These random encounters are excellent as you get to make the choice. That’s why I’m so confused about Rockstar’s approach to the core part of their game.
The game holds your hand through every step, in every mission.
The Main Missions
Overall these are a real disappointment. While a big portion of Red Dead rewards exploration and thinking for yourself, the main missions punish you for that same approach.
With each main mission, instructions will appear at the bottom of your screen. These tell you what to do, you don’t get to think. You must follow these instructions precisely otherwise you will fail the mission. The game holds your hand through every step, in every mission.
With every mission, you have to follow every instruction given to you. Want to try things from a different approach? You will fail the mission.
I hated this design.
Every time a new instruction appears, your eye instinctively looks at the bottom of the screen to see what you must do in order to progress. Ruining the game’s immersion.
I tried being creative in one mission and that was a mistake.
I was told ‘Sneak Into The Factory’ to interrogate the Foreman in his office upstairs. I saw a door to my right and a ladder leading up the side of the building to my left.
I thought “If I head through the door I’d have to walk through the factory floor full of workers who could spot me and alert the guards.”
“Bad idea” I thought, instead I chose to head up the stairwell and climb the ladder thinking I could sneak in via a window.
That was a stupid idea, Mission Failed. According to the game, the Foreman had been alerted even though I hadn’t been spotted.
I felt like I was being punished for thinking creatively.
On reloading the mission, I followed the instructions and went the way the game wanted me to. Mission Success, but it felt hollow. Do what you’re told. It must happen this way.
It feels like I’m playing two different games.
Medal Rankings
To add to my frustration, each main mission has a medal ranking for every completed mission; Gold, Silver or Bronze.
Missions will often have multiple factors that effect the ranking such as Complete the mission with 80% accuracy, Get 10 headshots and so on. This further stifles unique experiences between players as you’re being told; if you want gold ranking, you must do precisely these things.
Some missions are even as simple as go to a location to trigger cutscene. These missions will still have rankings applied to them but with only one factor; Complete the mission under a certain time. Why bother with this requirement? What does this do to enhance the experience? If anything, this took me out of the game.
Outside of the main missions, the game encourages exploration and patience. The main missions tell me to be running or galloping at all times to ensure you achieve gold ranking.
It feels like I’m playing two different games.
I experienced the same frustrations when playing Grand Theft Auto V, which also had the medal ranking system.
This is an old problem. As games have grown in popularity, developers have learnt players like to explore and discover. It offers a more immersive experience. Game design that teaches you how to play through discovery is becoming commonplace. Why are Rockstar, one of the most successful developers around, ignoring this trend?
Unfortunately, my issues with the game don’t end there.
All of a sudden my character went from friendly adventurer to complete psychopath.
The Button Mapping
The controls are inconsistent. The button for mounting your horse is also the same for throttling someone by the throat. So if you want to mount your horse and an NPC is next to you it’s almost a dice roll between climbing onto your horse or strangling some innocent bystander. Let the chaos ensue.
One morning as I rode through the wilderness I saw someone had fallen from their horse. I tried to help, got off my horse and greeted the injured women who asked for a ride into the nearest town. I tapped TRIANGLE to climb back on to my horse and help the women climb up but all of a sudden my character went from friendly adventurer to complete psychopath. He lunged forward and grabbed the woman by the throat. Suddenly witnesses are running to get the law and I now have a bounty on my head.
I was completely bewildered. All I wanted to do was get on my horse.
The button mapping is frustrating to say the least. If the design was consistent, there wouldn’t be a need to dart your eyes at the bottom of the screen every time to see what button prompt trigged which action, you would instinctively know which button to push.
This seems to be a trend with Rockstar’s games; darting your eyes to the corners of the screen rather than focusing on the game.
When you drive a car, you don’t need to look at the gear stick each time you want to change gear, you know which gear is where. That’s good mapping. But if the gear layout changed with each town you drove through, you’ll soon have an accident.
While Rockstar are setting the bar in many aspects of game design, they are falling behind in some of the most fundamental areas.
Just Shy of a Masterpiece
Red Dead Redemption II is an incredible game with many wonderful moments. Every gang member at your camp is fully fleshed out, with stories to tell and moments to share. The motion capture is unrivalled, the acting from the stellar cast is something I’ve never seen before.
But all these wonderful moments are soured by old design elements and frustrating mission design. While Rockstar are setting the bar in many aspects of game design, they are falling behind in some of the most fundamental areas.
I love playing video games, I enjoy what they have to offer. My intrigue into game design lead me to critique Rockstar’s games. I hope my opinions encourage a dialogue with other players and game developers. This is a game I truly admire, it’s a shame some aspects weren’t designed as well as I knew they could have been.
What are your thoughts, how has your experience differed from mine? Am I missing some aspects of the game that need to be mentioned? Let me know in the comments below.
