Red Dead Redemption 2 is critically-acclaimed and incredibly successful, but that doesn’t mean it’s universally beloved.
Try not to be shocked, but Red Dead Redemption 2 isn’t a perfect game that every single person in the world loves. Some people think it’s too slow, some people don’t like some of the side missions, and some just straight up don’t like the game. All of those opinions are certainly valid.
However, there is one group of gamers who feel that some of Red Dead 2‘s problems are more than an opinion. In fact, they are making the compelling argument that Red Dead Redemption 2 should be fixed via a patch.
It’s an interesting argument that is based on the idea of what Rockstar intended to do with the game and which problems are unintentional.
For instance, gunfights in Red Dead feel…off. The game is clearly trying to encourage a slower style of action, but the problem is that the process of aiming and moving your gun in Red Dead feels clunky. Even adjusting the game’s settings doesn’t really alleviate the problem.
There are more, similar problems. The skinning animation takes forever and is unskippable. There’s no way to fast travel to your camp (which you must return to quite often). Some interfaces require unnecessary extra steps. The joy of horse riding can be greatly affected by the average speed of animals, how easy it is to run into objects, and other pathfinding issues.
Also Read: Red Dead Redemption 2: Side Quest, Upgrade, and Combat Tips
Many of these problems aren’t necessarily bugs, glitches, and other things that will often be fixed via updates. Instead, a lot of these problems are issues with the design of the game. Normally, such things aren’t really fixed in this style of game. In any case, Rockstar hasn’t usually “fixed” these issues via a single-player update.
However, you really have to wonder if they’re willing to make an exception in this instance. First off, a lot of these problems are (theoretically) easily fixed via a series of updates. You can add a skip button for certain animations (including looting which really needs a kind of “take all” option), certain menus can be trimmed down, and various little problems can be ironed out.
The question is whether or not Rockstar is going to bother with any of this. Some will argue that some of these issues are design decisions that Rockstar shouldn’t feel forced to patch just because they got a negative reception. Others state that the fact we have technology that allows a creator to perfect their work post-release means that creators shouldn’t hesitate to do so.
What it might come down to is whether or not there is enough of a negative reception to some of these problems. Sadly, it might also be a matter of whether or not some of these issues impact the game’s multiplayer (which, if it’s anything like GTA V, will be regularly updated). That last argument might be why the game’s combat eventually gets smoothed a bit.
As for issues like having to walk super slow through camp for apparently no reason…well, it’s not clear whether Rockstar is going to bother to fix these “issues” or call them “features.”
