Returning to Red Dead Redemption 2

yeah whatever New York City is one of

the most popular populated places on

planet Earth Time Square Central Park or

Zaza City oh sorry you can immediately

clock it and say boom okay that's New

York we are in New York right now this

is such a random New York moment oh my

God it's impossible to count how many

pieces of media take place in the

biggest apple let alone just video games

but one game one very special game that

I still think about a lot a game that

had a big city impact on my delicate

small town frame is Grand Theft Auto 4

I'm one of the many insane people that

actively choose to live in this giant

rat hole of a city and GTA 4 is a big

reason for that get the I am obsessed

with the scope and detail of the

architecture the super dramatic lighting

the blea compact The Psychotic physics

engine and the craziest part actual New

York feels a lot like that well not the

physics engine part but how did Rockstar

do that how did they condense the

atmosphere of this massive City onto a

single Xbox 360 DVD while still having

it possess that intangible how you say

Jenny sequa that's that's not even GTA 4

that's Halo 5 that singular question

defines what I love the most about

Rockstar Games games and I think it's

why I keep making like a billion videos

about them Rockstar's game design is

outdated might forever be the most

viewed thing on my channel and I am very

okay with that I'm really proud of that

video and I stand by just about

everything I brought up including but

not limited to the busted ass wanted

system and a series of incredibly linear

missions that treat you like a child

with no brain or functioning thumbs but

at the same time Red Dead 2 has been

squatting in my abandoned mind cottage

for the better part of the past 6 years

and I think it's because I also stand by

other things I said like how this game

has some of the best writing of any

piece of fiction I've ever consumed and

that it looks and sounds like God much

like how GTA 4 captures the distinct

feeling of being in New York Dead 2

captures Jenny Bayan qua for the

American wilderness that I personally

know while also capturing something so

beyond what I could ever know that push

and pull of loving something so much yet

being so frustrated by it this game had

to be more than just a busted wanted

system or thumbless child simulator

right Blu-ray discs are big as hell and

this game came on two of them so you bet

your ass they could fit a lot of real

estate on these Hogs after revisiting

this Titanic game this time powered by

my Titanic computer which is in turn

powered by six Titanic Sega Dreamcast in

a human centipede type formation I'd

love to share with you what I discovered

while returning to Red Dead Redemption

[Music]

2

okay Red Dead Redemption 2 Remains the

most beautiful game I have ever seen and

that surprised no one everything about

the art design is straight up surgical

the insane level of detail that grazes

every millimeter of this colossal map

the precise historical authenticity that

touches even the dinki of objects the

romanticized dream realism that somehow

drenches everything in the most

beautiful lighting at all times it has

and will continue to blow my back out

watching a long ass GDC talk about how

much work went into just the horses the

horse animations alone had me like two

more videos about horses from becoming a

horse girl but oh my God playing on PC

made me never want to look at a PS4

again get out of my room Sony

Pony this game doesn't only somehow look

even better but it feels feels way

better too there's still a considerable

amount of input delay when doing

anything just cuz that's how Rockstar

intended like you're puppeteering a

hefty bag of Flesh and Bones versus

flicking around a super responsive super

soldier but a high frame rate helps a

lot to make just about every interaction

feel smoother side note the fact that

they still haven't released any sort of

nextg update for PS5 that does like 4K

60 even after they've already

re-released GTA 5 and did the same thing

is a straight up

felony

hi I'm Jakey Jakey and Jakey attor atw

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every day I Stray further and further

from the path of righteousness I haven't

seen my family in seven anyways uh I

think I think he was I think he was

saying something now because this is on

PC now and I've already played this game

a ton my devious white ass was

immediately like okay is there a mod to

skip the longest intro screen known to

man cuz booting this game up takes

forever and then I saw it I saw the

massive list of other mods available and

much like a very gaslit romantic partner

I softly whispered to myself I can fix

him I knew I wouldn't ever be able to

change how restrictive and boring so

many of the game's linear missions were

that [ __ ] was set in stone but what if I

could address all of the other issues I

had outside of the missions and this is

when Mommy went off the deep end loot

everything fast as [ __ ] buy a house rob

a bank spin your gun crazy hair crazy

ragd dolls dog companion after

installing so many different mods mods

to try and fix the inconsistently broken

wanted system mods to fix how busted the

in-game economy is mods that let me

fight the annoying ass kids in Sandy I

stopped myself I was doing too much I

realized that if the purpose of this

experiment was to revisit and reevaluate

a piece of art I should probably try to

keep it in its originally intended pure

vanilla state right totally totally yes

totally yes um but also maybe I keep a

few of

[Music]

them okay so Arthur has three speeds

right walking running by holding a and

full mashing a sprinting there's no

middle ground between crawling and

blasting off so navigating tight SPAC is

always annoyed the piss out of me but

let me also just say this per chance

there is already an in between speed

that exists in the game but only when

you're fast walking around Camp fast

walking outside of camp lets you use

that brisk walk anywhere you want I know

this may not sound like that big of a

deal but oh my God if you have played

the game as much as I have you know that

this is actually kind of a huge deal

Arthur felt so much easier to Puppeteer

once I had the option to move just a bit

more urgently moving around combat

Arenas and not having to either slowly

walk or sloppily Sprint in between cover

even leading your horse around feels so

much better and I did it way more now

that I didn't have to Tiptoe Through The

Window shout out to corvo for making

this mod it caused like zero issues with

my playthrough and it's actually

incredible on controller you could still

do the slow walk you just half press the

mouse and keyboard you can use the push

to talk button and toggle between the

two walks you guys are Gamers you'll

figure it out okay so in general this

game heavily leans into a more grounded

Vibe with all of its realistic

animations right cooking a steak one by

one opening a cabinet drawer by drawer

slowly skinning an animal with an

unskippable animation and then slow

walking its massive Pelt to your horse

it's very clear that Rockstar really

wants you to slow down and truly feel

like you're living in Arthur's custom

crafted immersive moccasin 350s but a

big thing I complained about before is

that when it comes to other things like

the weather or your portable Camp the

game just goes realism Frost my ass I

hate her I don't I don't don't [ __ ]

know her 90% of the time it doesn't

really matter what clothes you're

wearing unless you go up into the snowy

mountain section part of the map you can

essentially go the majority of the game

wearing the same outfit whether it's 90°

in the swampy south or 45° in the Dakota

comma South I remember this felt like

such a missed opportunity because the

outfit crafting in this game is actually

Immaculate and you can pair layers with

other layers to achieve in theory

varying layers of warmth but again the

vanilla game doesn't really do much with

any of this humidity and temperature

overhaul by Bowman 70 fixes all of that

the middle symbol on this new core

changes color when you're not optimally

dressed for the current weather and if

you're not optimally dressed it will

slowly start to drain your health and

stamina cords this could mean needing

more layers of warmth in the chilly

Woods versus wearing less layers in the

soupy swamp the outside ring is your

current resistance to any harsh weather

so putting on a hat to Shield yourself

from beaming sunlight or hard rain

strengthens the ring regardless of what

you're wearing though if you get caught

in the storm your clothes are going to

get wet and that ring is going to drain

no matter what but going into a warm

interior to find shelter or standing

near any sort of heat Source actively

changes your temperature and heats your

ring back up this mod automatically

turns off during missions so that it

doesn't cause any problems too which is

great but in the open world it feels

like such a natural immersive addition

to the existing realism formula that

Rockstar was already going with that I

seriously can't imagine playing the game

without it now watching a storm from

inside your tent feels way more cozy and

grounded and immersive when the Rin

actually has an effect on the player and

speaking of camp

I hated how the vanilla Camp system

worked back in 2018 and it still Frost

my ass I hated how it automatically

teleported you to a predestined location

I hated how the rain did not affect your

ability to make a fire I hated how

sensitive the perimeters were of when

and where you could spawn your magic

teleporting camp the camp anywhere mod

does not fix all of these issues but it

certainly validates a lot of my

complaints and desires it's exactly what

it sounds like a custom menu that lets

you spawn either your whole camp or

individual elements of a camp wherever

you want want oh you found the most

gorgeous view and you want to put your

tent in that exact spot talk your [ __ ]

arur oh you want to build a fire right

by a frozen lake while you're fishing so

that you can immediately cook any giant

fishies that you catch without having to

teleport away to an entire Camp just to

cook them and also standing next to the

fire is in perfect Synergy with the

weather mod I was just talking about

what the hell this is the best day of my

life I think you get why I love this mod

so much camp anywhere makes exploring

this [ __ ] beautiful Majestic world

just a tad more engaging because it's

one more choice that the player gets to

make make for themselves a choice

capable of creating magical emergent

moments that feel so much more personal

pitching your horse to any tree is a

feature that is already in the game so

picking a specific spot to settle down

with your precious boy or girl feels

Supernatural but again this mod is not

perfect dude camp anywhere really said

camp anywhere for better or worse hey

this is my genuine

reaction I didn't I didn't know that

guys would actually get into your tent

that's that's incredible I can see how

Rockstar landed on the solution they did

of having pre-selected places for the

player to set up their Camp to avoid

Shenanigans like this but I still think

a middle ground definitely could have

been achieved at least like letting you

manually place down a fire or a bed roll

in way more places I'm not saying you

even got to chop wood or anything to

make a fire even though that's already

kind of in the game too jk LOL LOL I'm

sorry I'm

sorry but am I sorry sadly the campfires

built using this mod can't ever have the

grill attachment that you can get that

lets you cook like the oregano special

meat and it doesn't let you fast travel

like the vanilla portable Camp does now

if you upgrade to have fast travel at

the main gangs Camp which that was not

in the game originally and is an amazing

addition and also it makes upgrading the

gang's Camp actually matter a bit more

now because before if you upgraded it

and you got fast travel it's like cool I

can fast travel from the camp but you're

still having to go back there all the

time if you played the game you know

what I'm talking about but shout out to

cross 99 for making this mod if you see

this and you could pretty please somehow

add the grill and the Fast Travel

function to this mod I'll name my

firstborn cross 99 and it'll pick and

roll my ass and cross me up and break my

cankles you may have noticed that I'm

wearing a lot of stuff that says ball

creative or ball or has you know some

[ __ ] on the back or something that's

because it's my new company that I

started it's basically the creative

umbrella for all future creative

projects whether that's music or videos

or merch or uh eventually and not

anytime soon don't get your hopes up but

video games if you're

[Music]

interested okay real quick one more mod

is selling guns by Bullman 70 Jesus

Christ this guy is really crushing the

mod game Rockstar updated the game to

have a weapon Locker at the main Camp

which is amazing because now you can

finally organize the billions of guns

but Arthur can sometimes still pick up

guns that you can't then put into the

weapon Locker so they just get stuck in

your inventory and it's annoying as [ __ ]

with the mod you can go up to this guy

and sell whatever guns you want and just

get them out of your inventory and it's

amazing okay mod mods mods we get it bro

you're a Discord kitten manager get on

with it clearly these mods were a very

important part of my return trip and

improved my experience by base boosting

mechanics that were already in the game

but really they were the Catalyst to

truly enjoy and Savor all of the things

that the game has already possessed

since 2018 what it started as I can fix

him eventually turned into he can fix

me

[Music]

I played the everliving [ __ ] out of this

game back when it dropped in 2018 just

like everyone else did and even with all

of the complaints that I had that you

know I ended up making that video about

I still had a pretty good time but

admittedly I think my frustration with

the extremely linear missions and

inconsistent open world overshadowed a

lot of that joy to be found because good

God the second time around Arthur's tail

hit hit me harder than a fully loaded

F250 extended cab I think the simplest

way to distill my change in perspective

is that this game doesn't really want

you to think but it really wants you to

feel 95% of the mission objectives could

not be more Mindless and handh holdy

even if they tried and honestly I get it

this $400 million-ish dollar game was

not made just specifically for me and

that's fine this game was made to be as

accessible as possible to the largest

audience as possible so that it could

sell a billion trillion copies as

possible this isn't Hitman or Dark Souls

bro Joe Rogan knows what this game is

you think he gives a [ __ ] about

nonlinearity and Ludo narrative

dissonance like unless Arthur Morgan

suddenly knows jiujitsu I highly fuing

doubt it when I stopped looking at this

game as a series of flawed systems and

more as just an opportunity to truly

play pretend as Arthur Morgan something

magical happened I camped behind a water

fall while sipping coffee I studied

every animal and hunted for perfect

pelts I tailored and crafted outfits for

every kind of temperature I obsessed

over Arthur's beautiful handwriting and

sketches by the light of my campfire

because good God the journal is so

[ __ ] cool it's one of the coolest

things Rockstar has ever done the way

Arthur Recaps certain events using his

unique perspective is a genius addition

and a heartbreaking portal into this

man's troubled soul I led my horse

through town greeting everyone I saw but

also sometimes doing greet greet and

then antagonize because it is so goddamn

funny honestly I was pretty off Bas with

my comparison to New Vegas or other RPGs

with the Greet antagonized system

because that fully undersold just how

entertaining and immersive it can be

howdy howdy that's a fine horse you got

there appreciate it how long you've been

married now you best shut your big bazoo

I made deliberate choices in combat to

create the most cinematic moments I

could and man I did not give the combat

it's due respect the first time around

because with just the little work this

[ __ ] can actually be so goddamn fun turn

off the lock on and aim assist to make

managing your Dead Eye actually matter

and the combat is more akin to max pain

3 than anything else a game that I have

never played and don't even like at all

so take that then rewind it

back power to the players got the power

Mak your booty go crack also last mod

I'm going to talk about I promise this

time P damage overhal is great if you're

an expert gamer looking for an actual

challenge enemies are no longer bullet

sponges and die faster in more varied

ways depending on the type of ammo that

you use but also you die way faster and

it makes combat way more tense in

resources like food and healing tonics

actually matter now but also story NPCs

die way faster now too so that kept

happening and I had to like crank their

health up in the inii File Expert

[ __ ] Geek Squad [ __ ] but it

definitely made combat more engaging if

that sounds like your cup of tea knowing

the exact fate of the Dutch vanderlin

gang made me want to play this game with

so much more intention I engaged in as

many Camp conversations as I could

wanting to fully explore the depths of

these layered characters and all of

their intricate relationships there are

so many thoughtfully scripted

interactions that I had just completely

missed the first time around with the

departure of Rockstar co-founder and

Lead writer Dan Hower I am definitely

rooting for GTA 6 to still have the most

interesting well-written story that it

possibly can but if I was a betting man

I think Red Dead 2 will likely go down

as Rockstar's Opus when it comes to

narrative because it's not even just the

writing and performances of the main

cast who all knock it out of the park

but even random NPCs and strangers will

have conversations with Arthur that will

just completely rip your heart out I

started treating the missions in this

game as more of a great TV show that I

want to binge versus some super

stimulating gameplay experience I'm

never going to stop wishing that the

outdated and severely restrictive

Mission design was way more interesting

but that also doesn't mean that they're

all necessarily bad to experience

largely because of the goddamn

soundtrack this goddamn soundtrack I

wish I could use it in this video

without getting copyright claimed I know

I mentioned how good it is back in 2018

at least a little bit but dude it is not

just good it is like consistently

perfect the way the game starts

incorporating themes from the first game

during the epilogue with John will make

a grown man spit up like a baby in the

Nashville Tennessee rain and that's one

of the most impressive things about the

this game is how it not only makes the

story of the first Red Dead hit that

much harder like a fully loaded extended

cab F250 but simultaneously kind of

blows it out of the water I remember

when the second trailer for Red Dead 2

dropped and so many people myself

included were like uh who's this square

jaw Gruff [ __ ] eating soup I

want to play as John where's John we

want John we want John we want joh dude

like in a trolley problem type beat John

is so dead before the train I'll shoot

him before the train even comes like

there's not even a conversation to be

had and I love JN I love his story in

Red Dead 1 I love his performance I love

his character growth in Red Dead 2 but

Arthur is just simply that compelling I

know I had said before that he's my

favorite protagonist in any Rockstar

game but dude no he's my favorite

protagonist in any video game period

just ever other than the [ __ ] uh

bird an Angry Bird not to say that

everything is perfectly consistent as

far as video game narratives go the Ludo

narrative dissonance can sometimes be a

little strong with this game not as bad

as something like The Last of Us Part

Two because come on you're a gang of

Outlaws of course you do awful [ __ ] like

kill people but you spend so much of

your final moments just absolutely

mowing down with a G like literally one

of the missions with a Gatling gun

largely innocent armymen and policemen

and then the heartfelt music montage is

like you're a good man Arthur and it's

like what if this guy had tuberculosis

what if this guy had a wife and kids

obviously I'm mostly

kidding but they could they could have a

little touch of the TB I bring that up

only because for so much of the story

Arthur's Redemption Arc especially when

playing with high honor is beautifully

done and does not shy away from the fact

that he is a killer the amount of things

that changed depending on your honor

level was however really surprising to

uncover I still think how the honor

system works is kind of dumb and gy as

hell like you can murder entire towns

but then just grind greeting every

single person for a while to get your

honor back up which makes total sense

that saying hi to someone will redeem

your sin of train tracking his neighbor

the broad Strokes of the story remain

the same regardless of your honor level

but it's the little dialogue changes and

special encounters and subtle

differences and things like the dead

eyee sound effect that actually really

surprised me nothing you do as the

player is ever going to Al the fate of

our doomed protagonist but having your

actions as the player give a different

context to important moments for example

during the epilog when John sad and

Charles choose to go after Micah if you

had high honor with Arthur Charles says

this we owe this to Arthur you think

Arthur cared about revenge I'm not so

sure especially not at the end he cared

about stopping Mah and that's what we're

doing and if you had low honor with

Arthur Charles says this we owe this to

Arthur Revenge that might be something

he could have understood this ain't just

Revenge it's about stopping the man

noting that hey my Arthur truly thought

that Revenge was a Fool's game and died

honorably with a renewed perspective on

life and my Arthur might not agree with

Jon's somewhat Reckless choice to pursue

Revenge while endangering his family

just do one thing or the other don't try

to be two people at once Jack sepai said

that to me in an email you could argue

that if John didn't go with sad and

Charles then those two would probably

die and that going with them was

actually The Honorable choice but it is

strongly implied in the credits that the

events on the mountain with Dutch and

Micah began a chain reaction that caused

the events of Red Dead Redemption one

the Pinkerton would probably find and