Red Dead Redemption

 

Obsessed with this eye patch for some peculiar reason.

At long last I have played through Red Dead Redemption's main story. Inept me gave up too quickly on my first effort but I always intended to try again. If I worried that RDR would be a disappointing step down from RDR2, I shouldn't have. This game holds up. I even managed to become utterly confused for a minute during one session start. "Why am I in New Austin?" "What is John wearing?" "Why is everything so crisp and detailed?" "Ohhhh I have started the wrong game." 

Playing RDR2 first probably made it easier for me. I enjoyed a little simpler control scheme and game systems. Fear of never leaving McFarlane ranch caused me to set the mode to casual. To compensate I played with the mini map off most of the time. I never, ever knew what was going on and the results were usually hiliarious. I bought a lot of property in the hopes John would respawn somewhere remotely close to where he last expired. 

All the way through, I kept thinking about how I would have reacted to the story without playing RDR2 first. Advance knowledge of John's history made some conversations hit hard. Especially some cracks Dutch made about Abigail. I found John's interactions with the Pinkerton agents the most conflicting. They do take pleasure in provoking him and I probably would have hated them. I can't say that I liked them but I kept thinking about how many Pinkertons the van der Linde gang killed. They were never going to forgive that. It's one thing to hear them say it but it's another to have participated in it.

It was fun meeting new characters and situations in familiar territory and checking out the construction projects that were unfinished in the prequel. I was quite excited the first time I looked across the river at Mexico. Once over there I tried to steal the Strange Man's mule but the game wouldn't let me.

I definitely will not be making a horse compendium. Mounts are one aspect that works quite differently and the game is pre the everyone is a creator era. I have enough other unfinished projects and I'm not even going to attempt full completion of the game. I'm sated and happy.