I loved the graphics, the fidelity, and the physicalisation of entities in RDR2, but the combat mechanics are completely broken. And since combat makes up a large portion of the gameplay, having broken combat makes the game a slog.
For instance, you cannot have always-run on when engaged in combat. So if you get ambushed Arthur/John starts to walk slowly away as you attempt to move out of danger, forcing you to have to rapidly tap 'A'/'X' to try to get away. Even if you turn on always-run they still don't run during combat.
You also get stuck on a ton of geometry, and unlike GTA IV or GTA V, the characters for some reason do not climb over objects using systematic inverse kinematics, so you can sometimes find yourself fighting guys in a forest and then trying to move to cover and getting stuck on branches or debris. It's amateurish that they somehow didn't consider this.
The aiming and hip-firing is also very clunky, so the shootouts neither feel cinematic nor fluid. And they also reduced the AI reactions, so they do not dynamically react the way they do in GTA IV. So it's not like you can shoot a guy in the knee and then he falls on the ground, tries to crawl to cover and begs for his life like in GTA IV (which is still one of the coolest features in a game that no other game has replicated).
It's amazing to me that they have Max Payne 3 in their developmental repertoire, which has some of the best third-person movements in a third-person shooter, and Max moves extremely fluid and the hip-firing feels really fun in that game, yet RDR2 is the complete opposite of that, with clunky, stiff controls, and horrible combat movements. It just didn't make any sense to me why the combat is the way it is. If it were a horror game or a slow-paced thriller, I could see why they might make it that way (like in LA Noire), but for RDR2 it just made combat encounters a real slog (especially that they wouldn't let you keep axes/hatchets equipped after you kill someone; auto-switching off of the melee weapons means you cannot go on axe killing sprees, which is dumb, too).
I loved the graphics, the fidelity, and the physicalisation of entities in RDR2, but the combat mechanics are completely broken. And since combat makes up a large portion of the gameplay, having broken combat makes the game a slog.
For instance, you cannot have always-run on when engaged in combat. So if you get ambushed Arthur/John starts to walk slowly away as you attempt to move out of danger, forcing you to have to rapidly tap 'A'/'X' to try to get away. Even if you turn on always-run they still don't run during combat.
You also get stuck on a ton of geometry, and unlike GTA IV or GTA V, the characters for some reason do not climb over objects using systematic inverse kinematics, so you can sometimes find yourself fighting guys in a forest and then trying to move to cover and getting stuck on branches or debris. It's amateurish that they somehow didn't consider this.
The aiming and hip-firing is also very clunky, so the shootouts neither feel cinematic nor fluid. And they also reduced the AI reactions, so they do not dynamically react the way they do in GTA IV. So it's not like you can shoot a guy in the knee and then he falls on the ground, tries to crawl to cover and begs for his life like in GTA IV (which is still one of the coolest features in a game that no other game has replicated).
It's amazing to me that they have Max Payne 3 in their developmental repertoire, which has some of the best third-person movements in a third-person shooter, and Max moves extremely fluid and the hip-firing feels really fun in that game, yet RDR2 is the complete opposite of that, with clunky, stiff controls, and horrible combat movements. It just didn't make any sense to me why the combat is the way it is. If it were a horror game or a slow-paced thriller, I could see why they might make it that way (like in LA Noire), but for RDR2 it just made combat encounters a real slog (especially that they wouldn't let you keep axes/hatchets equipped after you kill someone; auto-switching off of the melee weapons means you cannot go on axe killing sprees, which is dumb, too).