When Side Tasks Rule

Red Dead Redemption 2 has been ruling my gaming world.  I've spent hours and hours traversing the massive, open world of the old American West.  Have I finished the story?  Haha....not even remotely close.  Rather than focus on the story missions, Arthur Morgan has been spending the bulk of his time on a mission to hunt (and now fish) across the entire region.  Tracking down legendary critters requires travelling to the far reaches of the map, finding clues related to the animal in question, and then tracking down and slaying it.  There's a part of me that feels a bit sad about killing the amazing, majestic creatures (and, as a side task hunting is purely optional) but slaying legendary beasts provides materials for trinkets (or talismans) which provide benefits for Arthur.  Another side benefit of skinning the beasts is that you can sell the hides and use them to craft themed outfits for Arthur.  The outfits are purely cosmetic, but offer the ability to mold Arthur into a true character of the old West.  Some of the outfits are a bit ridiculous--I have no desire for Arthur to roam around with a ridiculous bear head hat or a giant grenadiers cap.  Cobbling together one of these custom outfits is no mean feat--besides requiring the skins of the legendary beasts, they also require perfect skins from various critters scattered throughout the world.  I'm not sure I have the resilience to hunt down all the required animals.

One aspect of hunting that I'm really questioning is the fact that many of the crafting tasks require materials from non-wild creatures and instead aim you to killing farm animals (pigs, goats, cows, etc.).  It feels a bit weird to have to intrude on a farm and slay its livestock.  I wish there was a way that Arthur could buy the hides of these farm animals from butchers rather than having to slay and skin them himself.

It's a beautiful world in RDR2.

Mostly, I'm having a good time with RDR2.  The world is absolutely amazing and while I've been sending Arthur on his legendary animal hunts, I've also made it a point to try to explore various places scattered around the map.  In true Rockstar form, there are some unique (and weird) stories attached to these places.  I found a remote cabin with a hole in the roof and a circle of mutilated inhabitants sitting around a crater in the floor--what the actual hell?  Some minor exploring revealed that a meteor had crashed into the cabin and killed the unfortunate group of settlers.  I also found the 19th century version of the Heaven's Gate cult in a cabin filled with skeletons and the eerie glow of a passing UFO.

There are parts of the game though that conflict with other parts of the game.  One part that I'm questioning is the morality meter.  You can choose how Arthur reacts to certain situations in the open world or in the story--for example, strangers might ask Arthur for help or present a situation that could potentially be financially beneficial (opposing gang members holding up a wagon or train are ripe for attack and claiming the fruits of their misdeeds for yourself).  Arthur scores "honorable" points for helping people...but to me, that part of the game feels weird.  Arthur is a member of an outlaw gang--the story (so far....which I'm not very far) revolves around the gang robbing and stealing from various entities.  Arthur's a "good," bad guy?  It's strange and I'm curious if it's going to have an impact on the story later on.  I always lean toward the "honorable" side of things.  I've also been confused by how morality works in relation to looting--looting the corpses of hostile gang members is fine, but looting the bodies of strangers will result in "bandit" points.  It's odd.

Another set of side tasks that have been mildly distracting are the challenges.  Challenges require you to complete a certain set of skilled tasks and reward Arthur with unique gear.  I was focusing on the gambler challenge, but I don't find the side games to be overly engaging so I don't know how much more I will accomplish--I'm at the point where I'm supposed to get three people to bust out of three separate poker games.  Other challenges have been easier to accomplish--the horseman tasks have been fairly straightforward.

Speaking of horses, one irritant I encountered was a weird experience with my horse.  I was completing a bounty and was attacked by some other bounty hunters.  In the process of trying to escape them and gun them down, my horse, Fred, was shot and downed.  I managed to kill off the remaining bounty hunters and used some horse reviver on Fred to get him back on his feet, but oddly, a few minutes later I failed the mission because I had acquired a wanted level (a witness riding by witnessed the shootout with the bounty hunters).  When the game reloaded it was after the point where I had slain the bounty hunters, but I was on an unnamed, random horse!  Fred had disappeared into the ether (he wasn't in the stables either).  Although Fred wasn't some super rare type of horse, I was still a bit irritated at the situation (but instead have focused on finding and breaking other types of horses).

Black Belle offers to pose for a quick photo.

One of my favorite side tasks so far has been tracking down former gunslingers to try to get them to share information about Jim Calloway (the fastest left-handed gunslinger in the West).  Mostly these former gunslingers aren't cooperative and you get to have the enjoyable experience of quickdraw shootouts with them.  Only one of them has been cooperative--the lady gunslinger "Black Belle," who offers to help you if you help her in a massive shootout with bounty hunters who are after her head.  She's quite a character and has rigged her swamp hideout with strategically placed dynamite which can be used to explode any bounty hunters who get a bit too close.  I helped her fend off the waves of bounty hunters and escape and she let me snap a goofy picture for the author of the book about Calloway (Calloway seems like an idiot from the small amount of information that these individuals shared prior to being gunned down).

It's back to the old West grindstone for me.  I'm going to be spending more of my time in RDR2 on a new legendary challenge--fishing!  The story can wait for there are fish to be caught.