‘Red Dead Redemption 2’ is a sprawling game, and it’s easy to get overwhelmed. Here are 12 essential things to know before you start playing.
Red Dead Redemption 2 Credit: Rockstar Games
Red Dead Redemption 2 is out this evening, and for some people, it’s a followup eight years in the making. Rockstar’s new cowboy epic is many things, and if you want to know what I think about it, check out my review here. But it is, more than anything, gigantic. It is massive in terms of map size, systems, scope of story and everything in between. It can be overwhelming when you first boot it up, but that why I’m here to help.
If you’re buying the game tonight, here are some things to keep in mind before you play. These tips won’t be the whole world, but they should help you get some things in order.
Mind your horse: Your horse is life in Red Dead Redemption 2. Without it you’re nothing, just a heavily armed handsome cowboy with a gruff demeanor and a heart of gold. Okay, so you’re fine without your horse, but you still want to keep track of it, and you want to take care of it. If you go too far, make sure to whistle to keep it nearby. If you’re riding it, stick to the roads unless you’re in wide open country: it has a habit of running headlong into trees. Make sure to keep it clean with your brush and fed with oatcakes, and give it a pat to make sure you two stay close. Your horse is a mobile base of operations, and you don’t want to be far from it.
Mind Your Weapons: One of the biggest reasons you’ll want to keep your horse in shape and close by is because it also serves as your inventory. Off your horse you’ll only have access to two sidearms and two longarms at any given moment, but on your horse, you can choose whatever you please. The game has a weird habit of emptying your inventory, however, so every time you get of your horse, stand near the saddlebags and open your weapon wheel. Choose what you need for the task at hand and be on your way.
Mind yourself: You’ll notice that you have three « cores » in this game. You have a health core, a stamina core and a deadeye core. The meter on the outside of the icon tracks how much of each resource you have, but the core tracks how quickly they will recharge. The cores drain over time, and you’ll want to keep them in tip-top shape. If your health core is empty, your health will not regenerate.
You can do this with food in town or at camp, but you can also do this on the road just as easily, or even in combat. There’s something magical about pounding a full bottle of bourbon behind a rock before blowing a bunch of fools away, as well as something hilarious about hastily downing a can of beans in a firefight. Just keep an eye on them and make sure that everything is in order before embarking on a big fight.
Watch your step: Red Dead Redemption is not so fast and loose with the law and its sister series, Grand Theft Auto. You can be charged with disturbing the peace in this game: could you imagine being charged with disturbing the peace in GTA? Getting on someone else’s horse will cause trouble, pushing someone in the street will cause trouble, riding too fast and having an idiot civilian step out in front of your horse will cause big trouble. And when that happens you’ll more likely than not wind up with a bounty on your head, and you’ll need to pay that before using fast-travel and some other services.
So avoid that situation in the first place. If you’re in town especially, take care to keep the peace.
Red Dead Redemption 2 Credit: Rockstar Games
Shotguns, Shotguns, Shotguns: There are many weapons to use in this game, from revolvers to repeaters and a Mauser pistol. For everything but very long range, the correct weapon to use is almost always shotguns. They do high damage, they can take out many enemies in one hit, and they can more as less fire as fast as you want them to. They’re especially useful on horseback, and you’re on horseback a whole lot.
Don’t Forget About Dynamite: You get dynamite very early on the game, but it’s easy to forget about in a deluge of other systems. But remember that it’s there in the throwables section on your weapon wheel, and remember what it can do. A carefully, or even not-very-carefully placed stick can annihilate a bunch of enemies at once and generally help move things along.
Use Deadeye All The Time: Just like in Red Dead Redemption, your character can slow time with the « Deadeye » system to line up a bunch of shots before your enemies have time to react. Use this constantly, for two reasons. One, it can take out a bunch of enemies at once. Two, it’s awesome. And don’t feel restricted to headshots: oftentimes it makes more efficient use of the meter to just slam a few body shots and move on. So pound liquor and snake oil, chew tobacco and keep your meter up to make yourself the baddest gunslinger in the west.
Especially remember deadeye when hunting: I can’t imagine shooting birds and rabbits without it.
Upgrade your Weapons: Whenever you enter a new chapter in the game or get a fancy-looking new weapon, take care to visit the gunsmith. He can give you some nice engravings and cosmetic materials, but the real interest is under the « components » tab. Here you can add rifling and better sights to your weapon, increasing range and target aquisition. There’s no reason not to do this with every weapon you use, and it’s not all that expensive.
Don’t Bother Upgrading the Camp: The camp is ostensibly your home base, a place to rest your head and chat with the other members of your band of renegades. As such you can donate money to its coffers for various upgrades both comsetic and functional. I wouldn’t really recommend doing this. For one thing, there isn’t even fast travel that takes you to the camp, and so it’s a lot less accessible than the game’s main towns. For another, the gang is a pessimistic bunch. The story starts grim and continues in that vein, and putting nice leather covers on the tables feels a little like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.
All the items you can get at camp can be acquired elsewhere in the game more conveniently and without that kind of baggage. Let them fend for themselves.
Don’t Organize Your Entire Life Around Stew Consumption: In camp there is a stew that you can ostensibly eat to recover your health cores, and you can also pay for an upgrade that adds a deadeye boost.
