Some impressions based on my 30% completion rate.
- Controls, of course. I don't get the needless multilayering of the control scheme where a single layer would have sufficed. For instance, object/item interaction involves at least 2 buttons while interactions with NPCs require you to hold a button before you can interact with them. At one point, I got off my horse to help a woman and the next thing I see is Arthur choking her, presumably because I had pressed the NPC interaction and the horse dismount button together (or pressed it multiple times) - which turned out to be a combination for a threatening interaction in that case. It's hard to get hold of the controls after a long way into the game because their scope and context is not well defined. I don't think this is due to the limitation of the controller per se because other games have done it better. For instance, I've never faced this problem in The Witcher 3 which involves all sorts of interactions and multilayered buttons because the context is well defined and there is no needless complication. As for input lag, I haven't had a problem in that regard yet, so that's not my complaint. The controls being heavy and overly animated is a deliberate choice R* made for realism and I guess it is something you just love or hate. The animations indeed feel real but sometimes they do get in the way of controls, as when you have to reposition yourself or the camera to face an object or the animations getting a little edgy before Arthur responds to your call for cover, etc. There's only so much you can do for realism in controls and it comes at the cost of convenience and comfort. I for one am not too bothered by realism in controls but considering most other games, I guess most gamers would be bothered. With that said, Arthur feels usually heavy even for realism. I mean a normal person can walk faster than him. They could have allowed him to brisk walk depending on how much you move the analog stick. Moving Arthur around the camp is like moving a cargo. You see the person or place you want to go to in sight but somehow you aren't getting there. There have been times when I wanted to do something in the camp but instead I took the horse and rode out because I didn't want to move Arthur's black hole of a body. His movement is okay outside the camp and other indoor places.
- Gunplay. The same old GTA stuff which isn't good in GTA either. Aiming is slow and too heavy (realism again?) - something that might make sense if you hand over a rifle to a rookie but not when we are talking about a pro outlaw. It does get fast though when you auto-aim and the cursor magically lands on enemies. It is as if the game wants you to play with auto-aim on but then does not do a good enough job at it because how the auto-aim functions is not realistic at all. Regardless, there's little to no recoil in your aim and it is sometimes difficult to spot enemies unless you have auto-aim on, which basically helps you staple bullets to enemies given how the cursor moves. If I replace the gunplay and aiming mechanics with Uncharted, Fallout, or even Mafia III to take a relevant open world example, I can easily see how the gameplay becomes much better and fun to play without really losing much (or anything) on realism. Since I'm playing in the first person, I can hardly tell when Arthur takes cover unless I point my weapon and he takes it out to aim - so that's how I've to make sure I'm in cover. I don't know if a mandatory third person camera would have helped in cover but it is problem at times. The worst thing is fighting on a horse. I'm playing in the first person moving the camera all around to take out enemies and bam, my horse gives a headbutt to the tree and both of us are on the ground. At other times, the horse stops moving while I'm fighting on the run because I'm not pressing the gallop button while aiming and shooting (how much can a man do?!). There I'm surrounded by enemies, trying to make the horse run again before starting to shoot again. All the while I was moving the analog stick forward and wished it was enough to make the horse run (and possibly follow the mission route), at least during the gunfights. I got better at it but still, it demands a lot of needless work and takes away from the fun of horseback shooting. Another nuisance is that you have to equip your weapons everytime you leave the horse when it would have been better if you could permanently equip a preferred set of weapons while other weapons were stacked on your horse. At one point I had two horses (permanent and temporary) and I wanted to change my horse but the game wouldn't let me mount the other one. Apparently, I'd have to take the new horse to stables before I could do that.
Ok, now the good part. It would seem that I have a lot of issues with the game but overall, I'm loving it.
+ The camp and companions feel lively. People are chatting around, having quarrels, working, reading, etc. There are get-togethers around the camp bonfire where people sing songs, dance, get drunk, play games, or just chat with each other. New conversations and interactions among companions keep happening.
+ The atmosphere in the camp as well the world in general genuinely feels like the Wild West. It is absorbing with the background music, scenery, natural sounds, and human interactions. Just riding the horse around is a rewarding experience as you explore different places and sure enough, stop and take a good look at (and screenshots of) nature. I like how they did the lighting and how it realistically changes with the time of day and weather (although I think the moonlight is overdone as if the moon is a huge bulb; the environments don't look dark enough). Sound design is particularly noticeable in gunplay as it changes depending on whether you are in an open area or indoors.
+ The narrative pacing is positively slow given the theme of the game and the element of exploration and character development. The story is surely going somewhere and gets interesting as you progress. Some of the missions are fun and action-packed while others are more or less repetitive (which wouldn't have been much of a problem if the gunplay was better). I also read Arthur's journal regularly where he keeps a record of key events and missions in the story (it provides a good recap of story elements along with Arthur's thoughts on the events). A couple of side missions I did were also meaningful and fun to do. Likewise, stranger encounters are unexpected, interesting, and varied. I stopped a kidnapping, saved a person's leg from a bear trap, and saved a person from domestic abuse. The most interesting and unexpected was the one where I was stopped from crossing a bridge by a rival gang waiting there. I raised my hands to surrender as one of the gang members came forward to rob me, at which point I took out my weapon and killed them with rapid fire (and robbed them of course).
+ Brilliant voice acting and writing that makes you feel at home in 19th century Wild West and reflects the many sides of the life of an outlaw.
EternalBlizzard:
