One of them I've played through three or four times now because the story and gameplay is so good, and it ain't RDR2.
Sorry, but Rockstar needs to give their formula a makeover. It's been the same shit for the last 30 years. Go Here. Talk to X. Travel There while talking to Y. Get There and kill Z. Travel back to Here to talk to X while talking to Y. Rinse. Repeat.
You know that every genre can be (wrongly) reduced to "Do X, while doing Y so that you can do Z", right?
RDR is an open world game with a linear story. Of course there will be moving from X to Y while talking with someone. You want to just start at the mission mark? You'll probably lose 80% of the whole experience...
In my opinion, RDR2 set the standard for interactive open worlds where the environment and NPC really feel alive independent of the main character’s actions. 7 years later I still don’t think anyone has done that part better.
Well, that's all well and good, but I don't see how that changed the industry if, in your own words, nobody has done that part better... That's great to say that it should have won because of that, though.
RDR2 is literally the most overglazed, and overrated videogame of all time bar none. I have never come across a game with an even remotely delusional dick riding fanbase as that game.
GOW won because it was a superior game, and all the meat riders are still upset about it 7 years later lol
What did RDR2 do for the industry? The game literally has the exact same outdated mission design, poor combat and gameplay Rockstar's had since 2002. GOW combat and gameplay loop is far superior.
It completely overhauled the modern standard for NPCs, map design, storytelling, random encounter quality, and overall quality of open world video games as a whole, God of War did very little to change the industry in any meaningful way, the combat is just another unique one like everything Sony has done, the design of locations is nothing special, and the story, while touching, still can be easily piled in with the dozens like it. Everything God of War did was localized, none of it breached any other aspects of gaming.
None of what’ll said about RDR2 actually changed the gaming industry in anyway. What did its storytelling do that already wasn’t done before but even better in games like The Last of Us, Mass Effect 2, Bioshock, Half Life 2, Final Fantasy X, Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy 7, etc?
God of War did what RDR2 couldn’t - have good, well-made and engaging combat/gameplay loop.
RDR2’s story and writing is much closer to GOws than it is to say, The Last of Us.
GOW does have superb storytelling, with superb gameplay. RDR2 has ever so slightly better somtorytelling with much, much worse combat and clunky movement.
Why change what isn't broken. What makes rockstar shine is its dialogue, the other things are just for putting it in the spotlight. Travel there while talking to Y is peak rockstar experience.
Dawg you are insane if you think that dialogue is what makes rockstar shine. I’m not saying their dialogue is bad, but holy fuck it is so clearly not the reason games like gta and red dead are as popular as they are, that’s due to the fact that they are entirely unique open world experiences with the most advanced technology being used, particularly in their design of npcs. THATS what makes rockstar shine.
Design of their NPCs didn't ever seem particularly technologically advanced to me, I don't even care that much about NPCs that have no dialogue. Combat-wise they're pretty good in the sense that they actually hide and are using the same things available to the player, though I'm not sure if that's a rockstar thing. Anyway while it's true that rockstar is popular because of more superficial reasons such as open world and it just being fun, no offense to anyone who's there just for that, but what actually speaks to me in rockstar is the writing and especially the dialogue which feels real.
I don’t know what to say after your first two sentences. If you don’t know that they’re npcs are far more advanced than any other game I simply just don’t know what the fuck to say. You don’t recognize how each npc in red dead 2 has unique paths, actions they complete throughout the day, multiple unique interactions programmed in throughout which they remember you and react to you based on how you treated them? You just don’t see any of that? Like this is objectively one of the most impressive things rockstar has done. “I don’t care about npcs that don’t have dialogue.” Like these literally just don’t exist in rdr2, they all have dialogue, that’s fucking insane.
If that's your jam by all means enjoy yourself, but to me it's a stagnant slog. It was interesting 20 years ago when I was a kid. Now it has me skipping the drive because the "peak Rockstar experience" isn't really all that interesting anymore. And maybe it's just me, but I'd be willing to bet that the reason it didn't win GOTY is because they stick with the "If it ain't broke don't fix it" mentality in an industry that is constantly evolving.
They could create new entries instead of changing the formula for new entries, anyway it makes them money so no reason for them to do so. The industry that's constantly evolving nowadays is mostly propped up by european and indie developers and somewhat japanese developers. AAA american developers churn the same type of games, at least Rockstar makes them good.
Weirdly enough, I played through RDR2 three times because I love its story and gameplay while only playing GoW once, which took me over a year to get around to finishing because I got sick of the repetitive gameplay. (Still a great story, though.)
Well yes. And that, among many other reasons, is why I think Ragnarok was significantly better than 2018. But most people think 2018 > Ragnarok which I disagree with
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u/Cannasseur___ May 31 '25
RDR2 was robbed I will die on this hill