Red Dead Redemption 2 Side Activity Wishlist

[NewsBot]

Red Dead Redemption 2, like any good open-world game title, will probably be filled to the brim with activities to spend time with while progressing with the main storyline. Some games go about populating their sandboxes with things to do better than others and based on what Rockstar Games achieved with Grand Theft Auto 5, it’s easy to assume which way things will go this time.

Unfortunately, not a whole lot about Red Dead Redemption 2 is known to players yet, beyond the game being released on the 26th of October following two delays.

We’ve had a few batches of screenshots and a pair of trailers, but not a lot of details regarding gameplay, or the map, or plot, or anything really beyond the setting – that Dutch will come back and that the protagonist is called Arthur Morgan.

Beyond these scraps of info, we’re in the dark – save for a leak, the legitimacy of which is highly questionable at this point.

That leaves us with ideas drawn from the previous titles in the series, as well as speculation, the latter of which is often employed by the fanbase. Various discussion platforms focusing on the upcoming title are filled with what fans want in the game, and what they think will be in the game. With regards to side activities, there are a few frequently mentioned concepts.

Train Robberies

It seems that after Rockstar put that particularly picturesque scene of the locomotive puffing along in the game’s announcement trailer, players are constantly banging along about train robberies, and we can’t blame them. It’s one of those quintessential things that bandits in Westerns do and was missing from Red Dead Redemption in a proper, structured manner outside of specific missions.

Should Red Dead Redemption 2’s world have a system of train tracks crisscrossing the map, based on player proximity the trains could occasionally be spawned nearby (obviously they wouldn’t be constantly running all over the unrendered portions of the map, that would be a waste of resources) with a prompt to rob them.

These prompts would always spawn when the train is near to reaching a station, giving the player limited time to complete the robbery because lawmen would attack you if you’re still on board when the train reaches the mentioned station.

Bank Robberies

While heists may be GTA 5’s turf, there’s nothing to prevent some good old bank robberies to be present in Red Dead Redemption 2.

One scene in the game’s second trailer showed safes being blown open as Morgan walks stoically towards the camera. While this likely is a scripted event in a story mission, it leaves open the possibility that the game will feature a number of banks which will offer players a way to make a quick buck.

The mechanics of an activity like this would be rather easy to implement. Simply clear out the guards, grab the loot – maybe implement some lock-picking or safe-cracking system that would take more time but yield greater rewards than blowing the safes open which might damage the goods inside – and get out, shacking whatever kind of wanted system the game will have.

Fishing/Hunting

While hunting was present in Red Dead Redemption, fishing wasn’t, however both of these side-activities have been present in a number of open-world games in the past few years.

The thing about these activities is that they can be quite divisive – who would bother with fishing in a Wild West bandit power fantasy like Red Dead Redemption 2? Thing is, when it comes to open world games, if the world itself is of quality – and we are speaking about a Rockstar title here – you can’t really enjoy that vast world with bullets flying about constantly.

Basically, every open world game out there has at least one kind of side-activity which isn’t as action-packed as everything else, giving players a chance to explore and enjoy the world which the developers put so much effort into building up and filling with detail that you’re bound to miss during the main missions.

Brawling

Getting into a scuffle when you’re trying to have a drink isn’t something that necessarily needs to be institutionalized in an open world game, but then if given some kind of structure, visiting every saloon and beating the local champ to earn the rep of being the top brawler in the region, players will be motivated to beat in a few faces in an… organized manner.

Duels

Duels were an integral boss-fight mechanic in Red Dead Revolver, and were used sparingly to great dramatic effect in Red Dead Redemption while also forming the conceptual basis on the dead eye mechanic.

Similar to the brawler concept, in each settlement, there could be some kind of badass undefeated (clearly, because they’re alive) duelist who you need out-badass and leave in the dust with a quick trigger finger.

Territory Control

What little we know of Red Dead Redemption 2’s story is that instead of being an ex-outlaw like Marston was in the previous game, Morgan will be an outlaw during the game’s events, at least for a while.

While bandits are stereotypically shown to battle lawmen, often times bandits also fought one another for territory and loot. As Morgan will be a member of the Van Der Linde gang, it’s possible that the game would be divided up into zones of influence, and at the beginning, only one will belong to Dutch.

As the game progresses, players may need to take control over zones by pushing out the local reigning gang and taking over their operation, thus unlocking a string of other missions and activities in that zone. First, you’d need to disrupt their dealings, find out where their hideout is, then wipe them out.

Strangers

I know that every Red Dead fan would be disappointed if these wouldn’t make a return in the upcoming game. Strangers missions were odd requests from various NPCs living across the frontier. These tasks were varied, sometimes simple, sometimes weird, and instead of driving the main story forward they gave the world more character. Rockstar implemented a similar set of missions in GTA 5 called Strangers and Freaks.

Strangers missions also gave us the mystery of the enigmatic “Strange Man”, a dapper fellow dressed impeccably who seems to know a whole lot about John. Mysteries are always the most intriguing when they are left unsolved, so I hope Red Dead Redemption 2 won’t give us a straight answer to what he’s on about, but a reappearance would be most welcome.

Of course, for every fan, there are at least five ideas for side activities, so you’re all welcome to flood the comments with your own input regarding what activities you’d want to spend time with when not progressing with the main plot.

The post Red Dead Redemption 2 Side Activity Wishlist appeared first on RDR2.

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[DarkShark]

I am really hoping we can get some good mechanics for a good ol' fashioned bar brawl! I am assuming we will have the train and bank robberies, hunting is a given. 

[FLIP]

The territory thing can make things interesting online. 

I can see this leading to a lot of gang wars and such. It is one thing to just own a tent or a small cabin but a huge farmland would be sick. Then other people can fight you for control over it. 

[RON]

I would like to see wildlife actively roaming on online serves in RDR2. It is part of the old west to go out hunting and it can be something fun you can do as a group or solo.

[Supergtor]

We might be able to fish in RDR2:

 

 

[Jamesie]

Hoping they bring in a nice variety to keep everyone happy. I tried some of the fishing in Far Cry 5 and it was pretty boring for me personally, just like in real life lol but if they created online fishing tournaments and also made it more exciting (like fishing from a boat or something) then it would probably be pretty cool for those that enjoy that kind of thing.

Still can't understand why we can't get Strip Liars Dice in a brothel (you win, you get to "score" upstairs, you lose your horse gets taken away) but maybe they'll surprise us...

[Benjo]

16 hours ago, Jamesie said:

I tried some of the fishing in Far Cry 5

Just getting into this. I like the thought of chilling and doing a spot of fishing in RDR2, but in FC5 it's too easy. Cast, catch fish, reel in. There should be an element of waiting, suspense, like "oh my god I hooked a fish!" instead of it being 3 seconds after you cast in. I wouldn't mind sitting for five or ten minutes next to a fire, waiting for something to take the bait. 

As a side note, I found a way of making super quick money in FC5 just from shooting buffalo and cougars, then fast travelling. Like 4k every 5 minutes.

Edited April 26, 2018 by Benjo

[Jamesie]

55 minutes ago, Benjo said:

Just getting into this. I like the thought of chilling and doing a spot of fishing in RDR2, but in FC5 it's too easy. Cast, catch fish, reel in. There should be an element of waiting, suspense, like "oh my god I hooked a fish!" instead of it being 3 seconds after you cast in. I wouldn't mind sitting for five or ten minutes next to a fire, waiting for something to take the bait. 

As a side note, I found a way of making super quick money in FC5 just from shooting buffalo and cougars, then fast travelling. Like 4k every 5 minutes.

Agreed, the easy fishing does get a bit boring pretty quickly. Would have preferred if they mixed it up a bit however I didn't bother with trying to get all of the fishing challenges completed which I should maybe do at some point. Nice and calm after completing some of the clutch nixon events but almost too calm after you finally managed to race that damn silly ATV through the silly obstacles (the thing steers like a dog!).

Maybe in RDR2 if we had the chance of some NPC lowlifes coming along and biting us some crap while we were fishing it would mix things up, we could put down the rod and have a bit of a shoot out or even have a fishing challenge to settle things in a more civil manner.

[Glopez]

I don't want there to be so much that it will feel like the game would take forever to 100% but I would like there to be a decent amount of things to do. I personally always enjoyed side quests and missions that involved collecting things. I know a lot of people hate those but it was something in other games that made it a pleasure for me to get 100% completion on. The Assassin's Creed franchise being one of those games. 

[Benjo]

I just want to be able to sit down. Not much to ask, surely. 

[watery buffalo]

On 5/2/2018 at 12:04 AM, Benjo said:

I just want to be able to sit down. Not much to ask, surely. 

I don't know why but this made me laugh pretty hard! lol

On 5/1/2018 at 6:56 PM, Glopez said:

I would like there to be a decent amount of things to do. I personally always enjoyed side quests and missions that involved collecting things.

I feel you on this. The story is great but the side stuff can be so enjoyable. Sometimes you just want to break away from the main angle of the game and screw around collecting stuff. 

[TheHansonGoons]

Here are a couple questions I have about side quests and activities:

1) Fallout 4 introduced settlements into the franchise.  Do you think RDR2 will have us build our own ranches? 

2) I noticed the differences in horses with one being a work horse. Does this mean we will have to farm? There was also the shot of hauling back hunted animals. Do we have to eat or does our food supply heal us? 

3) we saw the bonding with the horse in the video. How much attention, development, training, grooming and such are we being involved in? 

Adding in features like that will take away from the story. Some may feel it helps with the immersion, but for those that don't have a ton of game time, it could be too much. I personally was not a fan or eating and working out in San Andreas. Too much time wasted. Dont get me wrong, I will probably spend a ton of time at camp listening to stories, doing side quests and such, but tasks such as eating become monotonous and tedious to keep up with. I dont want to be in the middle of a heist and start shooting crooked because my Jesse Wales is a bit hungry.

@RON I agree about the wildlife. I would even like to see snake bites and such. Obviously they introduced fairly in depth hunting(with following the trails), I would like to see those animals interact with camps and more. 

How many bear traps are going to be around that another character was trapped? How prevalent will bears be?

Edited August 18, 2018 by TheHansonGoons

[ZLion]

I was thinking about traps and such for animals the other day and for online purposes, I would imagine they would have to limit the amount each person can use or place down at a given time. If you had tons of cash and there was no limit, someone could easily just load a bunch of traps around someone's campsite and then what? lol

[TheHansonGoons]

10 hours ago, ZLion said:

I was thinking about traps and such for animals the other day and for online purposes, I would imagine they would have to limit the amount each person can use or place down at a given time. If you had tons of cash and there was no limit, someone could easily just load a bunch of traps around someone's campsite and then what? lol

Exactly! But then I waa was curious about the NPC's AI from your camp site. I feel like that is a good way to get them pissed off or turn on you.

It would be hilarious to see a rival gang trying to ride up to your camp only to be caught like the Wet Bandits  in a Kevin McAllister style security system.