New details about Red Dead Redemption 2

Rob Nelson, co-director of the Rockstar North studio, got interviewed by one German journalist back in May and we’ve just recently found it. Despite the material being a bit outdated now, it still brings a lot of fascinating stuff to the table which weren’t heard before.

·         Since having an Open World is nothing special today and size doesn't make a game great (No Man's Sky), Rockstar Games set out to make their Open World different from any other. With Red Dead Redemption 2 they want to create the deepest, most detailed, believable and interactive Open World they have ever built. Everybody and everything needs to be believable, from the Barkeeper of the local saloon, to the pebble that descends a slope or tiny frogs hopping around. Small details, big difference.

·         Rockstar's philosophy is that players in their open worlds are increasingly likely to lose themselves, distracted from their real tasks, but not torn from the gaming experience. Barrier-free games, you could say.

·         If you set up your own personal camp in a dangerous area (for example near groups of people that don't like guests in their area), you will experience very different situations than before, because you are just in the wrong place, even if you thought you have been everywhere and seen everything

·         If you complete a mission (for example with your gang members), you will see them returning to their daily schedule instead of just disappearing or walking nowhere with no specific destination. Every major character exists in the world, not just in missions. This is inspired by Michael’s house and the life of his family, you could see your family in-game, not just in missions. In Red Dead Redemption 2 they are expanding on this idea.

·         The transition from free-roam open world gameplay to mission and cutscenes will be even more fluent and seamless than in GTAV. All types of missions, cutscenes and the general open world should feel like organic parts of the same thing, there is no clear distinction between them like in other games.

·         Unique actions from the singeplayer part would be available in open world as well.

·         NPCs are unpredictable and believable in their actions and reactions, they have different temperaments. There will be shy people, who will give you their money without you even drawing a gun but also more aggressive people that will immediately attack you if you just antagonize them also without you drawing a gun. Some confident NPCs may ride just past you and ignore you, if you try to rob them. Some may shoot you, while others will first threaten to harm you. Rockstar wants you to feel like you never know how this certain NPC will interact with you and with that Rockstar wants to encourage you to test out different playstyles. You can be an honorable thief or a violent psycopath and the world will react accordingly, but you just never really know how they will react.

·         Rockstar doesn't want to call the world of Red Dead Redemption 2 a sandbox. Because in a sandbox, you can do whatever you want. Sure, R* wants to give you a lot of freedom, in their Open World you can do whatever you want, but only as long as it makes sense for Arthur, his story and the world itself. Nothing should break the immersion.

·         "Random sh*t that doesn't fit the context will not happen [in RDR2]": Random encounters aren't really random, there is a certain system in place that ensures those encounters make sense in terms of how far the players have progressed in the story, what they are currently doing and where they are heading to. The changing surroundings and random encounters provide content for the players that makes them loose themselves in the world in a very organic way and naturally provide gameplay for them (in contrast to the very forced 'checklists-sidequests' in other games).

·         The areas in the game not only feel different because of the looks but also because of the different gameplay-mechanics only possible in that area (like different animations for traversing different terrain and flora or different objects to interact with). Since animations influence how connected you feel with the world, Rockstar focuses on making them as believable and fluent as possible in every situation. For example, there is an animation for Arthur stowing his weapons, which he had previously strapped on his back, in the halter of the saddle. And there are different skinning animations for different animals.

·         Even outside of missions and cutscenes you can listen in on conversations in your gangs camp - or approach them more closely so that the other outlaws can include Arthur in their chat. The camp, the atmosphere and the conversations should change noticeably in the course of the story.

·         Instead of slaughtering animals (that are degraded to polygon objects) without hesitation, in order to be able to craft a larger wallet, the creatures in Rockstar's western game are living beings with - simulated - feelings. This should always be aware of the players when they press the trigger or let the arrow zoom. To kill animals quickly without much suffering you need to take your time to learn the right techniques.

·         If you commit a crime and the lawmen have a hunch that you are the offender, they will first talk to you instead of shooting you instantly, and you can talk yourself out of the situation

·         You can modify your weapons to enhance their stats

Red Dead Redemption 2 will be out October 26, however Rockstar doesn’t really rush to demonstrate gamplay of their new project, whatever reason may be. So we’ll just have to wait before we buckle up for new adventures!