Is ANYONE enjoying RDR2 combat?

To me the Dead Eye system is more like a crutch for not having good aiming. I have to make sure I have some for nearly every combat situation. By comparison in Horizon the slowdown is generally so short that it's not going to make a difference in anything but initial attacks and that game managed a good balance between aiming and auto aim where it was not very noticeable.

The aiming sensitivity is just plain off in RDR2 no matter how you tweak the controls. It works ok with long range weapons by having enough precision to fine tune the aim but as enemies get close it falls apart and it becomes difficult to hit things without auto aim. Especially fast enemies like wolves can be a huge pain as they stay close and usually attack right as you get your aim straight.

I think when the combat works it's a lot of fun but I find myself using the shotgun for almost every closer encounter because it's easier to hit things than with pistols.

The game needs improvements to its controls. Gyro aim would be great but I'd take less wonky acceleration too. Especially first person mode feels awful. I'm amazed reviewers have been willing to gloss over the control issues in this game.

2n2 said:

Hm. Guess I need to do some more research. A lot of things I've been reading aren't really making it sound appealing to me.

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It's best to turn on the "toggle to run" mode in settings. Then you hit X (PS4) to run and move the stick to center when you want to slow down or stop. Works well in most situations. To run even faster on foot you can tap X repeatedly. This drains stamina.

On horse you put the horse into gallop by tapping X repeatedly. Tapping X in time with the horse drains its stamina less allowing you to run longer.

For "quicktime event" like situations where you need to tap a button there is a setting that makes it require less taps. I highly recommend turning this on as well because the default is a lot of taps. There aren't that many of these in the game.

Having to tap X is a gameplay mechanic and IMO it is OK. Your horse will still run at a leisurely pace by double tapping X and then holding it down, it's only needed to tap constantly when you want to ride as fast as possible. You are mostly going to do this when either racing someone, escaping from the law or trying to get through quicker to your destination, usually in an area where there isn't all that much interesting things going on.

I really despise the shooting. Usually I tank like 5 shots scrambling for cover (sloooooowly), and that cover works properly like 1 in 6 times. I get two Deadeye uses before I have to spam chew, then I just press L2 and let the game auto-aim the rest to death.

If there is a powerful legendary animal I'm hunting, I just unload Deadeye into its head with slugs.

No, this is not how satisfying combat works.

It's unwieldy and sluggish and clumsy, and largely unsatisfying, but the same goes for all controls in the game. Really hate the handling in general... Not to the point where it's a dealbreaker, but it's definitely impacted my enjoyment. Which is a shame because the game is stellar in pretty much every other way.

laxu said:

It's best to turn on the "toggle to run" mode in settings. Then you hit X (PS4) to run and move the stick to center when you want to slow down or stop. Works well in most situations. To run even faster on foot you can tap X repeatedly. This drains stamina.

On horse you put the horse into gallop by tapping X repeatedly. Tapping X in time with the horse drains its stamina less allowing you to run longer.

For "quicktime event" like situations where you need to tap a button there is a setting that makes it require less taps. I highly recommend turning this on as well because the default is a lot of taps. There aren't that many of these in the game.

Having to tap X is a gameplay mechanic and IMO it is OK. Your horse will still run at a leisurely pace by double tapping X and then holding it down, it's only needed to tap constantly when you want to ride as fast as possible. You are mostly going to do this when either racing someone, escaping from the law or trying to get through quicker to your destination, usually in an area where there isn't all that much interesting things going on.

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Thanks. I appreciate the explanation.

I customized the shooting according to something I saw online and now its pretty okay.
But I still mostly use dead eye and just snack cocaine gum to refill the meter all the time during shootouts. That way its actually pretty fun.

I don't have a huge issue with the combat; but then I didn't buy this game for the combat anyway.

I'm enjoying everything else it's doing and which I was expecting from it.

I am enjoying the combat, feels the same to me as RDR.

Yeah I think it's great. You can auto aim by resnapping the trigger button each time you want to re-aim. I don't think it could be any simplier ?

It's pretty shitty. The guns themselves feel good to shoot, and the enemies react in a satisfying way to them, but controlling Arthur is just a massive pain. The game is so very obsessed with playing out its animations in full at the expense of player input, and the significant input lag doesn't help either. The cover system is also just kind of broken, and no matter how much you tweak the aiming settings, it still never feels optimal.

I think the encounter design tends to be pretty poor as well, though Rockstar has literally never shined in that area.

This would all be more tolerable (though not excusable) if the game weren't so punishing. Like all recent Rockstar games, the main character is a glass canon who dies exceedingly fast, and the enemies all have aimbot levels of precision. Combine this with a character who doesn't do what I want him to, and you're in for a bad time.

Brunire said:

Does it also give you mouth cancer? You know, for the immersion.

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You're an outlaw! Mouth cancer is the least of your worries!

Toa Axis said:

It's pretty shitty. The guns themselves feel good to shoot, and the enemies react in a satisfying way to them, but controlling Arthur is just a massive pain. The game is so very obsessed with playing out its animations in full at the expense of player input, and the significant input lag doesn't help either. The cover system is also just kind of broken, and no matter how much you tweak the aiming settings, it still never feels optimal.

I think the encounter design tends to be pretty poor as well, though Rockstar has literally never shined in that area.

This would all be more tolerable (though not excusable) if the game weren't so punishing. Like all recent Rockstar games, the main character is a glass canon who dies exceedingly fast, and the enemies all have aimbot levels of precision. Combine this with a character who doesn't do what I want him to, and you're in for a bad time.

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Not using auto aim certainly seems to be something they barely tested. I don't like using it in a game that should reward shooting skill so I have it off but it is frustrating at times. The animation focus is indeed painful a lot of time, the game really needs the ability to queue inputs so that Arthur can finish eating one thing then give the horse some food instead of the actions getting totally ignored during that time.

I don't feel enemies are too good shooters, but they have clairvoyant level skills to find you sometimes. They really should have implemented some sort of confusion mechanic where they can't immediately tell where a shot came from. IMO Arthur has enough health when you get past the beginning of the game. Falling down from a small cliff is most of the time deadlier than getting shot so that's another area where R* does weird shit.

I would like the pop up shooting gallery style if the framerate didn't go to hell every shoot out

I am absolutely loving the combat. I turned off auto aim and it is incredibly satisfying to mow enemies down in big fire fights using skill instead of a lock on. Some of the best moments for me have included combat, especially the entire section. I sprinkle in dead eye and the combat just flows so well.