Despite Red Dead Redemption 2’s (RDR2) Metacritic score of 97 indicating “universal acclaim” from gaming journalists, the reviews from gamers themselves are more split; just 72% of user reviews scored the game as a “positive” a week after release with lower-scoring user reviews citing clunky controls and game mechanics.

Are these issues enough to detract from an otherwise excellent game? Gaming journalists made little mention of the game’s control issues (either very little or an amount that did not significantly detract from the game’s overall excellence) but curiously devoted more words in discussing Rockstar Games’ (RDR2’s developer) controversial workplace culture.

Let’s compare with the reviews from 10 well-known publications:

Some journalists preferred to write more about the developer’s workplace culture than the game’s controls

At least with the above publications, very few of them spent time covering issues related with RDR2’s controls — in the instances where they have, the game’s overall praise remains high.

And now, a brief look at gamers’ criticisms of RDR2’s controls

The game’s controls are similar to RDR1; they’re not terrible and have a learning curve to them, but there are also ample opportunities for improvement. Criticisms of the controls vary, but below is a summary aggregated from here, here, here, and here:

RDR2 is not easy to learn. There are many controls and they are context-sensitive, sometimes unintuitive, and the game doesn’t always teach the player well.

Basic status indicators (Health, Stamina, Red Eye ‘cores’, etc.) are not well-explained

Tooltips (on-screen game hints and controls designed to teach the player) disappear off-screen too quickly without an easy way to view them again if missed

From Reddit user cheldog: “The problem is that the “tutorial” has you do something once and then follows it up with 10–20 minutes of slow gameplay that doesn’t have anything to do with reinforcing what you’ve just learned so it really doesn’t serve as much of a tutorial at all because by the end of it you’ve forgotten the nuances of what you’ve spent the last 2–3 hours doing.” This is usually not a major issue, but RDR2 has many controls, many of which are context-based (on/off horse, aiming weapon, etc). The game’s Help section and Companion App does alleviate this somewhat

From Reddit user Antonskarp: “Also some of what you learn in the tutorial is just plain wrong. Like when you learn to hunt and contribute meat to the camp. In the tutorial, you have to pick up a deer and drop it off at the butcher’s station to donate it to the gang. You can not do that this way for the rest of the game. I had to look up online how to donate animal carcasses. Turns out that after the tutorial you need to keep it stowed on your horse, talk to the butcher, ask to donate and then find the carcass in a menu.”

On PS4, the player picks up a gun with L1, presses Square to pick up a carrot, and Triangle to pick up a hat (there is a rationale for this, but this may confuse players initially)

Drawing your weapon is Left Trigger but sometimes Right Trigger

RDR2 is not easy to control

The main character, Arthur, does not respond immediately to player input (there is a delay)

Dead zone and input acceleration is set to 50% by default (many players have found turning dead zone to 0 and disabling input acceleration improves the game’s controls somewhat)

It’s curious why dead zone, the area around the center of a joystick that does not respond to movement, is even a setting in RDR2 and even if it ought to be, why it should default to 50%

If the player begins an action (ex. hitching a horse), its long animation is often uninterruptible — the game favors player animation over player input which contributes to the game’s perceived ‘slowness’

Framerate hitches (< 30 FPS) contribute to the difficulty

RDR2’s tolerance for mistakes is low

Penalties for unintended/overcompensatory player input (due to the reasons above) is high and can include missing out on time-sensitive special events (ex. rescuing an NPC in distress) or accidentally antagonizing townsfolk and earning a bounty on the player’s head

RDR2 sometimes takes control away from the player

Player loadouts are reset when dismounting a horse, performing certain actions, and during cutscenes

Arthur is unable to run at his campgrounds and is only afforded a slow jog (default is a slow walk). This cannot be changed. Other areas prevent the use of crouching/stealth/unequipping certain gear

RDR2 prefers immersion instead of convenience. That’s not always fun.

It’s argued RDR2’s slower pace is a deliberate design choice that separates the game from competitors

Looting can be time-consuming; looting animations are long and often have to be repeated (ex. looting dead bodies, opening cabinets/drawers, retrieving items — at the end of a big battle, these delays add up)

To loot, controller buttons often have to be held, not simply pressed

Because looting takes time, allied NPC’s chastise a thrifty player for taking too long

Even when Arthur takes a bath, the game requires the player to press different buttons to clean different parts of his body

(Oddly, despite the game’s commitment to simmering immersion, gun reload times remain quick)

From unspecified player: “Want to play Poker? Here, watch this same unskipable [sic] cutscene of them grabbing the chips, smirking while looking left and right. Every. Time. Poker was my favorite part of Red Dead 1, but that cutscene legit doubles the time of the minigame and I just want it to burn now.”

RDR2’s low tolerance for mistakes can often pull the player out of the immersion

Some have cited the RDR2 can feel more like an RPG or walking/cowboy ‘simulator’ (replay value?)

Gaming journalists seem less concerned about controls than gamers

The list above is not short. Are these control issues overblown or inaccurate? Are they enough to detract from an otherwise excellent game?

Even if we assume that they don’t and even if we assume the list of control issues above is exaggerated, it’s still strange that many gaming journalists made little mention of the game’s control issues compared to gamers in general.

Why is this? Maybe this difference is worth talking about.

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