Side quests and optional missions have often been relegated to little more than meaningless design philosophies in games, but recent games like as The Witcher 3, Yakuza 0, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, and God of War have shown everyone that that doesn’t necessarily need to be the case. As such, more and more games have been placing a larger focus on the quality of their side quests, and it seems like the upcoming Red Dead Redemption 2 is going to be no different.
Recently, in an interview with Jeuxactu, Rockstar co-president spoke quite a bit about what side activities and optional content in Red Dead Redemption 2 will be like, and he said that the studio’s goal has been to “limit the differences between the missions of the main campaign and the other quests”. “It is important that these be seen as both fun and varied activities, while remaining consistent from Arthur’s point of view,” Nelson said. “Everything must appear natural, without any transition or lag, to reinforce the sense of immersion and connection between each mission.”
“For example, in the camp, a simple conversation with an NPC can result in a bank robbery,” he continued, “or reveal important details about the story, background, and thus trigger a new mission that the player may want to do any of the following: continuation or later. Simply leaving the camp to search for supplies may allow the player to discover other interesting activities, or other goals. Everything is done to reinforce the feeling of embodying the character of Arthur, an outlaw who is part of a famous gang, not to mention that everything must remain as entertaining as possible.”
Side missions in Rockstar games have historically not been as good as their main content, which is mostly because their game worlds themselves have provided a vast and fun sandbox to mess about it. It’s definitely encouraging to hear that Red Dead Redemption 2 is going to try and place equal focus on both aspects. The game launches on October 26 for the PS4 and Xbox One. Stick with GamingBolt for more updates.
