Red Dead Redemption Day#6: Luck o’ the Irish

Today was a weird day of focus. I pursue one line of plot basically the whole session, which reveals a couple of weird bugs along the way. The plot has an interesting twist and a couple of nice fight scenes, although again I’m forced to do unethical things that don’t match my character.  I’m also profoundly unlucky in this session. Overall, it’s a mixed bag of fun balanced fights and challenges against random deaths and classic bad Rockstar save points. Spoilers within.

At start, it’s pouring outside which is quite cool. I’m in the bar, so I choose to play poker, but luck is not with me and bust out. I decide to go to a West mission for lack of something Bonnie or Marshal to do. When I arrive, there’s a CS of West loading truck.  John mentions having met Seth and West defends Seth as an eccentric friend. John asks about West’s plan, and when West dissembles, John confronts West and threatens him. West says they need money to mount an assault and they can’t get that money selling elixir. They need to race. I get control and we ride the wagon to Gaptooth Breach. On the ride, West confronts John about his past.  John says he was a Robin Hood, robbing those who had too much, and Seth calls John a government man. I listen to the conversation until it ends, then skip the rest of the wagon ride.

We arrive to see rows of small wagons, and when I have control, I have to get in one.  We race the wagons in a standard follow-the-markers kind of race.  I crash once on the road and then win. It’s easy (I’m in first almost the whole time) but it’s fun.  We take West’s wagon away because I wasn’t honestly registered for the race. When we get back, West tells me that now have to find someone called Irish to get the guns. I find a stranger mission before I go. I talk to the guy about trouble in a general way.  He’s a writer writing about the west, and his name’s Jimmy Saint. It turns out there’s no mission; it’s just conversation. I go to find Irish. As I’m riding on the road, all of a sudden people start shooting and I die. I respawn at the farm, and I ride to Armadillo. In town, I stop a random store thief by lassoing him and get a reward when I bring him back.

I get to Irish with a new chapter: A Frenchman, A Welshman, and An Irishman. There’s a CS of two guys drowning other one, the Irishman.  John approaches and the Welshman threatens me. I stand him down CS, and there’s lots of threatening back and forth.  I kill the other two when they pull on me while I’m trying to calm the situation down. The Irishman will give me a gun for saving his life. I get control and ride alongside him, and he tells me the guys were his friends but bastards.  He thinks he owes me nothing, but he shows  me where the machine gun is anyway, in a cabin at the bottom of a hill, and leaves. I have to kill bandits to get inside. I’m on ridge looking down on the cabin so I decide to kill them all from way up here with my rifle. It goes easily. I go down to the cabin and kill the guy inside, but there’s no gun. That’s an interesting plot twist, and it has now pissed me off, in a pretty great way. I ride to find Irish again.

I get there to find a new chapter: A Man Born into Trouble. In CS, Irish is drunk. John threatens him and demands he find the gun. I get control and follow him.  His conversation reveals he’s a true liar. He says that some crazy miners have a Gatling gun.  John’s not buying it. The Irishman says we’ll need a wagon to move it, and John wisely asks why the Irishman didn’t get a wagon the last time he said the gun was someplace. We arrive at the mine, and the Irishman leaves to get that wagon. I run around trying to avoid killing innocent people, but the miners attack me even when I do nothing. I kill a bunch of people in one place, but then can’t find way around for a while. I then find a direction that I didn’t see before, and I kill people guarding a mine elevator of some sort. I manage to kill them all and then accidentally fall down the mine shaft and die. And when I do, I have to do THE WHOLE CHAPTER OVER.  FUCK YOU GAME. I die again quickly as I re-enter. I then find another way in and it goes smoothly this time, although I don’t like that I’m killing all of these people who haven’t done anything to me on a mission that seems plot essential. I enter the mine and start more senseless killing. It’s a winding through tunnels and shooting one or two guys at a time kind of scene. I die once when I think I’m shooting a guy and I’m not sure why I wasn’t. I die again a bit further on when my dive for cover isn’t accepted by the game. But then I make it through all of the tunnels to get to the gun. It’s in a mine car and I have to push it out. I push the cart to the lift, and then CS load it up as the Irishman brings up the lift. Once it’s above ground, I have to push then ride mine cart along a track to where the wagon is. I kill a couple guys and then blow up a load of TNT on the track as I ride. It’s a short bit, but it’s quite fun.  When I reach the wagon, we CS load it up and the Irishman takes gun to West.

I get control back and start riding. I try to find a stranger mission again, but I think he’s in the mine shaft and fuck that — I’m not going down there again.  I ride to find Irish again since that seems to be plot-central. I stop in Armadillo on the way. There’s no poker, but do I stop a prostitute from being assaulted in what’s an interesting role reversal from previous GTAs.  There are gorgeous clouds on the ride, by the way. This landscape just keeps knocking my socks off. I see some robbers off the road and they kill me as soon as I stop.  I respawn at Armadillo and this time take a stage to Thieves’ Landing to find what the Irishman is up to.

I find Irish for a new chapter: On Shaky’s Ground. It begins with a CS where he’s holding up two nuns.  John hits him, chokes him and throws him down. John then apologizes to the nuns and they leave. John surprises me by telling the Irishman that the Gatling gun doesn’t work apparently. When did I learn that? Was there a mission that I didn’t do that established this? It’s weird. Anyway, I get control and follow the Irishman. We have to go to warehouse to get the right ammo.  John and Irish have typical banter where the Irishman tells easy lies and John threatens him. When we arrive at the warehouse, the main door locked. We go around back, and there are strange noises inside. I have to sneak inside from the roof, and I see that Shaky is being held by a few guys. I break in and I kill the guys holding Shaky. I free him and tell him he owes me ammo. More guys come in the other side of the warehouse and I die fighting them. I then die a second time right after respawning; they are pretty well behind cover. I finally my fight way out of the warehouse. When I get out, there’s a CS of Shaky and Irish arguing about who owes who what as they load ammo on wagon. I get in at shotgun and we ride out of the warehouse. As we ride the wagon away, guys ride after and shoot at us. I have to kill them all as the Irishman drives. I make it far on the wagon before I get killed by a rider I just don’t shoot fast enough. I then hit a bad bug when I respawn. The gate the wagon has to pass to leave the warehouse is shut and can’t be opened. I actually have to kill myself to restart. This time, the gate is  open and I take the wagon ride to the end. It’s a pretty good fight scene overall with lots of horses coming in and lots of heavy shooting. When we get back to town, the Irishman wants to leave but John tells him he has to return and help with the attack on the fort. When he leaves, I go buy a map and call it a game.