Red Dead Redemption Day#7: Putting A Few Things to Rest

Slightly shorter session today as the plot is narrowing and there aren’t as many missions to do. The plot missions are okay, and I do a few side quests as well, but the plot is actually kind of predictable so it’s not as fun as it should be. Also, some of these side quests are straightforward fed-ex quests, so in all, not the most interesting part of Red Dead, but still gorgeous backgrounds and potential for the later game carry me through. Spoilers within.

As I begin again, I decide to do a Seth mission even though I don’t want to, mostly because I can only do West or Seth plots at this point. I run into a random chance to catch two fugitives for a lawman along the way. I hogtie them both and get them back to lawman. That gives me money and honor, even though the lawman shoots them both as I leave. The extra honor causes me to level up on good and apparently lawmen will turn a blind eye to some of my misdeeds now. I ride on and reach Seth for a new chapter: A Gentle Ride with Friends. There’s a CS of Seth loading bodies on to a wagon.  Seth realizes that Moses didn’t lie to him, but that this Aiden person did, whoever that is. John tries to get Seth to give up, but he wants to take the bodies to somewhere he can search them for the remaining map. I guess I have to drive this wagon full of bodies to that safe place for him. Sigh.

I get in the wagon and have to follow a yellow route on my map. On the way, Seth says West told him there was no ammunition in the machine gun. Ah that’s how these missions should have been sequenced. Nicely set up open world, Rockstar. Seth continues talking to the bodies as gunmen on horses come looking for the map. I have to outrun them, which is impossible in this carriage, and I can’t seem to draw my gun while driving, so I fail pitifully. When I restart, I figure out that I have my sidearm; I just didn’t realize I was aiming earlier. I die again figuring this out. I do better a third time, but steering the wagon and shooting is WAY hard, and I die again this time much further along. I restart from a checkpoint in the middle and finally make it.  Seth finds the map along the way. When we arrive, John tells Seth to get inside the fort. Seth says he’ll do it after he finds his treasure.

There’s another Seth mission nearby when this one ends, so I immediately do it, and the new chapter is called Let the Dead Bury their Dead. There’s a CS of Seth talking to a body and he spooks when John approaches. Seth is cagey as John talks to him, but eventually admits that he knows the treasure is in a nearby mansion. I get control and follow him to the mansion. More treasure hunters pop up and I slowly move from cover to cover popping them. I reach a destroyed house and then shoot my way through it. I go upstairs and after after killing some remaining people, I get to a chest. In CS, Seth flips out in a positive way. He dives for the chest and opens it, but inside is just a glass eye. Seth realizes the maps were bad and flips out in a negative way, this time.  Not terrible surprised there’s no treasure, I have to admit. John laughs it off and tells him to get over it, and Seth resigns to his failure. Seth says he’ll meet them in fort and leaves.

I get my horse outside and ride at night. There’s a beautiful moon — dear lord, the landscapes are SO GOOD in this game. I have enough money to buy that house for the dowser, and so I go and do so to get the deed. I then have to go back to the dowser.  I ride through Armadillo on the way and I think I ride over a dog, which cause me to lose honor somehow.  Wow, losing honor over something I had like no control over — FUCK YOU GAME. I find the dowsing guy and give him the deed. Unexpectedly, he gives me extra money as thanks. The plot seems to be funneling (as there’s only one West mission left on the map) so I decide to do a little more stranger clean-up first. I go back to that spot up north I couldn’t find. Oh the path is buggy; if I just follow the map without having the game draw me a path, I get there. There is a blood spot with a hat and a bone, but in my mission log, it shows up as no conclusive evidence. I suppose that’s the end of the mission for now. I then pick some plants which takes forever. Along the way, I slip off a cliff and my horse dies. FUCK – WHY DOES THIS GAME PERMIT THAT?!? I call a new horse but it’s a sucky crap horse. I reach the guy looking for the bouquet, and he CS invites me in his house. Turns out the wife is dead and he’s crazy. I know this is supposed to be creepy, but the game has done a bit too many of these crazy creepy things and it’s now kind of ho-hum.  John leaves and I’m back on the road.

I have one stranger mission thing left, but I decide to ride to West instead. Along the way, I see robbers, but when I try to shoot them, they annihilate me first. I die and respawn in Thieves’ Landing. I stop to play poker and I win big. That’s a good enough point as any to stop, and I do. Good night, Old West.