Red Dead Redemption 2’s world is full of intriguing and minute details that the player will come across as they venture out into the vastness of the South Western United States. There are various cave paintings to discover, treasure maps to follow, murder scenes to investigate, legendary animals to hunt, and wacky side characters that will send the player on wild adventures across the land. Red Dead Redemption 2’s map contains a plethora of side activities to immerse the player even further into the game world such as hunting for food, fishing, and gathering plants to better replenish Health, Stamina, and Deadeye.
The original map of Red Dead Redemption 2 displays many of these side objectives very well. When players discover a location that is abundant in a specific animal, that animal will appear on the map. If a player discovers a unique location, such as the stone statue finger riddle, that too will get added to the map with a little sketch done by Arthur. These features are great for when players are caught up on current quests and need to venture back out into the wilds of the western US. However, there is a slight annoyance that comes with the map of Red Dead Redemption 2.
This annoyance is more of a time inconvenience, rather than a glaring problem that completely ruins the game. The issue is that to access RDR2's map console players need to hit the start button, and then cycle through all the options from Player, Progress, Social Club, Settings, etc. While the map is at the top of the list, the cursor won’t start there depending on what was accessed the last time the start menu was opened. While some players found the shortcut of holding the start button to immediately open the map, many did not know this was an option. Even getting to the map faster doesn't solve all its problems, because the mechanic still pauses the game.
Immersive Maps Are Nearly Always Better
A way to make one of the most immersive games of 2018 better could have been to make the map like the one used in Firewatch. For those who haven’t played Firewatch, unlike accessing the map from the start menu and scrolling, the map can be pulled up within the game world itself and held out in front of the player while still allowing them to move about freely. With this map mechanic transferred to Red Dead Redemption 2, it would eliminate having to constantly pause the game to make sure Arthur going in the correct direction.
With a map like Firewatch’s, it would make Red Dead Redemption 2 even more immersive and keep the player zoned in rather than breaking their concentration. When Arthur is out hunting moose to make a new sleek coat, there would no longer be a reason to take the 30 or so seconds to pull up the world map to find the closest Trapper when he could seamlessly pull out the map in front of him and walk in the desired direction with ease. The coding is already partially in the game with the ability to read letters of varying sizes, so doing the same with a world map could’ve been implemented.
Ultimately, Red Dead Redemption 2 is a critically acclaimed game that many equate to a near-masterpiece, so it’s still worth picking up and playing. However, there are always things that can be improved, and accessing the map was a pet peeve many players had, because there’s not much more to complain about - in single-player anyway. Red Dead Online has its own problems.