It might sound cruel but I'm enjoying your mission logs.

Perhaps the game is frustrating on purpose so as to force people into a life of callous and rage-filled crime ...

Oh I enjoy it in hindsight as well, don't worry. Cracks me up every time when my horse head butts a tree again or trips over a rock and sends me tumbling in first person mode. I'm saving more often now to prevent having to go back far, plus I have horse revival tonics in stock in case he needs a lesson.

And indeed the bounty system has taught me the values of chasing down and murdering innocent people before they can snitch.

Problem is, I'm not that into shooting, unless it involves a camera. I got majorly side tracked again. On the way somewhere I don't remember, I met a fellow that needed a doctor urgently. I took him on the back of my horse to Saint Denis to witness a not so pleasant 'cure'. To reflect on what I had just seen I boarded a tram and spend the rest of the night there enjoying the insane detail and awesome views in cinematic mode.

The next morning I tried to find a book store however that still alludes me. So after browsing the general store I set out exploring the limits of the harbor, again gawking at all the detail and variation. While exploring every ship and dock there I found an operable row boat tucked away in a corner. I boarded it and set out on the river. Warning, beware of the invisible border line, this time it insta kills your boat, your stamina and of course you drown. Luckily I had marked the spot where to boat was, so this time I went for a long row up river enjoying the amazing sights from the water during the night.

By morning I was about ready to cross the river to the mysterious island. That went fine, so I started to row around it. I found an inlet on the back side, went in it, crime reported, uh oh. Well a getaway in a row boat isn't very practical, thus dead. Respawn back on shore without boat yet Horse was back. (I named my horse Horse) I set out North to take a better look at the town there and to test the limits of the north end of the map. I didn't get that far yet as a new stranger mission popped up which I'm currently on.

This game is so freaking awesome if you ignore the story :) After testing the North-East limits, my plan is to get another boat and see how far I can row to the South, hopefully sneak past the Blackwater area by water and reach the promised land beyond. (No clue what's there, just noticed the appendix on the full map that came with the game)

So I probably won't be advancing the 'story' tonight. Exploration, exploration, exploration! Now I wonder if I can get Horse to board the row boat. Probably not.

I managed to avoid sinking by hugging the shore, It gets really tricky at Quaker's cove though. By the time I get to thieves landing I start getting shot at. Stay a little further from shore and the boat sinks. So close, yet so far. I tried it three times yet in the end I simply got one shotted at thieve's landing. Luckily I found a canoe at the high bridge instead of going all the way back to and from Saint Denis. It was a beautiful ride though and it got my health up along the way.

Hilarious misadventures along the way though.
First this for better understanding of my relationship with Horse

Damn Horse stay on your feet.


So I wanted to take Horse along on my boat, he refused.

I got mad, so I slapped him on his ass, then he dared to run off.

This is not to be tolerated so I ran after him

Perhaps not such a good idea.


Ok try again. Next boat somehow disintegrated going over a rope not 2 sec after I set off. Reload, boat isn't there. Restart game to get the boat back. It's glitchy. Anyway I manage to row the boat to a suitable dock while whistling at Horse along the way to follow me on the shore. That miraculously worked! After getting the boat and Horse all lined up with a lot of back and forth, eureka!

Or maybe not. He sunk my boat, back to get a new one again!
Horse had to stay behind.


And the pay off for all that effort

Worth it.

So I guess, story it is tomorrow.

"you start noticing how badly the gunplay works"

I'm curious: what makes for good versus bad gunplay? In your opinion...

Lmao I have to say I also enjoy reading your experiences with the game

also  lol I was doing a mission riding along in cinematic view with Lenny..my dumbass horse runs straight into a rock I go flying..that was hilarious to watch

Well, the agressive autoaiming for instance is not a good thing, and if you deactivate it, in the scenes where you're riding the horse is nearly impossible to hit your target. And a few times the weapon i used did not shoot inmediately when I pressed the button but I guess it's because of the weapon being old and bad...I don't like how the cover system works, i don't like pressing a button to cover automatically, and running with X button (on ps4) is another thing i don't like at all. So you sum all of this things and i fell i'm still playing GTA IV from 10 years ago, when 3rd person shooting mechanics have advanced a lot since then. The combat don't feel very dynamic and it's still based in cover, expect the head of the enemy and shoot him, again and again.

And because you ask, well, I would prefer a system more like TLOU with its cover system and the abilty to run or move over the scenary more freely and easily. 

I guess i should pay more attention to the actual houses around the wilderness. I tend to avoid them as in my experience just looking at someone sets them off and they'll start shooting at you. This game has the unfriendliest npcs yet.

I've been enjoying nature instead. I took a Canoe up the Dakota river until the falls while gawking at the wildlife scattering away or swimming along. Then I went back down, a lot faster with the flow of the water, and crossed flat iron lake in a storm at night, to map how far you can get on the lake.Just a bit under the letters LAKE on the map until your canoe suddenly falls apart and leaves you treading water in the middle of nowhere. Save game, load game, magically back on land.

With a new canoe I paddled up stream, past Saint Denis, around the island, further up North, almost reaching the town at the edge of the map before I got an inch too far in the middle of the river and my canoe fell apart yet again. The weather system is amazing. And no witnesses on the water, no risk of bounties :)

I somehow ended up with like a $150 bounty on my head in the main town, and that was right after acquiring a $250 bounty in another town (which wasn't my fault, because it was a story mission and the game didn't warn me that I would acquire such a huge ass bounty). It's gotten to the point where I can't go anywhere without having a bounty hunter or lawman on my ass. It's very annoying ... I feel like this game A ) doesn't respect the fact that a lot of people are playing it to do cool shit and B ) the idea that there are perks to being a criminal, enough. You get a heavy bounty so easily, and while most items in the game aren't expensive, if you want to buy like ONE GUN, TEN HOURS INTO THE GAME, pretty much all your funds will be gone.

The side affect though is that it's created a pretty cool narrative where I basically just live out in the wilderness, slowly grinding away and improving my hunting skills so I can get money from the trapper and pay off my bounties.

I finally pulled off the perfect train robbery.

My first attempt today horribly failed. I figured up North it would be quiet enough not to get any witnesses. Unfortunately the train driver has eyes in the back of his head or could hear me coming over the noise of the engine. He hit the panic button in the engine to alert the plain clothes guards inside the train. They immediately  got on their cell phones to report the crime and through highly efficient facial recognition software combined with the security camera in the locomotive they quickly charged me with train robbery before the robbery had actually begun. Next the mother ship beamed in a couple patrols from orbit to finish me off, Didn't get a chance to rob a single person.

To forget that fiasco I went exploring some more, examining the huts I had passed by before which had some cool surprises next to some quick deaths. Oh well, death doesn't hurt when you don't have any money anyway. Then as I was looking all over for tracks of the legendary moose, another train showed up. I summoned my horse, got on and chased after it. I caught up with the train and jumped on just before it went under one of those snow tunnels. I climbed on top and jumped from wagon to wagon to the front, ducking for each avalanche tunnel it went under. On the first wagon I waited, not to trip the motion detectors in the coal wagon alerting the driver.

I waited for the train to enter the long tunnel under the grizzlies. With the train fully inside I jumped the driver, killed him, and stopped the train in the pitch black. Surely there would be no cellphone reception under a mountain. Still crime reported popped up and the guards came running forward. However they could not identify me in the dark and after I killed the guards the crime reported warning went away. No bounty! I looted the baggage wagon and robbed all the passengers for a meager take. Remembering not to leave any witnesses I went back through and shot every passenger in the head. They were all patiently waiting for their turn. It was the right decision as all the bastards had held stuff back which I could now loot of their corpses. Still not much of a take for 2 luggage cars, 5 guards and 20 odd passengers.

Afterwards I backed up the train out of the tunnel to meet my horse. I stopped it in a canyon out of sight and wondered whether I should get rid of the corpses. No need, they had all disappeared already..., And somehow the train had gained 3 cars at the back as well, some more loot! I took my horse up into the mountains not leaving a trace :)


I am on chapter 3 now, just. However as you see I got majorly side tracked again. The linear story missions just aren't appealing. I fine combed the Northern area of the map and found many cool things, great views, surprise encounters, more awesome weather. Oh the views!


Just watch out for those damn wolves and nasty cats. Clunky controls and a jittery horse usually end in death. So I finally went back to camp and before I could even donate the game meat I had gathered along the way the next mission triggered by walking too close to someone. Auto drive is currently driving to wherever it needs to be. One story mission coming up.

I loved reading this, haha. I do wish the game was a bit more realistic and less gamey when it came to being reported, too.