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If you listen to our regular podcast, you’ll know that I’m much more of a fan of storytelling in games than Lewie. While we both derive a lot of enjoyment from how a story is utilised as one of a series of ingredients a designer can use, and both of us can appreciate the way a good story is told, he tends to prioritise that nebulous quality of ‘having fun’ as a core element of gameplay, and I tend to be able to forgive slightly poor mechanics in favour of something that’s well-written.

This leads to us getting frustrated at each other. He skips cutscenes, and I don’t. I talk to every NPC in a world, and he seeks out the next mission trigger. And when I lent him my copy of Red Dead Redemption, I urged him to watch the opening scenes that really lay down for the foundation for the world. I told him that it was a really smart exploration of American attitudes at the turn of the century. He told me that it was a bunch of talking on a train. And hit Skip.

It’s this fundamental difference that I think underlines why we disagree on a lot games, and why, ultimately, I think he’ll find the ending of Red Dead Redemption both boring and unsatisfying, whereas I thought it brilliant and interesting. Neither of us are wrong, of course – but I’m going to try my damnedest to prove that I’m right.

Fair warning – the rest of this post after the break contains spoilers for the end of Red Dead Redemption. If you haven’t seen the credits roll, then you haven’t seen some of the stuff I’ll be talking about.

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