So, we’ve actually done a few articles of this sort at Forbes with Red Dead Redemption 2: you can see Paul Tassi’s advice on movement here, and my advice on auto-aim here. It’s a bit odd because this isn’t really something I’ve done in the past. Red Dead Redemption 2, however, has something strange going for it, considering the fact that most AAA games don’t have the sort of problems that this one does. But Red Dead relies on a very similar control scheme to GTA 5, which in turn was a very similar control scheme to GTA 4, and the whole thing is feeling a little dated at this point, especially when combined with the fact that the game will prioritize animation fidelity over input fidelity. Given that, the control scheme needs a little tweaking in order to be “not bad.”
And so the topic of the day is aiming and shooting, which can get a whole lot better with a little bit of work. aiming is…not good in Red Dead Redemption 2. It’s the reason why I’d recommend just playing the game with full auto-aim and sidestepping the whole problem in a game that’s never going to be a top-tier shooter. But there are ways to make free aim a more viable option, and they help with the game even if you’re sticking with aim assist.
These tips come via reddit user MashXforwhat, which is a pretty great name.
There are three settings you’ll want to tweak here.
Aim/Look Dead Zone– Turn this all the way down. A dead zone means that there is a small piece of property in the middle of the analog stick’s field of motion that won’t register in the game. It has its uses, but turning it down will make aiming much more sensitive.
Aim/Look Acceleration– This goes all the way up. The speed at which you can move your reticule is a major pain in combat, particularly when mounted opponents can actually move faster than you can swing your gun around. Speeding this up will be disorienting but will bring you back to at least parity with faster opponents.
Aim/Look Sensitivity– Again, turn these high. It will impact the amount that a certain amount of joystick movement will impact reticule movement, and again increase the speed at which you can aim.
Together with removing the bizarre ”mash X to sprint mechanic” and you’ve got a game that has something closer to a modern control scheme. It’s still not good, mind you. The controls in this game are still definitely what I would call “bad.” But you can tweak them to make them better, so go ahead.
