Is this game something to chill out?

[Skali]

I'm currently really busy with work and have little time to play.

Long dialogs in video games usually exhaust me, while repetitive gameplay with some upgrades to chase entertain me surprisingly good.

For example enjoyed AC Odyssey waaaaay more than I enjoyed RDR2, while in theory RDR2 should offer much more variety.

I'm aware of some Kojima-like cutscenes that can take their time. How "bad" (for ordinary people "good") is that part of the game actually? What is the proportion between "I need to listen carefully" and "I can chill out while crossing valleys and rivers"?

And even more important: Is the gameplay loop both rewarding (e.g. upgrades) and chilling at the same time?

Thanks for your opinions!

[Freyar]

The start is very slow but once you get past the first few hours to chapter.... I want to say 5? The game leaves you alone better.

[Baelfyr]

Barring the introduction and some of the later game the loop could be described depending on your travel time and the missions you take on as 30-40 mins of gameplay followed by between 5-15 minutes of cutscene, most unimportant scenes can be skipped (e.g when you finish a delivery, take a shower etc) so you aren't held in by those which is nice and if you feel like you'd like a little more time between story moments there are repeatable deliveries just do standard orders rather than order for sam if you'd like to stall a little and enjoy the loop :)

If you're looking for a chill experience though play on a lower difficulty, one of the earlier missions on very hard had my boots basically tarnished and I was straight A to B no real problems apart from a BT encounter, the management and tedium mechanics are much more brutal on higher modes it seems even stamina drain is quicker and the perma loss of it without sleeping is much faster too, you might love these mechanics but best start with the lower difficulty see how it feels and if you'd like it to be more tense it's adjustable at any point in game

[Skali]

Originally posted by Baelfyr:

Barring the introduction and some of the later game the loop could be described depending on your travel time and the missions you take on as 30-40 mins of gameplay followed by between 5-15 minutes of cutscene, most unimportant scenes can be skipped (e.g when you finish a delivery, take a shower etc) so you aren't held in by those which is nice and if you feel like you'd like a little more time between story moments there are repeatable deliveries just do standard orders rather than order for sam if you'd like to stall a little and enjoy the loop :)

If you're looking for a chill experience though play on a lower difficulty, one of the earlier missions on very hard had my boots basically tarnished and I was straight A to B no real problems apart from a BT encounter, the management and tedium mechanics are much more brutal on higher modes it seems even stamina drain is quicker and the perma loss of it without sleeping is much faster too, you might love these mechanics but best start with the lower difficulty see how it feels and if you'd like it to be more tense it's adjustable at any point in game

Thank you for this deeper look insight that! Still on the fence, though I should probably pick it up if I have a day off to get past the intro. How long will it take me to get to the more unscripted deliveries? Are we talking about 1-5 hours or more like 15-20 hours?

[Snake]

You can skip cut scenes

[walentaz]

For chill gameplay - sure, that's why I got it. As for being rewarded? hmz - this one is harder to answer - you get cosmetic rewards, upgrades, new building options, new tools - question is what do you find rewarding? For me personally - progression feels rewarding, even collaboration with other players feels rewarding

[Zyrconia]

It is not chill at all if you want to do missions with an S+ ranking...

[brandn00bian]

Originally posted by Skali:

I'm currently really busy with work and have little time to play.

Long dialogs in video games usually exhaust me, while repetitive gameplay with some upgrades to chase entertain me surprisingly good.
[...]

I'm aware of some Kojima-like cutscenes that can take their time.

Did you ever play a Kojima title yourself or are you aware because you read that somewhere? Not trolling, a genuine request (e.g. IIRC mgs4 has a cutscene at the end about 2 hours long, followed by (20 - 40) minutes of credits, followed by another cutscene of 20 - 40 minutes.
"Aware of some Kojima-like cutscenes that can take their time" seems like an understatement of the century, no offence meant

Basically: Long dialogues? Yes.
Skipable? Yes.
Repetative Gameplay? Probably, yes.
Can I chill on this? See next question.
Little time to play? Hmm, define "little time". Is it 30 minutes a day? 1 hour? if you want to chill on a game, how many minutes / hours would that take you? There are moments you can chill on this. Atmosphere has got you covered on that, you don't even need to touch your gamepad/kb&m for that. There is also non-chill moments. But I guess that is true for AC:O and RDR2 as well.
If you enjoy AC:O very much, and RDR2 not as much, and don't have played any of kojimas titles, you probably won't like it.

tl;dr: Quite hard to give you a recommendation on this. You can always try for yourself and refund if it isn't for you though.

[brodc]

Don't give them your money.