In order for Red Dead Redemption 3 to be better than its predecessor, there are some improvements that could be made to the game's formula. Red Dead Redemption 2 already has a lot of great things going for it, as one can see from how it is still well-regarded even years after its release, possibly moreso than its sister series Grand Theft Auto. That doesn't mean that there isn't room for improvement, and RDR3 could certainly make a good game better.
There are a lot of things about Red Dead Redemption 2 that barely need to be touched, if at all. The combat engine is one of the game's strongest perks, complete with different reactions for enemies being shot in different places. This could honestly be added to RDR3 as-is with no issues at all. Since Red Dead Redemption 3 is almost a certainty, one can look at the few weaknesses that its predecessor has and imagine ways to fix them, leading to an even better experience than the previous title.
RDR3 Needs More Opportunities For Minigames
Red Dead Redemption 2 features a respectable amount of minigames. There are several places to gamble, games of Five-Finger Fillet to take part in, and duels that can be fought. There's even a random encounter character that will challenge Arthur to a shooting contest. There are a lot of ways for the player to have fun outside the main story, and a few of them can be fairly lucrative. If anything, the best way to improve on the minigames would be to make them more available.
One thing that could make RDR3's minigames better is if they were easier to find, because much like Red Dead Redemption 2's remarkably odd strangers, they're worth the effort to find. While Poker games can be played in casinos and bars, Five-Finger Fillet is restricted to a couple of random locations, duels are mostly missions and random encounters, and shooting contests and horse races are only random encounters. A good way to handle this would be to establish some regular locations for minigames. For example, poker could take place in casinos and bars as usual, while five-finger fillet gets challengers in at least one saloon in every major city. As for shooting contests and horse races, a couple more random NPCs could be added for those events, or possibly a side quest dedicated to them.
Red Dead Redemption 2's side games were plenty of fun, with the only real complaint being that there aren't enough of them, especially for players who want to complete 100% of RDR2's challenges. While duels being fairly rare can be excused due to their lethal nature, the other minigames could easily be much more available. RDR2 did an excellent job of being a cowboy sandbox, and making its features more widespread would be a great move for RDR3.
RDR3 Can Add Make Melee Combat More Useful
As previously mentioned, Red Dead Redemption 2's combat is fantastic. It successfully captures the feeling of a cinematic gunfight in a good Western movie, and makes the player feel like the toughest cowboy around after they clear out a whole crew of enemies. For as good as RDR2's combat is, there are still a couple of areas that could make the game better.
Melee combat in RDR2 is almost always a poor choice since most enemies have guns, so the player will almost never use it despite unlocking some cool-looking melee weapons and being necessary for some of Red Dead Redemption 2's Weapons Expert challenges. RDR3 can make melee a little more useful by adding more options. For example, melee could give the player a speed boost compared to guns, or offer the ability to quickly ambush enemies. Another idea would be to give players the ability to disarm enemies when either unarmed or using a melee weapon. This would give melee a solid niche in a game where it otherwise lacks much use outside a few scenes.
ittedly, most people playing Red Dead Redemption 2 likely went in with the idea of being a revolver-toting gunslinger, but it's still disappointing that melee combat ended up having so few valid applications. Red Dead Redemption 3 can remedy this by adding a few tricks for melee combat, at least enough to keep it from being mostly useless. With all of RDR2's impressive weapon details, it's a shame that players don't spend enough time with their melee weapons to appreciate them.
RDR3 Needs A Better Version Of Train Heists
In Red Dead Redemption 2, the player is a part of an outlaw gang, and a good amount of the story missions involve heists, robberies, and other criminal actions. While these missions can be quite thrilling, they can be difficult to recreate outside said missions. The best example of this is train robberies, which have potential to be cool and exciting, but are held back by various factors. Red Dead Redemption 3 can possibly let players rob trains like a good outlaw should.
RDR2's train robberies are difficult, and can frequently end with a bigger bounty than payout, making them not worth doing. A good way for RDR3 to make them more worthwhile is to have different types of trains to make robbing trains in Red Dead Redemption more interesting. For example, a enger train could have a selection of wealthy engers for the player to shake down. There could also be cargo trains that could be carrying anything from simple equipment with only a few valuable items, to loot so expensive it's practically a treasure chest. As for the bounty problem, one way to solve that would be to make it so that if the player survives the shootout with the train's guards, the engers will wait some time after departing to inform the law due to intimidation, giving the player more time to escape.
Train robberies could have been one of the best parts of RDR2, but instead many players ignored them outside of missions. In order to be a better cowboy sandbox, this is something that the sequel needs to fix. Hopefully Red Dead Redemption 3 makes trains more fun in order to provide a fuller outlaw experience.
Red Dead Redemption 2 was already one of the best games of 2018, so the sequel already has a good foundation. What few blind spots that game did have can be ironed out and turned into an even better experience. With luck, Red Dead Redemption 3 can be an improvement on an already phenomenal classic.
