10 Video Games That Punish You For Being Smart
8. Red Dead Redemption 2's Cinematic Mission Design
Red Dead Redemption 2 is one of the very best games ever made, but the developers have no qualms about letting you know that this is their experience, and players need to play a specific role in the main missions.
Think of it this way: if the intention of Fallout is to create your own stories and forge your own path, the intention of RDR 2 is to act out a very specific role and hit the exact marks that have been laid out for you by the game director. Any deviation from this path, or attempt to change the scene, will usually be met with a restart until you do it right.
As pointed out in a great Nakey Jakey video, a good example of the game not bending to the player's own ideas of how to handle a situation comes with the assault on the plantation to save young Jack. Here, the player as Arthur rocks up with the rest of his posse to the front door in a dramatic scene before engaging in a shootout.
If the player, understandably, decides that walking through the front door wouldn't be a sound strategic move and instead breaks off from the group to sneak around the flank, they'll end up out of bounds and forced to reset from a checkpoint.
This arguably smarter play isn't what Rockstar envisioned, and as such it results in a game over.