Have you ever thought you wanted to experience the actual hardship your in-game characters have to go through on a daily basis? The blood, the sweat, the tears, and more sweat? No?
Well, apparently someone has, because ShakeMistake on YouTube modded Red Dead Redemption 2 to be able to use his rowing machine as a controller, and it was every bit as arduous as you'd expect it to be. Having watched the video, though, I kind of want to try this for myself, because gaming is probably the only way to reliably get me to exercise daily.
The YouTuber taped his phone case under the handle of the rowing machine to allow for left/right controls via the Steam Link app, and used the Steppl app to translate the rowing motion into movement. Although RDR2 does have actual rowing boats, he ended up using a canoe because it worked better—but the end result is the same, lots and lots of rowing (IRL).
In the actual game, you have the option to sprint (or well, row harder, I suppose) when stamina allows to cross the length of the river a little faster, but ShakeMistake didn't do that, at least not at first. He braved the river, complete with ultra-clunky turns and panic-inducing waterfalls, at a snail's pace, each movement adding more strain to his muscles.
Comparing the in-game footage to the webcam the YouTuber pointed at his rowing machine clearly showed that John, one of the main characters in RDR2, was having a much nicer time, waterfalls and all, than the person who had to put in the elbow (and leg) grease into making all those movements actually happen.
The YouTuber eventually tinkered with some RDR2 mods to make "sprinting" possible, matching his movements to the character's rowing in game to make it fairer when the leg pain got too bad. At some point in the challenge, the current changed and worked against him, making the exercise even more exhausting.
ShakeMistake powered through the pain and made it to the end of the river, somehow.
Previously, the YouTuber walked across the entire length of the RDR2 map on a treadmill. Every single step he took translated to one in-game step.
At the end of the challenge, he'd taken nearly 17,000 steps, which sounds a lot less painful than the rowing challenge. It's certainly less painful than this RDR2 mod that gives NPCs a tragic cutscene full of memories when you murder them. Ouch.
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