Originally Posted by
Wretchedest
This game is good and the whole is better than the sum of it's parts.
The combat and controls sucks and, no, this does not facilitate any sense of realism
As someone mentioned earlier the story needed a lot of the fat trimmed, it's a lot more Zack Snyder than Sergio Leone. Especially egregious is a section in the begining of chapter 5, an absolutely ridiculous point in the story that escalates way beyond co trols and undermines any sense of immersion the story has cultivated.
Buried beneath all of the padding and shoddily written, stupid distracting side quests and tutorial mission is an excellent story that, much like the Last Jedi, is really about watching and escalating series of terrible mistakes and how things fall apart, it's about fate and hubris and it's excellent. This story is additionally wounded by bizarre pacing and the way that a lot it's best most dramatic moments undercut each other. For a game with a lot of space and long transportation sections, somehow a lot of the drama doesn't have room to breathe. All of the quiet that makes westerns like "Once Upon a Time in the West" great, is instead filled with noise. Constant, bullshit noise.
For all of the apparently hundred hour work weeks, there is time that could have been saved in a game where less would have been a hell of a lot more. They could have spent less time on horse testicles and more time making more engaging combat with responsive controls. They could have cut out that whole Spoiler: Cuba section and someone could have had more time with their family.
Sadie, by the way, would have made a very compelling protagonist. She has a much more interesting arc than arthur, and one that even better parallels Dutch's arc, which is super well written btw. We're left with another male led rockstar game instead, even the option would have at least felt a little modern. They missed a huge opportunity with her.
Like I said, whole is better than the sum of it's parts, but we are left with a much above average open world adventure game mired in the sensibilities and gameplay of ten years past.