I think I died inside a couple of time while I was suffering at the hand of the game's immaculate design. Nghhh...

But I love this game. At least right now after having just finished it. Everything about it that is the gameplay is perfect. And even the gameplay was ok before the ending D requirements and the you-know-what kicked in. I don't think even the story is perfect, but I love its attitude and just the general oddity of it, and how much it humanizes all of its characters, even the canon fodder you kill.

I wish a little tiny bit there was a bit more to it though. I have to appreciate what an absolute anomaly and ballsy game or even story it is, but I also can't help but wish that... it was a bit more well-thought out. If it was, it would've been a solid 5/5.

As is usually the case for most Rockstar games, the game's outlook and worldview is pretty damn cynical and grim in this game. People die really easily from a bullet to the head. Justice doesn't come for innocent people, and the only ones who survive are scumbags and evil men... until they're backstabbed or killed by their enemies themselves.

Now this game has an impressive variety of evil characters. Marshals and deputies who care more for talking political ideals than protect their citizens, graver robbers, lying drunks, cheating frauds, angry gamblers, tyrannical dictators who rape women, revolutionary socialists who also rape women, corrupt government officials, companies who make games trashing white culture but dabble in white colonialist and capitalist practices themselves... oh, sorry. I guess that last one wasn't from the game.

And what's really interesting about the main character is that even though he can see through the facade of all of these people, he doesn't do anything to stop them. His own problems are more important to him than even some innocent people's lives. The extent of his insight are some snarky comments. Sure, he isn't racist. He isn't bigoted towards women. He can tell right from wrong in his old age, but he still acts in the interest of all the evil people listed in the paragraph above. Because he wants to get back to his own family. John Marston is a bad person, no matter how honorable you play him.

I really like John Marston as a character. He is a pretty good example of how even people with a good sense of morals can still facilitate evil in light of their own self-interest. He even does less than what he can do without putting his own interests in danger. And it's not unrealistic either; he's a tired man wronged by everyone since birth and he's impatient to quickly put the bad life behind and go back to his own family. And that leads him to killing native Americans, burning innocent people's houses, etc. His callousness causes innocent girls to die for nothing, and him not caring about other people's plight more than his own.

TL;DR the story got me thinking quite a bit. It's a good story.

The gameplay and everything else is fine. It is what you've bargained for when you pick up this kind of game. I'm sure it was more impressive back in 2010 than now, but it's not really bad right now either. It's good.

Some minor complaints are how much the game wastes your time making you riding horses on trips when there's absolutely no reason to. Some rides are nice when laced with interesting conversations, (conversation with Abraham Reyes about revolutionary heroes come to mind) but usually the rides between missions are super boring because of how big the map is.

And the environment... is a bit more scant than I would've liked. I mean GTA V and IV had the same limitations on seventh gen consoles but idk... maybe foliage is more intensive on hardware than buildings.

All in all, the story is the best part of this game. And I thoroughly enjoyed that.