This review contains spoilers

I played this game over the course of just over a year. Whenever I came back to it I always had a great time, the first few chapters show the propserity and hope that the group has, depsite Dutch's promises of only one more heist and then its over, when the heist goes wrong it doesn't really matter as most people are quite happy with the situation as is. Over the course of the game the hope that was with the group at the starts to fracture, heist after heist goes wrong, Dutch's secret plan never seems to culminate in anything of worth. This is all fine until the heist in Saint Denis, during which several members of the group are killed and the rest are stranded. This in my opinion is where the game truly takes off in terms of quality, although necessary the chapters up until this point never really had too much development or change, despite the setting changing the formula (set up a camp, do small tasks until a big heist, then the heist goes wrong and they have to move) was getting old. It's at this point that people start to truly question Dutch, why he never tells people the plan. The feeling of disdain for each other, the mistrust of a possible rat. That atmosphere of the camp completely changes. No longer are the quests about the camp working together for the better of everyone. They are bitter and desperate trials quite often in contradiciton to another members ideology or more commonly Dutch's plan. The fracturing of the group and the character development held there in is rivalled by very few in any medium when it comes to the pure emotion conveyed, and it truly launched the game from being a really good open world shooter, to an incredible must watch story. Everything about the quests leading up to the ending and the ending itself feel perfect and I really fucking enjoyed playing it. The epilogue does an incredible job of both wrapping up the stories that were left in the wind in Arthur's bit as well as bridging the narrative gap between where John Marston is at the end of red dead 2 and where he is at the start of 1. Overall, the game feels great to play, even if the reloading of different guns is strange at times. That atmosphere is incredible and it sits as one of, if not THE, best looking game I've ever played. Very good Shit.

Reviewed on Aug 10, 2023


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