An outstanding story bogged down by aged monotonous gameplay and detestable level design that consists of; shooting waves of enemies with auto-aim while being completely fucked over by a shitty cover system, riding around on a horse for more than half the game that usually leads to absolutely nowhere important, herding missions and meticulously driving a cart over bumpy terrain being careful not to make the slightest mistake otherwise you have to repeat everything all over again. There were maybe 3 missions that I genuinely thought were interesting and actually fun to play and these came few and far between, most of them dumping the idea of just mindlessly shooting anyone you see (Fort Mercer’s exhilarating minecart segment and some random stealth mission near a train).

Excluding the missions RDR1 also suffers from its setting, where GTA thrives with its freedom and liberty, RDR1 is unfortunately the exact opposite, there’s no real risks to take as you’ll usually end up dead in the span of a few minutes, spawning in an absolutely god forsaken place where you have to walk all the way back to a town.

That’s not to say RDR1 isn’t worth playing, it truly has an incredible story that's supported by a strong cast of characters, a wonderful message about changing times, a gorgeous world to explore (except for the snow areas) and a near-perfect conclusion, but in my eyes, the gameplay sets it back a lot.
7/10