The closest we'll get to a big budget McCarthyan adaptation. Red Dead analyzes life and the modern idealization of what was the Old West. The most beautiful parts in this game are not the amazing shoot-outs with outlaws or the high adrenaline horse chases. But those moments where you can feel that you're one with the environment, just riding in the wasteland, trying to not be the next one ten feet under. Another highlight for me is when you're following the quirky npc who's giving you the next quest, John may complain and show dissatisfaction, sometimes he has no stakes on whatever they're saying or doing, and sometimes he'll just listen and go along, in the end John's just trying to get his family back. He may disagree with the actions he's about to have, but these moments of outright hyprocrisy from John is what makes him such a great and complex character. We learn who John is not by his actions but by what he's not doing, and that is nothing, he'll go to every corner of the globe and do the unthinkable if he has to, just to get his life back. It's Oh so sad in the end, when this man gave up his morals, friends and dignity to become a puppy of the goverment, in a vain attempt to have his family back, just to have the last thing that he can give, stolen from him. There are moments when the true John shines, like in the Landon Rickets arc, where we see John fulfill the role of a pupil, learning how to become a righteous gunslinger, protector of the weak, trying to tame the west and stop times from changing, but the future is imminent and John knows that the Spaghetti Cowboy is living in borrowed time. Moments like these are far and few in his journey, and when John has no other choice but to do what he was told or what needs to be done, these are the moments that Red Dead Redemption truly hits home, you won't get your revenge on the world who is taking everything away from you, even your ideology, your way of being, people come and go, and the only thing you can do is adapt, or you'll be left to rot.