Agreed. The writing and acting of RDR2 are amazing, but as a whole, the story of the game kind of felt empty in the end. I think I might revisit the game later to see if I’ll enjoy it more, but I just don’t see Arthur as that great of a character from a narrative viewpoint. After the first couple times Dutch’s “plans” failed I started to really question why Arthur, or any of the other gang members really, would continue trusting him so blindly. I think that may have broken my immersion even more than the restrictive mission design where I also murdered like a thousand people.
I’ve been doing this with games and movies for years. It’s so much fun to go into something blind with zero expectations, makes the whole experience a lot more exciting.