Alright game- glad I didn't pay full price.
Environment- 7.5/10- This is related to graphics and influences the level of immersion that you feel. There are coyotes in the distance and rabbits rustling through the brush while an owl takes flight across a sunset sky. The world is alive. And, however morally bleak the characters are, there is a rich and gorgeous environment in juxtaposition. On the other hand, immersion is negatively affected by stale human interaction. For instance, the 25th time you save a brothel girl from being stabbed by some angry western man character and she remarks that all men must not be bad, it starts to feel pretty uninspired. You might think that what makes up for it is main story dialogue and cutscenes. But, these come off as very manufactured. You're presented with the characters and their motivations. They are how they are and there's nothing you can do about it, including the main character. I have this same issue with GTA IV. This may be a little unfair. But, Niko Bellic and John Marsten are so alike, they are functionally the same reticent and stoic character with a checkered past, capable of either serving their purpose in a morally relativistic world, or becoming the scourge of society- or both. Either way, it doesn't really matter. The player's choices don't really drive the characterization. The only difference is with John Marsten, you're locked into a "more good" character. In summary, the environment is a work of art. It's a delight to observe but stops short of immersion.
Story- 5/10- This relatively low score consists of good voice acting, novelty facial animation, uninspired characters, and ideological/philosophical inspirations that are unchanged from GTA IV. This is purely my opinion. Let video games be good at what video games are good at, and movies likewise. Video games take a much longer time to complete than movies. So, if you play two games that are alike, you've already had a lot of time to get tired of it.
Gameplay- 4/10- Downgraded from GTA IV. There's quite a lot of things to do that get boring fast. I find more negative than positive. The progression of things is cumbersome. Gambling is the best example. I just want to play black jack. I don't want to watch the dealer deal and watch all of the players at the table take their turn showing off some mannerism. The alternative is pressing the right trigger to skip to your turn which makes this terrible "slow strobe" affect of a black screen that comes to the next thing you'd rather skip. The blood and weapon animations were way better in GTA IV. There's a lot of guess work in RDR. Where did the clever targeting reticule go? Why this camouflaged white dot? And the animals! Cougars are deadly indeed. That's fine. But, when skinning an animal automatically equips your knife, and it takes 5 seconds to get to the inexact gun menu after a long "skinning" cut scene, and cougars are coming in fresh off of an assembly line, it's time to turn the game off and start enjoying your life again. Boooo. Dead eye is okay. I don't like it that much. Or, I like the first kind. I would like the second kind if it didn't seem so over-eager.
Lastly, I don't do hardly any online gaming. I play games for escapism and privacy. If you like online gaming, this game will likely be much more enjoyable than I make it seem.