Red Dead Redemption 2: 9 Reasons It's Not Game Of The Year 2018

1. It Fundamentally Can't Work As An Open-World Extravaganza AND A Meaningful Story

All of these points get me to the main problem: Red Dead 2 wants to give you this gorgeous, unprecedentedly detailed open-world sandbox... but also a tailored story with a specific protagonist, and a specific "way to play".

You CAN indulge in the nefarious nature of an outlaw, robbing trains and gutting half the local populace (they even recorded many hilarious lines of dialogue from NPCs or Arthur himself to accentuate how much fun it can be), but that will clash with Arthur's portrayal in cutscenes and the majority of conversations around camp.

Rockstar encountered this problem with GTA 4, as Niko would lament a life of violence and contract killing... only to do nothing but that to get by.

In RDR2, regardless of how you reach the end, the game only spits out two endings: Either you're good enough to peacefully watch the sunrise, or you get put down like a dog by Micah.

It feels like Rockstar are making a meaningful comment on how you should have turned yourself around in the final chapter, but with the pacing issues stultifying the open world aspect, closing off any want to explore and - post-epilogue - driving home that it's "wrong" to do so, we're left with two halves and no meaningful whole.

Stick to the main missions and you'll have a mostly coherent story. Veer away from that into scores of dynamic interactions and haphazard violence with NPCs and the world itself, and the game's overarching trajectory for both Arthur and John falls apart.