9.5/10 Story
7/10 Port

So, I finally beat the game + epilogue (don't skip it, its so good..) after 111 hours.

The Plus Sides

- It's gorgeous, I spent alot of time just staring at things, observing and taking screenshots.

- So much content. I didn't even do everything I could do before the epilogue and its changes, and it still lets you do most of it anyway later.

- The little things, such as animal interactions with the world, peoples day to day life, the public executions, the random things that can start from a confrontation.

- The combat, although nothing complex, made me feel like I was actually some badass western gunslinger, and the fist fights are so fun (I find), with throwing people through windows, grappling them, tackling them through doors, smashing them off counters.

- The cast of characters, all have charm and story, make sure you listen to them speak, get them gifts and do the side quests for them, it opens up alot of cool moments, which I honestly didnt do NEARLY enough of and will starting over soon to do so.

- The epilogue, I won't spoil anything, but ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ was so cool, a great segway into the first game. Although they definitely retconned some plot from RDR1, I am 100% okay with that, it made this better in a great way.

(I could go on with much more)

The Down Sides

- Some optimization issues, I actually took a big break from playing because of it. It kept getting a graphical glitch that led to crashing and nothing online helped for long, but that part seems fixed now. There are other problems, with some strange aliasing effects, stutters that even with lowered settings would hamper the experience. But, NOW things seem better, I have 1070 and a i7 clocked at 4.2 and ran nearly everything maxed at 1440p other than some reflection settings and a few other choice settings I forget, at playable framrates. (I don't mind them being lower for a cinematic story like this, I want them nice visuals).

- The intro, can be long and draw you away from the story, but stick with it, it picks back up, it just feels like a huge tutorial.

- THE LACK OF DUELING UGHH, I dont know why, but I found there was a severe lack of dueling. I wish you could piss someone off to the point they would duel you in the streets but it is so rare outside of some questing.

- THE ONLINE, I wish there wasn't so much stuff shoved down your throat about having to buy and upgrade to experience the full content. It can be fun (I haven't done much), with friends, but there is a great amount of griefing in my experience.

- NO SINGLE PLAYER DLC, all to push more money from the online component, and its a shame. There could easily be more content and it would sell like hotcakes. Give us the last few years leading to RDR1 (with more retcons, idc), give us a bit of prequel or backstory to play with. Its not a big deal, but I wish they didn't waste all the time with online, and gave us more instead, in single player. (I'm sure the next game will be a prequel about the gang getting together anyway).

To End Things

The games and its story is a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ masterpiece, this and RDR1 have now cemented themselves as my favorite story in video games, only behind Knights of The Old Republic II.

To quote our boah
"I gave you all I had"

GOTY for me

I would love a neutral/leaning positive option. I like the game, gun play is pretty good (still missing a certain feeling), some maps are good, the sounds and graphics are top notch, etc.

But, it doesn't quite feel like BF3/4/1 to me like a lot of folks are saying. It is ALOT closer than 5 and 2042 were, thats for sure, and I am sure after some updates it'll be a lot better. But, it's missing maps that FEEL like battlefield, and a certain punchiness that the older games had. Sniping in particular feels a little lacking.

And honestly, I'm not sure what it is, but there seems to be changes from the beta for these systems that are different now, but I'm probably just crazy. Something in the beta FELT better.

Overall though, it is a great game and one of the better online shooters I"ve played in a long ass time. Last big shooter I bought was MW2019 on a sale, and then 2042 recently on its deepsale. This feels better than both of those, and I know will continue to improve.

Still wish we getting more of that Bad Company vibe at least, maybe one day!
Btw, check out the Hardcore modes on portal, they are a lot of fun.

Quick edit: Oh, and the TTK is still to quick for me, I wish it was slowed down some. I know it will make it hard on some of the older BF vets coming in from the old BF2 - BFBC2 days. It can be jarring.