I said some time ago, in the depths of another post, that I've never been that interested in Rockstar's story modes and missions. This came much to the horror of some, but there's always been a reason for it, and sadly, RDR2 is no exception.
There's no doubt that their story telling is good, but their application of that story into a compelling mission-based game, to me, is very poor.
Here is the Rockstar mission template:
Get an idea about a thing
Ride 20 minutes to place
Do the thing
Thing goes wrong
Have to cover behind a wall and shoot 80 guys to escape
Have to shoot more guys as you ride to safety
It's boring. I physically rolled my eyes yesterday as Arthur so predictably ran to cover in a cutscene and initiated step 5. At that point you're just going through the motions – shoot some guys, reload a hundred times, follow the yellow dot, shoot some more guys, ride away, turn back, shoot the guys chasing you. "There's more coming from the left!" Yawn.
What makes it worse is they're just mindless peds that just run at you. There's no challenge, it's just boring point and shoot until they're gone.
However you look at it, it's an antiquated method and lacks any kind of subtlety and grace. This may come as an unpopular opinion to some, but it's dull and tedious.
For a game that's taken 8 years to build and is supposedly "revolutionising gaming", for me it's no more than RDR1 but with better graphics and a few more features.
Shame.