Good lord this is not what I was expecting.

So 2 years ago this game came out and I saw all this hype around it. Everyone was playing it. I was never a fan of shooters or anything, and from what little I saw of it I thought "meh, looks like just another shooter". I was also too into Minecraft to really care about any other games. Fast forward to July 2020 and I buy it just for the sake of buying it. Thinking "welp, I'm unemployed, can't really go outside because of this deadly virus thing, mine as well stock up on games to pass the time". Then I don't touch it for like a month. My girlfriend casually mentions that she didn't know I had this game after seeing it in my library. So that night I install it. 13 hours later it's installed, I play it, 3 hours later I drop it after barely making it through half of Chapter 1. Then a couple weeks later I beat GTA V for the first time and I think "isn't RDR2 just GTA V with horses" so I play it again. I haven't dropped it since. 227 Hours and 95% Completion on my first save, and I've barely touched Online yet. I honestly think I annoy my girlfriend with how often I mention this game.

This game is a masterpiece, plain and simple. I am thoroughly surprised I did not pick it up for so long. The story is magnificent, really tugged at my heartstrings at multiple points. The characters are amazing. The attention to detail for not just the main group, but every notable side character and NPC is just beyond what I ever thought I'd see in a video game. There is so much to do aside from the story, so much to explore, so much to find. Each area in the game is unique, has it's own little challenges, the people are unique to each region. All the animals you can find and hunt act so real and it just adds so much. I used to love fishing as a kid, and I got the exact same excitement in this game when a fish was on the line that I did in real life (although there could be more fish species tbh). You feel like you can just live in this world and it's just so much fun. Now, it does have its shortcomings. Fish species could be more varied, I feel like there could be more customization with outfits (only one bandanna for example), more melee weapons, etc. But these don't exactly detract from the game, and as far as glitches go I have yet to run into many at all, and the ones I have are small things that kinda come with the territory of being a video game.

Before Minecraft, I thought all these mega popular games weren't as great as people made them out to be. I was perfectly content sitting with my Sonic and Mario games and being happy. But then I tried it, and I told myself "maybe I should jump on the gaming bandwagon more often". After that came Undertale, which I loved. Then Rocket League, which I loved. Then Fall Guys. This game though, this has cemented that mindset. I will never look past a game that hits the mainstream like this one did again.

Get this game. It's worth every penny. 10/10 would accidentally hit my White Arabian horse with a train again (RIP Lilliana, you did good).