I think one reason I love RDR2 is that I am probably not a “typical” gamer, LOL! Here’s what I mean by that:
Last time I played, I spent some time in camp chatting with everyone. Still in Chapter 3. Sat around the campfire, gave the guy who was asking for a pocketwatch a platinum one I’d held onto just for him. Went to my tent, slept until early morning, got up, had coffee and something to eat, looked at the map, decided today I’m going to get the skins I need to finish upgrading my saddlebags all the way. Rode off, with my binoculars in hand, heading to where I’d heard there were panthers. Met a stranger who asked for help, as that usually works out pretty well, this time he laughed at me and jumped on my horse and tried to ride away (shades of RDR1!) I whistled at Destiny, my White Arabian fast but skittish horse, she reared up, he fell off, I hogtied him, made a detour while he protested, in my mind I told him I wish I knew how to take you to town and have you hanged (that would be a nice touch, take someone like this to a sheriff, tell him he tried to steal my horse, have the sheriff toss him in jail, maybe see him get hung later.) Lacking that, and being mightily perturbed at his treatment of someone who stopped at tried to help him, in my mind I told him, how many kind people have you taken advantage of like this, who aren’t as tough and quick as I am? I think we need to make sure you don’t do this any more. While that was in my mind, he was protesting out loud! I rode into the swamps, found a gator on the edge of the water, stopped, got him off my horse, went as close as I could to the gator and dropped him. The gator did the rest.
Got back on my horse, saw another gator, killed him for the big game meat. Love to cook me some spiced big game meat and get yellow cores. Rode back out to get to the reported panther location. On the way a guy rides by with a woman on the back of her horse screaming that she was being kidnapped. I actually heard her before they got to me, so as he rode by at full speed I got lucky and lassoed him. Of course, he got yanked right off of the horse as it sped by, very satisfying. Hog tied him until I heard her story. Manged to calm down the horse she was on, took her off and untied her. She told me he was telling her all the horrible stuff he was going to do to her. After our chat, she thanked me, gave me her address and told me to come by some time (Nah, that part didn’t happen, but I imagined it did. LOL!) and she mounted his horse and took off. I decided anyone who would kidnap a woman for obviously really bad intentions deserved a little frontier justice so I found a railroad track and left him on it. Unfortunately I didn’t have the patience to see what would happen when a train came down the track, so I left him.
As I went back on my way, I was surprised when I was told I had stumbled upon the location of a Legendary animal. I had no idea, so I looked at my legendary animals map, and saw what it probably was. Great! Jumped off my horse, made sure I had the right weapons, scoured the area for a clue, was almost ready to give up when I saw it in the distance. Did the whole tracking down and stalking the legendary animal process, managed to get a nice quick kill, skinned and butchered it. BTW - lots of game saving in here, I save a lot!
OK change of plans, lets head to a fence and a trapper. I had accidentally wandered into St. Denis earlier, so I decided to head over there. Did my deal with the trapper, got an item from the fence as well as selling some stuff I’d looted off the two bad guys. It was about 6:30 PM when I finished so I went to the fancy saloon, had a nice plate of food, took a bath, said hello to everyone, then came back and joined the poker game. $5 buy-in, some decent pots. I have played Hold-em for decades, before it was on TV, played in some tourneys. The players in this saloon aren’t going to win a bracelet, but their play is actually good enough to be fun, and you can pick up on their playing styles. Played until about 3 a.m., busted out a couple of them, enjoyed listening to all of the conversations going on in the background of this busy saloon, then decided to head to bed. Went to the room I rented, said hello to everyone up there, and had a good night’s sleep.
Next morning I wandered around this big city for a while, enjoyed a couple of random stranger encounters, then decided to go get that panther. It took me most of a day to actually find and kill it, but I did. Next I need a racoon and I’ll have everything I need.
I didn’t do a single main mission. I loved just being a rough and tumble dude from that time era and the world they give me to live in. I feel no rush to go do game missions and “progress the story” even though I am sure I will enjoy it when I do. But honestly, I’d really enjoy this game world if there were no main missions. It’s huge, varied, full of life, and pulls me in every time I play.
Short version: I love the world they’ve created for me to explore and the “game” part is just gravy for me.