MInor spoilers. This isn’t like GTA5 and I’m very cool with that.

This reminds me of how I felt when we jumped from GTA SA to GTA4. Just a really huge experience so far. The map is spread out and it dots it with a bunch of activities that are completely optional. I haven’t had this much fun exploring a map since Skyrim. Once you wrap up the first couple of hours and the map opens up I recommend everybody just jump on a horse and go exploring. If you have some cash, jump on a train and try to find your way back to camp. My god this map is huge.

I wasn’t excited about this being a prequel but so far I’m really liking it. This is probably RS’s best writing to date, which isn’t saying much, but you can tell they spent a lot of time making the story of the Van Der Linde gang a slow burn. If you’re already familiar with the first game, you know that it didn’t end well for anybody involved but I would say about halfway through the story you finally start to put some pieces together.

The missions are fucking FUN AS HELL. They do a really good job of putting you in this hero fantasy scenario. You get to kick the door down and mow down a bunch of goons after your sidekick throws you the shotgun. You get to jump from a horse to a train and hijack it. You shoot your way out of dozens of situations and there’s no part where I felt like it was tedious or repetitive. You can tell the RS writing team spent months and years reading a lot of Cormac MacCarthy and watching a lot of Peckinpah or the more modern westerns.

This is probably the best time I’ve had with a RS game right when it came out. Of course just be ready for the RS control scheme, where when you gotta get on your horse and escape the law, you’re gonna watch that whole fucking horse mounting animation. They spent millions on this game and you’re gonna watch every cent.