I’ll agree that RDR is different in a many ways, it’s still Rockstar so some of the gameplay is similar but a lot more fun with the western vibe over the city. And while I enjoyed some of the GTA games, none of them come close to RDR1 in my opinion. I just brought GTA up because I saw the same life sim crap creeping in there around GTA4 like I did RDR2
I’ll chime in! This is absolutely true in my experience. I loved RDR1 (still one of my favorite games) but with RDR2, I felt exactly the same as you. Too much fishing, hunting, and other distracting elements. RDR1 has some of that but it’s on a much smaller and easier to complete scale. I never finished the second one, about halfway through, I went back and replayed the first.
That’s basically been Rockstar’s MO since GTA4. I enjoyed GTA3 through San Andreas but GTA4 felt like bowling with cousin Roman more than a GTA game.
I’m pushing 40 so I’m not young but I’ve actually been buying more games lately thanks to being patient and not rushing out to buy AAA games along with switching from console to PC, gotta love Steam sales. I just bought two games I’ve been wanting to play for $30.