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 like a FPS but I have the most fun with the PVE sub genre of FPS. Left 4 Dead 2 and Deep Rock Galactic being my two favorites. Playing against other humans can be annoying if the skill balance isn’t right and if they’re cheating then it makes it no fun, imo.