#and it feels soo unimmersive because of how it's trying to be serious and ~realistic~ and then doing goofy shit like this

[jaggedwolf]

I have never met a game whose story is fighting its open world concept as hard as Red Dead Redemption 2 does.

I've reached Chapter 6, and so far the main story of the game is the gang drawing too much attention to their crimes, getting into an epic shootout, and then having to shift camps, towns, even states, because they're wanted men.

It's 1899. The Wild West is dying, the strength of federal and state governments and their collaboration with Pinkertons is growing, an outlaw can't simply shift to the next town over with a different name. We're losing people, the law is closing in on us, everyone is feeling desperate. It is literally the story of our protagonist losing his old way of life and his world getting smaller and smaller.

But like. His world isn't actually any smaller.

How am I supposed to take Arthur saying "I'm a wanted man in two states :(" seriously when I have the whole map at my disposal, with any of the bounties I get (including ones from main story missions!) easily paid off at the local post office.

This is way worse than when open worlds make it seem like the protagonist is fucking around while the world is on fire! At least then it is merely that the open world is orthogonal to the main story, and some games even throw in a token reason to go running around (see: closing portals in Dragon Age: Inquisition). But here the open world actively fights against the deliberate claustrophobia and panic that the main story is trying to induce in us, which is the worst interplay of open world and main plot I've seen.