A free roaming Wild West game, sounds ambitious. Only thing is, the story gets redundant after awhile.
The controls are pretty good, you get authentic weapons for the time and you can ride horses, wagons but sadly you cant ride an early automobile which would have been pretty cool.
You play as John Marston, an ex-gang member who has to hunt down his former partners while his family hangs in the balance thanks to the goverment officials. This sounds cool and all but this game and its characters give you the run-around throughout the whole game. Help this person and they'll help you find Bill Williamson, your former partner. The problem is this gets redundant and old after awhile because you have to help so many peopl and hardly get anywhere. You get the run around. You'll see what I mean when you play this game.
The gameplay is solid and believe it or not there is alot to do in this game like side quests, games like horseshoes, five finger filet, poker, liar's dice and bounty hunting. You can save people from bandits, packs of wolves, or even be set up by a damzelle in distress who asks for your help but lures you into getting robbed. You can also hunt animals and sell what you get from them like meat and pelt. There are so many animals in this game it will blow your mind, wild boars, racoons, cougars, mountain lions, bears, snakes, eagles, owls and I could go on.
The online in my opinion feels kinda bland, I don't play it much.
All in all this is a great game, the characters are appealing, the graphics are amazing and gameplay as well as the missions are fun but the downfall is the repetitive theme of "help me and I'll help you" only to get minimal or no help in return.