Red Dead Redemption 2 and by extension a ton of Rockstar games are kinda funny in that they really struggle at being mechanically interesting videogames due to the deeply dated design philosophy that's still going strong since 2001 (it's not I fucking hate the repetitive mission structure and the fucking RC vehicle missions why did they put one in RDR2 it doesn't even mak-) but the source material they're cribbing from is strong enough and the artistry is strong enough that they still mostly work.
Gangster movies made San Andreas great and all westerns and their tropes are in RDR2 and they mostly work cause y'know, established genres. not to undermine how beautiful RDR2 and how hard it is to translate a movie and its emotions into a videogame, but what I'm left with from my time with RDR2 is that Rockstar just really needs to change their stupid cinematic formula and mission structure, and not fail players for taking too long, not nagging players to follow the script, cause in a modern Rockstar game you're not a player playing a game in the traditional sense, you're more a player that's being forced to play a part in a play, an interactive movie. If Arthur Morgan doesn't shoot 10 guys on horseback during a chase scene you were a worse player than the Arthur Morgan that did know to shoot the 10 guys, that one was better for the action, for whatever that's fucking worth. This is what bothers me about Rockstar games now, they don't want you to be creative and express yourself, they just want to railroad you into what they determined is gonna be the most satisfying experience and sometimes that works, mostly it just frustrates me.