Having finished the 6 chapters I have to say how good it is to see the a video game finally use the whole narrative potential of the medium. Most video games try to be movies or television episodes, and their stories end up as sub-par. Red Dead Redemption 2 decided to damn that and made a narrative that can not really be done in movies or television.
There are 30+ fully realised characters that feel more real than most protagonists in other games. The amazing thing is you can go through the game without even noticing them, but if you wish, you can find so many characters with their own stories. I've noticed in the TV series I've watched this year that most are bloated and overlong (especially on Netflix) and usually have about 2-3 hours worth of plot pushed out to 10 hours with drawn out dialogue and subplots. RDR2 has about 3-4 seasons worth of story in one experience and that is only fully focusing on Arthur. If the other major members of the gang had a similar focus then if RDR2 were to follow the current TV style of long and bloated seasons, there would be hundreds of hours worth of story.
I found many of the missions to be repetitive, I lost count of how many missions had you steal something, get into a shootout then flee on horseback while they chase you. It's not a perfect experience by any means but I believe it has what is closest to a perfect protagonist we have seen so far. The other benefit of video game narrative is that you live Arthur's story, not just watch or read it. Rockstar used this better than any other game had before it and I can't remember feeling as close to a character as I did with Arthur in chapter 6. Arthur's story (depending how you play him of course) is also something a lot of men can relate to when it comes to doing what's right and trying to be a good man, which a lot of men struggle with in the modern world.
There has been a lot of games with good stories, but this is the first I think I've seen that actually uses the full narrative potential of video gaming. I believe because of this video games can be a better way to adapt a lot of books, as the restraints of time and structure are looser than in movies or television. You could experience all characters and all dialogue and all subplots without making it compulsory, just like this game.
As an aside, it was also refreshing to see Rockstar come up with a mature story without leaning on the current popular crutches of sex and profanity. It's the characters that make the story as it should be.
