This was actually my first thought too! Every time I buy a Rockstar game, I am immediately reminded how big the hype is compared to how bad the core game mechanics are.

I regretted buying RDR2, GTAV, and GTA4 when I first played them. I think I liked Vice City, but I expected it to be more of a visual upgrade than it was.

For RDR2, you get to slowly slog through snow… then play 40+ hours of poorly-designed quests and waves of dozens of enemies to slow you down so you can move the story forward.

The core gameplay mechanics are designed as a way to slow the story down rather than making the game fun. I would rather skip every single stupid gunfight. It’s so pointlessly repetitive.

None of these games really need 40 hours of padded story content, but people think they’re getting a “value” by spending their time playing mediocre things.

For GTAV, it’s honestly hilarious how bad the first driving mission is. People are straight-up delusional about these games.