This is my favorite game from the previous generation. It was the game that made me buy a PS3 back in 2011. I strongly believe it is one of the best games ever made. But let's not dwell on my sweet teenage memories and talk about the final product that R* has delivered:

The story is amazingly well-written. The music is right on point. The dialogues are superb. The tone of the game is unmatched, delivering a dark and gloomy experience that truly reflects what the Wild West must have been. Adventuring alone in the desert feels creepy, and there is always an eerie feeling to it, which the spaghetti western music harmonizes with perfectly.

The game was developed during the last good years of single-player games, where if you wanted to unlock something, you had to complete challenges to obtain it. Microtransactions were, thankfully, non-existent. Speaking of unlocking, the game has a deep outfit system. As mentioned before, you can unlock outfits by completing engaging challenges, and most of the outfits give you some kind of advantage. You can cheat at poker with a carefully tailored suit. You can improve your aim by shooting with one eye blinded. You can dress up as a rival gang member and go unnoticed. This is an amazing feature that I’ve longed for and haven't seen in any other game besides the Hitman and MGS series.

This last point, combined with the honor and fame systems, gives the feeling that you can influence the world around you, which is incredibly immersive and always feels alive.

But why am I giving a negative review, then? Well, I think that R* needs a wake-up call. They have been making quite a lot of mistakes lately, and they can’t still think that their reputation is untouchable. This delivery is unacceptable. Held up against the highest standards (as it should be for this company), it falls quite short of the mark. It is the exact same game that came out 14 years ago. Textures, animations, sounds, and gameplay have been delivered unmodified. This is a 14-year-old game priced like every other brand-new AAA title. They haven’t put a single drop of love into the re-release of the games that put them in the position they’re in now. I know this is not a remake nor a remaster; it’s just a straight port. But, for god's sake, you could've spent some time refining some animations, redoing some textures, and polishing the audio.

I normally don’t mind about graphics and textures, but the gameplay is weakened by animations that sometimes lack continuity. You can’t shoot and duck, or run and take cover. You have to stop playing one animation to start another one. I don’t understand why this is still a thing, since they had this solved back in GTA IV. Of course, this wasn’t that big of an issue back then. But we've come a long way in terms of animations and movement feel. Speaking of movement and feel, riding a horse with a keyboard feels non-responsive and straight-up weird. I had to plug in a controller to optimize the experience, then go back to KBM when in need of unholstering.

Missing QOL Features: If you want to switch from the base game to the DLC, you have to quit to the main menu. This was inconvenient 14 years ago but bearable. Today, it’s unfathomable.

Performance is terrible. Regardless of the frame rate you choose, you will experience screen tearing. I haven’t found a way to make it run smoothly despite having high fps.

Back in 2011, I had a blast with Multiplayer Mode. It was pure fun. You could play the typical multiplayer activities like shoot-outs, team deathmatches, horse races, you name it. And every item was unlocked through leveling up. No microtransactions, no life-consuming mindless grinding. It was perfect. Of course, now it’s nowhere to be seen. No surprises there, seeing how they never cared about RDR2’s MM and let it bleed to death.

You can’t live off the past. You can’t keep feeding off the love that we held for the games and experiences that you gave us. It’s high time to put players before shareholders. Companies around you are losing their reputation, and there is no coming back from that.

"People don’t forget; nothing gets forgiven."