I really fucking like single player version of this game.
Started when it came out, played for 1 month straight finished half epilogue and uninstalled because really got burned. Recently installed again and been playing non stop for 2 weeks. Its comfy as fuck, graphics is great, for almost every thing you do there is an animation, and i like the bit of realism rockstar introduced. I kinda understand how some casual players may not like it. You can talk to anyone, interact with any npcs. Harass them. Threaten them. Hit them. Kidnap them. I love this! The small talk lines are amazing. Rockstar has been constantly improving on that kind of living world since GTA IV. There are shitton of cutscenes and hidden dialogues,
Shitton of possibilities to have fun, thousands of collectives and secrets. Fauna and flora is amazing. Locations and atmosphere are top notch. Jumping on a train to rob some women of their trinkets still feels like a big deal to me, random encounters are great, finding lone travelers camping and deciding what their fate will be is fun, jumping on a wagon, stealing horses, dynamite fishing etc. The immersing factor is big. You can be a hunter surviving in the north, scoping with binoculars then tracking animal, selling game at the trapers, living in your camps in the wilderness and catching an occassional fish and occassionaly getting ambushed by some sick fucks and blowing their heads close up with sawed-off shotgun. And once in a while you visit a civilization, go to the saloon, take a hot bath and sleep in a warm bed, take a few shots of whiskey, go va banque at the poker table, beat some drunkard, rob some loser at the knife point, stock up on some supplies, hop on a train going to wallace station and off to wilderness you go.
Or you can be a family man, wake up at 6 o'clock, say hello to your wife and a boy, scoff an old drunkard, drink some coffe at the fireplace with your wife then smoke a cigarette, feed the chickens, milk the cows, do some more work at the ranch, go to city to sell the product, return just in time for a family dinner cooked by your wife, Take a beer from a crate, go sit with everyone at the fireplace and sing songs, go get another beer, smoke a cigar, listen to some stories, drink another beer and go to sleep. Or if its raining you can just take a book from a shelf, sit on a sofa by the fireplace, drink some good brandy, read a book and smoke a cig.
Normally i dont like collectibles in games (fuck you pigeons in GTA IV), but somehow completing the compendium, collecting bones and dreamcatchers is fun. Hunting legendary animals, fishing legendary fish, i fucking love it. When im playing RDR2, im not playing the game, IM LIVING in this game.

I CAN SEE how people dont like this game. You have to have a certain mindset and immerse in it, not everyone have such deep personality. Let me put it this way: there are some people (normies) that play games like FIFA, Fortnite, LoL, Dota, CS GO, Madden NFL, Dark souls, Smash, pokemon and other japanese trash(jk). The success of these games is based on mostly SIMPLE RULES and COMPLEX STRATEGIES. Like chess. Actually every successful game/sport developed before XX century follow this pattern. I shit you not, even Tetris is successful because off that paradigm. (btw world tetris competition coming soon in 2 weeks, last year the thread was a blast on /v/, ill make sure to make one). And there are people who invest hundreds of hours into games like Skyrim or Witcher 3. These are the people with imagination rich enough to read a series of books in one go or sit for 6 hours through a DND game, while the FIFA players can barely make it through a single movie at the theater.
And that, gentleman, i explained and finally settled the question "Is RDR2 shit?" Its not shit. Its just some people are shit. You can screencap this for future references.

Back to topic. I have a question to ask, after all. I tend to spend too much hours on customizing my outfits. 5 is not fucking enough, it should be 10-20 like in GTA online. I need to have a proper look whenever i go, its unnimersive to go to deep north in saint denis aristocratic outfit.
And with that, it brings me to the online component. I havent even started it. 96% in single player, gonna go for a 100% obviously, maybe even go for a little more exploring every secret and do some roleplaying.
I played GTA online for like 400-600 hours. Also finished single player GTA V but that was not as much fun as RDR2. I played through CEO, office updates, bunker updates, yacht updates, drugrunning and many more. I grinded the shit out of it. Every once an update came out, i spent 2 weeks grinding to get the best killing machines. I had fun killing 10 level players in my flying delorean, i was a real piece of shit. Grifted the shit out of other players. Sometimes they sent me text messages and i laughed at then losing 1m$+ in sales. One time i kept killing this guy and i told him if he let me kill him with a machete ill let him go. He accepted. I even made a .webm out of it but deleted it. Also i specifically targeted female I got bored after nightclubs update. I think there was some update after about demolition derby or something, and just recently i heard of a casino update.