Most people remember 3 points in the campaign- herding cattle, entering Mexico, and the ending- and conveniently forget that the actual mission design and pacing weren't that great.
This is so true, and i do think those 3 moments were outstanding, so i'm not even trying to bring the game down.
However for example, there is a mission where you go, along with the sheriff, to a ranch that has been attacked by Bill Williamson's gang.
You arrive there, and it is deserted, you get to the barn, and the family has been hanged, with only one woman as a survivor.
So you're all fired up for revenge, you hop on your horse with the law men, and you're ready to go.
Now this would've been a good way to introduce something a bit different, perhaps you sneak up on these cunts at night, as they camped in the wild, and sneak around their camp, cutting throats with your knife, or maybe you set fire to their tents while they still sleep.
Whatever.
Instead what you get is you ride for a bit, then they ambush you, you hole up in a little run down shed, behind cover, and shoot the waves of baddies until they're all dead.
By comparison, in GTAV as painfully scripted as it was (it especially feels so, after you played something like MGSV) the missions tried to stay varied, tried to throw stuff at you, like using thermal vision with Franklin, or using the remote control cannon to take down the plane, and have Trevor chase it down on a bike, or infiltrate under water.
Granted GTA being in modern times, it's a bit easier to come up with ways to vary up the missions, but they didn't really try that hard in RDR (probably because having the game running was in itself enough of a headache).
So yeah, plenty of room to improve, in the sequel.
But honestly what i'd want, it's not even creative varied mission, it's just more freedom, plain and simple.
Again, after you play something like MGSV, that essentially gives you tools, a set of basic rules, and leaves you to be creative in a (literal) sandbox, it's hard to go back to "follow the dot on the map" mission design.
And actually, that was the promise that GTA3 gave, back in the day: Park your car in front of the gateway and rocket launch everyone's ass! Impromptu solutions to emergent problems.
Not just cinematic, rubber banded to hell chases, and endless waves of bad guys.
R* are the absolute top dog in this industry, so this may ring hollow, but they need to step up their game design a notch or two.
their world building is truly unparalleled, i think by anyone in the gaming business, and they polish that aspect to scary extremes, but when it comes to push the game design forward, they don't seem to be very bold (despite the 3 characters thing, being a very ambitious idea).
I mean, how long have they been doing this? And they can't manage some decent on foot controls, when the competition can do it just fine (from Watch Dogs to Sleeping Dogs.. basically anyone has them beat on that front).
Or maybe boldness isn't even the problem, maybe their insularity is, it would explain why they still can't offer a simple and convenient garage system in GTA, when everyone else figured that shit out since forever.
