Yep. The first half of RDR 2 is simply: Yo, the gang need mo' money (Dutch verbatim). This turns the game into a predictable slog. You already know before conducting any heist that it ain't gonna work out because if it did then the gang would ride happily off into the sunset and game over.

The story became slightly better in the second half with the actual redemption part but it also seemed a little far-fetched and weird sometimes. The game allows a lot of freedom so it could even become contradictory in case you did any of the side quests that require "evil" acts in the late game when Arthur was already supposed to be on his path to become an angel. That's when the story almost fell apart sometimes because it made absolutely no sense.

I really loved the world in RDR 2 and it is probably the best recreation of real North American locations in any game to date. The simulation was amazing including the wildlife, weather system, everything.

The home stretch of the story was decent but the 80% to 90% before that were not. Definitely a far cry from "fantastically written". It makes me wonder what the point of reference for that statement is? Yes. Compared to Counter-Strike 2 it was fantastically written. Compared to any other decent story game not so much. It took way too long to get to the good part of the story at the very end.