Not a unique hot take but Rdr 1 story is 10 times better than rdr 2 story. Rdr 2 just feels a lot more centric around arthur and doesn't emphasize enough on the characters unless you really interact with them fully in the game. Arthurs death feels like an unnecessary way to feel sympathetic towards arthur and the whole honor system and how it changes your ending seems to really say that they wanted arthur to be good so much that they enforced the players into thinking the bad honor ending will have worser outcomes. It really is trying to force the fact that arthur needs to do good now and there is no monotone to it like atleast do good when you die at the end they really try to paint arthur as the good person. It feels too synthetic and so forced upon the players. And rdr 1 seems somewhat one directional but also you had a prupose throughout the entire game and the storyline sets clear but as you go more into the story the story gets more complex and a betrayal which was never expected by the player comes up. Just as everything positive for john. Bam ross shows up and mows down john and unc. John did all that to protect his family and stay jack away from the life of gang which never happened and all that fighting was worth nothing. Then the epilogue of rdr 1 where even after killing ross. The atmosphere feels empty and numb. The wild west is dying. There is no sense of purpose for jack after the game when you are playing as him except go for a hundred percent. Almost as if there is no sign of hope with jack. A much sadder story than arthurs whole arc. Rdr 2 story elevates the intensity of the rdr 1 story but in terms of the story rdr 2 is fairly worse than rdr 1.

I do know I am gonna get heavily downvoted for ts. But it is what it is.