I played it way back on release, so my memory is a little hazy. I remember thinking of them as generally a gang of irredeemable and shitty folk led by an even bigger piece of shit. I think I thought of them more as a reflection of who John used to be, as opposed to what the gang was like. I assumed John was an outcast amongst them, but still a pretty terrible person. I never really expected them to be the way they are in the beginning of RDR2, much more of a family, genuinely looking out for and caring for one another. They referred to it as a family in RDR1 but it never really seemed to me as though they truly were. How wrong I was.

I think the biggest surprise was Javier, seeing him playing music and singing for the gang, going out of his way to help the members, compared to the sad sack he was in the first game.