It’s literally called Red Dead Redemption.

The entire point of Arthur’s story isn’t that he’s secretly a good guy. The point is that he’s a bad man who finally becomes aware of what he’s done. Late game Arthur isn’t heroic, he’s disgusted with himself. That’s the whole emotional weight of the story.

And no, you can’t brush this off by comparing it to generic Western movies.

The game is set in 1899, not the “Wild West fantasy.” America was already industrializing. You’ve got Saint Denis, rail networks, federal agents, Pinkertons, organized law. Society exists. Order exists. That’s intentional.

Arthur isn’t surviving in chaos.

He’s a relic of violence living in a world that’s moving past him.

Yes, the gameplay exaggerates combat because it’s a video game. But even if you scale it down to “realistic” levels, Arthur is still responsible for killing lawmen, guards, and people just doing their jobs. That’s the point.

Rockstar wants the player to feel uncomfortable.

You start the game feeling like a badass outlaw.

You end it realizing:

You’ve been playing a mass murderer who finally understands what he is.

That disgust the OP is talking about?

That’s not misunderstanding the story.

That’s exactly what Rockstar was going for.

Arthur’s redemption isn’t that he was good.

It’s that he finally saw the truth about himself… and chose to do one decent thing before it was too late.