Red Dead Redemption 2 is depressing as all get out

I've played enough of Rockstar Games' Red Dead Redemption 2.

I didn't remember much of the first Red Dead Redemption. RDR was a massive "open world" western game. You could wander all over the map and do whatever you wanted.

I found Red Dead Redemption kinda boring.

I know I played it! The game was a big deal at the time. Friends in my small community of life-long video game aficionados were super excited to see this new installment: a modern massive "open world" western game.

Red Dead Redemption 2 depresses me in the range of 2000's dreary movie Requiem for a Dream. Everything in the old west goes to shit for everyone. Nothing is working out well for you, or any NPC you meet.

Life super sucks in the old west.

You start the game as a grizzled and worn Old West bandit. Apparently your character is the #2 in a gang of broken down heist pullers who are on the run. Your leader, Dutch, really screwed up your last job, got some people killed or captured, and lost the loot. You are destitute and hunted by the law.

Things don't get a lot better. The nature of western gunslingers is that death can come at any moment, so in RDR2 you are surrounded by it. Most encounters, even if you are working incredibly hard to be a nice guy and move through your world without too much violence, turn into murder.

Roaming around the open world resulted in some dark adventures:

I went to help a young journalist collect some research and ended up killing most of the people he needed me to interview. Read the rest