
I’m with you. I loved the first RDR, one of my favorite games of all time. Fun interesting characters, the side quest plots all went a little sideways, which was refreshing. I really wanted to like RDR2 but it ended up feeling tedious. Lots to love in the game so I understand why so many people said it was an amazing game.
I feel like Rockstar did the same thing with the GTA games. GTA3, VC, and SA were somewhat realistic games set in a goofy world with strange characters and interactions. By GTA4, all the interesting plots were replaced by pointless minigames and going bowling with cousin Roman. That’s basically the same way I felt about the jump between RDR and RDR2.
I never played Red Dead Revolver so I don’t know how that fits in with the rest.

I’ll agree that RDR is different in a many ways, it’s still Rockstar so some of the gameplay is similar but a lot more fun with the western vibe over the city. And while I enjoyed some of the GTA games, none of them come close to RDR1 in my opinion. I just brought GTA up because I saw the same life sim crap creeping in there around GTA4 like I did RDR2

I’ll chime in! This is absolutely true in my experience. I loved RDR1 (still one of my favorite games) but with RDR2, I felt exactly the same as you. Too much fishing, hunting, and other distracting elements. RDR1 has some of that but it’s on a much smaller and easier to complete scale. I never finished the second one, about halfway through, I went back and replayed the first.
That’s basically been Rockstar’s MO since GTA4. I enjoyed GTA3 through San Andreas but GTA4 felt like bowling with cousin Roman more than a GTA game.
My favorite was “Halloween” in Halo 2 multiplayer, kind of a knock off “hide-n-seek” but with a twist.
No shields, no radar, the only weapons were a sword and a pistol, and you only had one life. One player was “Michael Meyers”, that player had the sword and chased down everyone else. All the other players hid while Michael picked you off one by one. Once one player was left, that person became Jamie Lee Curtis and could try to take down Michael Meyers. (To be fair that person should be Dr Loomis or Laurie Strode but it was more fun to use the actor’s name than a character.)
The twist was the music. In Halo 2, you could hear enemy team chatter through the tv speakers and it got louder as you got closer to the enemy. Using that, Michael Meyers would have the Halloween theme song playing so you knew when he was close but you didn’t know where he was. It was truly thrilling, you hear the music, you know he’s close, but not where, the music would get louder and louder as he approached….and then he would walk right by your hiding spot. Or, you’re walking around as the music builds so you know he’s close, you think you’re safe because you have an idea where he is, and suddenly he’s right behind you with a sword in your back.