You are John Marston, a former outlaw whose wife and child are literally being held hostage by people holding federal badges in their pockets. Unless you are willing to break your former outlaw gang your family will suffer unimaginably at the hands of those professing to represent law and order.
There is no mistaking the fact this game comes from the people who brought you Grand Theft Auto. First of all the game engine is the same used in GTA IV and many of the in-game features such as the HUD, mission structure, side quests, tutorials etc will be immediately familiar.
However, this isn't just a re-skinned GTA.
The art direction in this game is breathtaking. As GTA is an "homage" to the grit and glitz of a major metropolis, RDR captures the barren scrub, green mountains, flashing summer lightining storms and rays of a dawning sun from which its inspiration is drawn: the vast open frontier.
And vast and open it is.
The game allows you to pitch camp and teleport to your desired location but who the hell wants to when riding a galloping steed can be so entertaining. Along the way there will be passersby to help...or hold-up, varmits to hunt and treasures to find. I've spent the last 2 nights herding cattle and breaking mustangs to such an extent the main storyline has sort of fallen by the wayside. You can also hunt bounties, pitch horseshoes, take in a silent movie, play texas Hold 'Em or Five Finger Fillet. Sometimes its enough just to do nothing more than stop on a ridgeline and watch the world pass you by.
When I have taken up the storyline missions they have proven to be standard Rockstar fair but they have a feel to them that validates the wild west motif.
There is plenty of racially-charged dialogue from the townsfolks. They alternate between bragging how they are bringing civilization to the frontier while boasting they carry nothing made by Jews. Anyone who has played GTA knows the people walking the streets of whatever city you are in will blurt out the most obscene or inappropriate lines. However, in RDR while many townsfolk continue this trend the ranchers and similar "people of the common clay" will wish you a good day. In other words: the writers appear to be drawing a serious question mark over that which we call society and they are willing to draw out this commentry over the span of multiple game franchises. It is the earth-scratchers who are more accepting and simply pleasant. The built area appears to have been founded upon and/or bringing out to worst in people. It's cringe-worthy in John Marston's wild west and it becomes all but unliveable in Nico Bellics modern urbania.
My only complaints are: the auto-targetting system left me unloading 2 barrels of buckshot on a hapless saloon girl when I really would have preferred to take out the 3 outlaws standing up to shoot me. Also many of the pop-up quests randomly encountered resolve too quickly. The homesteaders died before I could rein my charging stallion around to save them from the bandits and a horse thief rode off before I could move around the bunkhouse. But as my familiarity with the game improves these details diminish.
All in all this game is well-worth it's $60 price tag. There is simply too much to do and look at--if you're willing--to feel you aren't getting you money's worth.