This is the only game that could've convinced Roger Ebert that video games are in fact art. Why this game specifically? Because it's the only game that convincingly transports you into a long gone time period. It's an old west simulator that shouldn't exist in this industry, an impossible 500 million dollar passion project. It's without compromise to its historical setting, a complete anomaly in the medium. Some of my favorite moments include:
>the survival prologue in the harsh, snow covered mountains with the glistening ambient score
>the one mission in Saint Denis where you go through and have a shoot out in an insanely detailed, foggy cemetery at night and it felt like like a Victorian setting horror game
>the southern missions at the Braithwaite manor that you eventually burn down
>getting abducted and tortured by the O'driscolls and the acid western inspired first person scenes/score
>the first mission after the tuberculosis diagnosis where you climb the highest peak in the game with the indian chief and having a transcendent view from up top
All these moments are things you experience first-hand through gameplay. The first game also comes close in some aspects but is too limited on a technical level to really be convincing and transformative.
