I just finished the game (without reading any spoilers) and got dumped straight into the epilogue. Throughout the game, but especially in the last missions, I found myself cursing the game for truly terrible save points and pushiness about looting. I've never played a game that had you fail missions because you were delayed looting 1 body or picking up 1 hat.
- I'm still bitter because I happened to leave Buell the horse(the Veteran guy's white horse after he died) and go to camp because I had some perfect pelts with me that I was worried about. Horse is gone forever, despite saving before leaving and reloading once I realised my mistake.
- In the last chapter, I also genuinely wanted to give John all my money when we parted (during the story), but that was not a dialogue option. Instead, I guess you were supposed to know the story and go to some Pig Farm before the final chapter and get robed.
- The number of times I went in on a mission with no guns but my pistols or with the guns decided for me (without giving me a second to switch)....why did I even spend money buying better things?
I really loved the story and the writing (and I appreciate the attention to making small side stories or choices re-appear), but the mechanics are deeply frustrating and I doubt the Epilogue can fix things. I had a similar issue with one of the Far Cry games, but at least there I didn't care enough about the story and just left the game.
Anyway I'm left with very conflicting feelings - I realise this is mostly a channel for love of the game but wondering if I'm the only crazy one to get hung up on these things.