My critiques of the game

• the story is at odds with the gameplay. Arthur belongs in a slow burn Coen Brother's anti-western with very little shooting and a few moment's of shocking violence. The gameplay is gta on horses

• way way too unfocused. Like you said, many parts of the game drag. There's far too much side content and it's easy to lose track of what's even happening in the story. Way too many systems - quasi rpg elements, a huge and mostly irrelevant inventory, fishing.

• what no theory does to a mf'er. Rockstar is clearly flirting with Dutch as an illegalist or egoist anarchist, but they can't or won't commit to actually talking theory and the game loses much of it's potential as social commentary because of that. They could have said a hell of a lot more if they actually explicitly discussed different theories of anarchism and how Dutch's predatory fake Anarchism contrasts with contemporary Anarchist and communist movements, and how his theory fails in the face of encroaching industrial capital

• you can't fucking shoot micah. Dude's such a goddamn albatross and he's out of line with the rest of the gang. I don't think he was needed as a character for the plot and i think he detracts from the gang's charicterization and Dutch and Arthur's dynamic.