The Epilogue that could've been

It's clear to me that the RDR2 epilogue was not only intended to be not only a satisfying conclusion to the story but some missive fan service to fans of the original RDR as well. It's just a shame that there are a lot of missing items/features in the epilogue. This might be due to time constraints, however some of what I'm about to mention seem like essential additions to both the map and character of John Marston.

To start I want to talk about the map, specifically McFarlane's Ranch, Thieves landing, and Blackwater.

McFarlane's Ranch

This is a very iconic location to fans of the first game and what we get of it in the final game is great. But the problem is the lack of the barn and sheriff office both of which should be there in 1907 (Bonnie even states in RDR that the barn was built when she was a child). This was probably a developer oversight as both of these locations are in the game files.

Thieves landing

There is just no way this location develops as much as it does from 1907 to 1911. Let's not forget this location is run by as the title suggests thieves and murderers. Also as a small nit pick I wish it was a actual town not just a gang hideout in RDR2. This location is noticeably missing the tailors and safehouse from the original game along with a couple of other buildings.

Blackwater

This location again is just too underdeveloped in 1907, it at least needed the train station, at least one more brick road and the bank and gazebo area to be completed. Then it would be a believable transition. Unfortunately we didn't get that despite John at one point mentioning the train station and a NPC who would have provided the train tickets being in the game files. I will at least say it's more believable for blackwater to make such a transition in 4 years rather than Thieves Landing. Picture 1 is 1911, picture 2 is 1907 and picture 3 is 1911.

John Marston

Lastly I want to briefly go over John Marston as you probably already know most of what I'm about to say. John in the RDR2 epilogue is a mess, he is essentially Arthur with John's face slapped on him. On top of that his iconic cowboy and rancher outfits are inaccurate which makes me wonder why they even bothered to include them. Both outfits needed the open vests (which are in the game files) the cowboy outfit has had downgrades on the gloves and pants, and the rancher outfit is missing the arm bracers instead using John's downgraded gloves. These may seem like small things but John has so many issues spanning his model, hair, outfits and it all adds up.