User blog comment:The Milkman/What Makes the Cowboy Cool/@comment-3455248-20121008040350

Pretty much right on the money, Milkman. In many games I play as myself, because the playable character doesn't have much depth or interest. In Red Dead Redemption, I played as John Marston (or at least my interpretation of him), making decisions as John would even when I might have gone a different route myself. Because of that, I loved the ending, bittersweet though it was. It's one of a handful of video game moments that stands out for me as transcending what is typical for the genre (the previous such moment for me was the nuke/helicopter scene in Call of Duty 4). It was the kind of moment where I had to pause a minute and really think about what just happened and how I felt about it.

I'm not terribly fond of Jack, but I'm glad he wasn't just a copy of John. Because of that, I play him differently than John. I can't think of another game where I've played two characters in different ways, not because they have different skill sets or different weapons, but simply because they are different people.