I'm still getting my feet wet, but I'm enjoying it so far. The world opens up rapidly after the first few introductory thingummies that you're railroaded through (literally in the opening movie). There are so many things you might be doing at any one moment, that you really do have the feeling of freedom that you can do whatever the fuck you want in the Old West. Hunt down an herb, drive some cattle, be the night watchmen at the ranch, play texas hold em with the locals (an enjoyable minigame), play horseshoes (a not so enjoyable minigame), collect a bounty, hunt and skin animals, try to follow a rotten treasure map. There are also various rewards in the game that gently urge you to try all these different tasks. In addition to the main missions of the story, there are lots of random strangers you run across with little quests of their own to offer. Some of them are less quests than just little vignettes. I went to go help a guy crying 'help' and he stole my goddam horse before I shot the cussed hornswoggler in the back.
I'm still getting the hang of the controls... that poor lady being menaced by coyotes probably wasn't expecting me to shoot her in the gut. Oh well, at least I put her out of her misery. She was probably a goner anyway. Yeah. That's what Marsden tells himself as he cries himself to sleep.