The Heartlands and the first full sessions of the game's open world — the gang at Horseshoe Overlook, the missions establishing the rhythm of outlaw life at its most functional, the specific texture of a way of living that is already anachronistic. The West changing faster than they can ride is the game's central historical argument: Dutch's gang is not simply criminal. It is a remnant, a holdover from an era that is ending around them whether they acknowledge it or not.

The Pinkertons are already in the territory. The railroads are already arriving. The law is consolidating. Arthur moves through a world that is in the process of becoming something that will have no place for him, and the game is patient about how long it takes him to see this clearly.