In my first playthrough, I did the following sequence:
Overall, I've found the second playthrough much more enjoyable so far. By not pursuing the main quests so fast after the heist, it's let me explore the world much more without the narrative making you feel like you have to hurry up and do the main quest to save yourself. At the same time, during this phase I leveled from 11 to 32, and it was fun to focus on getting the build right, and trying to find good items in the open world rather than from main quest rewards (which are automatically good).
Overall, the effect has been that the side content (even simple open world ones) have felt less like a chore, and at the same time more meaningful because they are not sidelined by the main story which really takes over everything once you start focusing on it.
My overall impression is that the main quest after meeting Johnny really should have been the third act, with a lot of the side content becoming an official second act. Luckily you can at least simulate this in your playthrough by putting the main quests off until later.
- Rush through all main missions, mostly ignoring side content
- Reach the point-of-no-return quest, realize that the side content must be completed
- Grinded all the side content, did the point-of-no-return and finished the campaign
- Got bored of the world immediately after
- Finish the heist & following quests, but stop all main quests progress shortly after (before diving into the Panam, Takemura, Pacifica quests)
- Do side content & freely explore
Overall, I've found the second playthrough much more enjoyable so far. By not pursuing the main quests so fast after the heist, it's let me explore the world much more without the narrative making you feel like you have to hurry up and do the main quest to save yourself. At the same time, during this phase I leveled from 11 to 32, and it was fun to focus on getting the build right, and trying to find good items in the open world rather than from main quest rewards (which are automatically good).
Overall, the effect has been that the side content (even simple open world ones) have felt less like a chore, and at the same time more meaningful because they are not sidelined by the main story which really takes over everything once you start focusing on it.
My overall impression is that the main quest after meeting Johnny really should have been the third act, with a lot of the side content becoming an official second act. Luckily you can at least simulate this in your playthrough by putting the main quests off until later.