nah, basically RDR 1 takes place in a fictional texas called "New Austin" along with a city called Blackwater and a little bit of Northern Mexico. RDR 2 takes place in a greatly expanded map that includes New Austin and Blackwater, but not Mexico, and adds 3 fictional midwestern states to the North. So the 2nd game takes place mostly to the North of the 1st game, has snowy mountains, lush green plains, etc. Also the characters in general are more colorful, more colorfully dressed, and etc. than the first game. There's a better storyline and a ton of additional features weapons, etc. that weren't in the first game. Rockstar/Take Two are of course giant corporate bastards who worked the people who made it half to death, but it definitely qualifies as a work of art and not just a lazily made cash grab. A lot of sequels are just game 1 with a new number slapped on, but this thing was actually rebuilt from the ground up except for the physics engine.

I like to say that the story of the first game is just "The Odyssey" but as a Western. Because it's about a brutal guy with a checkered past who just wants to get home to his family but keeps getting blown off course by circumstances and because he pissed off The Gods (US Gov.)