I Finally Understand Why Arthur Would Keep Aiming The Weapon For 0.5s After You Release The L2 Button

[DIver27]

Pressing L2 or R2 (or LT/RT) can both function as cocking weapons, but I figure you are really only supposed to press L2 to cock. With auto-aim turned on by default, when you press L2 in the middle of a shootout, the weapon is cocked and locked on an enemy simultaneously and ready to fire, which is much more natural and intutive than double pressing R2 to fire a bullet. The latency between the release of L2 and putting down weapon is designed to make constant smashing L2 to lock-on seem natural, as opposed to you constantly moving in and out of cover to shoot in GTAV and first RDR. It's like the Rockstar recognized that smashing auto-aim is the ideal way to use their shooting system, and they design this latency to make it seem less awkward. I turned off auto-aim in my first playthrough and I was confused and devastated by the combat system, but now it all makes sense.

Edited October 21, 2019 by DIver27