- From the
excellent story and characters (along with some exceptional voice acting) to the
large and diverse gaming environment, to the varied gameplay events and tasks,
to the better-than-expected multiplayer, simply the best Western-themed game
ever made
- Traveling by horseback, the game’s main transportation, is much improved (with
far-easier-to-handle controls) from GTA’s oftentimes frustrating and
difficult-to-handle motorized vehicular travel
- Has a much
better multiplayer than Grand Theft Auto IV, but it’s not always easy to find a
game with more than a player or two as either opponents or allies
- Some missions/tasks are too repetitive and none-to-exciting (and more like
chores than entertaining gameplay), such as the escort, herding and herb/flower
gathering
Be notified of site updates. Sign-up for the Newsletter
sent out twice weekly.
Enter E-Mail Address Below:
Red Dead
Redemption
Score: 9.5 / 10
Throughout gaming history, the Western genre up
until now hasn’t produced that instant-classic game. Instead Western-themed
gaming has been more like the good, the bad, and the ugly. There have been some
OK-to-good ones, like Oddworld Stranger’s Wrath and GUN. But “wild, wild West”
gaming more often than not has been a dusty, tumbleweed-strewn prairie of
mediocre-but-average-at-best games like Darkwatch, the Call of Juarez series or
Red Dead Revolver to plain bad-
ugly titles such as Damnation, Wild West Guns, Dead
Man’s Hand and Samurai Western.
However, the instant classic has just rode into town with full guns a-blazing on
a white stallion with Rockstar’s genre-defining Red Dead Redemption, which is
Grand Theft Auto on horseback, with
Advertisement
the
turn-of-the-century American West taking the place of GTA’s modern cityscapes.
And not surprisingly, Red Dead Redemption turns out to be every bit the stellar
gaming experience of the GTA franchise (and just maybe surpasses it), lassoing
and hogtying down gamers with a thoroughly engaging adventure. Red Dead
Redemption saddles up a great story that would feel right at home moseying in a
Clint Eastwood Spaghetti Western, with cut-scenes that stand alone as great
entertainment (in fact, FOX actually pieced them together rather seamlessly in a
Red Dead Redemption midnight “movie” that was shown the weekend of the game’s
release).
Beginning with the game’s opening, gamers become John Marston, the somewhat
typical Rockstar anti-hero (although more “heroic” than most Rockstar leading
men) who is being rather forcefully placed on a steam-engine train by government
agents. Seems Marston is being coerced with the threat of never seeing his wife
and young son again unless he goes back to his past life and takes down his
former posse’s leader for the government.
Not only do gamers get the great “reluctant avenger” John Marston tale to
experience (and later, yet “another” Marston story at the very end), the related
Mexican revolution storyline is practically an entire game’s worth of
storytelling to itself. Both intertwine for one fantastic adventure that gallops
past the quality of the seemingly unsurpassable excellence of any one of GTA’s
superb stories. Unlike the GTA leading guys, which because of their very
background make it much easier to be a “bad guy” anti-hero, Marston is a more
likable and sympathetic chap (he even turns down the many propositioning whores
and their advances out of respect for his wife), so much so that gamers might
decide, even subconsciously, to follow the dusty trail of the “good guy.”
But the story can only carry Red Dead Redemption so far. A great story needs to
posse up with great gameplay. With developer Rockstar San Diego using the Grand
Theft Auto sandbox RAGE engine, there’s an overabundance of gameplay with a
ridiculous amount of characters, events and tasks – from tracking down bandits,
to escorting damsels in distress, to lassoing wild horses and bronco-busting
them, to hunting creatures of the West big and small, to treasure-seeking
adventures, to good old-fashioned “high noon” duels.
These multitude of side missions are all complementary to the story mode that
follows Marston’s quest to kill a old compatriot in order to free himself and
his family from the iron fist of the government, with a side story that takes
Marston into Mexico as both a agent and adversary of the Mexican government in
its fight against Mexican rebels seeking independence. In the story mode, gamers
will also have to learn the intricacies of card and dice games, become an expert
cattle herder, and most of all, become a master of the saddle, as the majority
of travel through the unbelievably immense world of Red Dead Redemption will be
on horseback.
As this is a Rockstar title based on the GTA gameplay, there would inevitably be
some mode of transportation at its core. But while vehicles abound in the modern
setting of the preceding GTA titles, the 1911 setting of Red Dead Redemption
posed a dilemma of sorts to the developers, as there were only the very first
cars appearing in the turn-of-the-century West. Easy solution, though, was
implementing the cowboy’s best friend his horse. Riding any of the game’s
horses, that can be bought, caught or even stolen, is easy (although there is a
need to watch the speed at which you push your stallion or risk being tossed and
bucked off). Horses will whinny and neigh to warn gamers that they’re just about
ready to launch them flying through the air and also when gamers get a bit too
close to precipices and risk killing not only themselves but their steed with a
high-altitude fall.
Gamers that have ever been frustrated by GTA’s very hard-to-get-used-to driving,
where even the most skilled gamer behind the wheel could be all over the road
with certain vehicles, will find riding Red Dead Redemption’s horses a much less
difficult undertaking. And for those that just can’t wait to reach their
destination, each of the game’s towns has a stagecoach for hire. Much like GTA
IV’s taxis, gamers can simply hop on in a stagecoach and get ridden to their
desired locale. This comes in real handy for long-distance trips, especially
when traveling across the border into Mexico.
Taking its inspiration from its not-quite-predecessor Red Dead Revolver (on the
PS2), Red Dead Redemption’s shooting targeting dead aim is a big help in six-gun
(and the game’s many rifles and shotguns, for that matter) shooting away any
adversaries. Basically, it slows down time (think Max Payne-style bullet time)
while allowing gamers to target enemies many times multiple enemies at a time
(and it’s really a lot of fun to use during the duels that gamers can
participate in). Even without the dead aim, gamers will find Red Dead
Redemption’s targeting to be very easy to control, and one can assume that is
because gamers need a simple-to-use targeting mechanism when on a fast-moving
horse while in the middle of a firefight situation or when hunting and big game
– like the aggressive and vicious Grizzly bears is on the prowl intent on
mauling a gamer.
Not all of Red Dead Redemption’s activities and missions are entertaining,
however. There are plenty of tedious missions that gamers must complete, from
escorting annoyingly helpless non-playable characters to herding cattle to
searching for and picking herbs and flowers. But some of these activities can
simply be avoided or kept to a minimum involvement if a gamer isn’t interested
in completing every side quest or optional mission.
Multiplayer is a big draw for Red Dead Redemption gamers, and it is a much
better online multiplayer offering than GTA IV. Gamers can go it alone and take
on others in a gunfight to see who is the baddest hombre on Xbox Live, or they
can join with posses to complete online missions. When there are a lot of gamers
online, Red Dead Redemption is addictively satisfying. But the problem is, it
was hard for me to find many online games with more than a few – if that many
online cowboys shooting it out at once.
Certainly not without a few imperfections, Red Dead Redemption is almost
unquestionably the best Western-themed game ever, with a great Old West story,
an amazingly detailed and expansive landscape that most Rockstar sandbox games
are famous for and overall engrossing gameplay that will keep gamers riding off
into the sunset for dozens of hours.
