Red Dead Redemption Review

The Western genre for video games is an interesting one. It was never really well expanded on and games based on it weren't rated very highly. I thoroughly enjoyed Gun, the only other open-world Wild Western game I've played. Yet it was too short -- 100% accomplished in under a week. Red Dead Revolver is another Western game that was initially being developed by Capcom, but then Rockstar grabbed ahold of it. It gained average to positive reviews but it wasn't anything special. Now, from Rockstar San Diego, comes Red Dead Redemption. Built on the same engine as Grand Theft Auto IV, Red Dead Redemption boasts a vast open world, an exciting story-line and definitely plenty to do.

 You can choose to shoot up towns, or be their guardian

Red Dead Redemption introduces us to a new protagonist. Rockstar really have incorporated all the most badass stereotypical cowboy traits into one character: John Marston, a reformed ex-gang member, is sent to the wild west in order to hunt down his old gang and put an end to them for the government in order to redeem himself and live in peace with his family. He's tough, battle-scarred, smooth talking and while he has an exterior of violence, he has a heart of an angel. Unlike GTA characters, Marston is a lot more of a hero: sure, you can do bad things -- tying someone up, leaving them on the train tracks and watching them explode when a train hits them is worth a laugh -- yet you'll benefit so much more from being the nice guy. Shops give you discounts, even townspeople will treat you better the more honor you have. Marston is a pretty cool guy and his personality grows on you.

 Showdowns at noon are fantastic, like something straight out of a Spaghetti Western

Unlike Grand Theft Auto games, I found the combat, story-line pacing and world a more enjoyable experience overall. Combat still uses a cover system and weapons are obviously old-tech so you won't expect any machine guns there, but instead I found the combat was a more skill-based experience unlike the "slaughter everyone" style of GTA -- weapons fire and reload relatively slowly and you die so easily that you'll have to be careful on how you play it. Run into a gun fight and you'll be taken down pretty quickly. Fortunately, you do have a very nifty mechanic called "Dead Eye," which is effectively the game's bullet-time. Activating Dead Eye puts everything except your aiming reticule into slow-mo, so it gives you the freedom to precisely aim and target multiple targets then release and watch Marston quick-draw and unload upon his opponents. Dead Eye is limited and slowly regenerates, but it's a pretty funky mechanic that emulates the feeling of being "the quickest in the west" nicely.

 Hog-tying enemies is a non-lethal way of subduing enemies

The equivalent of cars in Red Dead Redemption are, of course, horses. They're a bit tricky to handle at first but once you get it, you'll be sprinting around the frontier in no time. Horses sprint when X is tapped and holding X maintains their speed or keeps your horse up with other riders. Horses have stamina and wearing it out completely tosses you off your horse, and can even kill your horse if abused. The great thing about horse riding is that you have a full 360 view from your horse and can fight accordingly. Drive-by shootings? Try gallop-by shootings! Other vehicles include stagecoaches and horse-and-carts. Just don't expect much variation in transport, although I can't see how you would.

You can obtain new horses by capturing them in the wild, or simply buying them

The story-line is fairly straight-forward. As previously mentioned, it revolves around Marston hunting down his old gang. The story is fairly short, it'll take you a good 15 hours or so to run it through and it consists of doing odd jobs for a zany cast of stereotypically Western characters who may or may not lead you in the right direction to taking down your ex-gang. The story is fairly thin, but you shouldn't really be playing this game for the story -- the West is full of fun distractions.

 Sniping enemies is just one way of taking out the competition

It's amazing how much there is to do in Red Dead Redemption. Mini-games are aplenty: You can play horse-shoes, tame wild horses, go hunting in the wilderness, help out strangers, race horses, play various types of card-games including Texas Hold 'Em, herd cattle, get a drink in the saloon and complete different outfits to change your appearance and give you different special effects. You can even watch old-fashioned black-and-white films! The world is beautiful, yet big and barren as you'd expect from the Wild West. Rockstar have done well in actually giving the world mini-events, events that happen at random and seemingly make the world come to life. Riding across the desert you can find a treasure hunter being attacked by bandits, folk sitting around the campfire telling stories that you can join in on, or the ability to duel people stupid enough to challenge you. These give the game a great amount of flow that helps keep the player drawn in. On top of that, Red Dead Redemption has multiplayer, which has to be one of the best features.

Fire bombs can make quick work of enemies

 Taking the game online, the whole world is open for you and friends (or strangers) to venture and take up missions or simply fight it out. You can create posses, or "teams" in modern-day terms, that can take on gang hideouts together or even take on over posses. Up to 16 people can be in one game, which is easily enough for a good ol' fashioned shoot-out. Modes include Mexican Stand-Off, where players start right beside each other and start shooting, a capture-the-flag and naturally typical death-match modes.

Being mauled to death by a mountain lion was not on Marston's to-do list

If you want a good sandbox game, you can't really go wrong with Red Dead Redemption. The main character is definitely likable, the gameplay and the amount to do is staggering (though not to the extent of a sandbox such as… Just Cause 2) and the gun-play is most satisfying. If you can, gather some mates and form a posse and take out some bandit camps too. It's hard to play Red Dead Redemption and not feel the need to lean back on a wooden fence with your thumbs on your belt and your eyes squinting at anyone foolish enough to get near you. Draw 'em cowboy! Yeehaw!