Red Dead Redemption Review

  
When I picked up this game, the clerk told me that it was in his top 3, that is a bold statement. As a gamer with 22 years of experience, it is hard to say what are my top 3. He was right to have this game in his top 3 list, for sure. Red Dead Redemption from Rockstar is a unbelievably good game. I am not a huge fan of Grand Theft Auto 3 and up, it was fun to run around, carjack people and go on a killing spree. Just the story and missions really disappointed me. Red Dead Redemption is based after Red Dead Revolver, which was a really good game for PS2 or X Box, and is set in the turn of the twentieth century.

    You start in New Austin, which is located just above Mexico, as John Marston. A former outlaw gone straight, but his past soon catches up with him. Blackmailed to locate three of his former gang members, after a short altercation with Bill Williamson (one of his former gang mate) you are shot and left for dead. Luckly for you, Bonnie Macfarlane discovers you on the side of the trail and brings you to a doctor, saving your life. The story unfolds quite nicely in three or four chapters, depending how you look at it. Being a rockstar game means open world sand box type environment, and I believe it is the best I have seen so far.

    There are element of good and bad in the game, sort of like the Fable series, you can choose if John Marston is good or bad or a little of both. You can help people or just double cross them or better yet, just shoot them in the face. Be careful though, there is a law system in place. Breaking a law with result in Sheriffs and Lawmen that will chase you down and, well either arrest or (remember this is the wild west) kill you. If you manage to outrun the sheriffs and loose your “Wanted” status you will have a bounty on your head. This means Bounty Hunters will also track you. Rockstar did a great job with the Fame and Honor systems. I always play a game like this as “good” as possible for the first run. Sometime you just fuck up and do something evil and the game notices. Fame on the other hand is different, it doesn’t matter how you go about your actions. The more you do the more famous you get and there are perks being a celebrity.

    I have said this before but I am not a western fan, never cared for the movies and there really are not many game devoted to this genre. Red Dead Redemption is by far the best adaptation of a western since Gun Smoke for NES. The under lying theme of lying, cheating, deceit, sex, drugs, and racism still stand true in modern North American life. Want I found in this game is that John Marston is a little too modest and puts his trust into some sketchy characters. Every character in the game, no matter how major or minor, have a great deal of depth and personality. Another thing I really enjoyed was the look of the characters, not as boxy as the GTA series.

    There is so much more then just the main story to indulge in. You kinda have two themes of play, Gunslinger and Rancher. The first few missions are ranched based followed by some hired gun work for Sheriffs and others. Beside the main story there are “stranger” side missions and countless amount of other “hobbies”. Hunting and gathering plants can be very fun and useful. You can search the wild frontier for lost treasure or to clear out gang hideouts. Maybe you want to do some jobs in towns like like night watch or break a horse for an rancher. Try your hand at Bounty Hunting and make better money if you can bring them back alive. If this is all wearing you down, kick back and have a drink, play some poker or blackjack, or catch a cutting edge moving picture (movie) show. There are plenty of mini game through out the game and depending on the mini game, are available in towns only during the day or at night.

    Graphic are great and the environment is stunning. Even the time change in the game felt real. Shops and most missions are playable during the day, while others are only available at night. Some animals are more active at  dust or dawn. It rains and are storms sometimes, the thunder sounds super good on my surround sound. The game world is vast, ranging from the desert of Mexico, bog land that resembles New Orleans, to wooden glens and my favourite a trading post in the mountains (I am Canadian and this reminds me of our old ways). The building and characters are done super well and I have no complains in this department.

    The controls can be a bit tricky at first. There is a few different control schemes for different actions like walking to riding a horse. Shooting in this game has a auto aim, which can be turned off. I suggest you keep it on till maybe your second time through the game. If you are familiar with Red Dead Revolver, Dead Eye aiming is back, as well as duelling. Duelling is toned down since the first Red Dead, I think its nice considering there was a lot of duels in the first one. Don’t worry if you haven’t played the first Red Dead, because it’s not a direct squeal and follows different characters. I did have a few complaints with the controls of John Marston. Just moving around can be a challenge. You can cover yourself from bullets behind almost anything and jump and slide to other spots of cover, it works well. Sometime it can get confusing with the separated crouch button. Also switching weapons is a weird at first and is right next to the aim button. In the middle of a gunfight I sometimes switch weapons instead of aiming, this is not good. Horse riding was a little tough at first, but easy to get used to. While the horses are not too bad, the carriages for some reason I found  are a lot harder. Also with auto aim I have accidentally shot my own horse in the head, trying to shoot at someone else. These are small problems compared to the whole of the game.

The landscape is breath taking

         The soundtrack is pretty amazing too, the music is mainly composed by "Friends of Dean Martinez" member Bill Elm and ex member Woody Jackson along with contributions from various musicians. Jose Gonzalez, Jamie Lidell, and William Elliott Whitmore to name a few. The soundtrack add to the overall feel of the game, and I am actually considering buying it.

    Let’s get to the online multiplayer aspect of the game. Unfortunately, I didn’t play much of the online and had a hard time find other players. Looks like lots of potential in there. When you start, you only have a donkey and not many weapons. There is a “free roam” where you are free to roam the open world and fight gangs and cause chaos for experience points. Experience point are used to level up and earning different characters, horses and call signs to use. There are a few game modes, but really I can’t let you much about them because I haven’t played much. I did do a couple co op missions which are pretty fun. You can find a friends and just have a shoot out with theme in free roam, but it is a lot better to team up and take on gang hideouts or just simple town folk. There are some major different between online and story mode. No money, honor or fame. You can still hunt but not collect the meat and hides, because there are no shops to sell them in. The item menu is gone replaced by your game options where you can invite friends or change game modes. I think my favourite part of online, was the poker. It feels pretty real and not cheaply done like most poker mini games in other titles. All mini games in the story mode carries over to online and kick ass.


    I think it’s time for my final thoughts on the game. Beside my lack of multiplayer experience, this game is fucking off the hook. One thing that really pisses me off is that through out the game, Marston is trying to get his family back and it makes him look like a pussy sometime. There are whores everywhere in this game, back in a time, when it wasn’t unheard of to find some “company” in a saloon and it is no different in the game. If you walk close to a whore she will sometimes offer you a “date”, John always turns it down mentioning he has a wife. Sex does play a good role in this game and spoiler alert! There are a shot of nipples in this game. This game isn’t you the kiddies, there are drug references, sex and plenty of F bombs. One other thing is that the first of three parts in the game is really long and in depth. The second part is shorter and the third is even shorter, when I think it should be the longest.

    Some tips I got for you are; carry lots of medicine for yourself and your horse. Break tons of wild horses, you might luck out and get one of the fastest three early in the game. Hunt lots and pick tons of flowers, and try to complete the Hunter and Survivalist challenges early. Try to do the all the challenges early as there are perks that are really sweet. I did them later in the game and they were not too much help for me at that point. There is sort of a quick save glitch. After hunting and gathering for a while if you die before completing a mission or saving at a safe house you lose everything you worked so hard for. To fix this, buy two cheap horse deeds, when you switch horses the game will save. Also to skip the annoying loot or skinning cut scene, park you horse right on the corpse and you can collect from it with out the cut scene, this is very helpful.

    All in all, this is a brilliant fucking game. Everyone should have this one in there collection. Hell, you’d be a fool to over look this one. After the game is over (it took me around 30 hours to get to 92% complete), the main story is 65% of the game. With online leaderboards for some missions and a ranking system for all mission will give plenty to replay for months. Getting 100% completion is a good challenge and great for once the story is over.  Everything about this game is unbelievable and have very few complaints. Overall I give this game a 9/10. It is almost a perfect game, if the control scheme was 100% it would get a perfect score. One of the best 3rd person action games I have played in quite a while. So with that said, go out and get your cowboy on.