Red Dead Redemption

Red Dead Redemption is the latest release from Rockstar Games and is proving to be a big hit.  Based on 71 critic reviews Metacritic have given the game a score of 95 while 407 ratings among users came to 8.1 out of 10, pretty impressive. The game itself is a sandbox style, free roaming third person shooter.

So what is Red Dead all about? The year is 1911 and the railroads are slowly spreading across the United States. Behind them follow the influence of the federal government and inescapable modernization. The Old West may very well be on its last legs. Your character is John Marston; a former outlaw turned bounty hunter sent to hunt down his former gang members by federal agents. Your motive? The agents have ‘seized’ your family.

The storyline that unfolds as you start the game is pretty good with an array of interesting and humorous characters that you’d expect from Rockstar. Besides the main storyline there’s dozens of Stranger Missions as well. Stranger Missions are a bit like Friend Missions in GTA IV but easier to find. All are definitely worth playing out as they add good depth to the game and highlight the often strange and dark humor of Rockstar. As well as those there are also what I call Event Missions. An example of this would be you passing by a stagecoach under attack, you then have the option of assisting.

Red Dead handles itself beautifully in all aspects. The movements of the horses, which will be your main mode of transportation, look exceptionally fluid and realistic. Whether wild or tamed the horses are just stunning and in my opinion Rockstar outdid themselves with this. Another element I can compliment highly are the weapons. From revolvers to repeater carbines, rifles to shotguns you have a nice variety of weapons to choose from. But what I really love about the weapons is that each time you fire a shot a visible cloud of smoke is released, very suitable for the time period. Now don’t worry, this won’t obscure your view at all it just adds to the atmosphere of the game.

As you’d hope in a third person shooter the cover and aim system is spot on, you won’t find any problems with it. You can of course shoot from horseback and this works seamlessly as well. The real shooting feature is Dead Eye which is a bit like bullet time. Time slows down allowing you to accurately fire off a few shots into your targets before they hit you. As the game progresses your Dead Eye gets better allowing you to assign multiple shots to different targets, a bit like VATS in Fallout 3 but not as in depth.

If you don’t want to play any of the missions then you’re free to explore the wild west. Perhaps collect some flowers (seriously) or indulge in some hunting. Hunting is great fun with a wide variety of birds and animals to choose from. Elk, deer, bears, beavers, raccoons, bobcats, wolves, coyotes, foxes, owls, hawks and many more. All can be hunted and skinned to bring back to the stores. You can even skin your own horse if it has the poor misfortune of dying. (I tried to avoid killing any horses) Not interested in hunting? Chase down some wild horses, lasso them and break them in or even rob a bank, the game is limitless.

The map is quite large and divided in two by a large deep river. One side is the U.S state of New Austin and the other is Mexico. Graphically the world is quite stunning with a surprisingly wide variety of landscapes from snowy bear ridden mountains to dry dusty deserts, it’s a visual delight. If you’re like me you’ll enjoy riding between your destinations drinking in the scenery. I do have one caveat here though; several times while looking up at the starry night sky it appeared fragmented to me and not to well done. Besides the scenery the NPC’s in the game are well designed, especially the outfits.

Briefly I’ll mention the music for the game. Now you’d image a western such as this would be riddled with American country music or something far worse but in fact Red Dead has a great musical score that is more blues than anything. It really sets the scene for the game and Rockstar made a brilliant move including the music that they did.

I’ve more or less praised this game throughout so now it’s only fair I throw in some critiques. While character interaction is generally quite good the main character has a tendency to threaten people with a shot to the head a little too much. I found this tiring after a while, I mean he could’ve changed body parts at least.

Overall though, this is a game I’d highly recommend that you pick up. If you like sandbox games, if you like westerns or you’re just a fan of Rockstars work then you’ll enjoy Red Dead Redemption.