The taming of the ‘Old West’ is a period in American history not handled well by many developers. Titles like GUN, Lethal Enforcers II: The Gunfighters (ed. note: yeah I went there), and Desperados: Wanted Dead or Alive all had their good points to be sure – but most left you feeling a bit empty as their flaws revealed themselves. Red Dead Redemption is the first game set in this time period that has effectively made me feel as though I was staring in a ‘Man with No Name’ style Western film.
GAMEPLAY
In Redemption, players take on the role of John Marston, a former-outlaw-turned-farmer who has been pushed into service for the government to take down an old gang ‘buddy’ of his. This will prove far more difficult than it looks as in their first meeting, John is shot – several times… Thankfully, you are taken in by a caring individual and, once healed up, you begin your hunt again.
After a series of what really are tutorial missions, you begin to learn the basics of surviving in the Old West of 1911. Sure, electricity is being brought to towns via wire but the world is just as dangerous as ever. The game is presented in third-person perspective with the camera primarily in an over-the-shoulder style, but it can also be swiveled in 360 degrees with the right thumb stick. Movement is controlled via the left thumb stick with the left trigger drawing your weapon, or lasso, and the right trigger firing said item. While the control layout is simple, you character and horse tend to move in arcs, making hard turns towards a goal when right up next to it a bit difficult. Also, horses tend to do fine on main streets, trails, and open plains of the map – but when you get them into confined quarters with boxes, rocks, and other various obstacles they tend to get ‘touchy’.
Once opened up, you are free to explore most of the very large game world. You can certainly choose to follow the main storyline from character to character, but that is not the best strategy in playing Redemption. For one thing, you need money. Ammo for your basic repeater and revolver tends to be easily-acquired. However, if you want to purchase anything else, such as medicine or maps, you will need more cash. One of the most profitable ways of doing this in the game is to take bounty missions and going on a hunt.
While bounty missions are exciting and involve lots of shooting and looting, they are not as numerous as I would have desired them to be. This leaves us with door number two: hunting. Put away your animal rights for this one, as in the wilds of the game world you are free to stalk and skin game for parts that, depending on said part, can be sold in towns for a handsome some. Plenty of animals in the wild will hunt you as well – so stay on your toes. There is nothing like stalking a herd of deer only to get blindsided by a cougar! Hunt enough and you will develop a sense of what animals like to hunt where, as well as their general behaviors. You can even lay out bait to attract game to an area.
Walking around the mesa may be fun, albeit time-consuming, but riding on a horse will certainly yield you faster travel times along with a fun all its own. You can tame wild horses with your lasso, which involves a small mini game where you balance on the horse while it attempts to buck you from its back, or you can buy thoroughbreds in general stores. There are a large variety of horse breeds in this game, each with their strengths and weaknesses. You can also shoot from your horse which can give you a tactical advantage of peering over rocks or other obstructions (or just while moving in general). Of course, you are a larger target on horseback, but nothing is perfect.
As the story progresses, you will unlock even more map to explore as well as more technology to purchase. Upgrading your weapons is always a good idea, and you will wield anything from a standard repeater and six-shooter to a military sniper rifle and semi-automatic pistol. Heck, there is even a super-powered buffalo rifle to buy if one was so inclined – which we are…
There were a few bugs to contend with out on the range, and I don’t mean mosquitoes. I experienced a couple random console crashes while playing, and sometimes my random encounters, which will be touched on in the next paragraph, inexplicably ended in a failure even though I could clearly see that the objective had not been failed. Some players have reported invisible characters and wonky cut-scenes, however, I did not experience that in my play-though of Redemption.
Adding an extra element of cool to the title is the dead-eye system, which puts the game into a sort of slow-motion where you can target multiple shots over a very broad number of shoot points on enemies as well as other objects. For instance, if you get into a gun fight with a bounty but do not want to kill him, you can disarm him by targeting his shooting hand. The system works well and adds to the feeling of speed and lighting fast reflexes that your character is supposed to possess. Once the enemies have been targeted, the rapid fire of your guns shredding targets is quite enjoyable to watch.
When out exploring, whether in town or in the wilds, you will often come across random encounters to take on. These can be anything from saving a prostitute who is getting roughed up by a John to rescuing a merchant under siege by outlaws. At one point on the way back from very successful hunting trip, I ran across a wagon that had been tipped on its side. A woman in skimpy garb stood near the trail yelling for me to help her. So, being the kind Samaritan that I am, I stopped. Without spoiling anything for you, let’s just leave it at things were not all as they appeared and some men had to die that day… These encounters make the game world all the more engrossing and, between that and the storyline in general, make for a great multi-grain bread with which to wrap this sandwich of Western awesome in.
GRAPHICS
Red Dead Redemption features some of the most beautiful graphics I have ever seen on a game console before. I would have thought after playing it that I was running it on my gaming PC – they are that good. From the artfully-detailed characters to the numerous species of animals you encounter – from horses to armadillos, everything looks (and acts) realistically.
Even the landscape is a character in and of itself. From wistfully-blowing tumble weeds to cacti, rocks, and shrubs littering the game world, there is a sense of being there, as it were. Nowhere better is this sense of realism and envelopment seen than the aforementioned characters, shrubs, etc are matched with the game’s weather systems. After only about an hour into the game, I was pretty far out West in the game map, completing a mission. Just as the mission was completed the weather began to ‘go south’ and a storm let loose its wrath upon the mesa. The sloshing, shallow puddles, rain drops on the virtual camera lens, earth-shattering thunder and lighting which actually does ‘roll’ across the game world. It is spectacular.
Here is a clip of video from YouTube showing a bit of Red Dead Redemption’s storm effects:
AUDIO
If the game’s story and gameplay are its slices of bread, the visuals are certainly its peanut butter – then its audio is clearly the jelly in this sandwich of rad. In short: it’s incredible. From ambient environmental noises to civilian chatter and main character voice work – it is all exceptional. Even during the storms, hearing the rain fall and thunder roll is awesome to say the least – especially when paired with the aforementioned visuals.
The only matter I have with the voice over work is with the delivery of John Marston himself (voiced by Rob Wiethoff). He seems to constantly be doing an impression of Jason Lee from the television series My Name is Earl. Now, at first read you may take me for a fool. But, watch an episode of the TV series and listen to Lee, then listen to Wiethoff in Redemption – you will hear my point.
MULTIPLAYER
As if the single player adventure were not enough, Rockstar Games has added in a whole slew of cooperative and competitive multiplayer modes for you to sink your wooden teeth into. In Free Roam, up to 16 players can explore the entirety of the game world, forming posses and taking missions. These missions will yield you experience which can be used to unlock various character customizations – from weapons to your actual character model itself. This multiplayer character goes with you no matter the match, etc, so don’t worry about losing your progress just because you left to another Free Roam server. Furthering this multiplayer experience, Rockstar Games is already developing cooperative missions for players to undertake (the first DLC pack to be free). The multiplayer game in Redemption has so much content that it could almost have been a game in and of itself.
OVERALL
Hands-down, Red Dead Redemption is an incredible game – easily the best Western-themed game developed to date, and one of the most-engrossing as well. You are bound to hear a lot of praise on this one – it is all deserved. This one is not worth renting – it is worth buying, so get out there and spend your pesos, buck skins, and cougar claws on this one right away!
*DISCLOSURE: Rockstar Games sent us a copy of this game for the purpose of this review.
