Red Dead Redemption

It’s about time that the world was exposed to a sincerely fantastic cowboy-style Western game. ‘Gun’, ‘Call of Juarez’, and it’s sequel ‘Bound in Blood’ all made a moderately enjoyable experience for the cowboy enthusiast in all of us (well, except for ‘Gun’, obviously) – but none would ever really excel the genre to new mainstream heights. If Red Dead Redemption is John Wayne with a Stetson then every Western game that came before it would be the equivalent of Will Smith with a blue children’s plastic cowboy hat on.

You play as John Marston, a former outlaw who decided he’d hang his revolvers up to raise a family in a nice quiet patch of land until his dream is whipped hastily away from him by Government agents. His family has been kidnapped and now it is up to you to track down and either kill or capture all your former associate outlaws to get your wife and son back. Take this miniature plot summary with several tons of salt though because if Red Dead Redemption was Texas then I would have just described a single blade of grass outside a small shed in Austin. The game and storyline are trouser-tighteningly massive, with both the game world and character dialogue giving the whole experience a genuine feel of largeness.

Every character you run into is varied and interesting enough that you will find yourself caring for the people and the world you’re helping to form. This is where the moral choice system comes into it. I know what you’re thinking, I thought the same thing, but the moral choice system in Red Dead Redemption is done well and with good justification. You are given the choice whether you want to shoot first and ask questions later, or ask questions then ponder as to whether or not to shoot – it’s a simple system that mostly affects who will deal with you peacefully and who won’t. It’s the method I would want all moral choice systems to work on, because it doesn’t change the main plot line, it just allows the player to complete the same version of events as they see fit – by either gunning down a runaway thief with a bullet to the brain-box while on horse back, or by going for the knee-cap and hog-tying him and returning his robbing arse to the local sheriff.

What I’m saying is that Red Dead Redemption is the way that a Western game should have always been made but never has been until now. A lot of this, I believe, is because it was developed by Rockstar. Thanks to the Grand Theft Auto series they are now the masters of sandbox games and they’ve brought across that greatness into Red Dead Redemption. Though a fast travel system is in place for the impatient gamer, it’s a real joy to gallop your way across the wide, open desert landscape of Red Dead Redemption and I relished every second of it (I even found myself naming each horse I rode even though there is no in game option to do that). RDR is littered with coyotes, snakes, hawks, vultures, bears and an entire miniature eco-system for you to fill with lead for the promises of body parts to sell for profit at your local grocery shop. The ‘Dead-Eye’ mode (think bullet time, only with the option of painting your targets for some quick and easy kills) does make it much easier to blast that Eagle out of the sky, so don’t panic if you’re not quite the quickest draw in the West, just remember that it’s limited so use it wisely. This all helps to add to Rockstar’s trademarks in gaming: exploration and immersion. You want to explore every area, hunt every animal, and gather as much rich, juicy information on the desert around John Marston so you can really sink your teeth into RDR. It’s a perfect blend of player exploration and set dialogue pieces that bring the whole experience to life – it makes it almost impossible to not want to watch Marston’s character cracked open and shown to you.

If you’ve played GTA and always wanted to play it in a Western scenario then RDR is a must. You’re free to roam the landscape completing the various story missions or the randomly appearing side-quests which range from saving civilians, to duels, to cattle rustling (which is far more entertaining than I would have expected) – all with their own unique gameplay element to avoid any repetitive run-and-gun feelings you may be worried about. On top of all of this, every secondary level mission has a link, even if it’s a loose one, to the main story based missions. It really adds a sense of depth when you’re taking into account the entire game universe even if you’re conducting a seemingly mundane extra escort mission.

With the beautifully bundled single player package comes even more though: multiplayer! Standard team deathmatches, capture the flag (/bag of gold), and free-for-all are present and accounted for, and are done well for what they are. The only surprising element being that Dead-Eye mode is still available through the use of power-ups – a very welcome thought for me. The best mode though has to be the ‘free roam’ mode, which allows you and a bunch of up to 8 friends to form and posse of outlaws (though perplexing a single game will support up to 16 players) and explore, kill, or hunt through a series of co-op-like missions scattered throughout the land – it really is as addictive and enjoyable as it sounds, especially when you can gather a large enough group of online buddies.