http://gryphonosiris.blogspot.com/20...nd-outlaw.htmlRed Dead Redemption – The Good, the Bad, and the Outlaw
Sorry for the delay on this one, decided I was going to go for 100% completion before typing up my write up. Westerns in video games have always had a hit or miss chance in the last few years, such as games like Gun, Call of Juarez 1 & 2, and Red Dead Revolver. Strangely, for such a story and action rich period of American history the Old West has been rather lacking in games for it, particularly when compared with WWII games as the war only last 6 years and the Old West was from the end of the Civil War up until the First World War. That’s roughly 50 years for those of you who were asleep in American History in school. There have been previous attempts at an open world Western, namely Gun; however it came up lacking in substance when compared to the ambition of the game and story. Even with Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood, which had the feel of a western, it was very linear and had the player following a straight path for gameplay. Is Red Dead Redemption an improvement upon these two games, or will it ride off into the sunset to be forgotten?
SYNOPSIS
It’s 1911, automobiles and telephones are starting to become common place and the once wild American West is being tamed by the US Government and the Railroad system. Enter John Marston, former outlaw turned rancher who has tried to walk away from his past life, only to have some gentlemen from the government kidnap his wife and son as random for him to hunt down his old gang. When the soft touch fails on his old gang members, Marston must dig them out the hard way, and maybe even find redemption for his past crimes.
THE GOOD
As this is an open world game from Rockstar, the developers of the highly acclaimed Grand Theft Auto series, one goes into it expecting a large living world. However, was I didn’t expect was it really would be as true to life as it turned out to be. Besides the frontier towns, bandit hideouts and general riff-raff of the western landscape you have active animal life, wild horses, stage coach robberies, lynching, escaped criminals, and ambushes around just about every corner. Combined with a draw rate that makes me want to see exactly how far away I can shoot an enemy with the sniper rifle, and the usual GTA style huge number of missions in the game this makes me want to pop the disc into the holodeck and play my own version of the “Fist Full of Datas” episode. Character models also use the more realistic approach to the west, meaning no one is dressed line Gene Autry. They all look world weary and more what one would expect from frontier folk.
Weapon selection in the game is much large than in previous GTA games with dozens of real world weapons that existed from the end of the Civil war up to the beginnings of the WWI. Each has their own unique feel to them, though I must admit that the 1874 Sharps Buffalo Rifle is my favorite. It lets me feel like Tom Selleck in Quigley Down Under, but I digress. Since it’s a western you also have items like a lasso, skinning knife, dynamite, and whiskey bombs (Molotov cocktail) that have other uses outside of fighting the enemies you encounter in the game. For example, you can lasso the wild horses in the game, and break them to acquire a better ride, or with the animals you kill you can skin them, and sell their pelts, meat and other body parts at the local shops. Plant life also provides an income source and ambient challenges, as you can collect local varieties for both skill challenges and sale to the shops as well.
Mission ranges from raiding bandit hide-outs, cattle herding, horse racing, helping local law enforcement, and even assisting a snake oil sales man con unsuspecting buyers. Like with GTA4 there are also the “Strangers” that you come across in the world, each with their own unique stories and quests for you to follow, as well as hunting missions, treasure hunting, marksmanship challenges, gambling, and odd jobs in the towns you come across to make sure you are never bored. Many people have called the game Grand Theft Horse, or other joking terms of it just being GTA in the Old West. Personally I disagree with that, as there are features from GTA that are similar, such as the random missions scattered across the world, a law and crime system, and a third person combat mechanics, but the similarities end there. In GTA you were pretty much limited to being a criminal with all the missions you did and how the story unfolded, however in Red Dead Redemption you actively choose whether or not you are going to operate within the law, or actively choose to commit crimes against the people and the government.
THE BAD
While the game and story are very good, it seems rather short when compared to the 20 – 30+ hour game time of GTA4. Much of it is spent in transit to one destination from another while on your horse or some other means of transportation. The main voice actors do very good work in it, however some of the ‘extras’ in the game sound really bad, like middle school play bad. Compared the well voice characters like Marston, or the Snake oil salesman Nigel Wesdickens it is that much more glaringly obvious. I also noticed several bugs in the game that required me to reload from a previous save because my character became stuck in the scenery. It would have been nice if something like that was caught in beta testing before it went gold.
THE UGLY
Well, besides obscene language, booze, and shootings there is also the bloodiness of when you skin animals (i.e. you get blood splattered across your screen), sometimes you see cowboys jump off the horse along the trails to ‘irrigate the desert’, innocent people being hung by outlaws, and walking in on a character as he is passing his genetic information on to a half naked Mexican peasant girl. Surprisingly not as bad as GTA4 was, but has something that is didn’t have as well.
CONCLUSION
Red Dead Redemption is a very well written and implemented game with a fresh look upon both open world gameplay and the western genre in video games as well. Solid combat, storytelling, and stylized off of the classic spaghetti western style that made Clint Eastwood famous, it does not disappoint.
Highly recommended.
