Overview
Red dead redemption is the in-direct follow-up to their multi award winning Grand Theft Auto series. It's Rockstar's most ambitious game to date. With a scale that is beyond epic and it's all underpinned with a story that plays out the discourse between the old west and the new America of the 20th century.
Review
You play John Marston a gun slinging, quick talking cowboy who is trying to save his family without his violent past catching up with him.
The game continues the run, gun and cover shooting mechanic from the 2008 game, though it has been streamlined and a few little tweaks helps keep it fresh.
The biggest addition comes in the shape of fantastic Max Payne-esque Dead Eye system, which temporarily slows down time and allows players to mark enemies before they’re downed in a lightning quick volley of gunfire. It stacks the odds firmly in Marston’s favour, ensuring a gentle difficulty curve.
Rockstar have created more than just GTA in the wild west you'll find yourself breaking in horses, herding cows, playing poker, hunting and shooing crows away from corn crops – these don't sound like the most thrilling of activities, but they make for a tranquil counterpoint to Marston’s more gung-ho moments, something that’s used to great effect come the story’s devastating climax.
Villages, farms and whole towns are liberally dotted across the land, and even the wilderness in between is populated by outlaws and lawmen that are all too willing to interrupt the player’s travels. Getting from A to B more often than not involves stopping off at C to intervene in one of Red Dead Redemption’s many random encounters, revolver in hand and ready to either deal out justice or capitalise on someone’s ill fortune.
Rockstar's Euphoria-enabled animation continues to impress even more so than when it was debuted in GTA. But the horses are the real highlight. Artfully animated and joyous to ride. It’s possible to build a real attachment to them as well: one wild stallion we broke in and tamed at the story’s outset stayed faithful to us for some 15 hours, and when it eventually keeled over of exhaustion it was a moment as powerful as any of the story’s scripted twists and turns.
Their so much to see and do in Red Dead that is quite possibly that it could take over 50 hours to complete, side mission in all. Quite often the game will throw up side quests and situations that will require you to decide whether to be a villain or a Samaritan - which in turn will effect Marston’s honour and fame stats - good deeds will eventually lend legendary status across the West and its inhabitants will act accordingly with discounts in stores and a rapturous reception when arriving in town, while darker doings will lead to a bad reputation and if pushed far enough a spell behind bars.
Overall the single player is fantastic and for me Red Dead Redemption is Rockstar's best game by a long way. They have learned a lot from previous game and with some extra time spent on their Rage game engine, it's definetley the best looking game they have ever released.
Not only is the single player game immense - Rockstar have spent a lot of time on the multiplayer. Alongside multiplayer standards such as deathmatch and capture the flag all competitive multiplayer games start with a Mexican stand-off allowing the winner to get to the best sniper spot.
Freemode is where most of your time will be spent - get in a game with your friends and you can get together in a posy and ride around taking over gang hideouts, taking on other posies, and generally having a lot of fun. Time will tell whether the multiplayer really takes off, but after a weekend of hi-jinx, it certainly had me wanting more and more.
We Say:
Red Dead Redemption is more than just GTA in the wild west - many thought that Rockstar would just re-tool their open world formula from GTA - getting rid of cars for horses. But Red Dead is so much more than this. It boast's the finest dialogue to grace a video game ever and with the improvements to the engine Red Dead Redemption is the finest game of the year so far and may well be the game of the year - time will tell.
The Gaj-It Verdict: 5/5
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