Game Review — Red Dead Redemption
When Red Dead Redemption was first announced my first reaction was something along the lines of, “oh great, Grand Theft Auto with cowboys.” Then the unfathomably massive stream of hype started up. Rockstar swore that this was some sort of interactive western movie experience that would outdo any other game in the genre. So admittedly, I got excited and picked up a copy as soon as it came out. Now that Red Dead Redemption is finally available to the public I can confidently say that my first opinion was basically spot on. This game is basically just Grand Theft Auto with cowboys, but all things considered, the Grand Theft Auto formula may work better in an old west setting.
You are John Marston, a cowboy as tough as the stubble on his face, and that stubble is pretty damn tough. A former outlaw who decided to . . . well . . . still be an outlaw in most cases. You wander around the old west taking jobs from all sorts of unsavory fellows in a quest for revenge as well as better guns and horses. The plot, in one word, is capable. It’s not winning any Pulitzers, but it does tell a decent, if not cookie-cutter, cowboy tale. Considering that there aren’t many games set in the wild west, and those that are generally fail to tell even a half decent story, it’s hard for me to complain about Red Dead’s plot. You will find plenty of predictable plot twists and stereotypical characters, but when everything comes together the game is more than capable of holding your interest from start to finish.
The game follows the Grand Theft Auto formula of giving you an open world with plenty of missions to complete. You have the choice of what mission to tackle next, but the game’s storyline is basically linear, and will mostly push you from point A to point B, even if you can take some time off in the middle to shoot outlaws and wrangle horses. The missions are the basic “go here, get this, kill that guy” deal, but when painted over with a coat of old west paint, they feel fresh and interesting. The mini games encompass everything from horseshoes to liar’s dice to that knife game where you stab in between your fingers. Couple this with some special combat scenarios such as fast draw duels, and you’ll find that the game does its best to continually throw new experiences at you.
The gameplay is also very reminiscent of Grand Theft Auto. It’s a pretty generic third person shooter, complete with regenerating life and cover mechanics. Your arsenal is limited considering the time period the game is set in, but you also get to use neat tools like the lasso to your advantage. You also can go into dead eye mode, which is basically “bullet time”, in order to aim better and shoot quicker. Once again the mechanics are all pretty generic, and we have basically seen them before, but because they are painted with the gritty colors of the old west they feel shiny and new.
You can die or get arrested, just like in Grand Theft Auto, but considering the wild west was mostly scattered towns separated by desert wasteland, it is much easier to get away with murder. You will find yourself thinking like a cowboy most of the time, which really helps the game to get across a sense of immersion. By “think like a cowboy” I mean you will take your enemies out to the frontier to execute them, seek out the more lawless faces in order to find work, and generally rely on your six shooter to solve your problems but only at times you can get away with it. The crime in Red Dead Redemption has a feeling of honor to it that vehicular homicide in GTA never seemed to get across.
Red Dead Redemption also features a multiplayer mode which in all honesty is a bit of an afterthought. The world itself acts as your gameplay lobby, which is interesting, and you can join parties to play co-op missions against the computer, or versus missions that basically all mirror your standard FPS variants such as “deathmatch” and “capture the flag”. Of course, if you really want to, you can just run around shooting other people in the face, which in all honesty is kind of fun too. Murdering random passerbys gets old, but knowing there is someone else at the controller getting frustrated over your random violence is somewhat cathartic.
The graphics are pretty damn good. In fact, I’ve never seen wasteland rendered with such detail. The world feels very alive, with locales showing signs of aging and damage from scuffles, and wilderness mimicking all the sights and sounds of a vast and barren desert. Heck, watching the sun set in Red Dead may be prettier than watching it set in real life. Characters and wildlife are all animated realistically, and I don’t mean the half-assed uncanny valley realism that some games have, I mean seriously convincing realism. The voice acting is very good, almost movie grade actually. In fact, outside of a few glitches that cause random things like levitating horses, Red Dead sports one of the most “living” game environments yet.
I had a lot of fun with Red Dead Redemption. It wasn’t the big spectacular Hollywood western game that was hyped up for us, but it was a good game nonetheless. Honestly, I’d love to see Rockstar focus on Red Dead more than GTA, because I think it just fits the gameplay mold a bit better. Open worlds are cooler when they aren’t totally urban. Wrangling horses is way more fun than carjacking. Shooting someone over a rigged game of poker is more satisfying than taking someone down because he is cutting into your drug profits. Honestly, random violence and wanton gunplay just fits in the cowboy-gun-totin’ west. If you have ever had a thing for showdowns at high noon then Red Dead Redemption is certainly the game for you. If not, well check it out anyway cause there’s bound to be something you like.
(25 votes, average: 2.80 out of 4)
Post a Comment to Game Review — Red Dead Redemption