Red Dead Redemption
This game had me hooked from the moment John Marston gets on the train at the start of the game. Suddenly I was in a world filled with interesting characters trying to get by in a harsh environment or trying to figure out their place in the world. I watched as the gorgeously rendered landscape rolled by, and I couldn’t wait to start exploring.
Calling Red Dead Redemption GTA: Old West would not be inaccurate. As soon as I had control of Mr. Marston, I knew I was in a familiar place. Familiar, but new; and from the beginning, the game presented a different tone than GTA games. I was playing a bad man, sure, but he didn’t want to be bad anymore. As a result, I didn’t feel like stealing horses and shooting random people.
The controls work really well - I never had any trouble doing what I wanted to do with my character, but they are probably the weakest part of the game. Rockstar has never had a really solid grasp on making gunplay feel fun in their games - which seems really strange, but they still haven’t got it here. The gunfights here were totally passable, but felt flat and empty like a target shooting game.
The reason I played this game for more than 40 hours before finishing the story was that there were days when I would turn it on to play, and all I wanted to do was ride slowly through the world. New Austin, Neuvo Paradiso and West Elizabeth are some of the most fully engaging and beautiful video game environments I’ve ever seen. I’ve never watched a sunrise in a video game before. I have now. I’ve never stared at a starry night sky in a video game before. I have now. There are so many normal, boring things that I would do in real life if I was in a beautiful nature environment that I did in this game. It was a really strange feeling, and who would have thought that GTA: Old West would be one of the most relaxing games I’ve played (second to Flower I’d say).
A lot of games that I’ve played recently have had “morality choices” that effect the game and the story, it’s certainly a trend in gaming. Red Dead Redemption also presents some morality game play, but it feels a lot shallower than most other examples. I can be bad if I want in this game, but it won’t change the story. John will still be trying to end his old life of violence. That said, I chose to do as the story suggested, and as a result I became very attached to John and his quest. Most videogames have a strict progression of easy to hard. The end battle being this huge climax where you have to use all of the abilities you’ve acquired along the way. That makes for some pretty homogenous story lines. Red Dead Redemption goes a different way. Without spoiling too much, the game ends with some very easy missions, that work VERY well for the storyline.
This game is the best open world game I’ve ever played. There are some weaknesses that sound pretty major, like the boring gunfights and slightly akward controls. But they aren’t major. The game pulls itself together in a way I’ve not seen before, and I loved every minute of my 40 hour playthrough. I want to dive right back in, but I also feel like I should move on to another game for a while. Red Dead Redemption will be waiting for me though, and I certainly see another playthrough in my future.
