Red Dead Redemption

This is the RDR experience when it comes to single player most the time. 

Graphic - 9.8/10
Sound - 10/10
GamePlay - 9.9/10
Story Telling - 9.8/10
Customization - 7.5/10


Graphics:
I've had some superb experiences with this game, be it the amazing muscle detail of a Steed, maybe the tattered and blood stained look to clothes after a battle, possibly even one of the many majestic wild life sceneries.

Some of the most realistic old time buildings and atmospheres that i've been in ever, It's pushing the bar on western games and setting an example for the rest of the companies that have always wanted to make a Western game but were always too afraid it'd flop. It really is an immersive experience that keeps me coming back every few hours.

Now onto the bad aspect of it, my camera has swung through a rock and given me the look at the dreaded abyss i'd continue to fall through if I ever caught a glitch for it, also when you glitch your character and end up some place you aren't supposed to be, It'd seem they got careless and forgot to detail some of the surrounding textures, so It's like a gift package almost! Pretty wrapping paper and underneath is just a plain old ugly box, which isn't a bad thing!

But it can certainly make me judge if they rushed this at all when I look over some of the stuff that's been half arsed. Overall nothing about the graphics was game breaking and more than 98% of it was game praise worthy.

Sound Value:
You know how I am, I hate it when the lip movements don't match up with the voice and let me tell you that more than 99% of the time, the voice has matched exactly with the animation, they did an amazing job at using their stunt horse to the fullest with all the different sound effects, the gun sounds are pretty much praise worthy, they stay true to the distinct old western sound effect for every gun.

And the music makes riding across the barren plains much more interesting! It almost psyches the player up, getting them more into character and feeling the very western feel that they want to immerse you into, I give them a 10/10 for not only giving it some insane effort, but for doing a very stunning execution on it!

I only have one thing bad to say about the sound, It's that i've found there to be some voices that didn't match the character, I've even heard tied up women who amazingly had a man's voice! I looked extra close with my rifle to make sure and it was indeed a woman, this was probably a sound glitch, but this game is riddled with hilarious glitches. So it actually made me laugh, nothing game breaking.

Game Play Value:
Oh god, where to begin? There is so much to do in this game it's not even funny... I can go bounty hunting, hunt animals, play an extremely growing number of mini-games! Nothing but the main story is scripted, so everything that happens is pretty much happening exclusively to you. It's just an all around living sandbox world and it set's the bar extremely high for any game to come. This isn't even including the amazing journey you can have with friends!

And I haven't even tapped into multiplayer, there is never a shortage of stuff to do and nothing really feels clunky for me in my experience, though it was hard to manage a horse at first! I've actually become very handy with riding while shooting, or trying to lasso someone while riding at a high speed.

This being a sandbox game also leads to a lot of creativity, you can be the Law abiding citizen and try to do as little damage as possible, you can rope them up and bring them straight to the Sheriff so that they may take the law into their hands, or you can save civilians from their impending doom.

Or you can play the loose cannon who doesn't really follow the law, but doesn't really break it either. You can shoot the bad guy instead of taking him back alive, you stop a mugging only to do it yourself and then kill the guy who was trying to do the mugging.

Or you could just be the straight up outlaw and steal, cheat, kill... Course I don't think you can rape, but you get my drift! I tried playing outlaw for a bit, I wore an outfit with a Top hat and tied a lady to the train tracks! Someone even tried to untie her and got hit by the train as well! There is just so much creativity that you can do yourself just by using your imagination.

The bad parts? In my time of playing, I haven't really had anything that's broken my opinion of how amazing this game is. But I have had multiple bugs and glitches with hogtied people, I've tried to pick people up and have them freeze mid air so it's like i'm carrying nothing and then I can't even put them down, which leads me into reloading my checkpoint or getting myself killed to fix it. I've never really had story progression stopped because of a glitch or anything, but i'm sure quality assurance is getting a small chewing cause they didn't report some of these bugs sooner!

Story Value:
The story is amazing, It spans across the world and there is story no matter where you look, It's not even all that scripted aside from the main story, this game has truly given the power to players and said... "This is how the event will go, but what will you do to change it?" You can literally decide the fates of human beings just by being at the right place at the right time, or by turning a blind eye to it and letting them be killed. It's just something we haven't actually seen in a sandbox like game yet, GTA's kill or let go system has nothing on the limitless line this game sets out.

The Bad? I've not come across one thing that has stunted my experience with this game, It really is an immersive story line that has plunged me into finding the goodness in my heart, to help civilians and punish the wicked. When I first bought this game, I thought I was going to feel nothing for these characters and i'd just roll into town and blow someone away! But then I got into the game and saw how much crime happened without my doing, I knew that I had to stand up and take up arms to defend these people. I even cried when I had to shoot my horse, just because I became so connected with this animal being a big part of my story. It really is about living your own story.

Customization:
I only have the choice of starting out with the bad here, there is no self customization in single player. (Rating subjected to change when I get Online) The only options we have are the some 12-13 outfits we have currently, all of which have to be unlocked doing tasks instead of just buying them. 

However this isn't really a bad thing as most of the costumes are pretty wicked in their own sense and come with game bonus feats! But the choice to have been able to buy new hats, dusters, vests.. Would have made this rating to a 9.0, but I respect Rockstar and their decision on this, It really isn't that game breaking.

Overall Value:
The fact that we've went this long without a awesome western game? We need to give ourselves a pat on the back for waiting this long, this game takes Sandboxes to the new level, Rockstar really has done it again and made the world again a very desirable place to be! It also sucks you in to the Old world and given people a taste of the Good and Bad of what it really used to be like at the start of American history.

To this game, I take my hat off to them and did them the justice of giving it a Pre-Order before it even came out, they gave it a marketing like no other and set out to give us a game we will look back on years from now and say this is how it really started. Bravo!