A BEAR!! FUUUU!!
This is a collaborative review with fellow Ginatbomb user, ELpork
What happens when you take Rockstar’s tried and true style, mix it with the Wild West, and throw in a quality script? You get Red Dead Redemption, one of the best games available so far this year, that’s what! Since I’ve never played Red Dead Revolver, I was sure I’d be missing some elements to the story, but luckily, Rockstar went the “spiritual sequel” route and ensured gamers who missed out on the original weren’t left out with the sequel. What one is left with is a story of betrayal, politics, and (naturally) redemption.
Story:
Gameplay
Essentially the game is GTA in the Wild West. Using the GTA IV engine, targeting system, GPS-infused map, RDR is an improved GTA 100 years in the past. Unfortunately, limiting you to the past means limiting your mission types. A lot of the time you’re tasked with doing a LOT of the same things over and over, luckily, again with Rockstar’s magic, they don’t seem as repetitive. Whether it’s storming a camp or protecting a wagon from point A to point B, the mission types are somewhat few and far between. The “Stranger” mission types however, offer up more variety; you’ll gamble, pick flowers (YAY), and even duel people in the midst of a busy city. Despite the main story missions being so recurring, I never got the feeling of irritation, instead, I continuously accepted mission after mission in the 15-20 hour campaign happily. I do believe it goes back to the fantastic story and conversations between the characters within those missions, fantastic dialogue throughout the game.As for multiplayer, it’s essentially a copy and paste from GTA IV’s multiplayer wherein you’re dropped into the world with up to 15 other players and you’re free to do whatever you want. You can form posses, run through gang hideouts, or just lose time hunting one another down and seeing whom is the quicker gun in the west. I advise you right now, if you’re looking to do the gang hideouts, get a friend (or two) because they are TOUGH! I died more times trying to take a hideout than I did in the overall story mode.
You’re probably asking, “Curtis, if that’s the case, why would I play the multiplayer?” Because you get XP for EVERYTHING you do in RDR. Following the trend of most online games, RDR implements a reward system that provides you with various avatars, horses, and opportunities to increase your rank among the online masses. Whether it’s taking over a hideout or shooting a fellow player for the 10 XP he drops, you will be scouring the vast lands to increase your rank. And with various missions and game types to undertake, it should provide ample game time for plenty of gamers who request more bang for their buck.
Presentation (Graphics & Sound):
As I’ve stated above the story is phenomenal, but there are several factors that could hinder a great story from being fully enjoyable. Be it voice acting, shoddy animation, etc. Luckily, RDR does not fall into any of these aforementioned categories, and continues Rockstar’s reputations of delivering on all fronts. Sure, there is pop-up and glitches, but name one sandbox game without those, go on, I dare you. Because of the scale of the game and genre, I’m bound to forgive a few small blemishes on an otherwise outstanding title.The soundtrack was definitely striking as well, the tracks captured the Wild West perfectly and help cement the time period and draw you in even more. Particularly, the song <a href="”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZ9iflvCwok&feature=related”">“Compass”</a> playing after John’s final mission as he rides back to Beecher’s Hope was a perfect addition. it really sums up John’s entire story and everything he’s accomplished to that point.
Final Thoughts:
A standout title which will surely be a main contender for game of the year, Red Dead Redemption is a game for those who love Rockstar and one for gamers who love the Wild West. If you fall into either of those categories (or both) then you’re in for a treat, RDR does not disappoint and with a fun mulitplyaer, gamers will no doubt spend months trying to be the best they can and make sure their mount isn’t a smelly mule. Although, that’s just cruel and you should be ashamed in wanting anything better!Final Score: 9
John (NOT MARSTON!... god it was strange having everyone in that game call that character by my name)
Story:
Red Dead Redemption is a GTA game set in the ol’ west, and follows our lead character Mr.Gruff… I mean John Marston, as he tries to hunt down a member of his old gang for the government, in order to live as a free man. But since this is a Rockstar game, John happens to get all caught up in everybody’s busyness, and eventfully fucks everybody over in order to get 1 man… Sound familiar? It should, it’s the basic outline to GTA IV, granted it has a few more elements too itNow as cynical as I’m being in the above paragraph, the story in GTA Ol’ West is absolutely superb, the only drawback being that its only 20-25 hours long (Depended on how ham handed you are). And for how well written it is, it feels WAY to short, like they cut something out involving the Native Americans. With that said I’m glad they didn’t try to lengthen it out with a bunch of ridiculousness. And I have to say, the twist at the end of the story is very well placed, and while a bit predictable, was an insanely good idea.
ONE SENTENCE WRAP UP:
Great story, great ending, great time… Bit short.
Control:
Did you play GTA IV? Then you should know EXACTLY how this plays. The only difference being now there’s horses in the mix. Now to some people that may be a bad thing, but on the whole it’s really not. The huge open fields lends itself GREAT to the GTA IV control setup, and when your not constantly running from automatic gunfire, you can actually get to cover before you ass turns into swiss cheese. Granted when you do have to fight indoors, or in anyplace where there’s obstacles, you’re pretty much fucked, because the animations from cover to firing take to long to kick in before John pulls the trigger.As I said above, there are horses in the game, and they control EXTREEMLY well, and relatively realistically. I’ve ridden a few horses, and I can say they don’t stop as fast as the ones in the game do, but for in game vehicles, they work really well. Not to mention while aiming you can still control them relatively well, which makes running and gunning just that much more fun. Now that I’ve said that, I’d like to tell you that horses freak the HELL out of me, and I never wana play another game with horses that look that realistic in it.
ONE SENTENCE WRAP UP:
This town ain’t big enough for the two of us… So lets go out to the field and shoot.
AI:
Brainy at times, not so much at others… that’s really all the more I can say. For the majority of the game they do there jobs well, taking cover, ether shooting you, or enemy’s. But every once and a while, they’ll just start running at you with no rhyme or reason. The horse on the other hand is pretty bad, when you call it in so you can ride it off into the sunset, it will come to you, then start running away from you as you get closet to it, which is a HUGE pain.However, some of the games random events are HILLARIOUS. Every once and a while, you come across a cannibal cooking some dude on a fire pit, or some lady shooting her hogtied (Supposed) husband, then herself. Just some really hilarious shit that makes riding through the empty desert worth the time and effort.
ONE SENTENCE WRAP UP:
Its good, its bad, its got cannibals.
GRAPHICS:
To say the lighting was good would be an understatement, there really good. NOT GREAT MIND YOU, but good. The lighting is always superb, but every once and a while the shadows will still be there during a thunderstorm, or the clouds will let too much light in. However the only REAL problem with the lighting is the random weather shifts, they usually happen WAY too quickly, or will just change, and not show it. But the night sky is PERFECT! I used to live out in the middle of bum fuck nowhere, and the sky (Without light pollution) would look JUST like that, of course, the milky-way was a bit more “Thick”.Everything else in the game is somewhat lack luster, excluding the main character models. The landscape looks good, only thanks to the super job the lighting dose of creating that “Map painting” look of everything. But when you get close to it all, or actually stop and look at it, its just kind of… meh. Even the animals, When not being shot, look kind of ehh… Unfortunately.
ONE SENTENCE WRAP UP:
Great lighting makes all the lack luster stuff look good.
SOUND:
The soundtrack is full of good ambient stuff, with a few feature tracks here and there. But the real highlight is the world itself. The sound of elk grunting, birds chirping, coyotes howling, and the wind through the brush makes the whole game world feel that more realistic. And the voice acting helps that along, somewhat, with Mr. Marston being the highlight. However you do run across a lot of that “HOWDY PAR-TA-NER” sarcastically voicing the ol’ westerners. But that just helps give the game some character. And I love that the people in Mexico just speak Spanish, instead trying to use some broken English accent.ONE SENTENCE WRAP UP:
HOW-DA-EE SOUNDTRACK!!
MULTIPLAYER:
A tack on… That’s honestly the closet I can come to how bland this add on is. And don’t get me wrong, its fun for what it is. But they took way to much stuff out, and somehow made the open world part of this open world game feel bland. The animals are far too spars to make hunting fun. There are no black jack tables to spend your money on, and the only way to get more a steady stream of XP is play the broken PVP stuff. And I say broken, because the last game I played I got 22-4 spread… A 22-4 SPREAD! And I wasn’t even trying all that hard, all I did was lock on to people and pulled the trigger as fast as I could.Honestly, the Multiplayer on this could have been fixed super easily. Leave all the Poker, blackjack, 5 finger, and liars dice in there, add more gang hideouts, with the same leveling system, and you would have had ONE HELL of a multiplayer game. But instead you forced people to play the PVP, which is shit. Way to fuck it up.
ONE SENTENCE WRAP UP:
Hello-derr you pile of WORTHLESS CRAP!
FUN FACTOR:
If you look purely at the single player game, this is one hell of an experience. I mean how the hell dose one go about making hunting fun? Honestly, I never thought I would ever WANT to hunt in a game before, but this game managed to pull that off. The story is superb, and there’s loads of dicking about to do. But once you get into the multiplayer, it all kind of takes a noise dive.However that doesn’t really detract from the over all experience, and I have a feeling this series will be taking a much bigger role in Rockstars future, lets just hope they put more fun stuff in the next one.
ONE SENTENCE WRAP UP:
Not looking at the Multiplayer, this game is fuckin fun.
STORY: 9
CONTROL: 8
AI: 6
GRAPHICS: 7.5
SOUND: 7
MULIPLAYER: 4
FUN FACTOR: 7.5
TOTAL: 7
ONE SENTENCE WRAP UP:
With a bit more polish, and more attention to multiplayer, this could have been a contender for game of the year.
