Red Dead Redemption

Red Dead Redemption
PS3 / XBOX 360 (version tested)
Rockstar Games

The Good: Stunning widescreen scenery – cinematic shootouts – incredibly atmospheric
The Bad: Could have better environment interactivity – no choice as to accept / reject missions

With Red Dead Redemption causing the sort of hypewave not seen since Obama, Gamesrocker couldn’t help being a little sceptical as to whether the game would live up to its billing.

As if you didn’t know already, Red Dead Redemption is set in the dying days of the Wild West; the Frontier is finished, technology is ushering in a new era in the Eastern border states, whilst the seeds of change are blowing in the south as revolutionary war rumbles on in Mexico. But for the time being, the cactus-ridden, snake-bitten, coyote-prowled deserts of the West are still a Hobbesian state of nature, where trust is scarce, death comes cheaply and the slowest on the draw gets left for the vultures.

The overarching single player plot tells a familiar Western tale, with a lead character John Marston in the ‘grizzled but reformed man of violence’ mould, forced to hunt down former comrades by dodgy government agents.



Doubts are a good insurance policy against disappointment, and the first mildly frustrating few hours in Marston’s boots make them seem well-placed. Clunky navigation, bizarre glitches (see Bird People and Cougar Man on Youtube), and silly errors such as Marston getting injured and wearing the subsequent bloody bandages over his clothing (or maybe this was just ultra-realistic sloppy frontier medicine?). Not to mention the annoyingly frequent crappy jobs that you are forced to take on and the downright odd behaviour of some NPCs, such as deputies who accompany you on a mission only to stand there pointing their guns at targets impotently whilst shouting disparaging remarks at you.

After weeks of excitement, the cold hard truth seemed about to come crashing home – this was just GTA In Chaps - worse than that, subtleties mastered in GTA IV had been bemusingly left out (ability to pick up and throw inessential objects – surely this would have been perfect for barroom brawls? Swimming? Ability to throw a running punch?).

Fortunately, a metaphorical Hollywood cavalry charge suddenly saves the day when you realise that these niggles are just that and nothing more, worth getting past to say the least. Like some of the best records that take a while to get into but become lifelong favourites, you have to put some effort in before you get anything out of it. And after the first few hours, there comes a point when the game just clicks and you suddenly realise – hang on a second, this is art.

The moment of revelation may come when you hear birdsong break out at dawn as the sun rises above blood red peaks and gives a glorious glow to a grassy plain, or when watching the stars light up a night sky whilst a wolf howls in the distance and a campfire crackles nearby,. There are not many games that cause so many open-mouthed ‘….wow….’ moments.

Around this point you realise that the horse-riding mechanics now seem more fluid (almost as if Marston himself has broken the horse in), shooting comes easier and you gradually feel more locked into the environment. Ingeniously, it seems that each horse develops a fondness for you, provided you can get past those awkward early ‘accidentally-shoot-your-own-horse-in-the-face-when-trying-to-escape-from-bandits’ moments.

At times RDR is beautifully cinematic. The bullet-time ‘Dead Eye’ feature for instance, never gets old. One of the only parts left in after Rockstar gutted the previous Red Dead Revolver game they picked up from Capcom, it’s a Peckinpah-on-demand button. There a few more exquisite in-game experiences than watching the hind leg muscles of a cougar ripple as blood splats out of a headshot and it crumples under its own weight.

Like every Rockstar title, what truly sets RDR apart is the freedom it affords. It’s up to the player to keep the narrative progressing, as much of the gameplay concerns itself with the day-to-day survival in a hostile environment. This means it’s easy to get distracted by random incidents with strangers. Get hoodwinked by a horse thief pretending to be a hitch hiker and you’re left to walk the desert alone. Get invited into a poker game and win, only to blow your winnings on booze in a swampy saloon and sleep it off the horse’s water trough. In both the ‘Stranger’ and story missions, one distinct advantage over GTA is that goals involve more than just ‘killing all the bad guys’, such as real cowboy jobs like herding cattle or taming wild horses.

The attention to detail with NPC charaacters is beguiling - townspeople just get on with their lives, blacksmiths, carpenters, builders aren’t waiting to see what you do, and in some cases couldn’t care less about you, like the gentleman who came clip-clopping up to our campsite only to dismount and take a long piss.

RDR is Rockstar’s first rural game, and you can comfortably spend hours shooting hawks, skinning snakes and tracking deer, then trot to the nearest dirt town to flog your wares. This in-game ecology system not only makes RDR’s vast plains seem as alive as GTA’s pedestrian-filled cities, but gives the gamer an uncanny feeling of having been out in the wild, wrestling with animals and triumphing, living out the American dream of the rugged Frontiersman.



Marston picks up from where Niko Bellic left off in terms of being a hard man with a conscience, only in RDR the player has much more control over his moral evolution and the game develops differently depending the way you want to play it, whether it’s Lee Van Cleef or Charles Bronson - expect trouble from law-men but respect from bandits or vice versa (like the Sergio Leone Westerns, lines between good and bad are very blurred). It’s not all ambushing, sniping and plundering though, if you’re feeling more relaxed there’s a lot to be said for genteel pastimes such as wiling away the dusk hours picking desert sage under a peach sky, listening to a resting traveller blow a tune on his harmonica.

The games panoramic desert vistas are complemented by the sound. As well as a soundtrack in the style of Ennio Morricone, master of the atmospheric spaghetti western score, authenticity is provided by nice touches such as distant wind whipping through the canyon, or the sound of skree slipping underfoot. Sound can influence gameplay too – hearing John Ford bullet ricochets from across the plains is a signal to either stop and scour the horizon for trouble (distant wisps of smoke or flashes of gunfire), or ignore it and press on.

Character acting is impressive, and after a few Al Swearengen-style rants, it’s obvious that this is more Deadwood than Oklahoma!, and the disparaging remarks and witty ripostes that we love in GTA (“Well that’s about as in-ter-estin’ as a hole inna ground”) are in evidence here too.

The sheer scale and humongous variety of the game becomes more apparent in Multiplayer mode. Dawdle about looking for interaction and you’ll be shot down faster than you could say Yosemite Sam. An over-reliance on Dead Eye in single player mode can cause a setback for anyone lacking a quick trigger finger in multiplayer, which is perhaps more realistic, and certainly more brutal. For those easily menaced by the ruthless killing efficiency of some online gamers, level-matched Challenges are available and vary in scope from the traditional Capture the Bag and Deathmatch, to more unique challenges such as Goldrush that begin with a highly amusing Mexican standoff.

You can even form a posse and set off marauding across the desert, shooting looting and pillaging your way to the top of the leaderboards, but be wary that NPC-killing sprees bring swift retribution from the ruthless Lawmen who have the Sisyphean task of trying to keep order. Ultimately, it’s the multiplayer possibilities that look set to make RDR a gamer’s favourite for some time to come – it sets a new benchmark and is the closest thing yet to a real-life Westworld.

If more games manufacturers tried to offer something on the scale RDR, then we might be about to witness a new era of gaming. RDR are a resounding example of how valid a part of our culture games are – a fact proven by the sheer demand for RDR upon release.

The sun has far from set on artful video games – in fact, it’s only just rising.

10/10