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Red Dead Redemption
On June - 4 - 2010
Rockstar has done it again. From the streets of Liberty City and now to the American Old West in Red Dead Redemption.  John Marston is your name. A retired outlaw, from a gang led by Dutch van der Linde. You are just trying to live a good life but your family is unjustly being held ransom by a government agent.  You end up being little more than the errand boy as The agents promise that your family will be safely returned to you if you take down  the remaining members of your former gang. This is where the struggle & fun begin.
The gameplay is really great  Gun play plays a major role of the game. The player can take cover, target a specific person, blindfire, and free aim. You also can target individual body parts. When You hit someone in specific body part they respond realistically, like crawling or hoping if you aiming for the leg. You also have the option to take targets down non-lethally by wounding, lassoing and tying them up like a baby calf. A nice mechanic in the game is called Dead Eye” where you can slow down time to help target and shoot. Overall Gun control is smooth and efficient, with quick reloads. The weapons are also varied. As you progress you are given, or given the opportunity to purchase a diverse array of firepower.
Walking around on foot and shooting are fine, but when you get into lasso-ing and horse riding the controls can get a bit sloppy. Just riding a horse in this game is simple enough though does require a bit of getting used to. Since you are out in the West  what is there to do? You could keep it all business and eliminate the other gang members or engage in the nice assortment of mini games like Texas Hold-em, Black Jack, Liar’s Dice and side missions to occupy your time. Side-quests can vary from collecting flowers, to going after wanted criminals, to hunting the various exquisitely detailed wildlife -varying from birds to coyotes and skunk- dotted about. These side-quests give a sense of the richness of environment around you.  The pace of the game is very flexible…you can sprint through everything or go at your own speed .
Red Dead Redemption makes use of a morality system where players have the ability to gain positive or negative ‘honor’. Some of the ways of gaining positive honor are taking down outlaw alive instead of killing him, or saving a kidnapped civilian. Negative honor can be attained for committing crimes including killing or robbing civilians. This works along with another system, ‘fame,’ showing and governing how people react based on Marston’s honor status. So if you see a guy being chased and shot at by two others, do you intervene even though you don’t know what was of the cause of it. Who is good or bad? Do you just watch it play out? There are real in-game consequences to your decisions. The number and diversity of the random situations you are confronted with are truly remarkable.
Another feature in the game is  online Multiplayer. There can be up to  16 players at a time. The modes can vary from free roam, the regular capture the flag, free-for-all, and team death-match. In free roam you can team up,form a posse up to 8 players and just have fun doing anything.
Graphically it is incredibly detailed. The landscape is quite realistic and beautiful, with nice contrast, realistic foliage, trees, shrubs, rocks, water and structures. Â Dynamic lighting, particle effects, and object interaction are done so well. Â The images are crisp and clear with occasional pop-in, but not to a lot extent. Outstanding voice acting from a variety of characters coupled with great sound effects. The soundtrack is very basic given the setting but it serves the game well in setting the tone.
Red Dead Redemption is the game that finally gives the Old West it’s well deserved justice. Great playability, balanced difficulty level, great depth of combat and good replay value The missions are varied, the characters awesomely crafted, the story is great and everything comes together to make a great western experience.
This game is just awesome. It can easily be game of the year. The graphics, voice acting, and gameplay are well done. The open huge environment and slew of mini games and side quests allow for hours of play time. I have not played the multi-player as yet, but the single-player campaign is well written and fun. Rockstar did a wonderful job on this game. I have found no flaws as yet. It deserves a 10/10.
Posted on June 4th, 2010 at 6:32 pm
Definitely an amazing game. So large that it’s overwhelming at times… I never expect anything less from R*.
Posted on June 4th, 2010 at 8:10 pm
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