Game Reviews: Red Dead Redemption
Rockstar Games is notable for it’s open world, non-linear sandbox games, especially Grand Theft Auto. In Red Dead Redemption, you play the game as John Marston, a former outlaw who is determined to kill all of his former gang members. His family is taken by the government for a ransom due to his position as a Bounty Hunter. The game takes place in 1911, during the end of the American Old West. The game is a spiritual successor to Red Dead Revolver, Rockstar’s 2004 game, and features an open world that allows to you kill or help anyone you may see, however you want, similar to Grand Theft Auto. Except, the Mustangs aren’t made by Ford, they’re actual horses!
Graphics
The graphics, compared to Red Dead Revolver, are a huge step in the right direction. Characters look great, the environments are finely detailed, and the world feels as if it has no boundaries. The game itself doesn’t look like anything was from a cookie-cutter, and everything has life breathed into it. Leather looks like leather, cloth looks like cloth, cotton looks like cotton, a rusty gun looks like a rusty gun, and zombies look like, well, zombies! You may encounter a visual hiccup here and there, but it won’t hinder your experience. And that brings us to the details of the experience itself.
Gameplay
While following the main storyline, your freedom is unbound as you traverse through towns and take part in ambushes, public execution, strangers, pleas for help, and even wild animal attacks. As the outlaw John Marston, you have a variety of weapons at your disposal, and the keen eye of a gunslinger. You can use this talent as an ability called Dead-Eye. With Dead-Eye, you can do a slow-mo bullet time effect and pinpoint your shots. Upon release, Marston will fire rapidly at the designated spots, taking down enemies left and right. The game is third person and allows you to hide behind objects and attack with three forms of offense; single target, blind fire, or free aim. You can also choose limbs to shoot at, to keep the target alive for capture. John Marston can use a variety of weapons, such as close quarters firearms like pistols, knives, rifles, and explosives, as well as firearms that are easily classified as big game weapons. This includes gatling guns, cannons, shotguns, and sniper rifles.
Your morality is measured by your fame, and can increase or decrease depending on acts. Acts of violence against citizens in front of a mass of witnesses will probably have the whole government running after you. Acts of kindness and heroism will have people lavish praise upon you, and women would be all over you as if they had no husband to go back home to. With this morality system is exactly what you guessed from Rockstar Games : The dreaded “Wanted” system. Sooner or later after terrorizing a Western town, you’ll have the sheriff, his gang, crime syndicates, and everything in between going after you!
Replayability
This game screams replayability. It has so many side quests, and it’s even fun to just load up the game and ride around on your horse and continue being a town hero, or just a creep who goes around killing things for fun! But like any fun, it can’t last forever… Shame. But that’s okay! Rockstar released 6 DLC packs to keep on increasing replay value. These DLC packs are guaranteed to keep that Old West vibe flowing. These packs include more challenges, outfits, animals, scenarios, ZOMBIES, multiplayer modes, multiplayer characters, and even a horror element, to go with the aforementioned zombies. The horror DLC has you going into ghost towns and fighting hordes of zombies, alone in a desert wasteland. The “Game of the Year Edition” was released, as one standalone game with all of the DLC included, and currently sells for $40 at the time of writing. An amazing price for someone who hasn’t purchased the game at all!
Conclusion
The game has had 4 long grueling years of development, and it was worth the entire struggle. It’s beautifully put together, with an engaging story, awesome gameplay elements, and the gift of freedom. It will keep you entwined in the game for over 60+ hours. It’s addicting, it’s immersive, and the story and gameplay are perfected to a tee. Apparently, Rockstar San Diego had to borrow people from other Rockstar locations, and even some of the Midnight Club team! It’s a hefty crew, and they worked diligently on it, but it was well worth it. The game received a meta critic score of 9.5/10. It remains a cult classic, and does justice to Red Dead Revolver as a sequel, surpassing it in every way imaginable. On the note of the predecessor, you can even play as characters from Revolver with one of the DLC packs! And even when you’re ready to put the game down, there’s always multiplayer, including a co-op story, a cops and robbers style of game, deathmatch, gang wars, etc. I highly recommend picking up this game. You won’t regret it one bit.
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