Red Dead Redemption REVIEW
Mmm... Red Dead Redemption. From Rockstar, the creators of Grand Theft Auto, can this game be the western to top Call of Juarez: Bound In Blood? Read the review to find out.STORY
The story in Red Dead Redemption revolves around John Marston as he travels by train in the game's intro to Armadillo, surrounding him on the train are various 'upper class' folk, that converse very convincingly which really does nail attitudes that were present at the time. As you can see, Red Dead wastes absolutely no time in immersing you into it's wild west world. As you exit the train into the nearest town you travel to Fort Mercer, were you confront Bill Williamson. Completely underpowered your shot, and awake in MacFarlane's Ranch. The rest of the story progresses in standard GTA format working your way up with various contacts as you climb the money ladder and complete various stages of your mission. Your 'mission' is get revenge on the gang that left you for dead, the majority of play dominated by antagonist Bill Williamson and your mission to kill him. The final third of the game feels 'tact on', and the transition between two different locales is so quick you wonder what your left doing. The story also becomes more emotional towards the end and culminates in an epic finale, while all the time being convincing and realistic. Not perfect, but undeniably great. 9.0
GAMEPLAY
Before you lay waste to the gangs that traverse the wild west, you'll learn the basics of horse riding. Actually, the horse riding is very polished, it was also a good idea to include a mechanic that allows you to effortlessly ride along side your friend without having to constantly adjust your speed. The physics of the horse riding also seem proficient and since your horse is available to you at any time it's easily accessible and the best way to travel manually. You can save a lot of time if you take advantage of the virtual 'teleport' system that allows you to just port from one place to another with a basic campfire. When you actually get to the action of the game things aren't quite as pretty, but they're far from bad. A lack of portable, automatic weapons might hurt the fluidity of the game but once you get your hands on one of the more powerful weapons things move much faster. The shooting system is also quite punishing. After being hit by a couple of shots, you'll fall to the floor, then likely you'll be finished off while down. This really can be annoying when trying to accomplish tasks in the open world. Most things can only be manually saved, so if your carelessly shot down by a passing gang, then you may be set back quite away if you haven't saved. Luckily saving is largely accessible thanks to the ability to save the game by setting up a campfire. Overall, the game is blast to play, most of the missions are in short thrills like the GTA series but they come in a wide variety, even if the shooting feels a little 'slow'. 8.5
GRAPHICS AND SOUND
Far from the most important factor but the game really does shine in this department. Things get particularly outstanding when you ride your horse to a mountain peak, and take a look at the fantastic open world from a distance. Every texture is fantastic in detail, every town is full of life and shops have their own personality and every town has it's own charming distinction. This is the sort of thing Mafia 2 didn't do. Make the open world memorable and interesting to look at. The cutscene graphics are nice, if not perfect and the voice acting is fantastic. All the way from the mad characters to the main characters everyone has been polished with detail. One complaint that really does hurt is the amount of glitches. Some include the ground disappearing and mounts sinking into the ground. Fortunately, these are rare patches on something which is otherwise perfection 9.5
REPLAY VALUE
If you've only gotten thirty hours out of the single player you can find your fun in the multiplayer. Rockstar have delivered an experience crammed with options and upgrades. Weapons, Characters, Mounts, Titles and Ranks can all be earned to keep the player chugging out more and more gameplay hours as their Legendary rank increases. Passing into legend, is way of extending your replay value online. It basically concerns you handing over all your weapons and ranks to receive 'Legendary' status, once you achieve rank 50. To be honest those who reach rank 50 have probably run their course with the game, but if your still having fun by all means aim for being a Rank 5 Legend. In single player you can still aim for 100% completion, if you aren't partial to multiplayer. This is no simple task either. While not as monumental as GTA IV, this list of completion is probably more fun to complete and actually manageable this time. It still involves maxing out several ranks and exploring every aspect of the game. As you can see with tons and tons of options after you finish the story, and almost unlimited replayability if you like the online, Rockstar certainly give you mileage for the cost. Even though I'm not a fan of the online, because I find the competitive games too slow, I'm still going to give this game a very high score in this section. 9.5
TROPHIES
Mmm... Lovely trophies. These are infact fantastic in almost all aspects. My only complaint is the grind to Rank 50, because I don't find the online gameplay particularly great. However the story specific trophies aren't too dominant and each trophy represents a new milestone on the road to 100%, with a few miscellaneous trophies with comical names, this is a good list. There's even an extension for those who have the Legends and Killers pack. Personally, I think the DLC wasn't really worthy of trophies, but I don't give a score for trophies so this won't affect the final score.
Score - 9.0
Recommendation - Buy
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