Red Dead Redemption Review

Red Dead Redemption is an open-world action adventure game created by Rockstar Games, creators of the critically acclaimed series Grand Theft Auto. The much awaited follow-up to Red Dead Revolver, has been penned as Grand Theft Auto but set in wild western times. This review was done on the Microsoft Xbox 360.

Story
The story in Red Dead Redemption is an amazing tale of treachery, betrayal and of course, redemption. The story starts with John Marston an ex-outlaw arriving in the fictional county of New Austin. After he is forced away from his wife and child by government agents who say he may return when all his old gang members are dead hence the title, Redemption. Marston hunts down a member named Bill Williamson and confronts him at his fort. He is then injured and left for dead, only to be found and nursed back to health on a ranch. From there on the stroy twists and turns in ways beyond comprehension with the player never knowing who to trust next. With a couple funny and witty characters thrown in and the best story-pacing in a video game to date turns Red Dead Redemption’s story into one of the best, rivalling Niko Bellic’s GTA IV story.

Graphics
The graphics in Red Dead Redemption are good, very good. They are better than other triple A titles and you can see the money that Rockstar have invested in developing the game have been well spent with very few glitches and bland textures. The scope and scale in Red Dead is phenominal and all the creatures that roam around this vast land all behave like their real world counterparts and add a sense of realism to a game which betters GTA IV’s graphics in every way. They make the world believable, more believable than any other open-world game played. Characters all have a sense of reality to them which is down to good motion capure and facial animations and all the animations are fluid and look real.

Gameplay
Red Dead Redemption is one of the best all-round games ever! There is always something to do and it is all integrated perfectly. Some of the missions seem miles away but on the way, which is done on horseback seeing as cars weren’t available then, but you could come across a stranded traveller looking to hitch a ride or a woman may seem marooned but is actually bait for the bandits to attack you. The best feature is the animals. Throughout the world there are real world creatures ranging from rabbits to vultures and even bears all of which are huntable, when killed the player has the ability to skin mammals and take the feathers from birds and then sell them to shopkeepers. This game has the best economy system seen with animals from different areas worth more because of their rareness. Another feature is duels, as you become more famous ad gain or lose honour local hardmen may challenge the player to a duel and if won the player gains more fame and honour. Duels are a slow-motion affair with the player gaining more accuracy but lees time if the gun is pulled at the last minute and more time but less accuracy if pulled before required to.

Multiplayer
The multiplayer in Red Dead Redemption is a much better and improved variation from GTA IV. The developers penned Red Dead as about to redefine the open-world multiplayer expierience. Which they did with the removal of lobby systems, instead they gave players the opportunity to roam the world and earn Exp, which levels the player up CoD style, such as hunting or taking out gang hideouts. The player then chooses a game mode and plays. But instead of spawning on a map the players all face of in a duel at the start of each game adding a fluency to the multiplayer. There are levels as mentioned earlier all the way up to 50 with amount of Exp gained per match varying. This adds a weird, compulsive urge to level up.

Overall
Overall, Red Dead Redemption is one of the best made games to date with many hours of playing time the ability to live like a real Wild west cowboy. This is a finely crafted expierience with clear amounts of effort put into it. Refining the open-world genre with its revolutionary components this is Game of the Year 2010 and maybe Game of the Year ever, a must buy for open-world lovers and shooter lovers alike. 10/10