Red Dead Redemption - Playstation 3

Growing up on both westerns and videogames, it's almost inexcusable to me how the two so infrequently mesh in a satisfying manner. The Old West. The Wild West. It has always seemed like a setting ideal for videogames, rife with lawlessness and conflict. Yet, the few forays we've had into this marvelous era of American history have been generally flawed or stricken with mediocrity, entirely unable to capture the spirit that made the period so enthralling. Until now.Rockstar Games has managed to deliver one of the few truly satisfying Western games the medium has seen - a game that also happens to be one of the finest in the industry as a whole.Set in the American Old West of 1911, Red Dead Redemption follows, in name alone, its predecessor, Red Dead Revolver - a property picked up by Rockstar that was somewhat well-received. The game centers on John Marston, a reformed outlaw after being left for dead by his gang, whose bloody past comes back to haunt him as he is forced by government officials to track down and kill his former brothers in arms for the safe return of his wife and son. While the Easter Eggs are welcome, the nods to all of my classic Western favorites are plentiful, and there is plenty of humor (aside from the much prevalent satire/irony), Red Dead is mature in its story-telling, offering up a thought-provoking and poignant narrative that is as much social commentary as an interesting character study featuring revenge and redemption.The story spans miles of untamed and inhabited territory that makes for a compelling, dynamic open world, brimming with life and personality. The landscape is diverse, featuring plenty of locales, and often awe-inspiring, capturing the beauty of a once untamed west. Stand around too long, however, and action is sure to find you. The game world is littered with dynamic and unique events which you can typically choose to partake in or ignore, whether you stop to help a women stranded out on the old dusty trail or find yourself being robbed at gunpoint with a decision to make.There are a lot of decisions to make in Red Dead Redemption, in fact, which all play into the gameplay. While most actions net a certain amount of Fame, they also award Honor - positively and negatively, which each have their own impact on the game. Drive Honor downwards, for instance, and people will fear you, quaking in your presence. Acting as an upstanding citizen (not trampling, kidnapping, or otherwise killing citizens, for example), on the other hand, makes you popular among the locals and eventually leads to discounts from most shopkeepers.While both paths have particular benefits, those treading the less honorable path will likely find themselves in a familiar scenario - being hounded by sheriffs with a "wanted" sign and a bounty on their head. Different crimes have different bounties - drive the price high enough and more law enforcement officers will be after you, including US Marshalls. Bounties can be paid off in most towns and cities dollar for dollar or with a pardon letter. Of course, there's also always the option of paying your debt to society by spending some time in the slammer.There's still more to do in the world of Red Dead Redemption aside from the main quest and unique world events. Towns are brimming with life, offering all of the amenities one might expect out west - various shops and gunsmiths, property to purchase, random (and often hilarious or interesting) encounters with "Strangers" offering side missions, jobs breaking horses or doing a night watch, and gambling minigames ranging from Texas Hold `Em to Liar's Dice to Blackjack to arm wrestling to horseshoes to Five Finger Filet. I remember saying to myself that Red Dead Redemption, for me, held up its $60 price tag simply as a poker simulator, given the insane amount of hours I spent simply cleaning chumps out in Texas Hold `Em and, later, Liar's Dice - all of which is tracked, including your earnings/losses, in a comprehensive "statistics" page.On top of all that, there are four classes of "Ambient Challenges" with increasing levels of difficulty, ranging from herb collecting to treasure hunting to marksmanship and hunting skills when roaming the plains. Hunting the many species of animals in Red Dead Redemption is another remarkably fun way to spend countless hours (and rack up major profit selling skins), too. Larger towns and areas also offer bounty boards, where you can take on the challenge of going after bounty heads for decent payoffs - more if you bring your catch in alive.Still, with all of that being said, there's more that I've failed to touch on in terms of interesting things to do and ways to spend time in Red Dead Redemption's remarkably detailed and stunningly accurate portrayal of the old west. There's no way to truly capture the games open spirit until you wander its lands aimlessly for hours on end, feeling wholeheartedly engrossed.While the game features a wide open representation of the Wild West, it's not without direction. The main story takes on a familiar mission structure, which introduces a full spectrum of unique and interesting characters that we've come to expect in Rockstar games. More surprisingly, missions which one might expect to eventually feel repetitive or mundane stay fresh and avoid becoming a slog - possibly because the genre is so underrepresented in videogames, or possibly because they help to establish the world and its inhabitants as honest, real, and believable characters. Even when you might feel like going from mission to mission to mission is taxing (though there's an unbelievable amount of content available to enjoy between missions at whatever pace you like) or that you're being jerked around like an errand boy, the irritation actually works in context of the story, helping you identify even more with Marston.The game controls in the standard third-person shooter manner, with a convenient weapon select wheel for quick access to your diverse, period-accurate arsenal. Auto-aim is turned on automatically for all but "Expert" targeting, allowing you to quickly snap to foes and dispatch them with ease. One main gunplay mechanic, lifted from Red Dead Revolver, is Dead Eye mode, which stops time, allowing you to paint targets with the targeting reticle commensurate to the number of bullets in your weapon and blow them away. The horse controls are also some of the best I've experienced, while the horse's movement animations impress.Visually, the game features wide open vistas and stunning landscapes with admirable draw distances. The west has been recreated with a noticeable (and remarkable) attention to detail and authenticity. Character models are look good in whole and the art direction is top notch. Character animations are smooth, while the physics make for some visceral and compelling gunplay (especially when you realistically blow out a leg and watch the varmint try and crawl away). The lip-synch is also well done - a must for a game this dialogue heavy.The voice work is great, adding another layer of believability and immersion to the game and enhancing what is an impressive, thoughtful, and gripping narrative, while gunshots and other ambient sound effects enhance the world even more. The writing is some of the best the video game industry has seen, with almost all of the content a reflection and poignant critique not only on the society and culture of the game world and old west, but of today. As usual, Rockstar once again offers a variety of both layered and downright insane, hyperbolic characters. The narrative is at its best in the game's closing chapters, offering a unique and unexpected game design decision not made lightly.Rockstar San Diego was also so kind to offer up multiplayer options in addition to the content-heavy singleplayer mode. In Free Roam, players are free to roam the exact same vast expanse of the singleplayer map, meeting (and potentially killing) players along the way, earn experience and leveling up through the completion of a huge list of challenges, and posse up with up to eight other players. Leveling up gives your character access to a variety of perks, including better mounts (horses), weapons, and new character skins.Multiplayer also features competitive game modes. While at their core they are standard multiplayer fare (TDM, death match, capture the flag), they feel fresh enough with the period-unique weapons, map, and game world to be incredibly fun. One particularly inventive decision is that each match starts with a duel, with all characters meeting center stage and scrambling in a wild shootout duel to see which team or character gets off to the better start.If all of that's not enough for you (greedy!), Rockstar has recently released a Co-op mission expansion pack, Outlaws to the End, available absolutely free of charge.Anyone citing the Western genre's lack of prominence in gaming as a concern for Red Dead's quality need not be concerned. Anyone fearing the title to be no more than "Grand Theft Auto in the west" need not be concerned, either (coming from someone who was overwhelmingly disappointed with GTAIV). What we're left with is a genuinely fun, interesting, unique title that is brimming with content that could easily eat up hundreds of hours, not even including the multiplayer and newly released (free) co-op DLC. Red Dead Redemption is a benchmark for both story-telling and compelling open worlds in the industry and an absolute godsend for those of us who love the Western genre.

Rockstar's finest open world game to date, Red Dead Redemption takes place at the turn of the 20th century (1911) to be exact. If you're expecting to blast Native Americans from the tops of their unsaddled horses maybe you should look elsewhere. These are the last days of the unlawful old west. Electricity lines stretch into the horizon, high above railroad tracks. The fictional world is on the brink of industrialization.For starters, more so than any other open world game I've ever played, you don't play this game, you experience it. You live in the world. You are John Marston.The story of RDR isn't top notch but it's interesting enough to keep you going along, and includes touches of timeline contextual social commentary regarding politics, religion, suffrage, social status, the effects of technology on man and more. And it's worth playing to the end as the story culminates in one of the most unexpected and original ways to end a game I think I've ever seen. You just have to experience it for yourself to truly understand what I mean.The graphics and sound are very well done. Voice acting is ranges from average to well done which is on par for a RockStar game. Ambient sound effects are really effective in setting the tone and immersing the player into the game, be you nervously dismounting your horse to skin an elk because you hear the growl of a grizzly bear nearby, or hearing the footsteps of your boots on the wooden floor of a rowdy saloon, an upbeat piano song playing in the background. Steam powered trains chug their way through the land, cougars scream as they maul you and the eerie cry of foxes at night will leave you feeling unsettled as you travel through dark moonlit forests where wolves and vastly more dangerous mammals could be lurking. Pistols and rifles sound loud and hefty (there's a good-sized roster of firearms in the game if you're wondering), and causing an explosion inside a cave results in a loud muffled explosion that will have you reaching for the volume controls.Graphics wise, player models and textures are just merely passable, but the environment you live in for 20-30 hours is where the beauty of this game lies (I spent just over 40 hours but did 100% of the single player content). The world is really the star of this game. Riding through Armadillo at night, with rain pouring down and spalshing in muddy puddles, the occasional bolt of lightning brightening the cloudy sky in the horizon was a surreal experience. There were times I'd just be riding around and I would marvel at the beautiful landscape before me: The orange and yellow sunset peeking through the evergreens of Tall Trees, contrasting the bright white snow underfoot, for example. Sunsets and sunrises were particularly stunning, as were the moonlit desert environments, the bright stars twinkling in the sky high above, not yet obscured by the pollution of modern industrialization. Truly an immersive world. If you're sporting a nice, big high definition display you will be rewarded with some jaw-dropping views that will make you wish you could capture screenshots and save them for later.Yes, there are a ton of mini games and side quests to keep you busy, but they are completely optional. As you ride around you'll be approached by strangers begging you assist them with things ranging from helping them get back their horse that was just stolen, to assisting a friend who is about to be unlawfully hung by a group of thugs. It's up to you. Ignoring them won't effect your reputation in a negative way, but helping them will give you a little extra spending cash and sometimes a bump to your reputation. You'll be challenged by gunslinging duelists who wish to make a name for themselves. Accept their challenge, or ride away. Again, optional. The stuff is there for your entertainment, and to flesh out the world, but it's up to you what you do with it. Then there are mini-games like playing games of horseshoe, blackjack, poker, five-finger fillet, etc. Unless you're going for 100% completion, all these things are optional. That's the beauty of such a well crafted open world game: The option to choose.And as with all open world games Red Dead Redemption has it's fair share of bugs and glitches. Nothing game breaking ever happened to me (game breaking meaning a quest bugged and wouldn't let me finish it, or any freezes or crashes - nothing like that ever occurred during my playthrough) but I encountered a few bugs that were at least amusing to behold. No video game is perfect and RDR is not an exception to that rule. Expect chugging framerates in heavily populated areas (Blackwood city being the worst offender), at last on the PS3. If you're a fan of Westerns and you have, like me, become jaded with the GTA series after, what in my mind, was a disappointing GTA IV, you owe it to yourself to check this game out. This title has restored my faith in RockStar open world games. Multiplayer is decent so far..I've only invested a couple hours but I'll probably move on to another game rather than try to reach the level cap of 50. Looking forward to more single player DLC, which was announced recently.Gems like this are few and far between. Red Dead Redemption is my Game of the Year for 2010....so far. Give it a shot, bucko!JULY 30 Edit - PS3 VS 360 version: I just learned that, graphically and frame rate wise, the 360 version is superior to the PS3 version. While the 360 version is rendered in true 720p, the PS3 version only runs at 1152x640 - a whopping 20% decrease in resolution. So if you have both consoles I would recommend getting the 360 version. It's a beautiful game regardless, but the 360 version has a more stable frame rate and higher resolution. But don't take my word for it. Google "digitalfoundry red dead redemption face off" and read about it yourself. I played the PS3 version and I loved this game so much I'm going to pick up a used copy for the 360 and play it again!AUGUST 24 Edit - I have now completed the game on both PS3 and 360. Having played both I can indeed confirm that the 360 version looks superior to the PS3 version. The higher resolution on the 360 is immediately apparent, as are the higher number of plants/bushes/shrubs rendered at any one time. Both versions are beautiful, and both have frame rate issues in populated areas and the occasional sudden texture pop-in. In both playthroughs I only encountered one minor game-breaking bug: In Blackwater I shot a seagull which landed on a dock there. When I went to collect its feather the character glitched through the floor geometry and fell in the water below, killing him (he can't swim).I would like to add that a lot of people are calling this Grand Theft Auto in the old west. There are a lot of similarities between the two games but I've enjoyed RDR moreso than any other 3D GTA game, of which I own them all. In my opinion it's easy, but unfair, to simplify Read Dead Redemption as 'Grand Theft Auto Old West'. It's so much more than that. If you look beyond the similar mini-map and user interface, there's a game with so much more soul than any GTA game I've ever played.