Review: Red Dead Redemption

I believe its kind of funny as this is the first Rockstar game that I have actually beat. I never did get around to finishing Grand Theft Auto 4 or any of the other games they’ve released so I am by far not a Rockstar fanboy. Before this game was first released I didn’t even have any interest in it. I really didn’t think it would do very good, as the western setting it’s placed in didn’t seem to me to be too popular these days, but boy was I wrong in more ways then one!

Sales for the game were amazing and its popularity quickly grew. Of course by now with all the reviews brought to you from other gaming sites you should already know its a must buy but I’m going to spend some time talking about it anyways.

The storyline for the game drew me in immediately. The more I learned about John Marston, the more I felt I could identify with the way he was feeling. Rockstar did a great job in bringing not just his character, but the whole population of the game to life. Everyone you ran into had their own attitude which did a good job at making each character memorable in their own way.

The gameplay itself was really fun, although it did have a close feeling to that of Grand Theft Auto IV. One really amazing feature that I didn’t make enough use of was the Dead Eye. In this mode you are able to basically freeze time and target as many enemies as you can in the allotted time to quickly dispose of large amounts of enemies, or to get more precise shots if you want to just disable an enemy. Another common feature that I decided to play without was the quick travel system. This system allows you to set up camp out in the wilderness and instantly travel to wherever you want. I tried to stay as immersed as possible, so instead of “fast traveling” I opted for riding my horse everywhere I needed to go. Truthfully, I was able to complete the game without using any items and without buying anything from the shops in game, but I am still going back to finish up some last minute achievements and I will of course be purchasing the DLC to go with the game.

Although I did complete the game by just progressing through the storyline and doing very few stranger missions there is a lot of extra content to enjoy besides the story. The stranger missions add a bit more personality to the world around you, although at a certain point I was beginning to think that those people around me were all nuts. There are also random encounters that happen around you, like the occasional damsel in distress or horse thief and so on. Also, some towns have night watch missions that you can participate in to help the local law enforcement and make a quick buck.

If you just want to spend some time away from the missions there is also plenty to do. You can complete challenges, practice hunting, or collect herbs. You can go to the local bars and play different games, from Texas Hold’em, to Blackjack, to Liar’s Dice. Liar’s Dice seemed to be the most interesting to me and took a little bit of skill and a lot of luck. In this game each player rolls 5 dice in a cup, keeps them covered (though you can peek at your own dice) then each player takes a turn placing bets on how many dice of a certain number are on the table. Each bet has to be at least 1 higher then the last, and you can either call the bluff, which makes everyone reveal their dice and if their bet was over, they lose a dice, or you can claim a bet is spot on, causing all players to reveal their dice, and if the bet was exactly right all other opponents lose a dice. If you call a bluff and your wrong, or claim someone was spot on and you were wrong, you yourself lose a dice.

With so much to do there is a lot of content to play through aside from the story, and I have yet to even talk about the multiplayer, which includes multiple deathmatch modes, co-op missions, and free roam. All that is a story for another day though. Rockstar has done quite an amazing job with this release and I am hoping to see a direct sequel somewhere down the line, although with all the backstory these characters have, a prequel would work just as well.

My only gripe with the game isn’t even a big one, but with all the ladies of the evening hanging around the bars, I was expecting more interaction from them but I was quite disappointed. The reasons make sense character wise, but I was just hoping for the freedom to take advantage of them. I mean its not like Rockstar hasn’t done it with their other games, and its definitely not out of setting, but hey, I’ll live.

In my opinion, this game definitely gets 5 stars out of 5.