By Adam Delo at thegamingliberty.com
It’s very hard not to draw parallels between Red Dead Redemption and the Grand Theft Auto series as they are both, after all, open-world games by the same developer. While there are obvious similarities such as the controls and story structure, RDR is a different game altogether.
There’s obviously the setting and world itself, which is a breathtaking creation. It constantly and consistently looks fantastic in both the huge amount of detail and the incredible landscapes. It’s not all desert either, there are also swamps, plains, forest and even some snowy mountainous areas in there, all painstakingly rendered into an amazing seamless game world.
In addition, Euphoria technology makes a welcome return, ensuring that the animation of characters and wildlife is as realistic (and often hilarious) as possible.
In Red Dead Redemption’s large and beautiful world my biggest fear was that there would be little to do in all that desert and plains, but that fear was unfounded – there’s LOADS to do. In the wilderness alone there are ambient challenges to complete that take the form of hunting, skinning, gathering herbs or finding buried treasure. In the various settlements and towns there’s also plenty to do – gambling, horsebreaking, night patrols or perhaps bringing in wanted men.
The gambling activities deserve a special mention as it would have been easy for Rockstar to have simply added little minigames themed on various games, but instead they are fully recreated in the game world and very well executed, for example the poker game is easily good enough to be sold separately on Xbox Live Arcade (though please don’t get any ideas, Rockstar).
And finally whether you’re in the wilderness or in one of the towns there’s also a range of random events you’ll encounter that, along with the plethora of different wildlife (over 30 species!), really help bring the game world to life.
In the game you are ex-outlaw John Marston, a man forced by the government to track down and kill former friends from the gang you used to run with. This will have you running all over America and Mexico working for, and meeting with, characters that, in true Rockstar tradition, tend to be somewhere on the scale between ‘questionable’ and ‘downright wrong in the head’.
It’s not quite as strong a story as that of Grand Theft Auto IV, particularly the section in Mexico, but it’s still an excellent story and the actual “missions†themselves are loads of fun and will have you doing everything from simply herding cattle or breaking in horses, to attacking and capturing a small castle and defending it with a cannon, or using a Gatling gun to defend a train from an hijacking.
Side missions
Besides these, there are also a number of side, or “stranger†missions that you can pick up from people dotted around the world that you can complete at any time, some of which have multiple parts giving the impression that you run into these people every now and then, reinforcing the feeling that you’re in a living world that would continue on with or without your influence.
There are a wealth of multiplayer options too, the Free-Roam mode serves as a lobby to meet up with your friends (forming posses of up to 8 people) before heading into competitive matches, but it’s also much more than that: the entire game world is open to you and up to 15 other players to explore and mess around in. Free-Roam also contains ambient challenges similar to the single player game and gang hideouts that you can try to clear out, and you can also meet up and join the competitive “gang matches†as a posse. That, or you can just terrorize townsfolk and annoy the law.
As for the more focused multiplayer games, there are deathmatch and team deathmatch modes in the form of “Shootouts†and “Gang Shootouts†and for objective-based modes there are variations of capture the flag games with the flag being replaced with a bag of gold (namely “Hold Your Own†(traditional capture the flag), “Grab the Bag†(1 flag CTF) and “Goldrush†where players try to capture and hold as many bags as possible that are randomly spawned around the map).
What’s really unique (and awesome) about Red Dead’s multiplayer matches is that they all start with a Mexican standoff, where all the players are lined up for a mass duel and the survivors simply get the opportunity to get to the best spots or weapons first. Killing people and completing challenges also earns you experience, unlocking new multiplayer characters, weapons and mounts and eventually “hardcore†multiplayer games that have all the aiming assists turned off.
Rockstar have been very generous in their multiplayer offerings, although it’s a shame you can’t sit down and play poker with your mates in Free-Roam.
This truly is a “must play†title, and Rockstar should be very proud, they have delivered a magnificent game in Red Dead Redemption and it looks like it will end up being an easy contender for game of the year.
Format: Xbox 360/ Playstation 3/ PC; Developer: Rockstar
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