Red Dead Redemption Review

Posted Mon 14th Jun 2010 9:29pm by Gavin Lowe

Red Dead in 10 seconds

With an awesome environment, graphics, and effects, superb voice acting, and engaging gameplay, Red Dead Redemption is a deep and enthralling Wild West sandbox adventure. It suffers from glitches, the multiplayer that falls short of the hype, but regardless is an outstanding cousin of the Grand Theft Auto series.

Background

Sitting back in your saddle you trot through the arid landscape past cacti and deadwood on your way to a far off town in the barren wilderness of the Old West. The sun is setting and the final beams of the day’s light are peering over the mountains on the horizon, shining blindingly in your eyes as the shadows ahead creep steadily toward you.

Suddenly a thunderous shot rings out!. A quick glance behind reveals a pair of riders galloping toward you at speed. There’s nowhere to hide, so you grab your rifle and let fly. The first bandit jerks back and falls from his horse, his leg trapped as he is dragged into the distance by his panicked horse. You fire two more shots and the second bandit's catapaults to the ground as his horse crumples underneath him. You close the distance, drawing your 6-shooter to finish the job.

Red Dead Redemption is full of superb Wild West moments like this, and they aren’t even part of the storyline. Rockstar has built upon the framework of their flagship GTA series' mechanics to create the definitive Wild West sandbox game. They have clearly studied their cinematic tropes:

RDR is slow to start. The main character has a chequered past which isn’t initially revealed, but drip fed slowly as the story progresses. The supporting characters are varied, unique, and integral to the development of the story.

Set in 1911, players take the role of John Marston, a reformed outlaw who has been pressed by government agents to hunt down the members of his former gang. Marston struggles with the rapid changes to his world as the old ways are giving ground to the new. The life of frontiersmen is being threatened by the expansion of the Federal Government and from the outset players are given the feeling that they are witnessing the death rattle of the Old West.

Gameplay

Fans of the GTA series will recognise the familiar character initials marking locations on the radar and map to pick up missions and progress through the main storyline, which opens up new areas of the map for exploration. This serves as the structure around which all other sandbox play is built.

Players will encounter randomly generated events both in towns and in the wilderness. Hangings, police chases, robberies, killings, wild animal attacks, punters trying to stab hookers, gangs shooting up towns and helpless maidens crying for assistance, all of which players may choose to intervene in or let play out. There are side-quests such as Bounty Hunting, Night Watchman jobs, Horse Breaking jobs and Gang Hideouts. Players can while away hours playing poker, blackjack, liar's dice, fiver-finger-fillet, and other games of chance.

Players can speak with their firsts or their knives, but the stalwart of any decent western is the old-fashioned gunfight. Players can choose from revolvers and pistols, bolt-action rifles and repeaters, shotguns, and sniper rifles. Molotov cocktails and dynamite are available for fun, and a lasso is needed to break wild Broncos or hogtie your bounties or victims.

When in a shootout, Marston can utilise Dead-Eye, a bullet time mechanic which allows players to quickly mark and shoot multiple enemies or specific body parts while the Dead-Eye meter slowly depletes.

Marston always has access to his own horse just by whisting for a ride, but horses of varying quality may also be purchased. The rendering of these animals is simply the best that has been achieved in any game thus far. Horses don’t simply scamper around as the map moves under them; they react to terrain like a real horse should. Pushing a horse too hard through spurring that lends a quick burst of speed will result in a violent dismounting. I wouldn't have been surprised if the horses had been programmed to require food, water, and sleep.

RDR employs a fame and honour system. Honour is awarded for the morality of your choices, and Fame is earned for winning duels, completing challenges, and assisting the law among other activities.

Increased Fame opens up new items for purchase in stores and affects how people react to Marston. Honor will grant Marston some leeway if and when he strays to the wrong side of the law, but only paying his bounty or telegraphing a Pardon letter will save Marston from the attentions of the lawmen and Marshals who will track him down should he decide to engage in nerfarious activies like robbery or murder.

Visuals

The great triumph of RDR is the environment. The landscape is superbly rendered and the sky, sun, clouds and weather are extremely atmospheric and affect the mood immensely. In the heat of the day the horizon shimmers in the dusty desert, and wind blows through trees causing realistic swaying of the leaves and branches. Sunrises and sunsets are spectacular.

Water and rain are handled magnificently and the wilderness is so filled with fauna that it really feels alive.

The character graphics are of decent standard but nothing compared to the environment. They often appear shabby and dirty, in keeping with a time in which a bath was considered a luxury. The Euphoria Rag Doll physics means that bodies act as you would expect when hit by bullets, explosions or horses, and injured people will scamper away limping appropriately to their injuries. When someone is shot at height they fall tumbling and grasping in homage to spaghetti westerns.

Unfortunately, RDR is plagued with graphical glitches. Invisible horses, characters that literally step out of themselves leaving a frozen image behind, and Marston often looking more like an old man running to catch a bus rather than a cowboy in his prime chasing down the bad guys.

Audio

The soundtrack of period-appropriate music is atmospheric, shifting in tone when things turn sinister. Animal noises are realistic. The voice acting is superb, especially in the character of Nigel West Dickens, and really aids in sweeping the player back in time to the wild frontier. The lip-syncing in the cut scenes is simply the best seen in a game to date, with lips, teeth and tongues moving together to create the illusion of the CGI character conversations.

Multiplayer

RDR’s multiplayer was greatly anticipated following an aggressive PR campaign, but after a few hours online it leaves a bitter taste. Players may wander the vastness of the game map with 15 other human players in a posse, and this free roam is mixed with competitive game modes. The landscape is filled with countless NPCs and players can take on gangs, lawmen, and the Mexican military. Experience points are gained for kills and whilst shooting other player characters also racks up the points, it takes much longer than teaming up against the AI. XP can be spent unlocking characters, weapons and mounts to improve your avatar and better your chances in the next shootout.

It is very reminiscent of GTA4’s multiplayer, and thus nothing new. So many potential gems and side-games available in the single player game, such as poker, blackjack etc., are left out of the multiplayer and could easily have set it apart from its spiritual predecessor. The multiplayer will entertain for a few hours but grows tired quickly and is easily outstripped by the single player campaign.

Closing comments

Rockstar San Diego has painstakingly created a world gone by with a frontier lifestyle, mindset, and story that will grips player long into the wee hours of the night. Despite the glitches, Red Dead Redemption is truly epic and has set the bar not only for the Western genre, but sandbox action adventure. With over 20 hours of story driven gameplay and countless opportunities for side-quests and exploration, Red Dead Redemption is great value for money and a contender for the best game of 2010 so far.

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