Review: Red Dead Redemption

Rockstar’s Red Dead Redemption is an impressive game, both in ambition and execution, dreaming big right from the outset by virtue of its locale: set in the American West, there are no space marines, buxom sex objects (ladies of ill repute not withstanding) or modern military men with handlebar mustaches shouting obscenities in heavy accents to be found here. Okay, maybe that last bit isn’t necessarily true, as both heavy accents and handlebar mustaches abound in Red Dead. What I mean to say is that from the very beginning, the game sets out to be different and is largely successful in that endeavor.

The game’s campaign, which sees you starting off in the American West, heading south of the border to Mexico and then back again is a classic Rockstar tale: John Marston is an ex-con with a heart of gold who, despite genuinely wanting to turn over a new leaf is constantly being dragged back into the seedy underbelly of just about everywhere he goes. Now, if upon reading that description images of Grand Theft Auto 4’s antihero Niko Bellic leap to mind, it’s probably warranted, as the basic premise and motivations for both characters are remarkably similar. Still, try to give Mr. Marston a chance; throughout my time with the game I found him to be a much more sympathetic character than Bellic, and was much more interested in seeing how his story was to unfold. Whereas Bellic seemed to be only capable of violence and brooding, there’s a sense of desperate urgency to Marston that made me genuinely care about his plight.

Unfortunately my sympathies do not extend to Red Dead’s shooting mechanics, as I found popping into and out of cover to be unwieldy at best and curse-at-your-television frustrating at worst. Too often I found myself unable to shoot out of the doorway that I was taking refuge in, or gently nudging the thumb-stick in an attempt to edge along cover, only to have Marston rocket to the other side of whatever I was hiding behind and be promptly riddled with bullets. There’s an odd latency to the movement that makes such precise action (or the attempt thereof) inadvisable, and while there is the auto-target system and dead-eye mechanic in place to alleviate such woes, better shooting in general would have been much preferred.

Thankfully you probably won’t spend much time pining over the mediocre combat as your attention will likely be stolen away by the gorgeous Western landscape that Rockstar has created, in excruciating detail, for you to explore. Whether you’re up north hunting bears, down south fighting for the revolution or galloping across the American prairies, Red Dead Redemption looks great. It’s refreshing to see Rockstar craft something other than their usual claustrophobic urban sprawl, and from the environments found here, you’d never know they had created anything but Westerns. Flora and fauna of every ilk pepper the game world, and the wilder inhabitants of the plains can often be seen interacting with (see: “murdering”) each other. Get too close, and they might do the same to you. But what makes Red Dead’s world so great isn’t the beauty of it all (though that certainly helps), but the pervasive illusion that it is alive, that its inhabitants would continue to interact with one another regardless of your presence rather than regress into cardboard cut-outs as soon as you’ve passed out of sight.

Despite a very rocky launch, Red Dead Redemption’s multiplayer promises to add some longevity to the title, offering several archetypal game modes including deathmatch, team deathmatch and a slight variation on capture-the-flag. In the time that I spent with it, though, it seemed clear that where the game really shines is in its Free Roam mode, which sees you and fifteen of your closest friends (or worst enemies, as the case may be) gallivanting across the entire game world, competing or cooperating to complete a slew of multiplayer-focused objectives. Unfortunately, the vast potential that Free Roam has to offer is mostly wasted, as more often than not (much, much more often) I found myself hopping into a lobby only to learn that it had already devolved into the longest, most pointless round of free-for-all deathmatch that this world has ever seen. What is particularly bewildering about this is that a free-for-all mode already exists and offers more points per kill than laying waste to unsuspecting cowboys (and girls) in Free Roam, so I suppose the game itself can hardly be blamed for this baffling behavior.

To summarize, Red Dead Redemption is chock full of standout moments and memorable characters, and while I am loath to use a term as worn-out as this, the entire experience is downright cinematic. Perhaps it’s the high-quality motion capture cut scenes or the impressive voice acting (with nary a weak performance to be found), but Red Dead Redemption resonated with me in a way that no game has for a very long time, and I hope that moving forward, many a developer sets to improve upon the standard of quality established by Rockstar’s Western epic. If you don’t own Red Dead already, buy it. If you can’t buy it, rent it. Oh, and for god’s sake, don’t buy used.

Thanks for reading,
Thomas.

Red Dead Incognito

Well, I finally managed it. After some frantic searching (which started out as calm and reasoned, I should add), I managed to nab a copy of Rockstar's Red Dead Redemption. I'm hoping it will provide a much-needed respite from the modern battlefields that currently crowd the video game landscape. I also plan to make it the very first game I review in this space! Look for a likely very weary me to have posted a little sumthin' sumthin' on the gun-slinging Western in the next few days.

Thanks for reading this unfortunately short paragraph,
Thomas.

Let's Get Acquainted

I have never been particularly good at introductions.

Maybe it’s just a weakness I have as a writer, but I often find that there just isn’t very much to say. My name is Thomas. I want to be a video game journalist.

For the past year or so I’ve kept up another blog on another website, but for reasons both personal and professional, neither of which I will delve into at the moment, I closed the doors on that venue recently (with a heavy heart). When I did so, I did it with a sense of permanence: though I was unsure as to whether or not I would return to writing at that time, I knew that I couldn’t go home again, if I may use the expression.

Good news! Apparently, I am going to write again. Right here, in fact. I hope that what is to come has the ability to entertain you as well as perhaps provoke some thoughtful discussion.

Thanks for reading,
Thomas.