I've never been one for the Grand Theft Auto, or any other game in the open-world genre. Everything seems to start strong; the characters are rich and complex, the setting is vast and the plot is clear an strong. Several hours in, one finds the playable character taking part in activities that are inconsistent with the dramatic tension held in the scene preceding that playable activity. The difference in Red Dead Redemption's Wild West setting is that it is entirely conducive to this kind of non-linear open model of story telling and world exploration.
Red Dead Redemption Review : from a famousblueraincoat
Played 30+ hours on PS3
Available for PS3 & XBox360 - ESRB: M
"Equestrianism is much more socially appropriate alternative to Grand Theft Auto"
Developed by Rockstar North and Rockstar San Diego, Red Dead Redemption is an action-adventure game in the open world genre. Much like previous Rockstar published titles such as Grand Theft Auto, the character development and narrative are movie-like in their quality, all the while allowing you as the protagonist character to freely roam and explore in addition to partaking in the developer's narrative. Like GTA, only set in the American West of 1911.
You play seemingly reformed outlaw John Marston who has been blackmailed with the lives of his wife and child to round up and kill his former Gangmates. The story begins with John approaching the hideout of his former Gang leader who then shoots him. A rancher discovers him wounded, and nurses him back to health. By performing simple tasks for the rancher and her father, John develops a rapport with the surrounding townspeople that eventually aide him in taking over the hideout.
The story progression is made most interesting by the intensely beautiful geography. Each area is rich with detail of plants and animals that vary from each region and further how in each region, you can see the transition of the next. In this single game you travel from the flat desert of "New Austin" (a kind of fictional Texas), to more mountainous rocky canyon before crossing over to Mexico. By this point, I was feeling a bit tired of generic desert but Mexico by itself has three or four regions that are stunningly brilliant in their use of colour and land mass.
By the time you are out of Mexico, the narrative becomes thin and the general side-missions become increasingly tired. In a typical Grand Theft game I would have stopped playing without much regard or interest in finishing. However, the small hunting goals and the inherent environmental beauty really kept me invested in seeing the game through. John continues back up through the Louisiana-like marshland, a Colorado mountain range dense with forest, across a long grass plain, and finally to an in-land coastal city, much like Houston.
Not only is the geography itself interesting, but what you do within that backdrop. There is a real sense of 'frontier' in Red Dead, and by way of hunting for pelts or chasing down outlaws on Wanted posters. It's all available to you.
Mechanically, Red Dead is essentially the same game as a GTA. Swap cars for horse models, machine guns for repeater rifles. The movement and the world interaction is very cold and the majority of your time will be spent on horseback trying to stay on a trail. Much like when modifications can be even more robust and interesting than their original games (ie. Team Fortress to Quake, Desert Combat to Battlefield 1942, Counterstrike to Half Life), so too is Red Dead Redemption to Grand Theft Auto.
Red Dead Redemption is truthfully no different, but what sets it apart is its setting. The Wild West is so conducive to this kind of open game mechanic. Hunt in the canyon and sell hides in the general store, or put a bandanna on and stick up a bank teller. The independent push of the story and character development allows you to do anything that you've ever seen in Western movies, or read in the history books. This, to me is a must-buy game. You will absolutely return to it if it's in our library.
