Red Dead Redemption for the PS3 and 360 review





Recently, I have wanted to see a lot of western films. I want to see films like Tombstone, Unforgiven, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, that one awesome Samurai Jack episode parodying that last film I mentioned, and you get the idea. I have also been wanting to play some western-set games like Samurai Western, Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood, and even a game I am currently playing called Wild Arms. Overall though, I want to play a really good western game. I am still currently playing Wild Guns, so don’t email me about that game. I also wanted to find a copy of Sunset Riders for the SNES, but there is one game from Rockstar that has gotten critical acclaim and I have actually been looking forward to reviewing it. What is that game? GRAND THEFT AUTO 4! No, I’m kidding. It’s Red Dead Redemption. That is right, people. I am actually going to play a Rockstar game. Don’t get your hopes up since I don’t really care much for Grand Theft Auto series, but I just like the idea of a free-roaming open world set in the Wild West. I mean, who didn’t want to be a cowboy when they were a young kid? It was like one of the big fantasies next to being a cop and a firefighter. Heck, sometimes I dream of being in those stand-offs and then wake up right when I hit the guy with a bullet. So, let’s put on our ten-gallon hats, get on our horse and ride into Red Dead Redemption!


The main story centers around bounty hunter John Marston who is sent to New Austin to kill members of his old gang he used to be a part of. If he doesn’t, the government will never release his wife and son back to him. This story is unique, since it’s like watching a marathon of western films all in one game. Granted, the beginning can be a bit sluggish in pace, but once you get going, the game sets you in an interesting world with great and memorable characters. 

The gameplay is of a third person sandbox game that stretches through New Austin to Mexico, as you ride around stopping robberies, saving civilians, taking down bounties, skinning animals, playing poker, shooting down powerful men, and doing anything you want. Like I said, this is a Rockstar game, so this will give you A LOT to do since it will take about 30 hours or even more to do everything. John Marston’s main forms of attack are multiple varieties of guns, like a sniper rifle, rifle, handgun, and shotgun, to name a few. You can hoof it through the entire game by foot, but it’s more fun to grab yourself a horse and ride around. Sometimes, you will be able to ride on carriages to either get to locations or to defend people. On your down time outside the main missions, you can do multiple side quests like I listed above. You can collect bounties, play a lot of gambling games, or just take care of random encounters. You can also kill or capture animals to skin them and sell the meat and fur to shops to buy items and more guns. While gun fighting, you can slow down time and choose multiple targets and then shoot them all down like they were nothing! Outside of the main game, you can go online and do mostly the same stuff you can do in the main game, but with more people, like multiplayer poker, horse racing, shootouts, and liar’s dice. You will be getting a lot of playtime that is worth the price tag. 

The graphics are pretty impressive with everything getting a lot of detail and shine. There are a lot of funny little glitches from time to time, and they are fun to find also. The voice acting is top notch as everyone sounds like they are supposed to, with not a lot of hiccups in the script. I also like the animation on everyone since it looks like everyone was motion-captured, including some of the animals. Horse riding during the sunrise in the game is so much fun. I have good memories of just running through the sunrise on the back of your horse to get to your family. The music is also nice to listen to, like stuff you would hear in a western film with a few songs that are pretty cool to listen to when you’re in certain areas of the game. 

This is a pretty good package with very few low points that I am going to address. One thing I just don’t like about the game is its pacing. It just seems rather slow, and I don’t mind it most of the time, but it’s a really REALLY long game, and it just seems like some points in the story could have been easily cut out, since in my opinion, some areas didn’t really progress the story that much. From my time of playing it, I thought it never ended. It goes like this 1. You go kill a bad guy, 2. You go kill another bad guy, 3. You think you’re going home, but you then are forced to kill the main leader of the bad guys, 4, You think you have finally beat the game, you see your family, but you still do work around the family farm. Does this game ever end? It does, but it just seems like there could have been some way to make the official ending where you meet up with the family. It’s a little overwhelming how long the story is, and I just wanted to get it done. It also doesn’t help that most missions are time-based, meaning you have to be there at a specific time to do that mission. It’s just tedious and, in my humble opinion, not that fun to wait around. 

Well, there you have it. My review of Red Dead Redemption. It’s a good game with a lot of things going for it. You will definitely get major playtime for the price tag, so I say go get it unless they come up with a gold edition or something. Overall, it was really good and I wonder if there will be a sequel for this game. For the time being though, I won’t touch the game for a while. Thanks for reading and have a good day.
This game gets a solid 9 out of 10
           

Comments

Anonymous said…
I'm going to say that I totally love it when a game is extremely long. It's a good change for me since most the games that I like to play that are fantastic are waaaaaay too short. It also keeps my interest in the game so that I don't get bored with because I'm so into all the millions of options and free roam and etc... However I am a rockstar fan and love the GTA series, so that's just how I feel about that, I like long games. Game on! -ZZ