The Wild Wild West of Red Dead Redemption

The wild frontier of the American West has always been an inspiration for movies, novels, and children’s playtime for quite some time, but there has never really been any great video game that follows this time period that has been extensively depicted throughout the media. Well, Rockstar has decided to put an end to that with their newly released Red Dead Redemption. Rockstar is the group that was made famous for all of the Grand Theft Auto games. They have definitely hit another home run with Red Dead Redemption. There’s tons of excitement and endless hours of entertainment.

Red Dead Redemption places you in the shoes of the former outlaw John Marston. He has changed his ways, but discovers that those he once called friends are now his enemies. He is left to fight for his future alone in the very law-lacking West.

Over the course of the storyline you will visit a vast number of places stretching between the border of the U.S. and Mexico. Marston is attempting to set things straight about himself, and on his journey he meets a numerous amount of interesting and intriguing characters. All of these supporting characters feature great dialogue and voice acting, which can sometimes be difficult to find in a game.

The main game will most likely take players somewhere around 20 hours to finish. Many will take longer though due to the variety of different distractions in the game. Its very difficult to focus on one single thing. Rockstar is famous for their open world gameplay and this game definitely delivers in that area. You can do an endless amount of different activities including: herding cattle, breaking mustangs, tracking outlaws, treasure hunting, and sharpshooting. You can do whatever you want. You can buy new outfits for Marston, play a game of poker, go on a wild game hunt, or pick herbs and flowers. It is entirely up to you. This game as the ability to keep the player interested for months in the world of Marston.

Now as you develop the kind of character that you want to Marston to be, the game also develops around you. Marston’s morality is left up entirely to the player. He can be the kind of man who robs stage coaches and assaults women or he can be kind, helpful, and honorable or he can even be something kind of in between. You have completely free reign of your character. The wild West does still have a legal system that will keep the worst criminals in check, but really you can decide how you want to live Marston’s life.

Due to the fact that the game allows you to pretty much do whatever you want, many people question the game itself. They feel that it is indecent. This is certainly not a game for little kids, hence the M rating, but whether or not you think this game is inappropriate is obviously your decision. I feel that as long as you’re being semi-behaved in the game then there is nothing wrong with it, but that is just my opinion.

There is plenty of action to be found within the game. Something is constantly going on. Whether it’s a cougar or bear ready to attack Marston, a poor man being drug through the streets by a lynch mob, or a prostitute being assaulted by a drunk man, something will always be going on in Red Dead Redemption.

The graphics are awesome for this game and the scenery is really quite breathtaking. The art direction is excellent. Rockstar definitely took their time with generating every possible little detail in Marston’s world. The results are fantastic.

It should be known that this game is not completely flawless. It does have a few glitches. People complained of having a few cut scenes that involved a doubled image of the same character doing different things. They said it created a sort of ghost effect. There were also some complaints of the game freezing at certain points. Considering everything that is going on in this game though, I feel that Rockstar did quite a good job.

The controls for Red Dead Redemption are pretty simple. Riding your horse can be a little difficult to get the hang of at first because the controls are very sensitive, but other than that its very easy to figure out. At times the target assist makes combat a little too easy, but it is very helpful when attacking enemies while riding your horse.

The great thing about Red Dead Redemption is that once you complete the storyline there is still tons that you can do on the game. There are online games where you can play with up to 16 players. There are team games, free-for-alls, and capture the flag style games to play online. Another online activity is called Free Roam. This allows 16 different players to explore the entire single player map. You are able to form posses, assault bandit hideouts or forts, simply shoot each other, or ride across the countryside hunting together. While in this Free Roam, there are still missions and side distractions that can help you unlock new character models, modes, or better mounts to ride. The Free Roam has enough stuff to do that it is like another whole game.

Basically, I think that this game is awesome. It features so many different things that can keep the player occupied for really months. It has great graphics and storyline. All the choices are yours. You can make the game anything you want it to be. It’s very much like Grand Theft Auto just set in the wild West. It also has great online play. If you liked the Grand Theft Auto series then you are sure to love Red Dead Redemption. It is certainly a fun look at the wild wild West.

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