Game Reviews Volume 2

Red Dead Redemption (PS3, Xbox 360)

RockstarGames for a long time have been a leading power of the open worldgenre, with titles such as Bully and of course Grand Theft Auto. In2010 they released Red Dead Redemption onto the world, the secondentry to the Red Dead series, which quickly became one of the mostcritically acclaimed games in recent history that frequently featuresin 'best video game ever' lists. Now I'm not here to deny that RedDead Redemption is a good game, because it is a good game...buthaving let the hype settle for just over 6 years and with a replay ingood order I set upon the old west for a second time, only to findthat the game isn't actually all it's cracked up to be.

Theyear is 1711 and you are John Marston. An outlaw who has beencontracted by government agents to track down and kill his formergang members Bill Williamson and Javier Escuella in order toguarantee the safety of his wife and son, as well as allow him a newstart away from a life of crime. What follow is a 20ish hour journeyacross the Mexican border on one of gaming's most acclaimed manhunts.

Alongthe way you'll meet a wide variety of characters, all who seem toknow the whereabouts of Williamson and Escuella, yet none of themseem to want to tell you until you have done a large quantity ofsamey padding missions that do nothing to progress the plot forward.

Ofthe 58 main story missions in Red Dead Redemption I would honestly besurprised if little more than 20 missions actually progress the storyforward, and of these 58 missions I would take a stab in the dark tosay around 35 of them involve nothing more than going somewhere andshooting a small group of bandits.

Thestory to Red Dead Redemption is well written, deep and enjoyablewhenever it is allowed to flourish, but unfortunately it is boggeddown by tons of filler that do nothing but slow the pace to a nearstop for several hours at a time, and prolong your stay in what is anotherwise relatively empty game world.

Yesthere are several side jobs for you to do, as well as a handful ofside missions which can be relatively entertaining. But none of themare actually enjoyable enough to be worth mentioning. You could tryyour hand at breaking horses in, but it's incredibly easy and yieldslittle reward. You could herd cattle, which is frustrating, timeconsuming and an all round pretty dull experience. You could try yourhand at the nights watch, following a dog round for 10 minutes untilyou find one minor dispute in town which must always be solved withviolence.

Thebest experiences in Red Dead are those you find on your own. Goinginto the woods to hunt some wolves, or climbing a snowy peak to findburied treasure. If you venture off the beaten track Red Dead is abeautiful game that is fun to play and full of depth. Stick to thestructure though and you're treated to dull side jobs and an overlongstory.

Thebasic gameplay to Red Dead doesn't stray too far from that of GrandTheft Auto though there are some significant differences. Thoughyou're free to indulge in criminal activities such as killinginnocents, you're probably a lot less likely to do it thanks to afame and honor system. The more good deeds you do for people, themore benefits you'll receive from having a higher level of fame orhonor. The more bad deeds you do, the more revoked you will become bytownsfolk and will ultimately be shunned by bars, stores and evensome of the side missions.

Yourwanted level also works differently, commit enough crime and you'llaccumulate a bounty. This will remain on your head until you pay itoff, do jail time or are hunted down by bounty hunters in search of areward.

Insteadof driving cars you will ride horses, horses have stamina much likeJohn does and so cannot sprint for extended periods of time withoutrest, meaning that travelling from one point on the map to anothertakes some time and gives the illusion that the game world is muchlarger than it actually is.

Thereare other small differences to the GTA formula, but look at the twogames side by side and you'll feel pretty much at home if you haveplayed a GTA game before.

VisuallyRed Dead Redemption is getting on a bit now. Up close textures lookpretty rough and the pop in is at times pretty ridiculous. Yet whenyou catch the world in the right light, or look at scenery from theright angle it can be a beauty to look at. The detail in the world ispretty impressive, though much of the foliage layout in openlandscapes does appear to be copy/pasted en mass. Significantlandmarks are few and far between making it almost impossible tonavigate without use of the game map and some rocky areas of theenvironment can be difficult to traverse without falling down a slopethat cannot be climbed up again.

Thesoundtrack is perhaps the biggest highlight of the game. Drawinginspiration from the greatest western films of all time, as well assparing use of licensed songs to give important moments greaterimpact. The voice cast is also pretty excellent with everyone givingtheir all, bringing the somewhat memorable characters to life.

There'sno doubt that Red Dead Redemption is a good game and seeing as thewestern is a genre that doesn't often have many games made for it, itmay well be the best western video game we have available to us.However I must argue that the product does not live up to the hype.When it released and I played it for the first time I swallowed thathype, believing it to be one of the best games ever made. But thisplay-through, I just wanted it to be done not even halfway throughdue to obscene amount of dull, uninspired padding; frankly boringside jobs and a sparse, flat game world that lacked variety.

It'snot even a matter of age not being kind to the game, it's a matter ofplaying it away from the initial hype and seeing the game for what itreally is, which similar to BioShock Infinite, is far from what it isheralded to be.

RedDead Redemption – 7/10

+WellWritten Story (When It's Moving)

+LargeCast Of Interesting Characters

+BeautifulSoundtrack

-Repetitive,Dull Missions (Main & Side)

-FarToo Much Padding

-MostlyEmpty, Relatively Small Game World

-VisualsHaven't Aged Well