Red Dead Redemption

WOW! I honestly didn't want to use that as the first word in this review but I would be a liar if I didn't, this game is seriously good! GTA meets the wild west, need I say more?

I have had Red Dead on my radar for sometime now and for months I have been worried that it would turn out to be a GTA4, well I can now lay those fears to rest as in my opinion RDR is what GTA4 should have been, Rockstar somehow managed to take a step back with GTA4, gone were the random minigames, buying property, less sandbox more ironic wit. In a way Rockstar has stuck to it's roots here and created a game based on all those classic western movies, a very similar path it took with San Andrea's. The game has all those stereotypical western elements, the music, the bar brawls, it even has the outrageously cheesy bullets ricocheting off almost every shot.

In typical Rockstar fashion, you play the anti hero. A rough and tumble character who has forgotten his past in favour of raising a family and living the straight and narrow, unfortunately things haven't turned out as well as they could have and the player is thrust into the role of getting the bad guy to save his wife and kids, It is however up to the player to decide on how to "grow" their character throughout the game, It is possible for the player to take more of an evil route through the game building on those skills such as robbery and thievery, not to the point that was afforded in Oblivion but still the element is there.

Regardless on weather the player decides to be good or evil the missions remain fairly linear, remember you have a wife and child to get back to. The missions can be reminiscent of the GTA games but with just enough extra to keep the player happy, the race sequences are far and few between which for me was a boon. Some of the missions can still be tricky and can sometimes verge on the annoying, the player does however have the option to skip missions that are perhaps a bit too hard to complete. I did notice that the level of difficulty seems to be all over the place, at one point the player makes a trip into Mexico, this sequence in my opinion is rather tedious and seems out of place difficulty wise as the next few missions are a push over in comparison.

The biggest let down of RDR however is the lack of thought that goes into some of the missions, there are a number of missions that due to the stereotypical nature of the game just had to be in included in the game, where would a western game be without a stage coach robbery for instance? My problem however comes down to the fact that often the player is left asking "why wasn't that as fun as it could have been" one particular sequence has the player chasing down a train before it reaches the bridge which has conveniently just blown up, Back to The Future anyone? Well this sequence has such potential but instead seems to be over within minutes... Surely this could have been an excellent opportunity for a shootout where the player is forced onto the roof of the train in an Indian Jones type of scenario?

At the end of the day this game does exactly what it says on the tin, it's a western through and through. The dead eye shootouts give the game that movie feel, the landscapes are fantastic and yes the action could have been better but what with all the additional action bits chucked in for good measure, this is a game that everyone should play! My one hope is that Rockstar take note, not every game has to be full of sarcasm and black comedy, I'm sure we can all agree that these elements a good game does not make...

Gameplay 8.5

Graphics 9.0

Sound 8.5

Total 87