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Red Dead Redemption is the latest offering from Rockstar – The same team who brought us Grand Theft Auto, a game series even Helen Keller would have heard about. Their last game, Grand Theft Auto IV, was hyped to bejaysus and given heaps of praise like its shit smelled like white chocolate and roses. This is admittedly a bold statement but, after the dust had settled you stopped being impressed by how pretty it looked and how good the (admittedly incredible) physics engine was, you quickly realised that after a while it became quite slow, boring and repetitive – with lots of busywork (dating, taking your fat cousin or rasta friend to a strip club, driving endlessly to the start point of some missions) that seemed great initially but soon began to grate on the player. Indeed, it took Rockstar two expansion packs to actually make a stab at some decent missions in Liberty City – the playground was there but there was nothing to do in it.

For all its faults, GTA IV was by no means a bad game. The expansion packs were superb and the driving and combat were rock solid. Most importantly you could travel around fucking shit up. I’ve spent many a drunken evening passing the controller around gamers and non-gamers alike and marvelling at how fun it is to repeatedly mow down or shoot streets of pedestrians. The two expansion packs were both excellent and as well as finally giving us something interesting to do, packed in even more violent random rampage action. This type of madness only stays interesting for so long, which is why RDR was such a refreshing pleasure to play.

John Marston on his way to fuck some shit up - cowboy style

RDR represents a shift for Rockstar that they hinted at but never solidified with Grand Theft Auto IV – movement towards a cohesive story that uses the open world as a medium, as opposed to being defined or limited by it. In a game climate that’s full of overblown “moral choice” systems, it’s nice to see a game that knows who and what its protagonist is. Sure, you can still travel around Red Dead Redemption shooting innocents in the face or stealing stuff, but the fact that it feels wrong for John Marsten to be doing so is, in my opinion, a great thing. For once a character in a Rockstar game doesn’t feel like a schizophrenic. Sure some old GTA trademarks are there, like some very crazy supporting characters and some OTT scenes, but overall this is a more mature, focused and interesting experience.

Story

You play as John Marston – a former outlaw who is hunting his old gang members one by one. This is the sliver of plot you’re given in the first few hours of the game, and the rest unfolds slowly – allowing you to lose yourself in the world a little more between the main missions. The story is excellent, filled with interesting characters and tasty little sub-plots that tie in with your side missions. It seems the incredible HBO show Deadwood was a huge influence on the design and story of the game, with certain characters seemingly lifted directly from the series. Marston himself is a great example of how game protagonists don’t need to be macho growling lumps or wisecracking pricks, and as a result is incredibly likeable and well developed. He also sounds like Bill Paxton, which is pretty fucking sweet.

Mickey Joe would be the talk of the campsite if he could pull this one off

I have to confess… This really should be a “first impressions” because I haven’t been able to finish the game yet. 25 hours in and I can still only barely see the home stretch. Not because it’s bad, not because it’s boring, and not for lack of trying. It’s because trying not to get distracted in RDR is like trying not to get distracted finding your car keys in a barrel full of tits.

Everywhere you go there is something to do. You’ll find yourself (within reason) travelling everywhere by horseback just so you can sample the gorgeous atmosphere. Don’t get too used to that sunset though, because at any point you could be attacked by wild animals, ambushed by bandits, asked to help a damsel in distress, save a guy from a lynching. These aren’t side missions, they are just incidental encounters that the game throws into the mix. You can completely ignore them if you like, but they add a sense of urgency and unpredictability to the proceedings, especially during those longer treks. The resulting immersion is incredible, and only starts showing hairline fractures towards the endgame when certain scenarios are repeated. Still, this is a small niggle and trust me when I say you will definitely buy into the world as a living, breathing, sweating and bleeding entity.

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