Red Dead Redemption

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List Price: $19.99
Sale Price: $14.97
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Synopsis:

From the team that brought you Grand Theft Auto, you are now thrown head long into a wild west adventure. You control John Marston. This game is set in the desert in 1911 (same year as my favorite .45 was made). You are somewhere near the Mexico border. John was a criminal that ticked off many people in his past and now has to atone for what he did. People come out of the woodwork either as his friends or enemies.

My play experience:

On the PS3 the graphics are really sharp and crisp. The textures, the ambiance all bring the wild west to your home living room.

In recent years there have been games that have tried to capture the essence of the western genre. For example Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood which on the surface was a pretty good game, it however was not a very good story. In COJ the main characters are brothers that are ex-confederate soldiers. The story never really grabs hold and to be honest I never finished COJ. The story in Red Dead Redemption is done so well that it never feels pushed or contrived. Instead its done like an old western movie. Its gritty and a world that beckons you back time and time again.

For now let me discuss the cool features:

Horses: +

I think they put a horse into a motion capture room and had him run around. In Assassins Creed II the horse was a good way to get from town to town and the motion was pretty real. In Red Dead Redemption its super smooth an you feel like your out exploring the desert on a horse with no name... Kick your horse too much to get him to chase down that coach, you could be looking at a wild ride as he tries to buck you off. The longer you keep 1 horse the more stamina and other abilities it gets.

EDIT: I see they actually DID use a live horse to make the motion capture. It shows.

You can also ride stage coaches and trains. Or rob them, its up to you. See gameplay below.

Gunfighting: +

You are a real gunslinger in this game. To get prepped to get it I watched Young Guns [Blu-ray] and a couple of other westerns. This game matches the combat of say GTA and COD. Where you shoot someone matters, and it can affect your character in different ways too. Some of my opponents are gonna have a limp for a while at least.

Atmosphere: +

There are critters running all over as you ride through the desert landscape. It feels dusty, makes me want to wear a bandanna as I play. When you get low on cash you can kill and skin critters for a few coin. There are actually many ways that you can earn money in this game besides being a hard criminal.

World: +

So far its just massive. I can only compare it to the run from Commonlands to Qeynos in EQ. It seems to be fully explorable and I have found very few places I couldn't go. It really is huge. I have seen that someone said it was the biggest world ever done in a Rockstar game. Which is impressive considering that those games can go on forever. The land is great in that it hardly ever repeats as you ride. Matter of fact I haven't seen any textures or vistas that look the same. Maybe there are but they are so far apart that you wont notice it. An example of this is the train ride into the mountains in Uncharted 2.

Towns: +

Unlike GTA you wont have a huge city to run around. Out west these were small settlements and usually had only a couple of hundred people in them. Think about all the old wild west movies you have seen where there is maybe 10 shops and a few houses in the town directly. The way they did the towns is very endearing, because it makes it an immersion type of game experience.

Poker: +

I love the side games. I have lost my fair share of my real money playing poker and now I can do this in game too.

Gameplay options: +

You can be the good guy or be a down right criminal. The game system supports either mode and varying degrees in between. This allows RDR to be more than just a shooter, but more like an RPG. Be careful who you pull your gun on. If you do it in town you can start something that will ultimately lower your honor.

Controls: +/-

The controls are a bit different here and do take some time to figure out. But any game can be that way. If you go from say a driving game to a shooter you might hit the wrong buttons once and a while. After playing this for nearly 2 days solid now and not switching to other games in between, I have totally become comfortable with the controlling scheme.

Multiplayer: NA

I do not enjoy multiplayer shooters. I am really no good at it so I tend to not play it much or at all. That being said I jumped in a couple of games and it was ok. If your a hard core multiplayer person please check other reviews for this. I would not do it justice because I tend to be jaded with regard to multiplayer games.

Replayability:

I am almost done and I can see where I would have like to do something different in the way I played this. That being said, I think that I could go back through and try it again maybe being a bit evil this time. For that I think that this is a game you could play over and over, adjust the story line, and enjoy it each time you did.

Summary:

This game is really appealing if:

A. You enjoy GTA type of game play, open world and a morality system that challenges you.

B. Fan of westerns and cowboy movies. If you hate them and think they are silly then you probably wouldnt enjoy this.

If you are A+B then this game is a hands down favorite pick to have in your PS3 arsenal.

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Some Tips: (no spoilers)

I have almost 30 hours into this game and I am not done. I do goof around alot and like to go hunting and see what other mischief I can get into. Playing poker for 3 hours doesnt hurt either. That being said I want to drop some tips in to help those of you still waiting or are looking.

Horses:

1. Dont get to attached to your horse. Think of them like a car, reason being there are tons of ways they can die. From random mountain lions, to getting shot by the enemy to you shooting them in the back of the head on accident when wolves are attacking (sorry skippy :( )

2. When going in to attack a gang leave your horse way back and run up. When you have hog tied your bad guy you can whistle ^ arrow and he will run back over to you.

3. If you buy a horse the deed is in your bag, click it to call your horse back from the dead. (thanks S.L.V)

Gambling:

Like in real life its alot about luck so go in with the thought you'll do 1 buy in and when that money is gone leave, go kill some stuff and come back later. Your hands may improve

Time:

1. Pausing the game with the start button will show what time it is. Saving the game gives you 6 hours of rest. If you like shopping be sure you go to bed no later than 3am. Then when you get back up the stores will all be open, and you can go out and have a blast.

Camp:

Camp whenever you have a long ride ahead of you. As long as you have bought a map you can go to that place from your campground. Once in your campground you can select where to go without having to burn up the 6 hours of sleep. Then after it loads you will be at your destination. Good stuff.

Thats it for now. If I figure out any more lil tidbits Ill share them here with you. Have fun, it really is a great game.

Thanks for reading my review.

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I am not one to buy new releases. I always wait until they are $20 or so. I've never paid full price for a game, until RDR. I bought into the hype and decided I had to have this game. Do I regret it? Hell no! I haven't put a ton of time into it but I have to say this game easily ranks in my top 10 and will probably climb to the number one spot.

There are moments in this game that will just make you laugh. They will amaze you. They will irritate you (like when I dismounted my horse to help a guy being chased by coyotes and my dumb horse wandered off a cliff and died). But they are all great! I am just in awe of the graphics. My wife came in while I was playing and thought I was watching a movie. She sat down and watched me play for 20 minuted while I hunted some animals and she was in awe and she couldn't give a flip about video games.

There is so much to do in this game. I am speaking single player strictly...I haven't played multiplayer yet. It's fun to just ride around and do stuff. You really get the feel of being in the old west. And if you are tired of doing stuff in the game, you can play one of the minigames. I won $75 in a poker game this morning. It was great (the AI is average).

I love the random events. Stuff happens in this game. I was out one night and just hunted down a treasure map and a cougar came out of nowhere and killed my horse. I couldn't get away and couldn't get a beat on it and it killed me. Amazing.

You won't regret buying this game. It's been awhile since I've had a game that has captured my interest like this one has. I can't wait to get home and play some more.

Buy Red Dead Redemption Now

First off, I've never done a review on anything before, but this being probably THE BEST GAME I've ever played, I thought I'd say a few things. I loved the story, most movie scripts aren't written as well, the gameplay and graphics were equally impressive. I honestly enjoyed every second of this game, mostly because of the free-roam style. There is the option of taking a stage coach to avoid the long horse rides to the next missions, I took advantage of this once. In most games if there is a way of skipping the drive or ride to the destination, I almost always do so. With Red Dead Redemption, the ride is what I enjoyed most, although the missions were extremely enjoyable, the things you can accomplish on the way were just as fun, if not more fun. In the amazing world of RDR, you can hunt and skin a number of different wild animals including deer, rabbits, bobcats, grizzly bears, armadillos, a number of different types of birds and much more, all depending on the area you're in. I often found myself forgetting about the next objective and just hunting down as many animals as I could find lol. There is even a store you can sell the skins, meat and the other things you cut off or out of the animals you've hunted.

The missions are very entertaining and original, I enjoyed every single one. In RDR it's not all about shootin' and killin' the bad guys. Though it is that, among other things, throughout the game you're asked to help#most of which you can choose not to# simple farmers and civilians, which is equally as fun as the killin'. These objectives vary from domesticating horses to capturing prisoners who've escaped their transporter, which you can choose to kill or hog-tie and return to the lawman. The actual objectives needed to progress in the game are unique in their own right, they depend on the character from whom they were given. About half of the time you'll be asked to kill so-and-so, which usually isn't alone. But the other half consists of aiding in escapes, blowing up convoys of enemy wagons and other important events. No matter what you find yourself involved in, I promise you will have fun with it.

And if you're not interested in any missions, hunting or doing simple favors, you can go have a shot at the bar, play poker, black jack, horse shoes, five finger fillet or arm wrestle. I'm sure I'm missing a lot of things with this review, that said, the possibilities are endless. I give this game 10/10, if you've enjoyed the GTA's, COD's, MOH's, basically any first or 3rd person shooter's, or anything with a story, this game blows everything out of the water in my opinion. It's definitely worth buying, but if you're not wanting to spend $60 on a game, it's more than worth a rent and any late fee's you might accumulate when you lose yourself in this one. Hope this helps and I didn't sound too dorky, take care guys.

P.S.mom's account, not Roberta so it wasn't some lady that gave this review, I'm 21 and a dude so...I hope that makes it more credible.

Read Best Reviews of Red Dead Redemption Here

By now you probably know all about Red Dead Redemption. It had a harsh development life at Rockstar, it won all the awards and it's "awesome." But you haven't bought it yet so you're probably wondering if it's for you.

Here's some perspective. If you felt disappointed, bored or simply satisfied and done with the last GTA than you probably won't find much to love with Red Dead Redemption. No, it's not fair to call RDR simply GTA on a horse but it does play much like it. There is an interesting story here, the world feels alive and is gorgeous, there's plenty to do but in the end the game plays very similar to GTA. That is a good or bad thing.

Additionally while the overall story is interesting and engrossing it takes its time to progress. It started, something happens at the 4ish hour mark and another thing happens at the 8-9 hour mark. Nothing is happening in between. Nothing.

So what goes on there? Favor quests. Do you know those sidequests games throw in with strangers asking you for a favor? Yeah, most of RDR's main quests are just like that. You'll meet someone, they'll tell you to do something and you'll need to do it. The main character will begin commenting on how ridiculous this is in the 6th or 7th hour of this constant favor quests which doesn't make it ok. It feels lazy. "I'll help you if you do this...now this...great! Now let's do this! Ok. I have a friend. Go see them and do this and they'll help you. I have to go and can't." Get used to that. For all there is to do in RDR I've been focusing on the main missions simply because they already feel like side missions so I have no desire to do extra favors for extra goodies on the side and the game is pretty long which is good (10th hour right now) but they could have made the missions more story or main character oriented.

The combat is good, this is a great shooter at it's core. You can also use a bullet-time system to mark enemies and do quick executions. You can fight on your horse. You'll lasso and tie enemies from afar. Occasionally you'll make important decisions. You'll enjoy horse riding from mission to mission although there comes a point where it takes too long and gets a bit old, so you'll probably switch to the instant travel option in the menu. There are some fun games to play, old movie shorts to watch, and some system to buy property for money but you'll never need it. I've never needed to worry about money, buy health or buy a weapon...but if you want to it's there. There's multiplayer in here too but it feels as unpolished and fun as GTA's multiplayer so can decide on that for yourself.

So is Red Dead Redemption for you? This is a game worthy of it's hype. The story is good, the voice acting is even better, the graphics are usually gorgeous and the gameplay is topnotch. It appeals to a mass audience and is a better package than most games last year. Is it worthy of the hype? Yes and no, for reasons I've noted. If you're interested in cowboys, love GTA or want a deeper action experience then give it a try. If you don't like games with a ton of excess fat that is labeled as "depth" or if you've had enough of the GTA sandbox-littered-with-favor-missions setup than you will not find much to enjoy here. While it is a better overall package than most games last year I'd have to give it an 8/10 at most due to some lazy structuring, extremely slow pacing and poorly implemented mechanics.

Want Red Dead Redemption Discount?

I became a Western game fan with Lucasarts Outlaws all those years ago. Played nearly every one since then, from Desperados, to Red Dead Revolver, to Gun, to Call of Juarez and its sequel. All of these have had their share of fun, but also a good deal of problems. You had to really love the genre to overlook the issues.

Red Dead Redemption, I think, changes that. For the first time there's a Western game I don't have to make excuses for.

I'll start with the early history of the game: Red Dead Revolver. As with the others, it had plenty of problems, but its style and charm won me over (even after nearly breaking the controller in some of the harder duels). The art style was great, the music was perfect, and the gameplay was, for the most part, pretty fun. It had a couple unique mechanics, like the quick-draw mini-game that used the analog sticks to mimic the actual motion of drawing and aiming your gun, to great effect, even if some of the enemies felt cheap. Dead Eye mode was neat. Running around and climbing things was a bit stiff, but certainly functional. Aiming and shooting wasn't too bad. One of my favorite aspects was the diversity in the weapons. Even if there wasn't a huge discernible gameplay difference between different rifles, shotguns, or pistols, I appreciated the visuals, and some of the higher level pistols were beautifully designed. All in all, Red Dead Revolver had a lot of potential, even if it wasn't great.

Redemption builds off that potential, but takes it leaps and bounds over the original. If Revolver built the launch pad, Redemption has now colonized Mars.

Rockstar San Diego has succeeded in creating what feels like a real living breathing place. It's the sort of world where I'm perfectly content just roaming around exploring, rather than following the story. I'd honestly have been satisfied with the open world alone, even though the story is great. I love riding out into the wilderness and encountering new animals (there are a ton of different species, which really helps with the immersion in other games where you see the same 10 animals it takes you out of the experience). There are also people all over, doing their own thing. Traveling, hunting for treasure, fighting with each other, robbing each other. You can participate or not! It's also a beautiful world. Along with the animals, the appropriate plants and landscape really sell the world. And the skies! Really pretty skies. And then there are the towns, also appropriately populated, and each with their own set of activities. I enjoyed a game of poker last night (the guy I played with was a pansy, he busted out quick). I've also been having a good time going after bounties and doing night watches at Bonnie's place.

The action mechanics all work very well. Shooting is genuinely fun. I feel like a gunslinger. The sound effects have good power to them, and the guns handle in a believable and satisfying manner. I also really like the way Rockstar handled the way characters react to being shot. Not only do they use rag doll physics, but they react to where they're shot. We've seen this idea in other games before, but this is the best execution I've seen of the effect so far. I'm really looking forward to finding some of the rare guns in the game to see how they all handle.

Riding is pretty fun, too. While not as simple to control as those in Gun, perhaps, the horse handle more realistically, and riding is very satisfying in its own right. They move the right way, and I loved the little touches like the way they slide down steeper inclines. They also spook when snakes are nearby. The idea that you can keep one horse and build its loyalty and trust is great. Unlike other games, where the horse function like cars that you can hop in and out of, in Redemption you're rewarded for taking care of one horse for an extended period. I actually grew attached to mine. There are many different breeds of horses, too, a first for games that I know of.

And then there's the story! The story is solid. And interesting premise, with lots of fun characters along the way. I must say, I really enjoyed the interactions between Marston and Bonnie. She's a great character. The voice acting is pretty darn good. Definitely some of the best I've heard in games. Marc Alaimo as Reverend Ray in Call of Juarez is still my favorite, but the voices of Marston, Bonnie, and Leigh Johnston are up there. It's such a relief to not want to skip through every cutscene.

I have a feeling Red Dead Redemption will be occupying a lot of my time these next few months. I haven't even tried the multiplayer yet (some friends who were going to get the game bailed on me -their loss!), and there are tons of challenges and side missions to complete yet. I recommend this game not only to Western game fans, but to fans of immersive open-world gameplay done right.