Red Dead Redemption

Hunt down your former outlaws-in-arms at the government's behest

Release: May 18, 2010 (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360)

By Ian Coppock

The gaming world is like school. A frenzied, hard-to-keep-up-with burst of activity throughout the fall and spring lulls into nothingness with the onset of summer. I was planning on buying and reviewing Dead Island: Riptide, but I learned that Techland did absolutely nothing to fix the numerous bugs plaguing the original Dead Island. I don't pay $50 for game developers to give me the finger, so I shall gleefully glide over Riptide in favor of an older but much better game that deserves attention instead: Red Dead Redemption.

The Story

My childhood was plagued with numerous trips to wild west museums so that my dad could memorize every diorama plaque while the rest of us starved to death waiting for him outside. I built up a consequent dislike of anything wild west, so the fact that Red Dead Redemption managed to undo 22 years of hunger-fueled resentment is pretty impressive. The game takes place in 1911 in the fictional state of New Austin, which is Texas in everything but name. You are John Marston, a former outlaw-turned-rancher whose wife and son get kidnapped by the federal government.  They're perfectly happy to give John back his loved ones if he hunts down the vagabonds he used to rob banks and kill innocents with. John puts together a checklist of the checkered rogues he once called friends and skips town to do justice's bidding.

John Marston is one of the most grizzled protagonists I've ever played, in a similarly disheveled portrait of the old west.

John arrives to the hideout of his first target easily enough, and, shockingly, gets shot in the side when his former gun pal says no to the prospect of imprisonment. The easy route thus closed off, John must work with characters of all stripes in a harsh and unforgiving landscape. He teams up first with Bonnie MacFarlane, a charming and tough-as-nails rancher, and Leigh Johnson, the local lawman.

For a while I was under the impression that I'd be working solely with hard-working, law-abiding peeps, but found myself also teaming up with sketchy individuals a la Grand Theft Auto. John befriends and helps out the marshal easily enough, but must also join forces with a demented graverobber, an alcoholic gunrunner and a remarkably pathetic con man.

Nigel West Dickens, the aforementioned con man, was a character I hated because of his excuses but loved because he was so well-written.

Red Dead was developed by Rockstar, who are best known for the Grand Theft Auto series, in which characters usually have a shorter expiration date than three-day-old milk. It's refreshing to see a Rockstar game with such deep and beautifully written characters and dialogue. Though the people John works with are rolling dirty more often than not, their dialogue and mannerisms made them weirdly endearing. I found myself most attached to Irish, a gun dealer who gave me absolutely no reason for attachment whatsoever. Even the dudes I was sent to kill, like the bloodthirsty outlaw Bill Williamson, had personality quirks that I didn't necessarily resonate with but still found immersive for the sake of the plot.

Bonnie MacFarlane is one of my favorite Red Dead characters. Unlike most of the cast, she sees honesty a way of life, not a liability.

Anyway, as these things often go, John finds that hunting down and killing outlaws is no small task, and must expand his grisly reunion party into several other regions. From gunning down outlaws in ghost towns to fighting alongside revolutionaries in Mexico, John takes a varied and quite immersive journey in his quest to reclaim his family. The game also examines the theme that John is a relic of a bygone era, as the old west is becoming rapidly transformed by modernity. What I liked is that most of the characters saw modernity as a scourge; there's a tongue-in-cheek mission where John rides in a car that breaks down and nearly explodes. "Give me a horse any day," he says.

The game pokes fun at the incompatibility of the old west and modern technology. Marshal Johnson tries and fails to learn how to use a telephone, the latest doohickey from back east.

This might be me being jaded about the old west after those museum death marches, but I liked how the game didn't romanticize it. Not once is there a relaxing ride into the sunset. The game portrays the west as it probably was: a savage, brutal and lawless landscape that was anything but poignant. 

There are several stomach-churning missions in which John must stop bloodthirsty outlaws from burning houses and attacking women, all of which reinforced the notion that the old west was not a nice place, to put it lightly. Realism is a difficult line to walk, but this attention to detail and the human condition made the game's atmosphere more believable.

The odds that someone in Red Dead will say hi rather than shoot at you are about 1 in 300.

Gameplay in Red Dead is your typical third-person, health-regenerating, cover-based shooting. The game doesn't really break any new ground in that regard. You can buy guns and health salves, but ammo is ridiculously plentiful and John's health regenerates, so I never needed to visit a shop or make money. This made the game's moneymaking minigames, like bounty hunting and poker, obsolete.

The poker minigame is well-done and quite fun, but money and ammo are so easy to get that it serves no practical purpose.

A massive sticking point this game threw at me was one instance when I saw a would-be rapist attacking a woman outside a saloon. I immediately punched the dude in the face, only for the girl to run away screaming that I'd hurt an innocent bystander. WHAT??? I didn't stop gaping at that spectacle until long after I'd eluded law enforcement and posted bail for the assault charge. It could have all been a bug, but then again, in GTA you can kill hookers with baseball bats, so maybe I'm not cynical enough about Rockstar's attitude towards sexual violence.

The Artwork

Red Dead Redemption is one of the most detailed games I've ever played. It's another nice change of pace for Rockstar, who usually plonk down samey blocks of cityscape in GTA. Getting to my next objective usually meant a half hour or so of fun riding through the desert landscape. Sagebrush sways in the desert breeze, birds roost atop cacti and tumbleweed lazily crosses the horse trails before your feet. 

Red Dead's artwork and lighting are very well done. This is a shot from John's foray into Texan river-rafting.

I can tell you from years of visiting pioneer museums (alright, I'll shut up about that) that the environments are pretty realistic for the time period. John visits bustling train stations, as well as ghost towns, sprawling ranches, and verdant Mexican estates. 

The journey to Mexico was one of my favorite parts of the game, especially visually.

The developers also paid attentive detail to the people. At any moment you can tip John's hat at a passing woman or gracefully sidestep the town drunk stumbling out of the saloon. The environments are detailed pretty much everywhere you go, which helps the game feel big. I'd guess the game's environment is at least 40 square miles, so thank God for trains and horses. The sprawling landscape also reinforces the sense of enormity that comes with John's task.

Later in the game, John visits Blackwater, a bustling city. The variety of environments is surprising, at least to anyone expecting tropes of the old west.

Should I get it?

Red Dead Redemption is not without its flaws and frustrations. Rockstar's always been better with car and horse controls than people, and some of the missions are repetitive, but I think the game's story and visuals should garner forgiveness for these potholes. The dialogue and idioms are true to the times, the voice acting and character development are deep and continuous, and John's journey for redemption is worthy of any high-caliber old west story collection. If any of these things catch your fancy, then go wilder than a warm lizard on a hot rock. 

I read that in a museum.