Red Dead Redemption is set at the early 19th century. The 'wild west' is dying... New technology is on its way with the first automobiles and modern day weapons. At the start of the game, our protagonist, John Marston, is driven back to his old roots. A couple of goverment agents blackmail Marston to hunt down his old gang members by threatening Marston's family. Our hero finds no other ways than to go after his old buddies. John Marston heads from West Elizabeth to New Austin, Texas, and finds what he's looking for. Unfortunately everything doesn't go right and soon Marston finds himself in a middle of a mess that he needs to clean up. During the game, the story involves and you get to know John Marston a lot better. You find out that he's a former criminal but now has changed his habits and has settled down with a family.
The game is developed by Rockstar San Diego, and as you may quess, it is very similiar to GTA games. Obviously, the game world is a sandbox and you can complete missions at your own speed and in a different order. As you pursuit through the game, by completing missions, soon enough you unlock the next big gameplay area, a northern part of Mexico. It is a nice change to New Austin with its dry canyons, deserts and old villas. The whole game world is really huge, and a horse is your best friend. There are lots of unique and other random events that happen during the game. If you get to a town, you may notice a woman being kidnapped or a store being robbed. Of course, you can affect on these situations, or just ignore everything. John gains 'karma' (called Honor in the game) by doing good and bad deeds, and Fame by doing anything significant. Honor and Fame affects on how people will treat the player, do they greet him or do they fear him.
Gameplay works fine, even greatly. It's pretty similiar to Grand Theft Auto IV but this time around the controls are smoother, making our protagonist move less stiffly. Taking cover behind objects and moving in cover works very well compared to the awkwardness of GTA IV. The shooting mechanics are pretty similiar. Crosshair is better and more accurate than in GTA IV and you can also change your aiming difficulty in the options. There are three different aim difficulties: casual (just like in GTA games, you lock into targets automatically), normal (just a little aim assist) and hardcore (you aim completely freely). I tried normal as the game started but I found hardcore more appealing and played the whole game through with it.
Technically Red Dead Redemption is superb. The graphics are much better than in GTA IV, especially the landscape looks so amazing that I have never seen anything like it in a video game. The sky looks very realistic and detailed, and it obviously changes during different weathers. Sound effects are also terrific, a thunder storm really feels like a storm. The game world is full of many little details, for example: there are water puddles on the ground after a rainy storm, cactuses can be shot to pieces, and almost all light sources can be broken by shooting (like an oil lamp, which will then set a fire). There's also wildlife in the game, and it even plays a big role. You can hunt small animals, like rabbits, armadillos and such, but also deers, wild boars, buffaloes and even grizzly bears...
Euphoria physics animation engine stands out just like it did in GTA IV. Enemies react realisticly to bullets that hit them. If you are chasing someone and want to catch him alive, you can just shoot him in the leg and he'll fall down. There's also a huge arsenal of different weapons and they all feel unique. Thanks to Euphoria, the game has now also a very realistic lasso that you can use to catch enemies and then drag them behind your horse if you like that kind of stuff...
Besides the main story, there's lot to do in Red Dead Redemption. Attaining a 100 % completion in the stats screen takes some time, and unlike GTA IV, it's now very fun to attain. You have to complete scraps for all your outfits (before you can use them), hunt outlaws with bounty on their head, hunt and skin animals, collect flowers and other plants, complete Stranger missions (which are like side missions given by random strangers in the wilderness), play different mini games (like Liar's Dice and Poker), hunt for treasures and clear gang hideouts. The list goes on and on... Even after completing the game 100 %, you still have the whole game world to explore and did I already mention there's a multiplayer component..?
Yes, the multiplayer. In Red Dead Redemption, when you start a multiplayer mode, you end up in a random Free Roam game. A Free Roam mode is where you have the whole vast frontier of the west to explore (just like in single player) with other players, and there you can form posses (groups of players, they work as party as well), hunt animals, clear gang hideouts and cause random chaos in towns. But Free Roam mostly just works as a lobby, where you can start 'real' multiplayer game modes, such as Free For All, Team Deathmatch, Grab the Bag and so on. There are many different game modes in the game, and all the DLC has brought even more modes to play, from which I can mention Stronghold and Undead Overrun, that are very much fun with friends. A free DLC even brought co-op missions for the online multiplayer to complete. As you play the multiplayer, you gain XP and level up. There are 50 levels and every level unlocks you something (new weaponry, multiplayer characters, mounts, titles). After you have reached the max level, you can 'pass to legend', or in Call of Duty terms, go for a 'Prestige'. There are 5 more legend ranks, so overall you have 250 levels to level up in.
Red Dead Redemption is so huge game that everything cannot be said in a single review. I can really recommend you to buy this game, especially if you like GTA games and/or western movies/games. RDR gives you a good 70+ hours online and offline, before you are starting to get fed up with it. This is the best western game ever made, and my counter shows I've played over 117 hours, and I'm still playing it. All the fantastic DLC also adds much for the game, for example, 'Undead Nightmare' is a whole new separate singleplayer campaign and also adds a cool "horde mode" for the online multiplayer. I really recommend buying these DLCs as well.
