Red Dead Redemption - Review
For those who want the quick summary: Red Dead: shooting, killing, open world, gang fighting, hogtie-ing, dynamite exploding, cougar mauling, all around western fun.
The single player has a great story which develops at the players on pace as you can either just do the main missions or you can wander around completing the challenges such as the master hunter challenge which requires the player to hunt various animals which get progressively more difficult as you complete each one, or help out someone in need (or just shoot them and say you did). The game has a good moral tool as you can either be the good cowboy who has learnt his ways, or just go round doing whatever you want whenever you want, but, for those who want to do both, you can be the honourable citizen as per usual, and purchase a fine piece of quality cloth to wear as your bandana, preventing any changes in honour while wearing it, and so you can feel free to murder endlessly, hijack the train and steal your good fellows money, without the threat of people knowing it was you.
The main story is worth doing as well, as you do unlock more of the map as the game progresses, as your character is not allowed to enter some rejoins due to his situation. Doing missions and gaining/losing honour also gives more items in the store, and will be cheaper depending on the seller and your honour (thieves landing, obvious from the name, don’t give you discount if you’re a good guy). Some of the characters you meet are highly entertaining, such as the popular crowd favourite Irish, who is a drunken arms dealer who just loves to get you into trouble while conveniently avoiding the whole fight, so the story does make you want to continue, unlike some games, where you reach certain points and it all seems a bit tedious. Mexico is an interesting place to get to in the story, as there seem to be allot of people on different sides, and of course there is you, who just wants to get your job done.
There is also what is called ‘dead eye’, which in single player recharges over time or with kills or sleep, which slows times and lets you target enemies in specific areas and kill them more efficiently. And in multiplayer you just enter a focused mode which also allows better targeting, but does not obviously slow time, however this is only built up by killing other or getting a dead eye restoration box lying around at the various camp sites that spawn randomly.
As not to ruin the story to much, I’ll move on to the other main aspect of the game, the multiplayer. This is where it really is up to you what you do, the whole map is open, there are gang hideouts to be taken over, player vs. player options to have capture the bag and deathmatch where you fight in one of the many towns in the game, which can either be done from in the free roam, or you can select the option from the ingame multiplayer menu. Or, and this is where I like to play, you can just kill the other players in free roam just for the hell of it. For example, there are challenges in multiplayer like single player where you kill animals, pick plants, etc. One challenge is to become public enemy, which is where you murder enough people (non-player chars) to get a wanted level bounty of $1000. Now people who get this in the free roam I’m in, best hide very quickly, because I like to hunt them down like dogs and murder them repeatedly, as the one challenge is to gain a bounty of $5000, which I can tell you, is not very easy in a public free roam, where all the other 15 players in the game can come kill you. So I just go on the basis that anyone who becomes public enemy, is someone going for that challenge. If you are doing this however, or a gang hideout, you can have your posse, a group of up to 8 people, help you out by protecting you or just killing the gang, so it’s not the end of the world if you see a fellow player having pot shots at you from afar, just get a posse member to go waste his ass. At the beginning of every game mode in the match-making type system there is always a shoot out, which is great fun as either your team shoots an enemy team, or in free for all you have to chose your target carefully to make sure you live afterwards. After this is completed the game continues, so for team games having players alive able to run after the bag area or run to pin down the enemy team is obviously a key advantage, even if they just get one of the good guns on the map, it’s something stopping your opponent from winning.
Now as for the guns, horses etc. You have a loadout for your level which is always there whenever you start up the multiplayer, but, you can also pick up guns to use as long as you are in multiplayer (even if you move into other free roams or into the outfitter) from other players, or there is usually a gun in one of the gang hideouts you can grab or from the police as they have guns you only get at higher levels. Horses (or some of the other animals which I won’t say for spoilers) are unlocked as you level up, and they become faster, stronger etc. Levelling up isn’t that difficult either, as challenges give you experience, and doing a gang hideout well, will give you about 1000 experience, so about three hideouts from level twenty gets you levelled up nicely, obviously at higher levels it take a bit more. You also unlock player skins as you level, and titles which hover over you for other players to see. Be careful not to get mauled by a cougar though, always listen carefully for the animal sounds, remember, you have a gun, use it!
Well I hope this all makes you want to play what I think is one of the best games so far this year, just remember though, no one can hear you scream in the middle of nowhere, keep your trigger finger at the ready, and always on your gun...
- Pros, Cons are the occasional aiming fuck up and the fact that its difficult to see somethings to shoot. im in mexico in the story, im level 21 online but i met a second prestige
- Review Written By: Webster0