I’ve never seen an open world game do as much, as well, as Red Dead Redemption. One of it’s defining achievements is how impressively it performs in every aspect and how little it sacrifices on behalf of the sweeping enormity of it’s scope. Everything looks great and performs well at a rock solid frame rate even while galloping full speed across the landscape. The expansive nature of sandbox games used to provide them with a certain amount of immunity from severe scrutiny, as players would excuse modest flaws and technical limitations in exchange for far greater freedoms and larger worlds. I always assumed graphical limitations, glitches, low res textures or poor animations (I’m looking at you Fallout 3) where a necessary sacrifice and fair trade for what we got in return. However, I’m officially putting all other developers on notice; the striking beauty and technical prowess of Red Dead Redemption, henceforth denies them that excuse.
Only a few flaws hold the visuals back from perfection. There is the occasional blah texture, naturally, but nowhere near as many as you’d expect, plus you almost never notice them, since you’re galloping on horseback most of the time. Occasional technical glitches, animation jitters or floating objects pop up from time to time as well but again less then usual for a game of this kind and fortunately nothing that ruins the experience.
Just Doing You a Favor
When you finally stop admiring the scenery and get down to business, the gameplay is equally commendable in it’s adaptation of the Western experience the world so effectively establishes. Nearly everything is tight, responsive and highly gratifying. GTA veterans will immediately recognize Rockstar’s familiar mission structure, story delivery and gameplay elements but everything else has been custom tailored to complement and enhance the Western motif. Aim assist, a la Call of Duty gives players the necessary accuracy to feel like a sharpshooter even while riding horseback and the slow-mo ‘Dead-eye’ targeting system makes cutting down your enemies like a true gunslinger intuitive and highly addictive. The fact that the combat almost plays itself in this respect never tarnishes the gratifying feeling and thrill it provides.
The caveat is that while these features succeed at letting you feel like Clint Eastwood, they do so at the expense of a more significant challenge. The automatic snap-to aiming system lets you quickly plug each target, with a rapid aim-fire, aim-fire technique that makes mowing down hordes of enemies as fast and easy as a few rapid button presses. The Dead Eye meter, a brief window of slow-mo recharged by killing in real time, tips the scales even further in your favor by allowing you to target several enemies in mere fractions of a second before unloading a lethal hail of bullets with pinpoint precision. Since the alternative method of nailing moving multiple targets, particularly on horseback, would have been a manic exercise in sheer frustration, this was clearly the way to go but it does mean the game doesn’t put up much of a fight.
Cover can be taken behind convenient rocks, buildings fences and almost anything else provided by the environment by tapping the right bumper. The system works as good as anything this side of Gears of War with few bugs or issues. However, the automated ease and accuracy of the targeting mechanics mean you can typically wipe out most adversaries before cover is even necessary but it’s there in a snap when you need it. Horseback riding is another major component and fortunately RDR features some of the best, most intuitive controls in this regard. There’s a bit of a learning curve especially for activities such as herding cattle or lassoing wild horses but the game provides ample opportunities to learn and does a good job teaching you early on.
The game uses a Fame and Honor systems to track the player’s notoriety as well as their level of heroism or villainy depending on how they play. Little is made of this however compared with deeper RPG’s and the story defines Marston primarily as a man of integrity and decency, incongruous with the kind of wanton violence and treachery you can actively engage in should you so choose. In this way the free-roam segments seem a little disconnected from the main story itself. It’s an unavoidable inconsistency given the combination of excessive in-game freedoms coupled with a linear story and is perhaps the only outstanding flaw with Rockstar’s approach to sandbox gaming.You can play as the most despicable scum to ever terrorize the west, without the remotest implications to the story and even the most murderous rampages can be atoned for simply by paying off your own bounty or using a pardon letter, of which I always had plenty.
If It's Not Humans It's…
The main story can be advanced by talking to key people at points marked on your map, while side-quests, designated with a “?” are encountered at various locations during your travels. These sub quests are fairly unsubstantial in terms of the additional gameplay they typically provide and feature characters that generally lack a definitive story arc. Many are concluded with little or no closure or satisfactory resolution and these interactions are used more as set dressing, the pathetic situations of these peripheral characters further illustrating the social landscape, desperation and depravity of the period. Again it’s the memorable characterizations, the quality of writing, and Rockstar’s talent for social commentary that redeem these off hand encounters from being just just throw-aways.
Other pastimes include playing games such as Poker, Blackjack or Liars’ dice. Five Finger Fillet is also creatively adapted and players can compete in horseshoes at a variety of locations as well. Jobs such as night watch duty and bronco busting can be engaged in regularly at towns and ranches and in between locations you’ll routinely encounter flash events when you come across random strangers in immediate peril. There’s a bit of a learning curve though, and you may fail a few events before you even realize what has happened. The game doesn’t always do a great job acclimating you to the mechanics of these activities, with instructions appearing on the screen in real time and in some cases disappearing before you’ve had a chance to get your bearings.
In addition to a stellar and lengthy single player experience Redemption also includes an impressive multiplayer suite which includes the ability to freely roam the entire world, engage in practically every kind of single player activity and posse up with friends. Going solo can be enjoyable but persistent re-spawn points mean you’ll be killing be being killed by the same people before you distance yourself from each other. It’s mutliplayer is built on the idea of free roaming primarily with a collection of min-games and events that can be entered. Overall it’s a refreshing and individualistic approach but may be less appealing to some then the more structured, frenetic skirmishes of the Halo’s and Call of Duties.
In light of the epic scope of it’s accomplishment as a genre defining Western ballad, Red Dead Redemption’s few flaws are fairly insignificant, and whether we ever see another decent Western game again, fans who had been hoping for a great one can die happy in a hail of gunfire. Not only is Redemption the definitive Western experience, it is one of the best games the year and one of the finest sandbox games ever crafted. At long last a genre sadly neglected has been given justice. Beautiful. Bloody. Justice.
