Game Review: Red Dead Redemption (Rockstar Games)
Apparently what is popular out there isn’t always a terrible thing. Sure, I might not like American Idol, or skinny jeans, or even the show Lost. However, I have fallen in love with Rockstar Games’ latest baby: Red Dead Redemption.
I’m sure you’ve seen enough of this game by now. After all, this has been one of the most expansive ad campaigns I’ve seen for a game since someone at EA decided putting an ad for God of War 4… sorry… Dante’s Inferno on the Super Bowl. Despite it’s effort to splash itself across busses and Myspace alike, this game is pretty damn solid. I shouldn’t be surprised. Rockstar has only ever put out two really bad games, in my opinion (State of Emergency and Rockstar Presents Table Tennis).
Now, without boring you with my overall thoughts and feelings on this game, I’d like to discuss how this game is NOT just Grand Theft Auto in the Wild West. One of the biggest differences between Red Dead Redemption and Grand Theft Auto is your mode of transportation; the horse. Horses, unlike vehicles, have feelings and mortality. In GTA, you can floor a vehicle until you hit someone/ something (which you undoubtedly will), laugh, and floor it again. In RDR however, jamming on the speed button will result in your horse telling you to GTFO (meaning, it bucks you off). One could see how in critical situations this would put a hindrance to you in the game. (Oh, say, outrunning a gang of thugs while you have their leader hogtied on your trusty Hungarian Half-Breed). Horses can also get shot. Sure, you could shoot a car in GTA like a jack ass and hopes that it will eventually start on fire. A perfectly placed shot on a horse in RDR, however, puts Mr. Ed down for the count. Add in the fact that a horse doesn’t offer you much protection against bullets, and again, you see how it is different.
Another difference, and a big improvement over GTA, is the physics. I had my fun in GTA sitting on the rooftop with a sniper rifle, capping people in the kneecaps in what not. However, in RDR, it’s finely tuned to blow people’s 6 shooters right out of their hand, and then shoot their dapper hat off for insult to injury. The introduction of the Dead Eye system (slo mo targeting) is also rather good in this game. Unlike Bullet Time (from Max Payne) this slow motion targeting system actually works, and allows you to plug that rat bastard Stigmata style.
Finally, it’s always good to see games experimenting with a morality meter. Unlike the linear nature of most Rockstar games (and most RPG games in general), RDR offers you a sense of choice as to how things are going to go. While the story won’t change as radically as Heavy Rain would if you choose not to save the prostitute from being gutted, it does allow you the choice to do good deeds, or dastardly deeds, and “awards” you accordingly. Depending on what you do does get you certain perks with certain areas however. Nice to see this done in this game.
The moral of the story here is that Red Dead Redemption, while similar in style to Grand Theft Auto, has taken liberties to differentiate itself from Grand Theft Auto. In the similar vein that Bully was a GTA-esq game, RDR does share a dose of similarities. However, as with Bully again, it has done enough to differentiate it, that I cannot simply call it “Grand Theft Auto, Wild West style”. With all of its vast improvements in game play, as well changes in how things operate, due to the century setback from the present day, Red Dead Redemption has done enough, in my eyes, to set itself apart from being just a clone. Besides, you cannot look me straight in the eye and tell me playing a cowboy shoot-em-up against people in multi player, isn’t fun as hell. To do so, means you suck.