Red Dead Redemption

In 2001 Rockstar made a game that revolutionized gaming. The game was called Grand Theft Auto 3. When most game series had a problem going to the third dimension Rockstar was 2 steps ahead the competition. Grand Theft Auto had great control's for the time and gave you a huge world to do whatever you wanted to do in. Then Gta Vice City came and improved the formula. Gta San Andrease improved it even more, and Gta 4 felt like it perfected open world gaming. Well it turns out Gta 4 isn't perfection due to this game actually being better. It has the best open world graphics I have ever seen. Just sitting back and taking in whats around you is just an amazing experience. The writing like all Rockstar games is some of the best writing you'll find in a video game. The characters are all very memorable, side missions have so much depth that they could be considered part of the game, and dialogue is very good. The atmosphere is very strong. Playing the game you feel involved in a great western movie. The voice acing is top notch as usual from Rockstar just like the story. The controls are very good and easy to master, but what's best about the game is how much you have to do. If you get board of gang hideouts try poker. If you get tired of poker hunt. If you get tired of hunting try to unlock outfits. If you are bored of outfits play the story missions. Even if you completed the game you can still go on your menu, go to stats, go to missions, and you can replay a mission without restarting from the beginning of the story. I would say that this is perfection, but what I've learned from Rockstar is to expect more for them for their next big game. Gta 5 here we come.

Update: I recently got Xbox Live and now I can talk about the online gameplay. Just like the singleplayer you will have a massive gaming experience. You can play team deathmatch, grab the bag hold your own, free for all, or you can just go in free roam. The thing that makes the online matches different than normal game online matches is the very clever Mexican standoff. It starts the match out with one team getting a deserved advantage, and it is so satisfying for your team to get flawless victory. Then there is the excellent free roam. You get the same open world as the single player and you have many different ways to level up. You can do gang hideouts, complete challenges, fight the law, hunt down public enemies, or just go crazy and kill any player you see. The fun to be had is pretty much infinite.

Finally "Red Dead Redemption" delivers all and much more what could have been expected after the prerelease-hype of the last months.

There have been many games which have unsuccessfully aimed at breaking the fine line between video game and movie, but "RDR" accomplishes indeed an interactive experience that could also have been effortlessly a two hours spaghetti western opera at your local theater.

The atmosphere created by state of the art graphics, the ride/interact/shoot-gameplay and the outstanding sound effects is astonishing, not to forget the wide beautiful landscapes, sharp and intelligent dialogues and the diversified, cinematic mission design such as "the great Mexican train robbery", which makes it nearly impossible to lay the controller down for while.

The story of John Marston who is in pursuit of his former gang members in order to save his family, which leads him to team-ups with several mostly dubious characters, forced contracts with men of the law and embroilments within the Mexican civil war, unfolds in three gigantic chapters, that are partitioned in 57 main missions, of which every single one succeeds to convince.

The main point of critic of Rockstars open world predecessor "Grand Theft Auto 4", that most of the time you are engaged with driving, does not affect the riding in "RDR" because of the possibility of warping, either by using stagecoaches or by camping in unpopulated areas. There are some minor flaws, like clipping errors, pop-ups and changing ammunition without collecting any, but they never change the overall feeling of taking part in one of the best games ever created.

It is not by hazard that the game trailer was shown as an ad in theaters; there are some references to the best westerns of all time; the freeze frame effect when pausing the game, the machine gun shootouts and the gloomy portrayal of Mexican people in general reminds of "The Wild Bunch", whereas the superiority during the revolver showdowns, the bounty hunter sub-missions with its "dead or alive"- "wanted"-posters and the music with its melodic whistles successfully quote the "A Fistful of Dollars"-trilogy.

If you ever wanted to participate in a western, with its bacon and beans flavor, its charismatic shootouts and its lone wolf feeling it's time to saddle the horses and go for gold: "Red Dead Redemption" has it all and much more.

9.7 out of 10

I have spent hundreds of hours immersed in video games. I have played everything from puzzle games to mass-multiplayer online games. I have received crappy grades in school because of video games. I have regretted entire summers spent in front of a TV screen, but now, as I sit at my computer, I reflect on those summers. I picture them now not as summers down the toilet but as summers that are a dark tunnel. A dark tunnel with a light at the end. A light that is the greatest game I have ever played, the climax of my gaming career, Red Dead Redemption. Through unfathomable detail, immense algorithms, and an uncanny amount of testing Rockstar successfully created a masterpiece which raises the bar to a point which I believe can not be reached with the same technology used to create Red Dead Redemption. New technology is needed to create a game that even competes with Red Dead Redemption. After playing Red Dead Redemption I may never feel another game is worth my time.

Your'e a cowboy, a man that can end a life in a second. But when compared to the wild west you seems to be nobody. You travel many miles every day. But one day you may decide to stay where you are. Maybe you chose to stay in a haunted town to fight your fear or at the top of a cliff where you can see a piece of the world, and then you realize that you almost haven't seen anything. The world is changing and so are you. But you can change the world and the world can change you. Every move you make leads to consequences. Bad or good deeds will change people's opinion about you and that can change your destiny. People will hear about your deeds and with time the whole world will now you.

This is what Read Dead Redemption is about. And I am not alone when I am saying that the whole idea is incredible, and incredible is not even worth to be a describing of Red Dead Redemption. The graphic scenery is amazing. When I am looking down from a cliff the feeling of doing it in the reality is almost there. Wherever I go the scenery is full of life. The sounds of insects, birds flying over your head, wolves haunting deers not so far away and much more.

The touch of typical western gunfights is also included. One of the things I like most with them is when it's night and you can see a flash coming from every of the enemies gun. It makes a cool effect and the before not so powerful revolvers will now be the fear of the night.

The story-missions in this game is remarkable. You meet interesting characters and you are given new weapons, outfits, horses and more. And there is also a lot of side-missions, very entertaining. The voice actors is well picked and the scenes when the characters is talking is so well made that you should cut parts of them together, add some more things and show it on cinema.

There is so much to tell about this game, but I have to put an end of this review now with telling you that I highly recommend this game. This is the biggest reason why I have started to watch western-movies again. In my opinion is this the best game ever made. Not completely perfect, but very close to perfect.

This has got to be one of the best (if not THE BEST) sandbox game that I have ever played. Rockstar keeps on pumping out great quality games and I'm sure they will keep on doing it for a long time.

The story (If you have been living in a cave) goes like this: You play a FORMER outlaw named John Marsten who was apparently left for dead after a botched robbery and he left his gang that day and tried to go straight. He got married and has a son, they lived quietly on a ranch and John had tried to forget his past. for several years he was at peace with the world.

Unfortunately that obviously did not work out at all as the government wants to use him to find his old gang members and they do that by keeping his family hostage.

The game (built on RAGE which was used on GTA4) looks great and very realistic. From the style of the clothes to the buildings, horses, etc. All of the towns in the game are teeming with life with people going about their daily business.

In fact you can do so much in the game like play poker, hunt wild animals, collect on 'bounties', hunt for treasure, ride around aimlessly, or just admire the view from the top of one of the many hills and mountains. There is so much content in this game that if you had to take out all of the content that is not needed for the story, and had everything else as each as it's own game, there would be like 20 or so, just like in Grand Theft Auto 4.

Expect nothing but the best of what Rockstar has to offer and this is one of the few games that was really worth the price of purchase (unlike TERMINATOR SALVATION where I had finished it in a mere 6 hours) and will keep you entertained for months to come.