Red Dead Redemption

I had enjoyed GTA4 (which I picked up long after it came out) but for some reason (perhaps a Call of Duty obsession) I never paid any attention to Red Dead when it came out - even though I only heard good things. I borrowed it recently and after 10 hours on it I bought my own copy. Similar to GTA4 there is a narrative following one character which involves lots of jobs (missions) for others, gradually getting harder as you get closer to completing the story. In addition to this there are lots of side distractions so that you can play for hours without actually progressing the story one inch.

The story missions are great. Very enjoyable, fun to play – difficult enough to avoid being a dull doddle but easy enough to get even the hardest ones after a few tries. There are a lot of cut scenes but they are well done and, if you don't rush from one story mission to the next then they don't seem crowded. The difficulty is not too bad and the options in aiming modes makes it possible to make it harder without changing the content of the game but, more importantly, the game is long. Some people prefer the games where you spent a lot of time battling one "bit" or one level to get passed it – I don't, I don't enjoy frustration, so having a game that is reasonably easy to progress is good for me – but the key thing is then that there is lots to do, since I'll do most things in one or two tries. Red Dead is awesome for this – hunting, random encounters on the roadside, missions for strangers, gambling in saloons, all of it is fun and easy to waste hours.

When I had been told of this game, the idea of riding from one point to another worried me because a lesser game would use this to "fill time" and make missions feel longer by virtue of having you spent 10 minutes crossing the map to get to a 3 minute mission. Not so here – firstly the missions are not short but also there are things to do even as you travel around – distractions that you can do or ignore whether it is a trap set by robbers or a man who needs help with wolves etc. The fast-travel is good but to be honest it is often more fun to just ride for 5 minutes and enjoy it.

Part of enjoying the ride is how simply stunning this game is technically. OK there are some minor glitches such as horses getting trapped in rocks but these are easily addressed by the player, but otherwise this is impressive. Sunsets are stunning and the vistas are as great as anything John Ford brought us – the difference being that every rock and plant and mountain here has been created – not just filmed. You can ride from one end of the world to the other without any loading screens or stuttering (which, as other Fable 3 players will appreciated, is a joy), you can see for miles and the weather effects of wind or rain are as unobtrusive and natural as they are impressive. So many games set challenges to explore and find things and often they are a chore just included to add time rather than enjoyment to the game (again, Fable 3 comes to mind) – but with RDR it is honestly just plain fun to ride round without any specific mission or story going on.

A lot of the reviews on this site are quite gushing and I was determined to be as objective as possible – but it is hard when the game is this good and this enjoyable. It is not that the game is like being in a western – it is like being in a brilliant western.

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.

I've been playing video games since the days a good driving game was a black and white-move in and out of lane-broken windows on crash game. And throughout the years I've been looking for a truly immersible experience that could drag reality out and place me in the middle of a different reality, as a different person. It took many years, but here it is: "Red Dead Redemption".

The road was long. It took time for 2d to turn 3d and took time for the character's lips to actually move when they talked(big deal, as it added a ton for realism). Then incredible, photo-realistic graphics and my mind was blown away. Game mechanics became better and better and games could now tell stories with immense scope and depth. Then there was GTA IV and it was absolutely amazing, it worked on every level I had dream a game could work...except for one thing: I never wanted to experience arriving at a foreign country and blast my way towards becoming a "playa""...so even tough the game was absolutely perfect, it didn't mean as much as it should have. Enter "Red Dead Redemption". What guy hasn't dream of being a cowboy, free and courageous, traveling by horse on big deserted plains with our ready weapon at our side; hunting, going after the criminals, the bad guys, searching for treasures, sometimes doing a slight cross over to the wrong side of the law. All of that and more you'll find in this game. The scope, the graphics...to just roam the land and hunt, the occasional herding....it seems like you're playing in your own movie. A full cinematic experience that can be lived, delivered through the incredible Rockstar Advanced Game Engine(RAGE).

Many games have great gameplay; many have incredible graphics; many showcase good storytelling, but only this one gives you a completely immersible lost world to be experienced.

If you are a person that enjoys gaming, be it casually or not, you'll love this game.

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.

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.